Sasha Gordon; Haze (revised edition)

Sasha Gordon’s new exhibition, Haze, currently on view at David Zwirner, is a collection of oil paintings with interrelated narratives that unravel through each painting. The themes draw from myths, Asian cinema, and Gordon’s psychological experiences and struggles with her Asian identity. Ambiguity is a key theme, and the works are purposely not shown in narrative order. 

It Was Still Far Away, inspired by Bong Joon Ho’s The Host, depicts an explosion that lights up the background. Oblivious of her surroundings, the figure clips her toenails with her headphones on. This figure reappears with different roles, either becoming the victim or doing the action. In some, she eats her nail clippings, is forced underwater, and is fed by another seemingly identical figure. 

Immense detail is shown in Flame Like Blush, where the figure is bathed in a blazing orange, casting a vivid glow on the face. The reflection of clouds in her eyes hints at the continued narrative through her work, resembling the explosion from It Was Still Far Away and provides a reason for the radiant illumination and sweat. The size of both works is massive, each being over 60 inches tall. 

Overall, Gordon’s works are realistic yet uncanny. The continued narrative of the figure put in bizarre scenes, combined with her own life, evokes a psychological and dream-like experience where continuing themes are threaded throughout the works. 

The Drawing Center, In the Medium of Life: The Drawings of Beauford Delaney

In the Medium of Life: The Drawings of Beauford Delaney exhibits nearly 100 works that serve as benchmarks of the different stages of Delaney’s career. Moving the focus away from some of his more famous on-canvas works, the exhibition chronicles Delaney’s life, and in turn, the way his experiences influenced the development of his artistic style and greater presence in the world of art. Including supporting materials such as the published writings of his close friend James Baldwin, and newspaper clippings documenting the societal reaction to the success of black artists, the gallery halls narrate the eras of Delaney.

While both the exaggerated portraiture and naturalistic landscapes of Delaney’s works from the 1930s through the early 1950s do feature two of the primary colors, yellow and red, the majority of his works lack a primary blue. Layers of teal, aqua, and turquoise can be found in his watercolor paintings, inks drawings, and oil prints, but in very few did he dare use an out-of-the-tube ultramarine. It is my belief that this decision is what keeps his pieces from reading as somber as they could, considering the lack of smiling and overall signs of life, that being either flora or fauna. By leaving out primary blue, his work is able to exist in the space between melancholic and chipper.

Hayden Holmes

Detritus: Tom Friedman at Lehmann Maupin

 

Detritus: Tom Friedman at Lehmann Maupin

Tom Friedman’s solo show commands the viewer to look at the ordinary objects that fill our lives.

The exhibition explores both solitary subjects and elaborate compositions that create webs of focus

rather than a singular point of interest. 

His cluttered compositions begin as photographs which the artist then works to replicate as paintings. Reflections and individual contours abstract during this process. In Detritus, the abstract stands next to the fully rendered, exemplified in spirals morphing out of other objects. The bird’s eye view gives a warped sense of scale and grandeur abstracting the painting further. 

The paintings that illustrate singular objects also act as collections. Their details become pieces of a complicated group. Wise Old Sage depicts a crumpled up water bottle, unrecognizable at first due to its large scale and magnification. The over 50” x 40” painting requires the viewer to stand back for a full view, a clear demand of attention. Parallel white lines running down the work and light brushstrokes contour the form, seemingly abstract until a recognizable image forms. 

The strength of this show is found in the detail of a singular subject and in the cluttered compositions painted at a grand scale. The ordinary is elevated by being placed at our feet, the only perspective in which collections can be fully seen and recognized as a sight to behold. 

- Lucia Bautista  HAD 472-02

*Revision*

Robert Longo; The Weight of Hope at the Pace Gallery

Robert Longo’s exhibition The Weight of Hope continues his exploration of large-scale, hyper-realistic charcoal drawings. The works confront the turbulence of contemporary American life by combining the visual authority of photojournalism with the restrained emotional depth of classical painting, prioritizing idealized beauty and harmonious composition over individual expression. The exhibition suggests that in the age of political crisis and collective grief, images can still represent collective memory and experience. Throughout the show Longo depicts symbols of hope, crisis, power, and destruction, alongside figures representing social, political, or historical events in order to explore ideas of intimacy and monumentality. 

