In pop-psych color theory, yellow signifies warmth, happiness, intellect, and energy. For his recent exhibition “The Yellow Spectrum,” Keegan McHargue painted the entire gallery floor a sunny shade of that color, bathing the room in a golden glow. It was a visually audacious act that had the effect of turning the space into a charged stage for ten paintings suffused in and related to the same luminous vibes. The retinal impact of the color had an undeniably positive physiological effect on the paintings’ viewers, who seemed to thrive in the setting. One couldn’t help but wonder, however, how

For the past decade, Ulrike Palmbach has been making her own versions of familiar objects, employing, unexpected materials—using surplus army blankets, for instance, to construct a drooping stack of storage crates. She has also used blankets to make woolen telephones (the old-fashioned desk model) and cozy-looking cartons for milk and eggs. These handmade interpretations of machine-made products immediately evoke Claes Oldenburg’s soft sculptures, while other transformations—a loaf of bread carved out of wood and “sliced” with a saw, or a tabletop littered with wooden apple cores—puckishly