A Game for the Living

Dunes presents A Game for the Living, an ecliptic pairing of ceramics by Jared Buckhiester and oil paintings from Peter Shear. The artists first met eleven years ago, during four weeks of making art on Lake Michigan. The show takes its title from a crime novel of existential anguish by Patricia Highsmith, a whodunnit about two male artist friends with many questions. Answers elude and structure falls to pieces amid so much inquiry. Jared Buckhiester's six ceramic figures are suggestive artefacts with a tight grip on desire. Timeless narrative fantasies embody an imaginary both refined and coarse. A scriptorial cosmos emerges in Peter Shear's twelve oil paintings: a framing of lines mouthed in the wings, occasionally vocal. Buoyant frequencies resonate as dynamic cues. — Charity Coleman