ROY DOWELL | BY ROBERTA SMITH

CRITIC'S NOTE FOR ROY DOWELL'S EXHIBITION AT MILES MCENERY GALLERY

Evidence to the Contrary is on view from 10 September to 31 October 2026 at 520 West 21st Street

In a time of extensive public art, large-scale this and immersive that, it’s nice to be reminded of the power of intimately scaled art — which I define as anything one person can take home in a cab or, if you must, an Uber. Case in point: Roy Dowell’s @roy.dowell small erudite, mysteriously affecting paintings at @miles.mcenery.gallery on W. 21 through Sat. If you let them, they quietly range through numerous cultures, techniques and especially pictorial traditions – old prints and maps, batik, collages, playing cards, game boards, scarification and tattoos. They can be dizzying, distinctively the work of one person yet curiously devoid of ego. With luck, we are beyond the moment of disparaging art objects of co-called “passive contemplation.” The thoughtful, mysterious richness of Dowell’s efforts argue that contemplation of any sort is only as passive as you make it – or don’t.

Roberta Smith —