Amsterdam News, December 31, 2009

TWO HOLIDAY TREATS AT TRIPLE CANDIE

By Damaso Reyes

Art shows can be like Christmas presents: Sometimes they come in big packages with shiny wrapping, and other times they come in small boes with little decoration. Triple Candie, one of Harlem's most innovative galleries, has taken the later approach with two new shows now on display: "Case Study: Eye World" and "Lewis Baltz' Picturesque," both on display through January 17.

The two shows are a bit yin and yang. The group of photographs by Lewis Baltz were taken in the 1970s in Irvine California and are small, black-and-white images directly applied to the wall of the gallery. In typical Triple Candie style, there is little reverence for the art object but a great deal of attention is paid to the content of the images. Rather than give each image breathing room, the photographs are quite cose together, displayed in a grid-like format nearly on top of one another. In the displace case below the images small architectural type models are presented. The photographs, which focus on a great deal on the geometry of the spaces and buildings which they document, raise far more questions than they answer.

In Case Study: Eye World, curated by Emily Cheng and Michelle Loh, the large display case in the rear of the gallery has been colonized by dozens of different artists, each one inhabiting a different drawer. There is a hug range of the work displayed, from photographs to drawings to mini sculpture and everyday objects repurposed into art. Each drawer is a bit of a treasure hunt and the experience of this show is completely up to the viewer. Some will only look at the case and never know the treasurers that lay within the drawers; others will spend hours opening each of the 72 drawers in search of something grand or banal. It is an interesting way to go about presenting art and a refreshingly low-tech approach to the idea of interactivity.

It's always fun to see what is going on up at Triple Candie and even more fun to be surprised at what you find.

The two shows are on display through January 17 at Triple Candie, located at 500 West 148th Street, in Manhattan. The gallery is open Thursday - Sunday, 1-6 pm. You can reach Triple Candie at www.triplecandie.org or call (212) 368-3333.