There’s something subtly haunting about Garrett Pruter’s stunning photography-based paintings, which are currently on view in the new “Traces” exhibition at Judith Charles Gallery in downtown Manhattan. Using a highly conceptual, yet still visceral process—he removes the pigment from photographs, many of which he acquired on his recent travels throughout Europe, turning it into paint he then applies to his canvases—the young New York-based artist confronts the slippery nature of memory, and what it means to lose something in an era where everything can be documented for posterity. Through the painstaking process of adding and subtracting layers to his intricate pieces, he’s created an elegiac palimpsest for half-remembered moments that slip just out of reach. “Traces” runs until April 26 at Judith Charles Gallery, 196 Bowery at Spring Street.
