Kyle Staver "Tall Tales" at STEVEN HARVEY FINE ART

James Kalm is out on a leisurely Sunday tour of the Bowery/Lower East Side when he slips in to see "Tall Tales" at Steven Harvey. Perhaps not of the import of the crisis in the Middle East, or the upcoming Presidential elections, there is nonetheless a passionate ongoing debate among New York artists regarding the validity of figuration vs. abstraction. A cadre of youngish painters like Dana Schutz, Nicole Eisenman, and Lisa Yuskavage, have reintroduced narrative figurative works while incorporating elements of abstract design and art historical references. With "Tall Tales" Kyle Staver presents a series of pictures that are engaged with these issues while allowing her to employ her own painterly recipes of flat color, petimenti, washes and opacity. These works riff on classic mythological themes, yet bring a totally contemporary and humorous statement to the visual foreground. This video was recorded on September 27, 2015.