Raphael Rubinstein reviews a recent exhibition of paintings by Geoff Hippenstiel at Devin Borden Gallery, Houston.

Rubinstein writes: "Although brushwork is evident on close inspection-something these paintings brazenly solicit – Hippenstiel's tool of choice is the palette knife, supplemented to great effect with the unlikely method of spray gun. I say 'unlikely' because spray paint isn't often favored by artists who revel in the materiality of oil paint the way Hippenstiel does when he lays on heavy impasto, scrapes through to rich underpainting, or generously distributes dollops of brightly colored pigment as if the canvas were a palette. Generally, painters who work like this eschew spray paint, with its disembodied presence and industrial associations."