Emily Sundblad

A plastic-wrapped rib-eye steak lay in the center of House of Gaga’s tile floor. Surrounding it were fifteen small illustrations hung on the gallery’s walls depicting captive beasts—big cats, apes, snakes, and so on—that artist (and cofounder of New York’s Reena Spaulings Fine Art) Emily Sundblad sketched from life on the grounds of the Santa Barbara Zoo. The drawings, each rendered in Yves Saint Laurent eyeliner on paper and mounted on leather, pleather, or mat board, were all protectively framed; a few were adorned with a piece of lace, a double reference to femininity—and animal netting.

Collectively, these trappings underscored the themes of domestication—or, more precisely, the allure and possible pitfalls of bourgeois domesticity—that ran through “Black Is the New Orange,” Sundblad’s second solo show at the gallery. Furthering this conceit, a white

— Adam Kleinman