CATHARINE CLARK - RECEIVER - MILLION FISHES - RARE DEVICE - 01.31.09

Catharine Clark Gallery: John Slepian - (un)natural; Jonathan Solo - Other.

Comment by AB: In the front gallery, Jonathan Solo's startlingly sensitive and telling figural graphite drawings, several with collage, investigate those uneasy psychological backwaters where fetish, sexuality, identity and gender propensities revel in unresolved anxietous ambiguity. Excellent. In the rear gallery, John Slepian makes those backlit hang-on-the-wall cheap trick waterfalls like you see in honkytonk drunk bars except he weirds 'em up with subtly incongruous appurtenances like, for instance, "life forms" from other worlds. You gotta look twice to appreciate the ruse. He also presents several video and kinetic works developed along the same lines-- exploring the unnaturally natural, naturally-- just like the show's title says. It's a go see on both counts.

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Receiver Gallery: Kyle Ranson - Joyous Marriage.

Comment by AB: Inspired by William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," Kyle Ransom generates a realm where good battles evil, chaos assails order, and paradise locks eyes with purgatory. Standing room only.

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Million Fishes: Beginners Blood.

Artists: Alexander Martinez, Ryan De La Hoz, Zach Lewis, Jesse B. Harris, Oscar Mendoza, Lauren Lester.

Comment by AB: Group show of young upstarts.

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Rare Device: Irana Douer - Hidden Treasures, New Work.

Comment by AB: Buenos Aires, Argentina artist Irana Douer heads way north for her Ess Eff solo debut. Her maverick feminine character studies beguile from passion-laced perspectives.

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