“Paintings by nine lesser known WPA workers who went on to establish credible careers as fine artists are currently on view [at Phantom Gallery in Los Angeles, 1986] in an excellent exhibition that stands as a bittersweet reminder of an American Dream that comes to seem increasingly remote. Portraying the working class as possessing boundless dignity and resilience, these pictures are infused with a spirit of hope that’s sadly moving in that it seems a bit quaint today. … The majority of these artists were either born or lived in New York, and their work is rooted in a distinctly urban sensibility; we see, for instance, construction workers relaxing on the girders of a high rise in Joseph Wolins’ ‘Lunch Hour.’ Painting in a muted, lyrical style evocative of Charles Sheeler, Wolins specialized in exterior scenes: industrial ports with tugboats and towers spewing steam, a chicken market, a view of an overground subway bridge on the Bowery.”

—Kristine McKenna, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 28, 1986

photo: Joseph Wolins at Westbeth, taken by his son, John Wolins 1983