Amadea Bailey’s Expressions currently exhibiting at Fabrik Projects brings forth a more sanguine effort at the pioneering stylistic work of Basquiat. The latter artist preferred to drench his canvases in darkness; purely for contrasting purposes no doubt, but it perennially leaves one ruminating on a shadowy expressiveness which matches the artists own tormented temperament. Nevertheless, his uncanny aims have helped to advance the fine arts, particularly in the introduction of his, what I would describe, “crayola energy”.

Where Ms. Bailey finds differentiation is in her luminosity and abstractions while maintaining the equivalently childish spirit as Basquiat. There is, in other words, more life affirmation in her copiously subtle expressions of the everyday life. And this is predominately consistently exercised in her choice of reddish hues which offset any interpretations of anxiety which we might find more explicitly in Basquiat.

Ms. Bailey, then, is painting akin to a young girl’s comfort with abstract elements, while still holding onto an idyllic world. It is quite the balance she is successful in accomplishing. A quintessential example is her Urban Chick. Coated in shades of blue to provide a sense of placidity, one can’t help but see this as an elementary school grade arts-and-crafts effort, but in the most complementary way. It is that innocent, or rather pure, imagination that sprawls the work with happiness, and an elegant affirmation lettered Yesto make cognizant to the subject the goodness of ideals, of imagining the joys of what the future in the city will bring. This, then, brings forward an affirmation of life through the affirmation of dreaming, something Basquiat’s maelstroms fail to materialize, and thus makes Ms. Bailey’s efforts a proper advancement in the arts rather than an improper derivative.