ART REVIEWS

Abstract Antiquity: Robert Kingston’s abstract oil on canvas paintings are like so many thick squares of cloudy amber in which strange bits of genetic material and fossils have been trapped for centuries. The thick dark brown grounds are hauntingly empty, yet geometric circles and squares seem to float up from the depths like half-hidden patches applied in antiquity. Mired in the vitrifying yellow are strange squiggles of organic line or brushy enigmatic symbols--part snake, part DNA helix --that border on automatic writing or language.

If the carefully painted linear forms catch the imagination like a kind of updated Zen brushstroke circle, it is the composition’s spare presentation and the hints of age suggested by the thickly painted grounds that give it weight. All that time and dense surface can get a bit oppressive however, which must explain why “Balaatt,” a triple panel stain painting on seamed, raw canvas, seems so full of exuberance. Stripped from the mire of the thick paint, the symbols seem more contemporary, and the wavy ribbon of line that is the central element moves with fresh life. However, that vitality is short lived, as there is little else on the paint-barren ground to sustain or nurture it.

Ruth Bachofner Gallery, 926 Colorado Ave., to June 30.