Cool Hunting

Featuring work by artists who are "altering materials and repurposing objects that prompt viewers to investigate the act of looking and perceiving," the unifying theme behind the impending group exhibition "Deviate" may be a little broad but it makes for a show that speaks to CH's penchant for the obsessively subversive.

The nine artists represented take a largely conceptual approach using a diverse collection of materials and media. Ariana Page Russell, for example, uses her skin as a canvas. Afflicted with the rare disorder dermatographia, any scratch or pressure on her skin results in a raised red welt lasting about thirty minutes. She documents the resulting "tattoos" as a series of photographs (pictured at right).

Jim Dingilian uses a different, but no more conventional, material: smoke. Coating the inside of bottles, he creates pedestrian scenes like parking lots and shopping centers that gain a certain validity from their often-discarded medium.

As part of her "Projects" series, photographer Nikki S. Lee fully infiltrates cultures and ethnic groups other than her own. A study of identity and social behavior, the resulting images of Lee within her adopted groups explore the far reaches of the artist's life-as-theater philosophy.

Other featured artists include Ivin Ballen, Sebastiaan Bremer, Richard Klein, Devorah Sperber, Richard Thatcher and Brian Dettmer, whose surgically dissected books have already graced our site. Schroeder Romero's Small Gallery will also feature Lordan Bunch's 10-painting study of Saint Bernadette.

Devitate
Opening Reception: 22 May 2009, 6-8pm
22 May-27 June 2009
Schroeder Romero
637 West 27th Street
New York, NY map
tel. +1 212 630 0722