“Furniere der Schatz” (Veneer the treasure): like all Peter Bömmels’ exhibitions, this one focused on the content of the works. On display were 40 small works (all 1989) painted on fine, frail veneer leaves, that were divided into ten sections, each with a mock-serious title. Here, Bömmels uses real, not mythical subjects, that refer to functions, differences, and problems of gender, belief, art, and politics. Humor runs as a current through many of the works, as, for example, in Künstler transzendiert Zebrastreifen (Artist transcends zebra crossing). Bömmels is an artistic autodidact with

Upon seeing these works by the Russian artist Vadim Zakharov, the viewer’s initial response may be bewilderment. What do they mean, these six adjacently hung paintings (all works, 1989), which are rendered in a near-uniform gray, with a single vertical line in the left half of each canvas? Why are those tiny wads of scrunched-up paper squeezed in between the individual pieces near the top? And why is the wad missing between the last two pictures? This series of paintings has a cold, almost sterile quality, yet it arouses our curiosity. We would like to know more about these works, about their