MARIUS STARKEY EXHIBIT AT STUDIO Z

June 5, 2001

The hits keep on coming at Studio Z with another strong exhibit, this one by the veteran painter and print artist, Marius Starkey. Originally from Kansas, Marius’ work is mostly about landscapes, both outer and inner. Touring the galleries of Studio Z, it becomes evident that both viewer and artist aren’t in Kansas, anymore. There’s little suggestion of serene flatness in the first small room, which is lined with disquieting monotypes, mostly untitled. They consist of roiling clashes of color and abstract figures, compositionally well balanced. Some of them hint at landscapes, like one untitled piece which suggested a charcoal horizon of hills beneath a raspberry sky.

The second small room contained more conventional, post-impressionist landscapes, such as the beautiful, Cezanne-like Abique Lake, done in pastel on board and Mission Rock with its vivid colors and stark brushwork, suggesting Van Gogh. These appear to be earlier works, along with those paintings in the third small room. (You can see more on his website at www.artistmarius.com.) This viewer also perceived those canvases as landscapes—only viewed above at 15,000 feet. He also displays a vivid color scheme that veers sharply from the most developed parcel of acreage. Conflicting colors are oddly compatible in these abstract works.

The most original and powerful work took up residence in the main room, which is appropriate, and the hallway. These are the inner landscapes, thickly brushed and glazed in eye-popping hues, from the rich burgundy in Emergence to the nuclear orange-yellow of Sun Fire.

A recurring subject glides through several of Marius’ paintings in the main gallery, a wispy phantom who would not look out of place in an Edward Gorey illustration. In The Shadow, the phantom has a golden hue and rises from darkness, bathed in luminous purple and royal blue. Stretching brings to mind Chagall, with an aquamarine phantom arching skyward in a background patched with an assortment of blues. A deep burgundy peach pit serves as the eye of a fiery orange whirlpool in Escaping. The phantom in this canvas glows a shiny sky blue and, poised as a ballerina, floats lithely away from the danger.

Occupying the center of the room is Interior Human, a free-standing, two sided painting on three thick panels joined together by two hinges, the middle panel about twice as wide as the two outer. On one side are two human silhouettes in profile, radiating yellows amid an algae background. The other side shows an orange and burgundy mountainscape with a purple lake in the foreground and grey/purple mesas, serving as the backdrop.

The placid Iceworld provides relief from the intensity of the rest of the exhibit. It shows a foggy, winter landscape in whites, light greys and tans, a fine resting place for the eyes after the whirlwind tour of this singularly dazzling display of work. The exhibit will run until June 14th at Studio Z, located at 38 Mason Street, near Market, Suite 3 (upper buzzer on the front door.) For more information and news on upcoming shows, call 415-982-1455.