Review: Stephanie Dean/Flatfile Galleries

stephaniedean_crab_lr RECOMMENDED

In her extra-wry postmodern photographic send-up of the classical Dutch still-life painting–redolent with detailed depictions of comestibles sufficient to satiate any gourmand–Stephanie Dean displays for our delectation contemporary treats, such as tomatoes bearing their identification stickers, cheese bars coated with wax sporting their nutritional information labels, and plastic tubs stuffed with hydroponic lettuce. At a distance, the images do not betray their ubiquitous signs of commerce and are simply intriguing and extravagant arrangements of food, but get a little closer and the vestiges of the supermarket aisle are all that you will be able to see, and you are guaranteed to crack a smile, if not break into a chuckle. Dean’s images are neither ads nor beauty studies; they are pure play spiced with generous sprinkles of biting irony. (Michael Weinstein)

Through March 27 at Flatfile Galleries, 217 N. Carpenter

Alone Now: A Review of Aria Dean "Abattoir, USA!" at Renaissance Society The conceptual currents of "Abattoir, USA!," which explores the architecture and conflicted cultural resonances of the slaughterhouse, are thick.
Repurposing AI: A Review of Stephanie Dinkins at Stamps Gallery While this show is timely for everyone, I consider its setting within a university art gallery and emerging tech hub like the city of Ann Arbor a subversive provocation which Dinkins invites the greater public—including members of the university community—to consider our own positionality to AI and technology.
Abstract Painting With a Passion for Controlled Violence: A Review of Stanley Dean Edwards at Oliva Gallery It’s controlled violence, where every canvas, like every play from scrimmage, exhibits extraordinary athleticism and improvisation.
60wrd/min COVID Edition: stephanie mei huang, Lexa Walsh, Dan Nelson, Beatriz Guzman Velasquez, KT Duffy and María Luisa Sanín Peña Art critic Lori Waxman adapts her 60wrd/min project to review work by artists whose practice has been affected by the pandemic.
Ways of Knowing: A Review of Earthly Observatory at SAIC Galleries By highlighting artists deeply involved in research-intensive or embodied practices, the exhibition forces us to question what we know, or think we know, about our environments.
Symbols of Hope: Artists Turn Their Homes Into Galleries with Art-in-Place The organizers asked participants to turn their homes into makeshift galleries as a way to connect artists and their communities in the wake of COVID-19.

Related Stories