“Artcritical Pick: Chris Hood at Lyles & King” Artcritical

The new LES gallery Lyles & King is into being adventurous, with a great layout that includes a project space and a sunken gallery. Their first solo show, “Chris Hood: Slow Drag in Margaritaville” features a suite of new paintings by the artist. His work swings with reverential and acidic allusions: to Abstract Expressionism, to throwaway pop commodities, to van Gogh, to poetry, to stain painting. Working from the back of the canvas with thinned oil paints, he develops crusty surfaces that show deep enthusiasm and adoration for his images and forebears, with a hint of doubt out irony. Adic Test Reflux (2015) is psychedelic in its whorls and sharp colors, and devotional in its wonder at the lasting power of Impressionism and its inheritors. And the show runs contemporaneoulsy with an exhibtion in the project space by Magalie Guérin. NOAH DILLON Chris Hood, Acid Test Reflux, 2015. Oil on canvas, 59 x 79 ¾ inches. Courtesy of the artist and Lyles & King.