PIZZERIA – LEO COYTE
Image: 'Pizzeria' by Leo Coyte, 2013
Five large, bright oil paintings by Sydney-based artist Leo Coyte are sufficient to transform the endless white walls of Galerie pompom into the archetypal pizzeria. With Pizzeria Coyte continues to explore his interest in assembled portraiture, creating faces from a combination of fantastic and banal images.
The works immediately strike you with their playful use of colour and composition, their sense of irreverent fun. Look a little longer and you are impressed by the obvious skill of the painter, the provocative appropriation of familiar objects and the apparent textural depth of the works, as if each element were layered on the base like the toppings of a pizza.
There is a lot going on beneath these vividly absurd faces, and it’s not all as cheery as it initially appears; the searching gaze and upside down smile of Nostalgia (a favourite) border on the grotesque. Well worth a look. (AB)
Until Aug 17, Galerie pompom, 2/39 Abercrombie St, Chippendale, Free, galeriepompom.com
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