NY TImes Art in Review: Loeb, Brown, Ackermann

“Damian Loeb: Synesthesia, Parataxic, Distortion, and the Shadow,” Acquavella, New York, NY. Through Oct. 7. Ken Johnson: “With its portentous Damien Hirst-like title, ‘Synesthesia, Parataxic Distortion, and the Shadow,’ it promises something more spectacular than the pleasant, conscientiously well made, illustrative paintings that make up this exhibition.Mr. Loeb produces what you might call Photorealist Melodrama. There is not much action in his paintings, but he has a cinematographer�s eye for suspenseful scenes.””Cecily Brown,” Gagosian, New York, NY. Through Oct. 25. Martha Schwendener: “The best way to view this show may be as a conceptual installation in which the catalog, the artworks and the gallery posit painting as a pornographic spectacle….It�s difficult not to notice, when standing in front of Ms. Brown�s paintings, that she is merely a competent painter rather than a great one.””Rita Ackermann: Don�t Give Me Salad (Nurses),” Andrea Rosen, New York, NY. Through Oct. 18. Karen Rosenberg: “The works in Rita Ackermann�s ‘Don�t Give Me Salad (Nurses)’ chew up and spit out the pulp-fiction female stereotypes embodied in Richard Prince�s much-hyped ‘Nurse Paintings.’ (Ms. Ackermann makes no overt references to Mr. Prince�s pictures, but the comparison is inevitable.) The women in her paintings, drawings and collages sometimes wear white caps, but their wide-set alien eyes, skinny, neon-tinged bodies and violent gestures convey anything but nurture.”Read all the reviews here.