Show Review

Art Review: Asterisk Gallery in Tremont
Thursday August 27, 2009

by About.com contributor, Ken Gradomski

What's the difference between Modern Art and Contemporary Art? Many think that there is no difference. Many others would strongly disagree claiming there certainly is a difference! To clarify, Contemporary Art is work created by living artists whereas the paradigm of Modernity and the production of Modern Art ended with the beginning of the Pop Art Movement in the 1950's. Contemporary work is actually difficult to find outside of the decorative paintings that usually inhabit most galleries whose only conc erns are for sales and income. Those are not bad concerns in themselves...

However, there is a place in Tremont that exists only for exhibition, that is to say,to present the different facets of contemporary work created by local and residential artists without regard to ornamental marketability. Dana Depew, owner of the Asterisk Gallery and artist himself, will tell you that ‘the value of the Gallery far exceeds the payment’...of keeping it open. He will also inform you that when he started it eight years ago it was to be a ‘strictly exhibition’ space unconcerned with income from sales.’ He said he wanted a place whereby the artistic community and the community in general ‘benefits from excellent work and synergy.’

Currently on display at the Asterisk Gallery, 2393 Professor Avenue are 24 works by Matthew Dibble in a show he has entitled, ‘Equipping the Shop for Action.’ His works have primal power, filled with strong lines and figures that are both allusive and symbolic. Informed by what presents as a Formalistic Neo-Synthetic Cubism, the paintings are large and linear, the drawings small, but captivating. Rest assured that that description falls far short of the pure impact and presence he creates with this selection of his newest work on display. He harbors an ongoing and subterranean passion that he infuses into his lyrical lines on both paper and canvas. Matthew has been creating Art for more than thirty years and his work hangs in both private and corporate collections.

Shown above is Dibble's five-foot-two inch by six foot painting entitled, ‘Guardians Against Cold.’ It is a representative depiction of his heroic iconography and, according to Matthew, his most favored piece. Online information is available on Asterisk Gallery's Web site Information from the artist, himself can be obtained on Matthew Dibble's site. His work at the Asterisk Gallery is waiting for you to visit.