Painter Donny Smutz makes art that is full of contradictions. He is a Midwesterner whose work reflects on American culture, but he favors sardonic satire over patriotic praise. He unexpectedly sets his pop cultural narratives in surrealistic landscapes, but he pulls predictably from easy, dorm-room-favs like M.C. Escher and Salvador Dali. Is this a put-on, a put-off, or a put up (as in "or shut up")? Smutz's latest show, Out of My Mind, may pose more questions than it answers, but it's unlikely to cause the kind of reaction that his painting Troika caused last year when it was slashed with a box-cutter by an angry patron who dubbed it "blasphemous." Of course, even the Troika incident has the air of a hoax or a stunt about it. Smutz is tricky that way.
Tuesdays-Saturdays. Starts: June 6. Continues through July 11, 2009
