More than video, photography, or any other medium, Matthieu Laurette’s favored mode of appearance is, precisely, the appearance. This tautology says a good deal about his art of endless refraction, a self-reflective oeuvre that nevertheless takes on, perhaps not the lowest forms, but in any case the least reputable ones in the realm of television and media, from talk shows to celebrity gossip. It’s not surprising to have seen his appearance—excuse me, exhibition—at Yvon Lambert open with some man-in-the-street interviews: Made with a team from NOATV, the local cable access network in New Orleans,

With all due respect to the artist, the first thing that came to my mind—once the visual and emotional shock of his monumental two-part photo installation “Louvre et Chaussée d’Antin” subsided—was a one-line joke: “What’s the difference between a tailor and a psychoanalyst? One generation.” For the visitor, Patrick Faigenbaum’s artistic variation on the generic saga of the Eastern European Jewish immigrant began with “Palmarès,” 2004, a mosaic of the ten large-format color photos disposed along the wall opposite the entrance to the vast workshoplike space that the Louvre has recently devoted to