See Line Gallery presents These Things Happen, Greg Santos’ first Los Angeles solo exhibition.
Greg Santos employs video and photography to create stunning, light-filled paintings that transfix his viewers. Working from his own photographs of television screens, Santos deals directly with contemporary perceptual experience. The results of his investigations are beautiful images of intimate proportion that emulate the transience of video and photography, while retaining the materiality of paint. What separates this artist from so many is his deft touch and unique approach to the representation of these elements.
Upon entering the gallery, visitors encounter a group of utterly improbable images; a man ruthlessly carrying his infant son by one arm, a horse dangling upside down from a steel train trellis, and an indistinct, black form clinging to the face of a glass skyscraper. Although the situations depicted are incredible, they feel strangely familiar. This unnerving effect draws the viewer in and compels them to contemplate subjects on the brink of devastation.
Santos’ works are created by layering thin glazes of oil paint to create luminous, translucent surfaces. Closer inspection reveals gossamer figures interlaced to create an elusive and incandescent abstract field. Yet from the slightest distance, they coalesce into a recognizable whole. While Santos is interested in the effect of light he does not carry on the traditional study of natural light and shadow that are espoused by Impressionism. Instead, he focuses on representations of electric light that emanates from the television screens, man-made phenomena we are all intimately and psychologically connected to.