Immediate Gratification

Richard Patterson at The Goss-Michael Foundation
Closing May 30

From an icon of masculine prowess: the motorcycle to an image of the Spice Girls naked there is no mistaking the sexual charge in the Richard Patterson exhibition. Pulling source material from popular culture Mr. Patterson recontextualizes those images into an artist’s space of painting, collage and sculpture. The classic painter’s technique of bait and switch is utilized in the extreme. The sexually suggestive to purely sexual hook can turn a viewer’s gaze, but Mr. Patterson shifts the attention to an artist’s concerns with formalism once he has you. Aesthetically the show is mixed, from maquette sketches for proposed sculptures to refined oil paintings (pictured here). Once past the fast-love I believe that there is an artist searching for something deeper than a fleeting satisfaction, but I could be wrong.