Chris Ashley considers the paintings of Daniel Levine on the occasion of the exhibition Daniel Levine: Marker at Some Walls, Oakland, CA, on view through August 26, 2012.

Ashley writes "for convenience sake Levine's paintings might be called monochromes, as they tend towards Monochrome Painting, let's not choose convenience. Let’s say that Levine's paintings are not reductions from or to anything, not representations of anything but simply themselves, works made by an artist from skeleton to skin, packed with tissues and organs of material and touch, and invested with the breath and fluid of idea, intention, and process, all the essentials any painting needs."

Ashley continues: "Levine’s paintings are not programmed or artificial; there is no sameness here, no production… To make a painting is to want something new to look at; painting is, by definition, difference. Levine's paintings exploit convention – rectangle, paint, surface, wall – and embody determination, even perhaps orneriness – sleight-handed repetition, subtle variations, long distance perseverance and endurance. In Levine's work are found the pleasures of making and looking, of realization and surprise."