Martha Schwendener
Flash Art
July/August 1996

In an art world that explains and critiques the experiences of everyday life, who cares about something as basic and archaic as a brushstroke?  James Nares does, but he not only makes brushstrokes, gesture and paint seem fresh and original, he is also like an alchemist who actually makes them look like something else - photographs, computer generated works, or laser prints.

Nares' process is not unlike the painter all Ab Ex practitioners are eventually measured against: Jackson Pollock.  Like Pollock, Nares lays his canvas on the floor, eschewing the verticality of easel painting for horizontality.  He is then able to approach the work from any angle.  Maneuvering a large brush, he makes for the purpose, across a fine muslin canvas, he draws or paints a singular, calligraphic brushstroke which he either accepts or rejects, wiping the paint off the surface and beginning again.  It is a ruthless method in which chance plays as much of a role as skill, but the "acceptable" paintings retain the freshness of a one-time gesture; they are not, by any means, overworked.

The finished product, a decidedly abstract swipe of paint against a white background, calls up many of the Ab Ex debates.  Representation is eliminated, but figure versus ground issues are playfully confronted, since the enamel used by Nares makes his final product so flat it all seems like ground, as in a photograph.  Likewise, his work is decidedly gestural, but the traces he leaves are impersonal, anonymous when compared with the highly individualized, personal markings of, for instance, a Cy Twombly.

Nares' choice of painting as his medium is interesting, if unexpected.  A former guitarist for the '70s No-Wave band, the Contortions, an underground film-maker and co-founder of Colab (Collaborative Projects, Inc.,) painting would seem like the last thing Nares would chose for creating innovative work.  Nares, however, brings an element of performance, the odd specter of photography, and the creative visuality of film to his work, breathing a new life not only into the tired genre of Ab Ex, but also into the ancient art of painting.