Portland, ME
10/2/10 5:33 PM
Plastic bags are one of many blights on contemporary civilization. Disposable consumer culture just would not be the same without them—which would be great. And given how many are already in circulation, and how long they take to biodegrade (i.e. almost forever), there’s no risk that an artist like Janice Adler, who uses snippets of them pasted on canvas in place of paint, would have to alter her practice once those nightmarish carriers of cheap convenience are put out of use. And that’s great too, since Adler makes extremely surprising and beautiful use of them, especially when she limits herself to going all plastic and foregoing painted details. In a painting like “Crazy for Love,” Adler “stitches” together the pieces of a plastic quilt with cutesy painted thread and floral appliqués, elements proved entirely superfluous in “Tumbling Towards…,” a monumental geometric abstraction that makes full use of the colors and patterns found on an array of shopping bags. Finally, something worth doing with the cupboard full of bags stashed under the kitchen sink…
—Lori Waxman