In New York Paintings, Will Yackulic revisits the mix of visual blur and angular precision that gives his native city its own special gravity.
Part of an ongoing series, these paintings contain urban scenes mostly absent of people, with objects just on the point of recognition before returning to paint.
A vase of flowers, captures of traffic, a weathered phone booth — each a relatable image but often with a ghostly absence. An empty cardboard box with pictorial writing looks ancient with light-washed browns and oranges, the composition a meeting of shapes.
A sparrow is strangely pensive, its front feathers blending eerily into the cement surface it rests upon, as if their matter was merging. Distant buildings across a river settle into the haze of a city evening unified in smog. A bright yellow cab is a creature unto itself, awkwardly turning into the edge of the panel and losing its physicality, as if it must de-corporealize to escape the painter.
