Framed by the luminous ultra-photo-realistic watercolors of Bill Frederick and the passionate expressionistic portrait paintings of Paul Berlanga, the three photographers in this show featuring works by the gallery’s staff relentlessly pursue the vernacular in nearly offhand ways that nonetheless yield an emotional charge. Shooting in color through window panes, Michael Welch captures brightly illuminated interiors, like a Christmas tree in a bare room, that are suffused with psychological distance and its attendant pathos. Lucas Zenk’s small black-and-white roadside shots and informal portraits seem unassuming at first, yet pack a punch with a closer look; a statue of the Virgin Mary presides over a junk-filled yard. Adam Holtzman’s black-and-white “Absence” series offers studies of the sparest of spaces; an isolated refrigerator glows eerily in the shadows in a lonely room. All three emphasize the ruthless objectivity of photography to pierce us with poignancy. (Michael Weinstein)
