picks October 20, 2022

Thomas Demand

Thomas Demand refers to the work he’s most known for, photographs of life-size paper models depicting familiar media images—such as the control center of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant or the bathtub where German politician Uwe Barschel died—as Hauptwege, or main roads. But he’s also explored numerous Nebenwege, or side alleys. Through these forays he’s stretched his formal and conceptual engagement with the model, dissolving borders between different media, reality and fiction, the ephemeral and the permanent. Demand’s exhibition here, “House of Card”—created with artists Martin

picks May 25, 2020

Ho Tam

Western imperialism requires an ideological substrate, a web of signifiers that establishes illusions of ethnic and cultural superiority. A Canadian immigrant from Hong Kong, Ho Tam has been attuned for decades to the accompanying stereotypes permeating North American mass media, his observations on which culminated in four projects made between 1993 and 2020 that are currently on view at Paul Petro Contemporary Art.

Tam’s artist’s books, magazine, video, and set of prints are formal variations on a single theme and structure: All include twenty-six components corresponding to the English letters

picks December 12, 2019

Claire Greenshaw

Claire Greenshaw’s drawings and sculptures are riddled with holes. Along with other circular motifs—eyes, planets, bodily orifices—they open up questions about perception and representation.

At the exhibition’s entrance, two life-size bronze fingers assertively jut out from the wall in an eye-poking gesture, alerting visitors to the visual and conceptual stimulation ahead (Perception Management, all works cited 2019). Inside the gallery, a large slice of freestanding wall covered with soft swipes, streaks, and smudges of graphite stands as an ode to unmediated mark-making (Observer Effect).

picks November 12, 2019

Blue Republic

Previous exhibitions by Blue Republic, a collective based in Toronto and Krakow, have involved ephemeral drawings, sculptures, and video works that speak to transience and fragility. This more focused presentation of thirteen discrete works, incorporating photography, sculpture, and installation, enriches and expands these themes through references to the family histories of the collective’s artists (Anna Passakas and Radoslaw Kudlinski) and allusions to oppressive conditions around the globe. This weighty content is counterbalanced by the aesthetic playfulness of the artists’ use of found

Jill Glessing