PDX Gallery
604 NW 12 Ave, 222-0063

Through July 30

At first, it seems like Joe Macca's shimmering, fruity color field paintings have as much gravity and substance as popsicles. Each is a rectangle, about 10" by 14" with one color at the top--say, tangerine--that grades seamlessly into another color at the bottom--say, watermelon. Or it might be mossy green and rose, pink and pale brown, or fuchsia and purple.

Keep looking, though, and the paintings aren't as sweet and peptic as you thought. First, they're made with drywall compound and acrylic paint, with little mica crystals mixed in, so they have the powder-finish look of industrial objects. Second, the colors seem less like the lewd accidents of Otterpops and more like the over-rehearsed tones of coordinated bathroom accessories and eye shadows, colors you fret over and then regret.

Hypostasis means to settle out, like a substance from a fluid, or like "the essential nature of a human being." These paintings aren't about soluble desserts, but about chewy wads of truth that stick in your gut and worry stones that grow smooth in your hand. Love tastes bitter sometimes, and Rome may be less a holiday than a final, certain destination.