On the other hand, Godfrey’s work, hanging on the other side of Washington Square, is not about the landscape so much as about humans and their relationships, for better or worse. Yet Godfrey has create a post-apocalyptic milieu, especially in his larger paintings and drawings, with his dark-dark grounds and his dashed-off figures struggling through unfamiliar-looking places. But his point is less about the dark landscape, and more about the triumph of the humans, their survival, and their adventures–Mad Max.
I seem to be on a tear about large paintings versus small. Once again, I loved the small works, gouaches on paper (48 pieces were 6 x 6 inches and 40 were 9 x 4 3/4 inches), which are displayed on one wall in two eye-popping grids (left, “Odd Lips #4,” 6 x 6 inches, gouache on paper on foam core). They had all the energy and freshness that Godfrey’s style of quick mark-making can produce, whereas many of the medium and larger paintings, some of them based on the small ones, lagged in energy and interest. The show has 108 pieces altogether, and if you have been inside Bridgette Mayer’s gallery, you have to ask yourself how they all fit in there.
The grids also lent a dailiness and context along with a factory-produced sameness for the images to grate against. Thanks to the coolness that the grids provide, the smaller paintings show with dash and contemporary charm.