For thirty years Stuart Ober has practiced his own self-taught approach to representational painting, one that combines a deadpan illusionism with a not quite fathomable psychic undertone.  “Underneath them all lies passive-aggressive behavior,” he jokes.

Ober has created a defining image over the past several years.  It is a meticulously rendered environment in which the implied back story involves a mishap whose consequences we confront – chairs in a heap at the base of a stairwell or a paint spill on an oriental rug.

His newest work continues in this direction.  We are again invited to take delectation in the visually enjoyable appearance of what seems to be an accident’s aftermath.  But in this body of work, Ober also moves from the theater of his interior space, approaches the window, and goes outside.