Catharine Clark Gallery: Ellen Kooi; Lincoln Schatz - Cube.

Review by Caroline Andreolle: Lincoln Schatz creates a multi-disciplinary work, "Cube", a 10 x 10 x 10 foot architectural structure that combines architecture, sculpture, video, new media, relational aesthetics, and portraiture. The concept of the "Cube" is innovative and its presence intriguing at the entrance of the gallery. A cross section of personalities have agreed to participate and have their portraits featured in the exhibition, such as Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, but don't worry, portraits may be personally commissioned by anyone upon request.

Ellen Kooi's exhibit is a MUST SEE, her colossal prints reminiscent of children's fairy tales, creating surreal yet seamless landscapes, immersing the viewer in impossible actions. Intriguing lighting captures enigmatic instants while unusual perspectives render these dreamscapes familiar, accessible, almost palpable.

Comment by AB: First off, an excellent show on both counts; go see. Now for the rundown. The official party line on the Lincoln Schatz "Cube" is a tad turgid for my tastes, so I'm gonna distill it. Why? Cuz (1) we're talkin' about portraiture and (2) pretty much everybody likes being photographed or filmed or having their picture painted.

Lincoln Schatz constructs a metamodern translucent plexi-walled 10 x 10 x 10 foot walk-in cube in Catharine Clark's Minna gallery space. It's got 24 video cameras variously attached, positioned, and focused on the cube's interior through openings in the walls. The basic idea is you (or whomever) sit in the cube for an hour and do what you want while the 24 cameras roll. Computers then take the 24 one-hour videos the cameras shoot, and mesh select snippets into your personal "video portrait" according to software specially nuanced by Schatz-- the modus unquestionably consituting an evolutionary push on the discipline. It's that simple and no more complicated.

In Clark's Mission gallery space, Ellen Kooi's remarkable freeze-frame photographs excerpt micro-moments from strange tales. What makes 'em remarkable? Composition, lighting, action, balance, tension, flawlessness, and none of that pesky digital manipulation. She does it the old fashioned way.

So OK. I occasionally grouse about irksome artspeak blither blather, but for a reason, the reason in this particular instance being that Catharine Clark is unquestionably an art world notable, and an increasingly influential one at that. (You other art world notables might also take note.) You see, influential notables can influence people-- all kinds of people-- but only if they choose to. Yes it's dirty work, gettng down there in the hog trough (when hovering above the fray is so appealingly insular and genteel), but the way the world is fragmenting these days, attempting to unfragment it becomes increasingly urgent. Confounding people is easy; enlightening them is difficult; inciting them to action is brilliant; unifying them is utopia. Art can impact humanity in wondrous ways. All we have to do is facilitate it. (Hey-- I can dream, can't I?)