Brian Porray’s (NAP #84 & 2010 MFA Annual) second solo exhibition at Western Project is quite simply a must see and must feel. He fills the large, open gallery space with his signature bright and bold explosions of color, movement, and energy. In his last show, he focused on capturing the essence of his hometown Vegas and the complex power of the Luxor Hotel, and in this show, he moves to something else just as unsettling and unnerving as sin city can be to some – the ever-changing and impermanent night sky and the sci fi terrors and wonder it can bring to us mortals.
In |*/N0_N3W_M00N\*|, Porray uses his usual “leet” computer hacker titles for his show, both recalling the digital age we are in while also refusing it through his large-scale hand assemblage, mixed-medium collage, and painting. His artistic hand and organic processes can be seen throughout each and every piece, as paint drips dramatically throughout. This dripping highlights his very process as it is physically apparent he let gravity do the work on many of the paintings, thus flipping the canvases physically over on their sides, tops, or bottoms, again and again letting the painting flow, drip, and take its methodical and haphazard course.
Read the rest here at New American Paintings.