Once again Marisa Merz has managed to astonish. Her solo exhibitions are not only rare but so full of unexpected formal and intellectual turns that when a new show comes along her admirers rush to see what she’s come up with. On this occasion, as usual, a surprise was in store for those who had anticipated a grouping of small sculptures similar to those the artist recently exhibited in Paris. Merz has often turned to portraiture to animate her three-dimensional pieces, but here her interest in the theme led back to painting, that is, two-dimensional images meant to be contemplated from a single

A parody of a city: a group of ten skyscrapers, each about six feet tall—i.e., human scale—made of wood, plastic, and painted metal. They are bulky and colored like toys; neon lights invest them with an artificial splendor. The title of Patrick Tuttofuoco’s WalkAround (all works 2002) refers to both the possibility of moving around and amid the elements of the installation and the fact that the work reflects the artist’s wanderings through East Asia, particularly the high-tech centers of the region’s megalopolises, which are futuristic but also subtly permeated by an atmosphere of