Review: “Surface beauty goes a long way in Groveland and Circa shows in Minneapolis”

Review: “Surface beauty goes a long way in Groveland and Circa shows in Minneapolis”

Mary Abbe of the Star Tribune calls attention to the “fabulous surfaces” on view in our current shows by Rod Massey and Tim Tozer. She applauds Rod Massey’s gritty urban landscape paintings of abandoned flour mills, boarded over windows, graffiti-covered steel doors and derelict warehouses that the artist “records with unsentimental honesty and affection.” She continues, “for all their descriptive detail, it is the modernism of Massey’s paintings that commands attention and respect. His Fruen Wall, Blue Sky is pure Mondrian, a rhythmic symphony of squares and rectangles in ivory and black that is completely abstract even as it faithfully depicts the broken windows, ventilation panels and beams of an industrial site.”

Abbe praises Tozer’s ability to transport his viewers to the seaside. She writes, “with brushy streaks of loose paint, he captures the quicksilver light of less-than-perfect summer days when kids squabble, gulls flock and too much togetherness drives families apart. Casually brilliant.” Read the rest of Abbe’s review here.