entrances - review Aug. 2007 Irving Arts Center, Texas.

Exhibit Review: 

Metro-entrances
BY LAURA SEEWOESTER

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2007/aug/07/exhibit-review-metro-entrances/

Coppell artist Sebastian C. Varghese takes a different approach to the urban landscape with his exhibit Metro-entrances, currently on view at the Irving Arts Center. Often times the urban landscape involves wide angled images of buildings, streets or signs. Most of the paintings in this exhibit are of urban entrances and doorways, albeit each one is painted from drastically different view points and angles. Up close, some of the paintings look more abstract until you take a step back and put the whole painting together in a pleasantly surprising way.

A portion of each painting is blurred, usually on the top and/or bottom, which gives the feeling of the scene whisking by, giving the viewer a great sense of city ambiance. This also makes his work very dreamy acknowledging the blur that is often a day in the city. He almost addresses the way that people will only focus on one portion of an entire scenario, while the peripherals just sort of fade into the background. Varghese's work has a lot of sparkle (aka - highlights) to it, which is reminiscent of a city's lights. A couple of the paintings had a little too much sparkle for my taste (the bright lights of the entrance, the bright lights of the city, yeah, yeah we get it, enough already), but the paintings with a more muted sparkle to them provided an excellent contrast to the deep and vibrant colors Varghese uses. This keeps your eye moving around the entirety of each piece. As a whole, Varghese's work is intense, striking and beautiful. It's worth a look-see if you're in the neighborhood.