Detail from Robert Sestok’s show, “Static.”

On Saturday, October 5th, during the Hamtramck Neighborhood Arts Festival, renowned sculptor and painter Robert Sestok had an opening of new work at Cave gallery in the Russell Industrial Center. The show, “Static,” featured all new paintings in a continuation of the pure black-and-white motif that featured heavily in his 2D show, “Verses,” which opened in November of last year.

The crowd on hand at the “Static” opening.

While a great deal of “Verses” was figurative, Sestok’s new pieces have simplified the original impetus even more, rendering medium-to-large canvases entirely in black-and-white cross-hatching, creating a visual field that resembles television static, for which the show is perhaps eponymously named. Another possible interpretation of “Static” is the stasis of landscape imagery, as many of the titles to the large works invoke specific images, such as, “Pond, Boat on Pond,” and “Meadow, View of the Meadow.”

Though not strictly figurative, Sestok’s titles call out literal imagery.

As one person on hand at the gallery commented, the whole concept of black-and-white static is fast becoming a fuzzy memory from our technology graveyard, but Sestok’s imagery feels contemporary and on point, the fruits borne from a long career spent honing in on an expressive style with little left to waste. Besides the large painted canvases, there were several walls of ink on paper sketches, rendered in a similar cross-hatch style. Much like the paintings, most appeared to represent little more than a chaotic visual field, but on further appraisal, shapes and images seem to emerge from the noise.

Detail from a wall of various drawings.

Notoriously laid-back in his presence, Sestok was on hand for the opening, but seemed content, having provided the material, to leave visitors to draw their own conclusions.

Artist Robert Sestok (center left).

“Static” will be viewable by appointment only at Cave, 1600 Clay St., Bldg 4, 3rd Fl., Detroit; 248-909-2452; www.cavedetroit.com.