"Everything Beautiful and Noble Is the Result of Reason and Calculation"
EFA GALLERY
The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, 323 West 39th Street, 2nd Floor
February 02–March 25

Hovering between and adding an ironic twist to the two notions that for centuries have determined artistic and philosophic quarrels—form and content—this exhibition features works by ten New York–based emerging artists concerned with the unresolved relationship between visible appearance and invisible essence. Curators Howie Chen and Gabrielle Giattino adopt the famous quote from Baudelaire's 1863 "The Painter of Modern Life" to highlight visual manifestation instead of interpretation; the works in the exhibition employ deceptive strategies such as transparency, ambiguity, repetition, reflection, and deflection. (...)

David Adamo and Michael Portnoy present the multimedia installation C.O.T.E. Advanced Intern Research: Proposals for Lemonwater, 2006. The acronym stands for "Complication of the Everyday," which gives one a sense of the paradoxical research carried on here. In order to find the perfect combination of lemon and water, the artists and the visitors have been analyzing, inspecting, squeezing, and sectioning the most monstrous lemons and citruses ever seen. The seriousness and precision of this research contrasts with the absurdity and futility of the project, and the incongruity aligns with the exhibition's theme: Here, hidden meanings are put aside for purely aesthetic constructions.
— Cecilia Alemani