Shout at the Devil

Michael Allen Engstrom probably didn’t sell his soul to the devil in order to create the oil paintings featured in his “CrossRoads BLUES” exhibit at @Central Gallery. However, just in case, we’re going to place him on the dark-side watch, just because the works in this show are so good...

By Steve Jansen

January 14, 2010

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Michael Allen Engstrom probably didn’t sell his soul to the devil in order to create the oil paintings featured in his “CrossRoads BLUES” exhibit at @Central Gallery. However, just in case, we’re going to place him on the dark-side watch, just because the works in this show are so good. A graduate from the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, Engstrom gives contemporary and colorful shout-outs to such early-1900s Piedmont and Delta blues musicians as John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker, and one of the era’s most infamous, Robert Johnson. (The exhibit title is a spin-off of Johnson’s tune “Cross Road Blues,” which, according to some, chronicles the musician’s venture of handing his soul to that dude down below.)

Jan. 17-March 28, 2010

Steve Jansen

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