For a reminder of what limited-edition fine press publishing looked like in the pre-digital age, two major shows offer a lively, literary display.
Archives for June 2011
Jim Melchert @ Gallery Paule Anglim
Smashing and reassembling porcelain tiles, the artist demonstrates, in the most literal way possible, the old “truth-to-materials” credo.
Tony Berlant @ Brian Gross
For more than 50 years, he’s transformed found and fabricated pieces of tin into “paintings” that annex large tracts of art history. Now, Berlant raises the stakes on the game he invented.
Mark Emerson & Penny Olson @ JAYJAY
Emerson merges geometric abstraction with Op; Olson probes the microscopic essences of plants.
Tucker Nichols @ Gallery 16
With elegant, awkwardly humorous forms, Nichols reinvents the poetics of visual understatement in a moment when shrill and abundant plenitude characterize the visual arts.
Shahzia Sikander @ SFAI
Sikander’s densely layered compositions and videos, rooted in contrast and incongruity, subvert the notion of a singular, fixed identity, bearing witness to a fast-shifting world.