TO APR 30. TUE-SAT 11AM-5PM. INGRAM GALLERY, 49 AVENUE RD. 416-929-2220. WWW.INGRAMGALLERY.COM.
If infantilism and whimsy are here to stay in art — and, for better or worse, it looks as if they are — I’d rather they take the form of work like Shaun Downey’s. At 30, Downey is Ingram Gallery’s youngest artist, but he paints with maturity, despite his boyish preoccupations: pretty girls, masquerades and cool, crazy stories. His muse, Kelly, is his wife, and is seen in his new show, “Superheroes, Fairytales & Naked Chicks,” as Dorothy Gale, the Tooth Fairy and, well, as a (semi-)naked chick.
Downey’s influences are writ large: Caravaggio, Rembrandt, David, Manet. To call his considered attention to light on his subjects a gimmick or a smokescreen would be to dismiss one of Western art’s most basic tenets. Downey is interested in craft not just because he can do it well, but because of the ways in which it can stress the things he deems important. Looking at Downey’s three girls in panties — which he means to represent the graces — immediately conveys the continued validity of the figure study and the portrait. Yes, there is a lecherous, almost tacky quality here, but there is also a simple splendidness. Who wouldn’t love to be painted in this way?