Charles Seliger

Part of the wonder of the small, deliriously obsessive paintings that Charles Seliger has painstakingly produced for more than 40 years is that they are made by the human hand at all. The nearly microscopic webs of line that cover his surfaces strain both belief and vision. Like thin nets of camouflage densely covering a slightly rocky terrain, they come into focus only when the eye swoops in for a look-see. The terrain is paint; small gestural strokes in related families of greens, purples, turquoises or reds have been brushed on and then sanded down. Sometimes the paint surface is more atmospheric or organic than mineral; soft, like clouds or some form of microscopic life. Mr. Seliger's ultra-refined automatism comes out of Surrealism, while his fascination with both gesture and mottled monochromes is traceable to Abstract Expressionism. His kindred spirits in terms of fanatical exquisiteness include artists as disparate as Bruce Connor and Myron Stout; and among contemporary painters, Fred Tomaselli, Steven Charles, James Siena, Steve DiBennedetto and Marcelo Pombo. Comparisons could also be drawn with various forms of computer art.-- Amazon.com.