Patrick Neal reviews the exhibition Janet Fish: Panoply at DC Moore Gallery, New York, on view through March 15, 2014.
Neal writes: "Janet Fish, known for her effulgent still-life paintings, paints with a sharp focus, her objects solidly planted in front of us. Fish’s singular achievement is the depiction of light as a materializing force — particularly transparency in the form of colored glass. Over the years, she has explored the structural and expressive possibilities of spectral light on ordinary objects: blown glass, plastic bags and wrappers, flower petals, ribbon candy, gummy bears, fleshy fruits, etc. In fact, with their opulence and rich details, her works harken back even further to the excesses of Golden Age Dutch still-life painting… In delineating her still-life objects, Fish draws with the paint in such a direct way the viewer practically feels the artist transcribing what is in front of her; we experience the decisions as to how she organizes her compositions."