John Yau reviews Glenn Goldberg: Elixirs, Tales and Remedies at Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, on view through February 24, 2012.

Yau writes: "By wanting his paintings 'to take you toward, not away,' Goldberg rejects spectacle, entertainment, anything that tries to distract you from time passing, everyday life, and mortality. He has developed and honed a process that requires his precise and repeated attention, particularly with the application of the dots, and through this process he transforms his paintings into a record of an act of devotion as it comes into being… We cannot experience Goldberg's paintings fully until we recognize how they were made, and the quality of direct and simple attention that he has brought to bear on them. This is where their spirituality is most evident and most primeval."