By Richard Hertz

It was wonderful to go through Mark Strickland's exhibition yesterday and to see his extensive body of work at the Shumei Hall Gallery at 2430 E. Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena, California.

In all of his work, he brings together astonishing agility and virtuosity along with fierce passion and physicality. I love his pen and ink and charcoal drawings. With the simplest of means, he evokes sensuality and loneliness. The human body becomes a window for beauty as well as for anxiety and determination.

The portrait of his father is a powerful testament to his intelligence and strength, now faded by physical infirmities. The painting draws us into the drama of the last days of a proud and capricious individual. I was very taken with the portrait of "Sara's aura". It is striking the way he uses such bold, physical gestures to define her face.

The yellows and oranges of some of his recent canvases can be seen as an optimistic ray of hope amidst the wars, homelessness and sufferings of the contemporary world.

Thank you Mark Strickland for the audacious and remarkable visual worlds You create; they provoke the viewer to become more mindful and humane in a tumultuous era.