2025 Reviews

Composed of several series that are grouped thematically, Seiko Tachibana’s exhibition reads as a contemporary Wünderkammer — a cabinet of wonders — in which individual works function both autonomously and as parts of a larger system of interrelationships.

Six paintings by Simone Simon transmutes images of deep consciousness into radiant atmospheric abstractions. Simon brings a self-imposed set of formal conditions to each work — two colored forms, mingling, mutating, and slow dancing together.

Diane Ding’s, “A Cultural Platter,” and John Toki’s “Earthscapes” demonstrates a shared devotion to craft, love of family and compassion for artistic communities beyond national borders.

There is something amiss in Sono Osato’s modestly scaled images of floating clock parts. There is also more than meets the eye here, having to do with the elusive balance between conjunction and disjunction.

Shahzia Sikander’s numerous recurring devices, such as a female figure with looping “tentacles,” express the way women have been forced to carry their culture and its stories internally through unpredictable circumstances and dislocations.

Lucy Williams makes a convincing case for the Modernist style of architecture with her hybrid collages/bas-reliefs of mid-century architecture. She depicts the buildings as untouched by neglect or the wrecker’s ball.

L. Song Wu’s “Feast” takes its inspiration from South Korean Mukbang videos to reflect upon banal but disconcerting appetites of modern women with food/ Her dining portraits and life size ceramic food sculptures raise larger questions about the gaze and agency.

Lenka Clayton uses a 1957 Smith-Corona typewriter as the tool for creating illustrations on paper and fabric. But make no mistake, her medium is language itself. Some of the drawings are more hieroglyphic than others, where Clayton opts for explicit trompe l’oeil effects.

Jim Melchert worked between the ceramic and conceptual idioms. He was a knowledgeable craftsman unburdened by the past and an intellectual who also liked working with his hands.

Philemona Williamson’s slightly crowded, sometimes claustrophobic paintings depict Black children and adolescents in ambiguous social situations. None of them smile; all are portrayed in various states of distress.