The eight definitions of the word drift, listed in Merriam Websters, almost serendipitously describe Justin Edward Moore’s exhibition ‘Drift’ at At Peace gallery. Three moderately sized epoxy panels assemble flat works from 1991 to 2005. Resembling trilobites encased in prehistoric sap these respective drawings, writings and photographs though joined materially, span disparate media, subject matter and time. A piece of paper affected with the stains of age reads FREE TIMES in all capital letters. Clusters of heavy figures rendered in charcoal recall American Realism of the 1920’s and 30’s. Their meticulously crafted strong and stonelike bodies are as physical and permanent as the adjacent writings are ephemeral and effortless. A calligraphic and biomorphic abstract exercise in the logic of patterns, resembling a block print, rests in compact solitude under a foxing piece of paper, so aged, all that remains legible is its muted mood. An oil pastel drawing Moore made as a child in 1991 pierces through the otherwise tan, black and white palette of the exhibition. It depicts a face grided and split down the middle. This collection, as a work of art, is an open celebration of life that Moore invites us all to. Moore’s real kindness is unmissable, across this vast array of these works, in that his sensitivity is always apparent and even paramount.
