The future’s so bright

It’s always a pleasant surprise to walk into a coffeehouse and have a painting stop you cold. Usually, the art one sees in coffeehouses is secondary to the other business at hand. Often, the work comes from people fresh out of high school or just beginning college, and it usually shows; the art just needs more development, more time. This is the case with paintings by Andrew Peuler, now on display at the True Love Coffeehouse, but there is a difference between this show and others like it: The paintings are arresting. Peuler, fresh out of high school and hitting the streets for a show before he heads off to art school, has an edge. His paintings are ambitious compositions with sophisticated color relationships—an enormous image of shoes walking toward the viewer at eye level comes to mind—that set him apart. Aside from minor technical weaknesses that will be overcome by experience, Peular’s future looks bright.