The Sunday Journal
Albuquerque, June 11, 2006
 
ARTS
Abstraction show up in Nob Hill
 
By Wesley Pulkka
For the Journal
 
Organic abstraction [is] highlighted in a show at the Nob Hill Art Complex.  Christina Hall-Strauss is shifting away from the floral and plant forms that used to dominate her paintings in her new “Riparian” solo show at Coleman Gallery Contemporary Art.
 
Hall-Strauss creates abstractions from the real world of rivers, mountains and valleys that makes the Southwest a wonderland for artists.
 
Her new work focuses on a water theme that reflects the variety of colors and forms one might observe from a riverbank. Whether she is emulating water-washed stones or floating leaves and fishes, her linear arabesques tie everything together.
 
In “Cove 1” she layered and then scraped some of her shapes to emphasize a sense of movement and flow.  Use of the S-curve and tapered shapes add to the feeling of fluid motion.
 
The pale ochre background has a green tinge that could be literally interpreted as water flowing over a sandy bottom.  Her rich palette and confident brushwork, however, prevent the establishment of interpretive dogma.
 
The whole 12-piece show remains aloof from reality in a joyfully relaxed manner while using what the viewer may have experienced outside the gallery as connecting points.
 
Hall-Strauss paints on a variety of formats and sizes that conform to an internal logic and scale.  The small pieces are not miniatures of the large works. They just reveal less content.
 
Many artists these days fill the space of a painting with the same imagery no matter what size the canvas happens to be. I find it interesting that Hall-Strauss, an abstract artist, conforms to the tenets of scale that many realists ignore.
 
This is a very solid collection by an artist who continues to develop and refine her technique and vision.