Artist as Curator

“Slow Glass” at Lisa Cooley Fine Art (curated by Františka and Tim Gilman-Ševcík), through August 3

Co-curated by Františka and Tim Gilman-Ševcík, Brooklyn-based artists and writers, “Slow Glass” (the title a sci-fi reference, fittingly) manages to be thoughtful and spare without seeming austere. Indeed, this inspired show, which is almost entirely made up of text-based work, has an appealing lightness that’s just right for summer, perhaps due to works such as Lizzie Hughes’s artist book, in which she wrote a short essay recalling her youth in her native Wales, then had it translated into Welsh, which was then translated back into English, and so on until the final text, in English, bears almost no resemblance to the original. A large wall piece by Emma Kay records all of the objects listed in Freud’s "Interpretation of Dreams"; a similar piece by the same artist notes all of the objects named in the bible. (The section for the New Testament begins “Gold, Frankincense, Myrrh.”) But the show’s crowning object is Heather Rowe’s elegant sculpture. Hanging from the ceiling, a series of painted wooden frames curves languidly through the gallery, with shades of blue flashing from mirrors positioned above.

At left: Heather Rowe, "The Space Above the Ceiling" (2008)

Courtesy Lisa Cooley Fine Art