On the face of things, the subject matter encountered in Duncan Simcoe’s current Night Visions exhibition at Westmont’s Ridley-Tree Museum of Art is seemingly commonplace. He presents scenes from the suburbia he knew growing up in Orange County, deals with implements of travel as iconography — which he calls “means of conveyance” — observations on a famous plane crash and racist violence, and a loosely spun dalliance with rock & roll.
But behind and around these commonplace realms and objects, mysteries and questions lurk. Not for nothing is one strong series in the show dubbed “Mythinburbia.” Mysticism visits the ‘burbs: There goes the neighborhood.
The artist’s unique means — painting/drawing on tar paper — and artistic messaging grow ever-denser on closer scrutiny. Scrutiny and contemplation are necessary tools for the job of appreciating Simcoe’s art.