LYDM shows local and regional artists (and UVA art faculty), with an occasional print show of big names like Warhol, Basquiat and Stella. Usually it shows very good and very nice non-confrontational work - I usually like what they show, even if it's not the most exciting and new stuff out there.
Salmon River, Cape Breton Island, 2005, Oil on linen, 34 x 54
This month they're showing Dean Dass' landscape paintings. At first the work looks like pleasant, competent and non-exciting landscapes, but as one looks they begin to open up. Dass does very subtle weird stuff with color and with how he draws the images. There's an Impressionist or Cezanne-esque sense of movement all through the paintings that seems realer than a still photo of the scene would be. Dass also has quirky little marks all over the place - weird squiggles or accidental doodles where a chance brushstroke or mark seems to come from nowhere but reinforces the presence of the image he's painting - it's paint and image at the same time. Dass' is the perfect LYDM show - very well done and engaging work that is non-offensive and beautiful.
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