I was drawn to Longo’s piece Untitled (St. Louis Rams / Hands Up), 2016 depicting wide receiver Nick Toon with his arms raised in protest of the police killing of Micheal Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Longo captures the charged stillness of Toon’s stance, turning a fleeting gesture into a lasting symbol. 

Equally striking is the work Untitled (Iceberg for Greta Thuberg), 2020 which depicts a towering iceberg as a fragile symbol of ecological urgency, showing the precariousness of systems — natural, political, and moral — under threat. 

Though visually stunning, the exhibition at times leans heavily towards melodrama. Its solemnity, boarding on self seriousness, and moral ambition feels heavy-handed, partly due to Longo’s highly aestheticized approach and reliance on appropriated media imagery. The absence of diverse perspectives — due to his primary focus on Western, white, corporate, and male-coded symbols — limits the breath of his social critique, making the show both visually commanding and conceptually constrained.

Audra Castle

Revised - version 2

Austin Martin White; Tracing Delusionships

                                                                        Composite Ruin 1 (after Piranesi), 2025

    Austin Martin White has crafted an endearing display of work with Tracing Delusionships at Petzel Gallery.

The show includes eleven pieces, depictions of dark and whimsical worlds, the majority of which are at a very

large scale. White evokes a unique dimensionality within some of his paintings, a depth achieved through a

layering of materials. Screen mesh forms the base of the canvas, creating a moiré pattern with the illusion of

wavy stripes in the background, appearing almost holographic. I found his paintings much more interesting

than his works on paper due to this quality of the mesh, as it adds movement to the pieces as the moiré shifts and

changes with the angle at which you view it.

     I was drawn to his series of paintings titled Composite Ruins that were painted with this technique and layered

with thick, textured, brightly colored paint. These pieces are truly monumental and impressive to stand before.

As you move closer, the image of massive ruins falls away and the marks become an abstract maze of vibrant

color. This experience of oscillating between these two dimensions in the work made them feel like a psychedelic

vision.

    White was inspired by artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, whose work I can see in these pieces- Yet Piranesi's

detailed etchings of ruins give the impression that they are recordings of an earthly traveler, while White's

paintings feel completely otherworldly. Outside of his Composite Ruins series I found his interpretation of the

Massacre of the Children of Bethel arresting. This piece references the artist Bob Thompson’s La Mort des Enfants,

a version of the biblical massacre of the innocents. This reinterpretation of his influences reinforces his similar

motivation to reimagine history and its crumbling civilizations. I found this show to be inspirational in its

unique material exploration, and strong in its conceptual ties to the imagery regarding reinvention.

Massacre of the Children of Bethel Variation 5 (after B. Thompson), 2025

*Revision

In the Medium of Life: The Drawings of Beauford Delaney

Ahmed Bioud, 1961

Oil on paper

Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

The exhibition "In the Medium of Life: The Drawings of Beauford Delaney" features many works on paper, a medium that is more vulnerable and easier to obtain than other materials like canvas or wooden panels, and is generally smaller in scale than traditional formal media, making works on paper easily dismissed as drafts. But this exhibition expresses a different view, that Beauford Delaney's works on paper showcase his more experimental side.

His works reveal a sense of ease and freedom. They are vivid and have obvious brushstrokes with no transitions, making the drawings feel relaxed. Some of the paintings contain short, superimposed lines that enrich the texture and visual depth of the paintings. I was impressed by his work, "Ahmed Bioud." The theme is a portrait of the artist's close friend. The artist didn't describe many details of the subject's features in the painting; the outline of the portrait is broken and overlapped with each other, creating a sense of memory together with the main color of yellow. This gave me more space for imagination about the unseen forms and the portrait's inner world. The work employs a combination of oil paint on paper, which presents a transparent sheen.

The exhibition focuses on Beauford Delaney's neglected, non-traditional techniques, such as oil and pastel on paper to express the artist's thoughts, but the overly dense display of small-sized works in paper media makes viewing the show tedious and fatiguing. If the exhibition displayed the works in themed sections, it might help regulate the viewer's pace and bring more interest to the audience. WC 244 ROSEN CHEN LUO

Haze by Sasha Gordon (at David Zwirner Gallery)

 

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.