Art Review

Harsh British Realism: There’s nothing terribly radical or shocking to be found in “New British Painting I,” the inaugural show at Flowers Gallery West--just some remarkably good painting that surveys some of the best of Britain’s current output. Eschewing the cynicism of hip, young “Brit Pack” artists like Damien Hirst or Marcus Harvey, the seasoned painters included here court tradition rather than scandal; but they’re no less driven by a desire for maximum emotional impact.

What these contemporary British artists all seem to share is an unblinking commitment to hard-edged Social Realism. The clear-eyed, haunted, yet unyielding gaze of “Lynn,” Tai-Shan Schierenberg’s gigantic, luminous portrait of his wife, seems emblematic of this group’s focus as a whole.

The wealth of different approaches on display here proves that Realism is itself a mutable aesthetic. Peter Howson’s cartoonish, working-class muscle man, who stands with his fists primed for battle, seems trapped by the confines of the frame and his own freakishly exaggerated contours. John Kirby’s vaguely infantile, embracing male nudes appear equally helpless.

Framed by a succession of dollar bills, John Keane’s “Trust in God,” with its stacked cubicles spilling over with bile-faced Wall Street traders, makes up in arresting brushwork and sheer moral outrage what it lacks in subtlety. The surreal psychic interiors in paintings by Stephen Chambers and Andrew Stahl are less compelling, mostly because they reject any claim to social rootedness in favor of inscrutable inner landscapes.

Using thick applications of acrylic and plaster, David Hepher grids his canvas into cement-like blocks so that it looks like he’s painted a desolate South London housing project directly onto a concrete wall. He then spray-paints graffiti over the entire canvas, effectively vandalizing his own work. Hepher’s faith in Realism is anything but naive; like most of the artists here, he uses paint to build up the illusion and simultaneously tear it down.

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* Flowers Gallery West, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 586-9200, through April 18. Closed Sundays and Mondays.