Page 172 - Art-Addiction

JoHN NeWsoM

1970 born in hutchinson, Kansas, usA
lives and works in new york city, usA

“From grandville and Kafka, the insect world, so multitudinous, so other, so lovely and so deadly – has
always lent itself to dark allegory. What is allegory, after all, but a hidden narrative amped up by being worked
into a seductive pattern. so it is certainly in hands of John newsom. There is a delicious thrill in the tension bet-
ween the lulling compositions, the bewitching paintwork, the sheer picture-making, the breathy all-overness,
the cantilevered rococo, and the sometimes horrifying goings-on that have been put on canvas. The strokes
that cover A Woman’s Touch depict Black Widow spiders. The canvases speak very plainly for themselves and
they are as strong and delicate as the creatures that swarm across them.”
(AnTHOnY HAden-gUesT ’02)
 a wOMaN’s TOUCH, 2002 oil on cAnvAs 137 x 182 cM. / 54 ‘x 72 in.
 sUN-KIssEd, 1999 oil on cAnvAs 213 x 167 cM. / 84 x 66 in.
COurtesy OF MiKe weiss gallery, new yOrK City, ny

168 ARTaddiction