Barbara Takenaga is a high priestess in the cult of nutty, trippy, transcendentally labor intensive abstraction. She creates sumptuous decorations of mind boggling complexity that fill you with a sense of awe not just because of the exhilarating cosmos they depict but because of a sense of the heightened consciousness required for such creation. Once the eye adjusts to a sense of gaudy overload, and overcomes the prejudice of feeling you might have seen such imagery on the cover of a molecular chemistry textbook, it becomes clear that she is an image crafter of formidable power. Awesome – in the true not the teenager sense – is the word. DAVID COHEN (2005)
Barbara Takenaga, Forte, 2011. Acrylic on linen, 54 x 135 inches. Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery
Barbara Takenaga: New Paintings, October 13 – November 12, 2011. 535 West 22nd Street, Second Floor, Between 10th and 11th avenues, New York City, (212) 247-2111
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