DAN SCHEIN: WINDOW PAINS

Best Western is pleased to announce the opening of “Window Pains,” a solo exhibition by New York based painter Dan Schein. On view are eight intimate oil portraits each depicting a single subject in a scene. Though the artist withholds in scale, material is given in abundance. Thick oil paint builds and carves these small rectangles in such material generosity that the works describe paint itself almost as much as the human subject matter. 

The balance question of “just enough” is always interesting in Schein’s work. Some of the finished touches on a figure might seem like first strokes, but when added to a thick under-painting they gesture towards a previous struggle between painter and self. We are reminded of Cezanne’s drawings and how erasure was not an option, rather, addition was the only way forward. Schein’s technique of building up searching-line upon searching-line in heavy impasto speaks to the movement of time itself. Each added mark becomes another layer of possibility that adds duration to the portraits. Each added possibility offers another window to look through. Each additional window, then, marks time in the painful existential struggle that painting can be. Schein, however, insists on adding lightness to this struggle with his characteristic sense of humor.