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Queens Nails Annex: Jason Jagel - Flesh of My Skin; Stella Lai - I Love My Foreigner Friends.

Comment: Stella Lai's paintings impersonate traditional Chinese art from structural and compositional perspectives, and that's where the similarities end. Lai tells me her current work is about the inexorable creep of Western culture and Western values into conventional Chinese society. According to Lai, progressive Chinese are currently engaged in everything from getting fit and losing weight to faking themselves up with funky synthetic shit like breast implants. I find Lai's presentation a perfect example of an eminently satisfying show. It's got a premise, a conclusion, a set of standout artworks to substantiate and support all contentions, and most importantly, the visual and cognitive chops to transport me-- simply, clearly, and directly-- from assumption straight on through to completion, every step along the way accounted for.

Jason Jagel's proficient gouaches, ink drawings, and sound recordings appear to be autobiographical from reading the show's choppy antecedent-riddled statement. So I'm gonna bag trying to decipher the modus and enjoy the upshot, some of which reminds me a bit of vintage George Grosz.

Art often requires progressive introductory-- transiting from elementary towards erudite-- to keep everyone in the game (which can, with skill, be whittled into a single press release or statement). Helpful artist hint #548b: Start easy; build easy. Some of us may request and require more hand holding than others, but it's only 'cuz we care enough about the art to wanna learn more about it so we can better understand and appreciate it.