ART REVIEW : Exploring Border Between Attraction and Repulsion

At Thomas Solomon’s Garage, Jason Young’s paintings are pretty in a sleazy sort of way. Like many emerging artists who are loath to embrace beauty but unwilling to give it up, he straddles the poles of attraction and repulsion. That he doesn’t trip all over himself doing it is impressive and seemingly more than just dumb luck.

That’s not to say that Young’s animal-skin paintings aren’t trendy. They are, in the manner of this season’s must-have animal-skin dress by Dolce & Gabbana. Conjuring everything from pythons to leopards to peacock feathers, their obsessive patterns of high-pitched reds, soft blues, golds and greens trapped under a layer of resin as thick as glass exude allure with impunity, to the point that their caged-beast appeal borders on kitsch.

And yet there is more going on here. Young works additively, applying color both to the canvas and to the underside of the resin, so as to create a sense of depth and all sorts of peek-a-boo effects. There is a hint of Fandra Chang’s work in Young’s repeated, inverted and rhyming elements, but Young blows off her seriousness of purpose to make this year’s fashion statement. His self-conscious insouciance is important and, not coincidentally, exactly what gives haute couture its longevity.

* Thomas Solomon’s Garage, 928 N. Fairfax Ave., (213) 654-4731, through Dec. 21. Closed Sundays and Mondays.