Brentwood Spring Art Show: Decorative, Derivative and Executed by Dilettantes

Navigating the twice-a-year Brentwood “Art” Show is a jovial experience for the most part.

Baby strollers compete for space with dogs, but the most dangerous area is always the congregation of cyclists pounding caffeine at

This year the creative offerings were at best weak–and at worst decorative, derivative and executed by dilettantes.

“Art” (and you will notice the repetition of the sarcastic quotation marks) is a term that is used loosely and inclusively. Craft populates over half the street fair with jewelry, candles and tsochkes of all manner available every 50 feet over the three blocks on the south side of San Vicente from Barrington to Saltair.

There were a couple of glimmers of originality though.

Grant Searcey had a modest booth of paintings that showed a facile use of medium. He’s certainly developed a style and a voice of his own.

Strongly influenced by a graphic novel aesthetic, the paintings of hybrid animals and plants have a wit and charm. Turtles, sea horses and frogs occupy the artist’s iconography. Kudos to the artist as well for not offering countless variations in all manner of digital prints as well.

The style most reminds me of the animation on the music video for Feel Good Inc. by the band Gorillaz.  [See video.] There are also overtones of Sam Keith’s artwork done for the comic book called The Maxx in the early nineties. Good stuff.

I was also surprisingly charmed by the artwork of Kicheka Sykes. The paintings predominantly depict African-American women stylized with patterned veils and dresses.

She has a nice ability to define form through the use of silhouette and an attractive palette of colors. She does traffic in reproductions a lot though, which unfortunately lessens the originals on display.

That said, she has a voice that offers a strong and flattering portrait of a community, which diverts any hint of cliché that might creep in.  In a world of artists who try to tailor their offerings to what they think people will want, Skyes paints what she wants. This authenticity was on display.

Most Heinous Award goes Adam Stone Studios with a display of gaudy compositions that is left of velvet painting and just right of dogs playing poker.

Best/Worst Kitchen Art goes to the modular letter photographs by Mindy Martinsen. Cliché and kitsch that most people mistake, unfortunately, for art.

Most Delectable Award goes to the display of sausages, hot dogs and brisket at Robin’s woodfire BBQ, a food vendor by the jazz stage by the .

Most Tacky Award goes to Art by Paul Roberts with scenes of foxhunts, a safari scene and a wave crashing on a Polynesian Island.

And lastly, Best Display of Craft Award goes to a hat vendor, also perched between Gorham and Montana who mounted shelves on wire thereby by creating a wall of floating hats.

A nice visual touch.

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