The three photographers in this early and welcome effort to position art in an age of political and economic crisis deploy postmodern moves to shift our response from superficial realism to a deeper and more nuanced awareness of distress—an inward realism. Greg Stimac appropriates shots of seedy foreclosed houses from real estate flyers, prints them as grainy as can be to make them look even more forlorn, places them in a grid, and then puts a symbolic red diamond in the middle of his composition to suggest or maybe to scoff at a possible conspiracy behind the boulevard of broken dreams. Curtis Mann appropriates photos of conflict zones, fragments them and fills in the gaps with fiery reds and yellows to produce compositions that communicate the desolating excitement and searing beauty of violent antagonism. Lazarus went down to the banks of the river on a late, leafless autumn day, lay down and wrapped himself like a mummy in a tiger blanket, and shot the scene of ultimate abject camouflage. (Michael Weinstein) Through January 24 at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, 835 W. Washington, (312)404-9188.
