Julia Couzens reviews an exhibition of paintings by Jon Millei at George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco, on view through April 19, 2014.

Couzens writes: "Millei’s surfaces are a uniformly coherent layering of thick over thin, gloss over chalky, ethereal matte. His painting is driven by his concern for physical truth, with particular attention paid to how pigment is applied to achieve architectural integrity. He doesn’t finesse his surfaces to make his paintings appear a particular way. The paint exists simply as substance. Direct, terse, and straightforward, his paintings give no indication of being belabored. To be sure there is consummate craft afoot, but to Millei’s credit it’s invisible, as if the paint itself were making his decisions."