Howard Hurst reviews the exhibition John Gordon Gauld: Interstellar Overdrive at Salomon Contemporary, New York, on view through May 10, 2014.

Hurst writes: "For every good new painting in the world there seems to be at least five of the half-baked variety. John Gordon Gauld’s selection of carefully hand painted still lives at Solomon Contemporary provide a surprising antidote to this wave of slapdashery… Gauld’s intimately scaled canvases are painstakingly painted with egg tempera. His pristine surfaces radiate with saturated color and diffuse light. Flowers, ceramics, fruits, and tchotchkes of every ilk seem to flaunt the lush intricacy of their surfaces. These are masterfully wrought canvases: Gauld seems to take hints from the renaissance masters; indeed he uses a variety of rare, historical pigments. There is a clear sense of tradition. Immediately one is struck with the quality of craft."