Chelsea Hotel artist Hawk Alfredson has a show up in the lobby of The Pit, an improv theater on West 29th Street. Fans of improv comedy will appreciate Hawk’s surrealism, as it’s a form of improv in it’s own right. Painting in a more or less realistic style, Hawk starts with the basic building blocks of our world and elevates them in combination to a to a higher, often absurd, level. (For some reason my computer wants to change “improv” to “improve” every time. And that’s kind of what surrealism is, an improvement on reality, an uber-reality where the meaning that’s been locked away in the collective unconscious of humanity is allowed to shine through.) There’s usually a healthy—albeit generally subtle--dose of playfully ironic humor in Hawk’s paintings as well.
On display are paintings from both an earlier and a more recent period. In the former, similar to 
many paintings scattered about the hotel, Hawk demonstrates that one of his main talents is to capture the essential humanity of his characters in their facial expressions—no matter how seemingly grotesque they appear at first glance. In one of my favorite, “The Yellow House in the Outskirts of Town,” a medieval peasant and his wife stand before their dwelling, a glow of pride enlivening the peasants features. But then one notices that the house is oddly colored and inexplicably warped in construction, unlike the surrounding buildings. Why should the man—or perhaps he’s a gnome or some other enchanted being--be proud of such shoddy workmanship? It isn’t until one considers the weird mien of the wife it is intended to shelter that one realizes the perverse practicality—strangely apropos in this magically- tweaked reflection of our own world--of structure’s design.
The new paintings evoke a mystery world of the imagination. The characters are more realistic than those from the earlier work, but now strangely aloof, giving us instead of their outward persona a deeper glimpse into the inner reaches of their intellect and imagination. These paintings and more cerebral—each includes a literary or artistic joke—-but quieter, more contemplative, and somehow spookier. In my favorite, “August Strindberg Combating his Third Eye,” the writer, in a black frock coat, stands with eyes crossed to the side of a green, pink and blue fantasy landscape that seems to have arisen—perhaps against his will--from the haunted depths of his 
unconscious mind. In a similarly-themed painting, “ The Sigh of Edvard Munch,” the painter, also in black frock coat, guides us into his own mind, now quiescent before a lake—perhaps in the crater of an extinct volcano--at twilight, the last vestiges of the day’s troubles sinking with the hot sun, now a scant red sliver on the jagged rim of the horizon.
These landscapes remind me of the black light posters that I hung on my bedroom walls as a kid—I had one of lost city of Shangri-La--or perhaps of the covers of Yes albums. Back in those days, the 70s, I would light incense, smoke a few hits of reefer, put on a Pink Floyd album, and lie in my bed and stare at these posters for hours. Not that Hawk’s paintings really resemble these posters—which were no great shakes artistically--but it’s just the strangely comforting feeling of nostalgia that Hawk’s landscapes evoke. His paintings take me back not only to my youth, but to a time when the earth was new. His landscapes evoke a primal vibe, as if the surface crust of the present earth were scraped away to reveal an ancient layer--now reborn, fresh and ready to sprout new life. There’s that sort of effervescent intellectual excitement to them.
So get on down to The Pit. Debbie and I have been to several shows there over the years, and though they’re decidedly a mixed bag, they have always been funny and entertaining. (The one I remember best was when we saw our friend Hayden and her sister Ashley perform in a “Hee Huh?” skit, a hilarious parody of Hee Haw.) And The lobby is a comfortable, relaxing place for people to have a beer and view the art while they wait for the show to start. Hawk’s show runs through the month at The Pit on 154 West 29th Street. Also, he will be exhibiting 7 paintings in Charlottesville, VA for the month of June at Gallery Chelseaville, curated by Lulu Selby. And, for you movie goers, Hawk will have two paintings featured in the upcoming film OCEAN'S 13 (premieres June 8) "Adam and Eve Still in Search of the Holy Snail" and "End of Thyme". -- Ed Hamilton
(Photo: Hawk's painting, "Adam and Eve Still in Search of the Holy Snail")
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