RECOMMENDED Watercolor is an antediluvian tradition; from prehistoric France, to ancient Japan, all the way through the Middle Ages in Europe, artists have been mixing pigment and water to reproduce the world around them on many different types of canvases. Fortunately, the material with which Chicago-born, LA-based artist Joe Sola was working on is much different than that of the caverns beneath Lascaux, meaning the ten paintings are displayed with ease on the white walls of the Bucket Rider Gallery. With backdrops that should be recognizable to every American, Sola creates scenes that are both satirical and touching, allowing the soft but rich colors to provide a certain virtue to each piece. Also on exhibit with the paintings is a video called “Watercolor,” co-created with playwright Will Eno of Thom Pain (based on nothing) fame. While enjoyable, the film doesn’t seem to capture the absurdity of every day life with the same power of a punch line that Sola accomplishes so well on paper. And because Sola’s inspiration is the mundane, it perpetuates him to mix water and color in such a way that is sure to give any future historian a priceless understanding into the society we now live in today. (Philip Marino) Through November 24 at BUCKET RIDER
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