Crystal Wagner, “Morphotic II,” 2010, screen print.
Today I’m heading for Famous Accountants, a newish Bushwick space known for it’s immersive, obsessive installation projects. The current show, “Hybrid Jungle,” curated by Chris Howard, features work by Crystal Wagner, an artist based in Montgomery, Alabama. �I am fascinated by the idea of the natural environment,� writes Wagner, �but find more and more that I am being alienated from it.� “Hybrid Jungle,” an installation of drawing, collage and prints, reflects her ambivalence toward the natural world. Using sour, lurid colors and deep oily blacks, Wagner transforms the space into a near-impenetrable forest-like environment. Howard writes that the floral�insectoid forms in Wagner�s work are “beautiful yet repellant, marvelous yet insidious. Nature becomes completely unnatural in the hybrid jungle, like a twisted idea of the Garden of Eden manufactured by a Chinese plastics factory.”
“Hybrid Jungle: Crystal Wagner,” Famous Accountants, 1673 Gates Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn. Through July 25, 2010. Open on Sundays 1-6PM, or by appointment.
