Daniel Gordon
RECOMMENDED
The eleven images by seven photo-artists, working in color and black-and-white, in this decidedly modernist show, run the gamut from Sebastian Bremer’s illusionist abstraction of pulsing waves that breaks down into spiny curlicued lines on close inspection, to Daniel Gordon’s stunning surrealist image of confused dismemberment, “Blonde Wig.” In between are James Welling’s two elegant studies of etiolated flowers, Walead Beshty’s four miniature geometric studies, Barbara Kasten’s layered and filmy abstraction, Tamara Halpern’s blurred, layered and segmented abstraction with surrealist overtones, and Sara VanDerBeek’s out-front surrealist construction of a headless torso covered by a draping scroll. Extremism in the cause of art wins here with “Blonde Wig,” in which the lightly curled and flowing tousled headdress bedecks an inverted, cracked, bandaged and disfigured mask of a young woman, whose eyes shine out at us eerily and the top of whose head is resting on a man’s extended arm. None of the images here is conceptual; they have their impacts, for the abstractionists, in the play of forms of visual perception—more or less reduced to pure shape—and, for the surrealists, in the unbridled dreamlike imagination, more or less nightmarish. (Michael Weinstein)
Through May 15 at Tony Wight Gallery, 845 W. Washington
Related Stories
Here Comes the Bogeyman: A Review of Tony Lewis at Shane Campbell Gallery Lewis returns with large-scale drawings and haunting sculptures made from remnants of a previous show.
Superfly Pimp Artist: The Life and Times of Tony "Bright" Davis Davis’ pseudo-biographical illustrations depict the pimps, hustlers and prostitutes that defined his world nearly forty years ago.
Painted Fantasies: A Review of “Distortion” at Victor Armendariz Gallery This exhibition of seven artists is called “Distortion,” but don’t expect that word to come to mind when viewing this show. Perhaps the title was chosen because none of these artists paint directly from life but rather from dreams or fantasies.
Fire as Natural Balm: A Review of "Red" at Happy Gallery The show takes the almost impossibly broad theme of “red” and fashions it into a conversation on what shades our perception of the color, from passion and lust to violence and destruction.
Eruptions of Color: A Review of Pooja Pittie at McCormick Gallery Nothing is recognizably depicted, but something like a festive spectacle has been achieved with layers of colorful marks that range from orderly patterns of dots to large, dramatic brush strokes.
Fake It When You Make It: A Review of “This Is A Pipe” at Shane Campbell Gallery In the era of Fake News, is it any longer critical for art to imitate life while neglecting its beauty?
