Donald Moffett’s paintings shift our expectations of what a painting should be. They are oil on panel, to be sure, but each blade, hair, and fiber of paint is methodically extruded onto the picture plane so that the surfaces resemble curiously radiantly pigmented AstroTurf. In The Radiant Future, Moffett’s fetishistic process is contextualized with his established repertoire of holes―as well as with “holding” structures that in some cases might be more correctly described as contraptions. There is inherent tension in the pairing of mere straps and chains with the finely cultivated paintings, an elegant equilibrium of texture and weight.
