May 15, 2007

By MARIO NAVES

Gregory Amenoff’s paintings, on display at the Alexandre Gallery, are modest in size but grand in scale.  Putting an inelegant touch in the service of semi-abstracted landscapes, Mr. Amenoff conjures, among many other things, cranky geological forms, pregnant clouds and spiky cosmological explosions.  Everything in these packed and interlocking compositions is monumental, bulky and unabashedly theatrical.  Colored by romance, his riffs on the American landscape are nevertheless dominated by fact: Mr. Amenoff is drawn to nature because of its in-your-face tangibility.  He tackles this unassuming truth with an appropriately gritty spirit.