Globe and Mail / Jul. 16, 2010
Costa Dvorezky at Engine Gallery

I stumbled on Costa Dvorezky's luscious paintings entirely by accident, but you still have a couple of days to wallow in his fleshy, radiant works.

Dvorezky paints the human body, in all its lumpy glory, as if he were painting wobbly pillars of marble; forms made of muscle and fat and gloriously imperfect, blood-rich skin. While the models are non-traditional (yes, I mean fat - deal with it), there is no hint of the grotesque, no sense that Dvorezky is mocking his subjects.

If anything, it's the opposite - Dvorezky applies paint with loving vigour. His surfaces alternate between a matte, foundation-powder softness and a wet, fresh-from-the-bath shimmer.

This constant dialogue between milky and oily gives the works a decidedly sexy decadence - the visual equivalent of resting on a satin pillow that's been moistened with rich, sticky perfumes.