david korty, an artist based in Los Angeles, could be called either a master of genre or a stylistic chameleon.
Following a period in which Korty painted slight scenes populated with flat, Alex Katz–influenced characters in cafés or airports—which were themselves in stark contrast to his earlier atmospheric land-and cityscapes that resembled underdeveloped Polaroids—he has emerged, fully crystallized, with yet another form altogether.
These neon totems—of paint, pencil, and collage—fall somewhere between abstraction and figuration, pop art and constructivism. Cartoonish characters with top hats and “O!” mouths are rendered with strict geometry and color blocking. The loose squiggly brushstrokes that occasionally interrupt the rigid compositions might signal yet another phase in Korty’s evolution.
—Eugenia Bell
