The Skeleton in My Closet Has Moved Back Out to the Garden

Super jazzed about the new John Lurie exhibit at Fredericks and Freiser gallery. Lurie best known as the frontman for avant garde jazz group, the Lounge Lizards, is also a prolific painter. He's been exhibiting for awhile and has 2 books published about his paintings John Lurie, A Fine Example of Art and Learn to Draw. I love his paintings for their humor and interesting pairing of colors and rough primitive style. He paints predominantly in watercolors although there's some oils in this exhibit. I'm also seeing some Francis Bacon qualities showing up in terms of long brush strokes in the backgrounds. His work seems to be maturing and is stepping away from the childlike playfulness that was dominant in his earlier work.
From the press release:

Like his music, the work has a broken, childlike quality that gives a glimpse into an visionary world. Alternatively exposing or addressing the larger, enduring myths of our culture through sketches of seemingly lost childhood reveries, John Lurie’s paintings presents his musings through interpretive storytelling—haunting, poignant, or puerile as the outcome may ultimately be. Glenn O’Brien writes, “Like Thelonious Monk, Lurie knows how to exploit the seemingly wrong note, the wrong color. It is a private language of hieroglyphics reflecting his unique self-education. His paintings, while sometimes pointedly primitive, are beautifully crafted with a refined obstinacy.”

all images from Fredericks & Freiser