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