Kyle Staver at Kent Fine Art

Kyle Staver, Bathers, 2016, Oil on canvas, 54 x 58"

“It's an interesting choice to take on the grand Western figurative tradition for that is what Staver is doing with courage and panache while both puncturing possible pomposity and finding new joy and invention in its language. Perhaps because grandiosity is a card historically overplayed by male painters it is largely women painters today who have been successful at breathing new life into a tradition that had seemed almost entirely moribund. Dana Schutz and Nicole Eisenman are probably the best known of these painters, and Staver belongs in the company of, and is deserving of the acclaim and recognition that these painters have achieved.”