By Mary Voelz Chandler
Rocky Mountain News

March 17 , 2006

"Let's give Santa Fe Drive this: If you want to judge an arts district by the number of venues, this one wins for critical mass.

Still, the stretch between West Fifth Avenue and West 10th Avenue is one of Denver's more chameleonlike destinations, still finding itself in terms of the work on view. From high-quality to experimental, from really, really earnest to eminently forgettable, the art spaces on Santa Fe attract mob-status crowds at opening receptions and a buzz on a social level, at least.

But the breadth of Santa Fe Drive has provided a lot of opportunities over the past couple of years, as people with their heart set on owning a gallery have taken the plunge. And it has provided venues that add overall wall space to the region, allowing for some unexpected exhibitions..."

"...Work by another veteran artist, Frank Sampson, who retired in 1990 after nearly 40 years of teaching at the University of Colorado, fills the nearby Sandy Carson Gallery. Long-time dealer and gallerist Carson has been located there for about five years, after creating a solid presence in lower downtown when that neighborhood had the critical mass for galleries.

For several years, Sampson's work has involved the fantastic and metaphorical aspects of storytelling, and "Frank Sampson: Recent Paintings" is in that vein. Through almost 20 paintings, Sampson again presents a vision that is at once unsettling and satisfying, the type of image that could easily illustrate a children's book rooted in both a fertile imagination and the dark side of the psyche.

In several pieces, men serve animals at table (these spiritually charged works turn the comfy concept of the genre painting on its ear). In others, Sampson becomes the remote, symbolic conductor of odd little processions of people and animals as they make their way through clearings in a forest, or perform by the sea. And he takes on the issue of "voyage," in its many meanings, as he has in other shows. In the case of Midnight Arrival, it involves two men (apparently twins, or the two sides of one man) in a small boat; a jester is at the helm, and a cat by the side of one man. All works are beautifully rendered in a layered style that seems to shimmer.

That cat is all over the place in this show, a mysterious figure that recalls Sampson's youth on a farm followed by opportunities to study work in Europe by the masters of fantasy, Breughel and Bosch. In one painting in this show, the first artist earns a mention, as Sampson's Around the Table (Breughel) portrays a meal-time melee, with chairs and bodies flying around the room.

With regular exhibitions at Carson - and the still-clear memory of a huge retrospective at the Arvada Center three years ago - Sampson continues to demonstrate his skill at creating atmospheric paintings that explore a narrative as mysterious as life itself..."