Sasha Gordon: Haze, David Zwirner, New York, 2025
In Sasha Gordon’s exhibition Haze, Gordon captures her body and flesh in a hyperrealistic style presenting bizarre and somewhat surreal scenarios. Painting herself eating toenails Gordon had clipped in a previous painting, the works of Haze build a witty narrative illuminating the interface of alter egos.
To follow Gordon’s visual storytelling, viewers must walk through the large, white gallery as the paintings are hung far from one another, each earning their own wall. The gallery’s absence of wall labels is disorienting, referring to the ambiguous stories Sasha Gordon wishes to convey.
Although her themes of the body and the bizarre align with the imagery familiar from Surrealist art, certain pieces in Haze lend themselves more to cliche rather than uniquely imaginative artistry. The alter ego storyline was created to explore the tug-of-war between an individual’s personas that at times may be at odds, introducing an internal struggle to find personal reconciliation. Amidst Gordon’s darker and combative pieces like Pruning, the imagery projects the artist's sense of humor. While the humor adds to the complexity of emotions, it detracts from the exhibit’s overall impact.
Haze is a notable exhibition with which audiences can ponder, laugh and engage. Ultimately, art meets the audience where they are, making each person’s journey through the exhibit unique.
I think your description of the gallery space itself and how it interacts with the work is very well said and paints an important picture. However, I do wish you had spent more time elaborating on your critique of her darker pieces. I would suggest condensing your description on the gallery space slightly and taking more time to go into your critique. Even just one more sentence about her use of hyperrealism vs surrealism would strengthen the review. I was also interested in the humor of the pieces. One more line describing how the artist brought humor into her work through an example would be amazing.
ReplyDeleteYour review of Sasha Gordon’s Haze captures the essence of her surreal yet self-reflective style really well. I appreciate how you described the gallery layout — the empty walls and lack of labels are strong observations that connects space and theme.
ReplyDeleteOne area to refine might be your closing paragraph. You mention that the exhibition invites viewers to “just enjoy the story at face value,” which is an interesting conclusion — but you could maybe connect that with the self-reflective theme of the show, or did the exhibition feel shallow to you and why?
Your analysis of Gordon's style and work was excellent; however, I do wish you had gone more in-depth with some of these ideas. You say the work comes together to provide a narrative for the viewer, but it only provides one example. Describing connections between one or two more pieces in the show might strengthen this point and drive it home. A further explanation of how the work could be "cliche or arbitrary" would also improve the review. For example, what in a specific piece made you think this point of view? The style, color, or subject?
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