Jonathan Stevenson reviews the exhibition Liam Everett: Montolieu at On Stellar Rays, New York, on view through April 6, 2014.

Stevenson writes that Everett's paintings "are insidiously provocative. At first glance they just look unevenly worn and washed-out, perhaps casualist or aimed to simulate relics that might be found on the walls of an abandoned cathedral or museum. Then it becomes clear that Everett is after neither the agitation of the provisional nor the security of any clear historical referent… Everett's method hints at his intent. On unstretched linen, he layers oil and acrylic paint in thick and uniform quantity, but then strips and sands the surface of the painting to lay bare, in erratic patches, the linen’s surface and fibers. When a kind of detachment or foreignness is achieved, and all hint of intentional marks are adequately obscured, he considers the painting to be done and ready to stretch. Extremely physical yet mimicking the passive effects of aging, the process yields an undulating effect that is eerie and inscrutable but comfortably short of forbidding."