Christopher Page‘s paintings appear as windows into neon voids. “Opening” at Baert Gallery comprises five trompe l’oeil abstractions whose geometric compositions appear flat from afar but disclose illusionistic shading as one approaches. Flashy color fields are bordered by plain trompe l’oeil frames painted to the nines with highlights, reflections and shadows. Yet the realistic borders seem paradoxical, for nothing is in the center but vacantly glaring yellow, orange, red, green or blue so garish they arrest one’s eyes. Eliciting a disconcerting sense of emptiness, the fluorescent fields in Not-All (all works 2018), Program and Ground are Rothko-esque in effect; however, Page’s painted expanses, clinically smooth for his airbrush and roller application, lack the personal touch generally associated with Color Field Painting. As one stares into the vacuous expanses of artificial hue, subtle differences in tonality dissolve in ocular fatigue and play afterimage tricks on surrounding white walls. In Opening (pictured above) and Close, shadows improbably infringe luminous panes. Like shallow yet tangible computer screen facades belying potentially infinite combinations of colored light, Page’s opaque yet glowing tableaus seem deceptively hollow, as though hiding some elusive unfathomable. Sometimes, it seems that instead of softening reality’s edges, effulgent technologic marvels flaunt the bleakness of the human condition, underscoring the fact that all our wonderful inventions can’t save us. These five screens into dazzling nothingness succinctly encapsulate such a feeling.

Baert Gallery
2441 Hunter Street
Los Angeles, CA 90021
Show runs through May 12