Brian Fee reviews the exhibition Peter Shear: Casting at Big Medium, Austin, on view through June 14, 2014.

Fee writes that: "Gesture and scale resound in [the show], though the latter is deceptive when viewing only promotional materials like a reproduced Hold. This mottled pink-pastel composition, with a few graphic symbols (teal broken line, reddish right angle) in bolder hues, is… hand-held and personal — though not exactly 'intimate' nor 'quiet', for this smaller size (and the generous amount of wall-space between canvases) engages the eye, draws us up close… Shear's in good company with abstract artists scaling down without eschewing impact: Tomma Abts and Andrew Masullo with their kinetic color technique, Bianca Beck and Ryan McLaughlin for their fluidic textures and structuring… I found myself 'writing' my own experience of Shear's installation, beyond the works' titles, and beyond necessarily the artist's intent. To me, that is evidence enough that there is something sustaining in Shear's narrative, and his deserved role in gestural abstraction. When works ping off one another like neural synapses, forming connections and eliciting reactions on a personal level, it works."