This Is Not Street Art

Overview

This Is Not Street Art features new work by Solo Ponticello and John Hynd. Given the size of this garage-size gallery, it's amazing how well the two artists' many works fit into the small space. John Hynd has put together a series of four acrylic stages: trauma, insomnia, digestion and my eyes and noodles are burning. In the first a three-headed dog with cubist, flat eyes has its three severed heads floating above its three box necks. The dog is a stale green over a pink background. The trident shape of the dog's body is a motif repeated in Hynd's other works. Even though the effect is roughly that of a long night with a questionable breakfast, the sequence feels comfortably dreamy. In the final frame, a pink wiry man holds a noodle bowl full of fire. His eyes are burning and his white lips are quiet but focused.

Solo Ponticello has drawn faces covered in black hair. Their abstract heads, or bodies, are curled and twisted in the style of vines or pairs of old, proud goat horns twisting together. All have lost unfocused eyes, and most have mouths. Although one owns a moustache instead. Only black, white and red are used — with the red either dominating the palette or running brief splashes of harsh contrast across the image. Individually the faces look sad, but together they form a calm menagerie. They combine to suggest an empty, quiet and more difficult version of the world you live in, and one with a lot more hair in it. Also on display are zines by both artists and some beautiful, soft postcards by Ponticello. It's hard to fit so much work into such an efficient space, but Hynd and Ponticello have left you just enough room get a good look.