Thomas Micchelli reviews John Walker: Recent Paintings at Alexandre Gallery, New York, on view through November 15, 2014.

Micchelli writes that the show "features seven large pictures as well as numerous smaller ones, including more than a dozen compact oils made on discarded Bingo cards, which the artist found in the former grange hall that became his studio in Seal Point on the coast of Maine. Densely hung in the gallery’s living room-size main space, the large paintings, which are all seven feet tall and five and a half feet across, swarm you with their edgy, jagged energy… in “Raft,” … the vertical stripes run from top to bottom, with two horizontal sets constrained within shield-like shapes on the left and right, calling to mind Walker’s fascination with Aboriginal and African art. In these two works, like all the paintings in the show, the color is acetic, the paint handling is pugnacious, and the surface is so gritty you can almost taste it."