After some unimpressive dumplings at the Empress Pavilion in Chinatown, I made my way to Chung King Road where sun-bleached lanterns rocked gently over the weekday-deserted plaza. I had decided earlier in the morning that I should take my job at Buzzine as Art Editor more seriously, and headed south on the 101 in search of something to write up. I cruised around the galleries that serve as satellites for CalArts, entered the new-to-me “Art for Humanity Gallery,” which offered up some interesting concepts with their current show, “Content.” Nothing really grabbed my interest, however, until I entered the Peres Projects Gallery.

The first work to catch my eye was a depiction of three small box-like structures with small windows towards the top, standing in a yellow field close to a copse of trees. The treatment was light but precise, the color airy. My eyes traveled to the card next to the painting. Untitled, Deer Stands, 2006 Chris Ballantyne. The name was familiar and I realized why after looking at the artist’s resumé. Mr. Ballantyne was a fellow alumni at the San Francisco Art Institute, having received his MFA degree in 2002, the same year as me. He had been living in California but recently moved to New York City.

Looking over the work, my feeling of familiarity expanded. Parking lots, the ocean at sunset, billboards at night, surfers in the lineup, intersections–environments I recognize, yet there is something about the way that Mr. Ballantyne has portrayed these subjects that makes them seem somehow separate from the landscapes I know. The consistent arial approach used in many of the images gives one the feeling of floating just outside of whatever it is that is going on, outside of the effects of whatever event is occurring now, or about to. There is an allusion to phenomena tinged with impossibility throughout the works. In some works, this is accomplished by the depiction of light: in the painting titled Untitled Clearing (Deerstand), a space in the middle of the forest is filled with a fluorescent glow. In the Glory Hole series of images, a whirlpool drains the ocean calmly and complacently. In other works, like the Tidal Bore series, the phenomena seems to be the way all the surfers in the image are standing: riding straight ahead towards shore, no one missing a wave, no one falling–a perfect ride for everyone.

There is something of the hot, lazy summer day in Ballantyne’s works, like being at the beach on a Saturday–the world is detailed and chaotic with others, thick with happenstance. You, however, on your soft blanket on the warm sand, under the hot sun, are an island of your own–close enough to the ocean to hear the strength of the waves and to feel its damp chill on your skin without having to stand in it.

For more information on this exhibit, visit The Peres Projcts website
Or to see more of Chris Ballantyne’s work, visit his website.

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