AN ARTIST STIRS A BIG DOLLOP OF EXUBERANCE AND THE UNEXPECTED INTO HIS BOLD COLORS

by Edward M. Gómez

Earlier this year, we stopped at the art dealer Scott Ogden’s SHRINE gallery in the TriBeCa district of downtown Manhattan to drop off some books. There, we found ourselves bowled over by an explosion of unbridled color.

The artist Rob Ober’s paintings appeared to only reluctantly hug the walls, while the elements of his energetic compositions seemed eager to leap off their canvases and soar across the high-ceilinged room. If Ober’s pictures feel invigoratingly spontaneous and impulsive, it might be because the artist has no time for exercises in theory and what the painter Joan Mitchell, dismissing critical-sounding mumbo jumbo, once called "the blah blah blah."

And then there were the alligators.

We were captivated by Ober’s alligators but first we wanted to find out about their maker.