“Substraction,” curated by Nicola Vassell. Deitch Projects, New York, NY. Through May 24. Artist include Kristin Baker, Dan Colen, Rosson Crow, Elizabeth Neel, Sterling Ruby, Aaron Young. Roberta Smith: “The idea is that the artists in this show fuse the scale, painterliness and frequent performance aspects of postwar abstraction with the grittiness of contemporary street and graffiti art, which this gallery is known to favor. (Nothing like expanding the brand with a bit of halcyon-days history.) The exhibition has been organized by Nicola Vassell, the gallery�s director, and it has a lively veneer that is greatly enhanced by the gallery�s recent white-on-white refurbishment. But it really pays only lip service to the idea.”
“Dieter Roth, Drawings,” Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY. Through May 3. Karen Rosenberg: “One of the best shows of drawing anywhere in the city packs more than 500 works by a single artist into one Chelsea gallery. The artist, Dieter Roth (1930-98), is best known for his conceptual experiments with decaying foodstuffs; sculptures with chocolate and sausage were the focus of a 2004 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art and P.S. 1. Roth was also a prolific printmaker and � as this show reveals � a tirelessly inventive draftsman….The drawings have an introverted, manic energy often associated with self-taught artists. They show that Roth could make powerfully organic art out of substances that weren�t perishable or pungent.”
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