BRETT REICHMAN April 5 - 29, 2006 Gallery Paule is pleased to present its first exhibition of paintings and drawings by BRETT REICHMAN. Brett Reichman's oil paintings and colorful drawings are cultural studies, rich in imagery and references, offering viewers skilled paint handling and expert draftsmanship. Both as a practitioner and teacher Reichman is committed to labor-intensive traditions, championing integrity in painted and drawn figuration. His exhibition will feature several large paintings (some taking more than a year to complete) depicting colorful twisted forms of striped drapery. Bright and magnified, they speak of childhood play, of toys and clowns. The stark lighting and dramatic shadow reveals phallic shapes, drawing the viewer into the second reading of the work, composed of references to sexual desire and lost innocence. Reichman's frequent use of the rainbow motif as signifier of gay culture is crucial to his thematic engagement with issues of identity and the symbolic nature of objects. Rendering in a difficult crosshatch technique, the artist builds up multi-colored contours in his new series of drawings. Rooted in self-portraiture, these works represent transgressive performances with innocent objects. Reichman's works are represented in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Berkeley Art Museum, the Orange County Museum of Art, the Oakland Museum and the Portland Museum of Art in Oregon. His works were recently featured in the book, Art-A Sex Book, by John Waters and Bruce Hainley. A reception for the artist will be held Thursday, April 6th from 5:30- 7:30 p.m. Image: Rainbow Play Systems, 2004 Oil on canvas, 96" x 48" JOHN BEECH April 5 - 29, 2006 Gallery Paule is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by JOHN BEECH. Beech will exhibit a new series of painted photographs and a group of small colorful revolving cast plaster sculptures. Beech's work continues to provide commentary on minimalist belief systems and the sanctity of High Art practice. Introducing elements of utility (wheels, ball bearings, construction materials) to his own monochrome abstract sculpture, he brings purist shapes and surfaces back down to earth. Although, for the most part, spoofing modernist purity, his works retain a pleasing formality and visceral elegance. His new series of "Coated Drawings" and "Dumpster Drawings" pair photographs, taken by the artist, which are painted and mounted on aluminum-- sometimes they get 'coated' again with paint. As a repeating collection of images (although each is somewhat different), these two-dimensional works address minimalism's love of the serial. The British-born, California-trained artist has maintained his studio in New York for over ten years. His works were recently presented at the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, New York and surveyed (with a catalog) in the exhibition John Beech, Works 1989-2004 at the Stiftung f�r Konkrete Kunst in Reutlingen, Germany. Works by John Beech are represented in the collections of the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, NY, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Berkeley Art Museum, the Oakland Museum and the San Jose Museum of Art. A reception for the artist will be held Thursday, April 6th from 5:30 � 7:30 p.m. Image: Dumpster Drawing, 2003