Elizabeth Peyton At Gavin Brown’s Enterprise

I must be living in some kind of Bizzaro world, how else can I explain the attention and recognition that this paltry and very minor painter has been receiving for the last couple of years. Her show of mostly wimpy small portraits at Gavin Brown highlight her weaknesses and none of her strengths because she has none. Her works I think appeal to a certain hip cool segment of the art world because they look easy and don’t offend, probably one of the reasons some  “celebrities” are so willing to pose for her, Alice Neel she ain’t. These are vapid and empty little things devoid of any psychological insights that sit on the walls of this big and ugly space like pimples on the backside of some Bruce Weber model.  They remind me and look like illustrations that use to appear with regularity in the pages of  New York magazine, and maybe they still do since I haven’t looked at this rag in years.