The Brooklyn Rail
Critical Perspectives on Art, Politics and Culture
May 2005
ArtSeen
Edge of Desire
by Ben La RoccoArtSeen
The first major exhibition of contemporary Indian art in the United States is currently taking place at the Asia Society and the Queens Museum. It is entitled Edge of Desire and is composed of five sections—Location/Longing, Unruly Visions, Transient Self, Contested Terrain, and Recycled Futures—each intended to address another aspect of Indian art and the changing culture that produces it.
Magnus von Plessen
by Roger WhiteArtSeen
Magnus von Plessen, a German artist exhibiting for the first time in a New York gallery, paints representational paintings about representation. It’s an occupation fraught with philosophical difficulties, like trying to think about yourself thinking.
Scott Lewis and the Art of the Vibrantly Desperate
by Gary WinterArtSeen
Hank’s blue and green face, lined like crisscrossing rail lines, hangs over his booze (“Hank,” 1997). His tears appear to be skin literally dripping off his face into his clutched hands.
Angela Strassheim
by Thomas MicchelliArtSeen
Political art, it goes without saying, is oppositional art. But the exhibition Left Behind, Angela Strassheim’s series of large-scale C-prints at Marvelli Gallery, deals with a hot-button topic, the Christian right, without attempting to reassure its likely audience of its own enlightenment.
William Bailey
by Tomassio LonghiArtSeen
William Bailey is a curious painter. His work might be seen as a bridge, at least in the tradition of figurative painting, between the old and the modern masters.
Eric Fischl: Total Artwork or Just a Few Paintings?
by Francis RavenArtSeen
The most recent exhibition of Eric Fischl, virtuoso painter of suburban anomie, should make viewers question the status of painting.
Nicola López
by Roger KamholzArtSeen
Like gaunt, filmy stalactites, bunches of cutout prints depicting heavy-duty electrical cable issue from pipes and vents along the heating ducts that cling to the ceiling.
Travel Agents
by William PowhidaArtSeen
Eric Heist’s latest solo show at Schroeder Romero is an ambitious critique of Western military and economic hegemony through the theoretical languages of montage and appropriation.
Harriet Shor
by Hrag VartanianArtSeen
Harriet Shorr’s new exhibit is filled with difficult images. They mark a new direction for Shorr, who is known for her more straightforward still lifes. Here, she has attempted radically new works that wrestle with allegory in the guise of porcelain figurines, textiles, flowers, branches and reflective surfaces.
Out of Bounds
by Ben La RoccoArtSeen
At sunset in the Bronx in the gardens of Wave Hill, the light slants through the open windows and doors at Glyndor House. From inside, the smell of fruit trees in bloom seems to press in from all directions.
Max Ernst: A Retrospective
by Valery OisteanuArtSeen
The master is back. This major retrospective of Max Ernst (1891–1976) is a triumph, the first such gathering of works in 30 years and probably the best yet. Here are 175 works: collages, paintings, sculptures, Dada books, and memorabilia from private collectors, museums, and galleries around the world.
