The kinetic energy of his models animates the paint in Alex Kanevsky’s figure paintings, as if the models will keep on living—as they will—and may even appear different when we return for a second look. The seemingly static energy of the mountains he ventures out to paint is belied by the mountains’ eroding, their vegetation changing with the seasons, the perception of their form changing in the changing light.
Mt. Nephin, 2025, oil on Mylar mounted on wood, 24 x 32 in.Yet, when he was making one of his mountain paintings for his current exhibition at Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco, he felt that “everything in the world, in my life and in the landscape around the mountain felt to be in flux. But the mountain was the same as it has always been before I came there and the same as it will be after I am gone.”
Beginning Mt. Nephin in County Mayo, Ireland, he finished the painting in his New Hampshire studio. “I started several paintings of Nephin,” he says. “The one in this show was both the most troubled and the most promising of them. It took me a couple of years to figure out how to finish it. Mostly this involved adding some rough abstract elements with flat green at the bottom.”
Wet Horse, 2025, oil on wood 24 x 48 in.
Bath, 2025, oil on wood 6 x 16 in.
I had come across a quote about honesty in his art. When I asked hm about it he responded, “Honesty is maybe too grand of a word. This was more about clarity. Unlike honesty and its evil twin dishonesty, clarity is not a part of some duality. It is simply either there or not…Painting is all about love. This is so often said for so many silly reasons that it seems meaningless. Yet it is so. It is both obvious and not. Painting, more than anything, depends on looking. Not really what people think of as creativity, originality or even relevance. Not so much skill. Skill is nice to have, but not necessary. Certainly not on desire to interrogate, whatever that means to them. Nor to convince, accuse or advance a cause. As a rule, when we engage in all these worthy pursuits, we don’t give birth to anything fresh and alive.”
Model with Mirror and Mughal Tapestry, 2025, oil on wood 48 x 48 in.
He continues, “We can only look closely, notice, see and then try to paint whatever it was with clarity and intensity. That’s quite difficult and so good painting is very infrequent.”
The exhibition, Field Trip, continues through January 31. —
Dolby Chadwick Gallery 210 Post Street, Suite 205 San Francisco, CA 94108 • (415) 956-3560 www.dolbychadwickgallery.com
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