Best in Show
by R. C. Baker
Christian Hellmich
These beguiling canvases feature depopulated plazas, stairwells, and vestibules,
the angled planes of modernist architecture recreated in slabs of grayed-out blue,
dirty yellow, and clotted red. Snaking handrails provide a sinuous counterpoint to
rectangle, square, and trapezoid, drawing the eye into virtuoso palette-knifing
and brushwork. The bleakness of these concrete-and-steel dead zones is
transcended by Hellmich's sharp formal instincts, which make abstract slats and
checkerboards surprisingly beautiful.