Showing – John Sonsini @ Cheim & Read – New York

John Sonsini is showing at New York’s Cheim & Read this month, and that’s great, because Sonisi’s work is really rather great. His chunky brushwork, his cool, calm, use of colour, his simple content; pull them together and what have you got? You’ve got a superb piece, or collection, which is hangable, sellable and just wickedly easy on the eye. Of course, that suggests that Sonsini’s paintings are average. But they’re quite the opposite. To be honest, I can’t say why they’re wonderful. Though, I suspect that it has a lot to do with the sheer honesty and intimacy of his work. His paintings are frank, without being intrusive or objective. They are individual, figurative and arresting yet serene. They're about the sitter and artist. Sonsini’s talks with, and to, his subjects whilst painting. He gets to know them. And when he’s through, he simply entitles the given painting with the name of the man or men involved (above; 'Gabriel, Louie, Jorge', 2004). It’s the kind of care that transcribes onto canvases.

Sonsini first broke through into the artistic limelight during the ’80s, exhibiting generally homoerotic works at LA’s Newspace Gallery. While he's gone through various guises since, his intrest continues to lie with the masculine form or character. The works showing at Cheim & Read take Latino labourers as subjects - which is hardly surprising as Sonsini lives in a predominantly Latin area of LA. As his first show with the gallery, it marks a onwards and upward move for this artist, and again that's, well, great.

John Sonsini is showing at Cheim & Read, 547 West 25 Street, New York, from 10th January – 10th February.