Alex Kanevsky, Dolby Chadwick Gallery
Alex Kanevsky, Art Books I, oil on wood, 6 x 16 inches (Framed 7 x 17 inches), 2025
This review is part of our “Artist on Artist” series.
By Guy Diehl
Alex Kanevsky's exhibition at Dolby Chadwick Gallery features paintings ranging from large to quite small in format. The subject matter includes landscapes, the human figure, equestrian themes, and interior spaces. I've chosen to write about one of the smaller figurative paintings in the exhibition, which I found particularly compelling.
A close look at the 6 x 16 inch painting titled Art Books I (2025), oil on wood panel, reveals a nude figure at rest, surrounded by both open and closed art books. Its intimate scale immediately drew my attention among the other artworks in the exhibition. While the figure and dominant red color remain central, a distinct sense of curiosity emerges through the careful placement of the open books and their possible symbolic or thematic connections.
Detail of Art Books I
This painting honors the long-standing tradition of the nude in art, recalling the works of Giorgione's Sleeping Venus and Titian's Venus of Urbino. It demonstrates Kanevsky's broad engagement with the figure throughout art history. The red passages in the composition compete visually with the dominant figure, while a red scarf around her neck frames her face and invites the question: Is she awake or asleep? Also, the infinite black background draws our attention to the figure by creating a vacuum-like feeling, as if the air around her is about to smother her.
The arrangement of the books along the edges further pulls the viewer's eye, directing focus back to the figure from any point within the work. The book illustrations are rendered only as suggestions of their sources, allowing the viewer to interpret them as possibly familiar images. There is additionally the idea of how one artist may be influenced by another's depiction, as studied in a book. The title of the painting, Art Books I, suggests they are important, but they do not control the whole narrative; they form an homage to the figure and a reverence for the books as a concept, rather than signalling a specific book.
Detail of Art Books I
Small works of this nature, with provocative subjects, often attract more attention than one might initially expect. This does not mean that Kanevsky's larger works should be overlooked because of their size; he is capable of creating equally compelling paintings at any scale. While one might be tempted to correct certain anatomical anomalies in the paintings, I see these instead as part of the artist's effort to balance the figurative elements with their painterly, abstract counterparts. Throughout the exhibition, the paintings achieve a harmonious balance between representation and abstraction, creating a captivating visual impact and a sense of harmony that I find highly engaging, especially as a realist painter myself.
Although I have chosen to focus on this single painting, viewers will encounter a wide range of genres in the exhibition, including landscapes, additional figurative works, and an equestrian painting that exemplifies painterly abstraction while still conveying the horse's muscular presence. I highly recommend seeing this exhibition in person. Experiencing Kanevsky's work solely through the gallery's website or the images in this review can offer only a facsimile of what the artist has actually achieved.
A visit to the gallery will allow you to take in the harmonious and robust color palette, the physicality of the brushstrokes, and the truly impressive scale of the work. Visitors will immediately notice the immense diversity in not only size, but theme and style. Kanevsky has not restricted himself to neat coherence, but rather it is this broad range of subjects that truly shifts this body of work in comparison to his previous exhibitions. It is as though he has thrown expectation to the wind, and the rules have been changed for the better.
The exhibition will be on view from December 4, 2025 to January 31, 2026.
