Luhring Augustine gallery’s Bushwick location is a destination. An artistic mansion in the realm of the neighborhood’s many creative shacks, it provides a site for contemplation, which is why the exhibitions on view at this outpost do not usually invite a quick read. Tom Friedman’s second solo show (through August 9) with the gallery is no exception. A sublime display of mostly monochromatic works made with paint and Styrofoam that simulate paintings in a variety of genres and styles, along with a selection of everyday objects rendered downright realistically, the 15 works here have the power to capture the spectator’s eye, imagination, and sustained attention.
The first work on view, Mountain (all works 2014), depicts an all-white landscape with a rocky terrain below and snow-filled sky above. The frame, dimensional peaks, and larger-than-life snowflakes have all been convincingly carved from blue Styrofoam and flatly painted white. Blue Styrofoam Seascape is a faux-framed view of an evenly split horizon of sea and sky rendered in the deadpan manner of a black-and-white Hiroshi Sugimoto photograph, while the canvas-like Night slyly mimics the elevated brushwork and scene of Van Gogh’s Starry Night in nocturnal black.
Toxic Green Luscious Green and Blue ape Pop Art paintings with found objects attached to the surface, but in Friedman’s mock canvases, everything from locks and guns to pretzels and puzzle pieces are cut and shaped in Styrofoam and painted in matching colors. Even though the artist refers to the wall works as “sculptures of paintings,” other pieces in the show are fully three-dimensional. The elongated Purple Balloon, suspended from the ceiling by clear fishing line, enchantingly floats in space not far from a corner installation entitled Moot—a fake guitar, microphone, and stool that await a performer. Echoing the silence that permeates the show, Moot lies directly across from See, an ersatz eyeball placed in the opposite corner to smartly remind viewers that there’s more to this show than what meets the eye.
A version of this article appears in the October 2014 issue of Modern Painters magazine.
