picks October 10, 2003

Sava Sekulic

Croatian-born Serb Sava Sekulic (1902–89) brought a steadfast faith in humanity and nature to bear on his art, despite a life marred by war and privation. The paintings and drawings on view here are characterized by a forthright, piercing gaze that is both spiritual and earthly. The Shepherd, 1981, a portrait of a goatherd and two of his charges, is a thematic analogue to the redemptive, nature-oriented paintings of Franz Marc. The bodies of all three figures are rendered as a single rectangle from which three heads emerge, each wearing the same alert expression. The elegant geometry uniting

picks September 11, 2003

Danica Phelps

In her current show at LFL, Danica Phelps lays bare her personal economy with illustrations, detailed lists of her activities, and rudimentary charts that track expenses and income. Phelps has previously used similar means to explore the economics of daily living and of artmaking and -collecting. But now a fresh variable—namely, her girlfriend, Debi—has entered her equations, and she has turned her attention, as per this show’s title, to “Integrating Sex into Everyday Life.” She is living in the gallery space with her girlfriend for a month: Amid futon, hot plate, desk, and houseplants,

picks September 04, 2003

Andreï Molodkin

In his first New York solo show, Russian artist Andreï Molodkin puts blue ballpoint Bics to linen, bringing his humble instrument of choice to bear on the iconic pictogram that appears, most famously, in the “I [HEART] NY” design: In this and other phrases, he replaces the symbol of love with a skull and crossbones. Wielding his pen alternately as a drawing tool and as a brush, Molodkin creates layered fields of blue edged with looped markings and swarms of scribbles. His capital letters, formed out of white negative space and with proportional markings lightly diagrammed inside, have the stately

Nicole Rudick