Casey Kaplan
Six Must-See Figurative Painting Shows in New York
February 28, 2019
By Paul Laster
Smartly mining modernism in whimsical ways, Jonathan Gardner makes flatly painted, complexly composed canvases where people and objects share center stage. With an eye for nudes, waiters, and reclining figures, Gardner makes references to Balthus, Braque, Leger, Magritte, and Picasso while painting fascinating pictures that are very much his own. In the large, compressed expanse of The Ballroom, matching waiters balance trays of food above their heads as a man plays a piano, a woman holds a guitar, and two seated women enjoy the view. In Pleasure Point a nude couple copulate on a table in an ornate room with shifting geometric planes, while a topless female bather surreally reclines on a flattened beach towel in front of a painting of a nude man on the beach looking out to sea in Visions of the Emerald Beyond. Cleverly constructed and skillfully executed, Gardner’s paintings leave you feeling like you’ve just had a lovely lunch with MoMA’s founding director, Alfred Barr.