Calvin Phelps reviews the recent exhibition Evan Nesbit: “/‘kaıˑæzəm/“ at Roberts & Tilton, Culver City.

Phelps writes that Nesbit "paints on tightly stretched burlap; more precisely, he paints through burlap. He begins with the back of a painting and presses brightly hued acrylic through its coarse weave. These canvases are taut, tense and meticulously executed… There is an opticality and tactility in painting that makes it impossible to reproduce in print, and this is especially so in painting like Nesbit’s. Reproduced, paint pushed through Nesbit’s canvases appears as flat, mottled color. It is only by standing in front of the work, examining its texture and vibrating color relationships, that one can truly comprehend it. It is only in the real world that these works can be experienced—and this is what contemporary nonrepresentational painting remains about."