Christopher Ulivo is a fan of the darkly comedic scenario.
His paintings mimic the punchline of a comic strip, though no further context is required due to a knack for clever titles. The collection covers everything from popular culture to history and religion and presents it in a humorous light with a startling talent for caricature-like characters that act out Ulivo’s lightheartedly twisted stories.
The City College art professor’s exhibit “Jeepers Creepers,” opened on Feb. 1 at the Atkinson Gallery and will remain there until the end of the month with a special “Artist Talk” at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13 in Administration Building Room-211.
Though his characters and their unlikely scenarios captivate the viewer, one continues to examine his work for the stunning color mastery that bursts out of every painting. Ulivo’s rich colors are self-made egg tempera paint, a process which requires a lot of time and manual labor. Not only are the colors unusual and foreign to the viewer because they are self-mixed, but they are composed so perfectly within each painting because of Ulivo’s talent for pairing complimentary colors.
Walking clockwise through the gallery, the viewer first comes across a variety of sketches. Some are highly detailed while others appear rapidly composed. Among these, an image of dancing cats jiving on their hind legs stands out, as well as a desolate looking sketch of a sarcophagus wide open on some shore, lacking its mummified owner.
Each of Ulivo’s paintings varies in subject matter, though they all harness a unified childlike tone, persistently asking his audience,”What if…”
His sense of humor and spontaneity shines in pieces like the one depicting two naked figures looking shocked and frustrated as three characters from Star Trek begin to fade into the scene. This painting is titled “Away Team Interrupts Relations.”
His paintings have a clean style with traditional, albeit slightly cartoonish figures. Only after one ceases to be mesmerized by his characters and their stories does the viewer notice the gorgeous exotic backgrounds where Ulivo allows his lush colors to play.
The most visually assaulting painting, “Spy Posing As Geisha Murdering Gen. Lee In A Brothel 1862!” is exuberantly sexual and portrays General Robert E. Lee fully exposed front and center with a nude African American woman lying spread eagle in the background. As surprising as it may be, neither of these make the painting as visually stimulating as it is. For it is the bright red and blue psychedelic carpet pattern paired with green and yellow wallpaper that jumps out of the artwork and makes it memorable.
The last painting is isolated in the corner of the room, right next to the door. It is the largest canvas in the gallery and depicts a mummy rising from the ocean to make its way on shore and kill some locals. Though gruesome, one cannot help but admire the continuity in Ulivo’s works. The aforementioned abandoned sarcophagus sketch was not a lonely prospect at all, rather a very interesting beginning for a particularly adventurous (and menacing) mummified pharaoh.
