Art & Exhibitions
Serkan Özkaya Dissolves the White Cube
THE DAILY PIC: At Postmasters, white walls get replaced with the spaces beyond.
Blake Gopnik
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THE DAILY PIC (#1565): I spent a good few years of my life studying the Renaissance techniques known as “quadratura” – painted, trompe-l’oeil “architecture” meant to give a sense that the real walls of a room have disappeared, to show the world beyond. So it was a pleasure to come across a contemporary artist working the same ground. At Postmaster’s gallery in New York, Serkan Özkaya has dissolved the walls of its front space by covering them with projections of what’s going on just beyond them. (Click on my image to see a little video of the effect.)
The room’s south wall shows a live video feed of the office space at the gallery’s southern end. (Gallerist Magda Sawon admits that, as she goes about her office work, she now minds her manners more than she might otherwise.) The north wall dissolves to show a view of Postmaster’s rear display space and the paintings of war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan that grace it – guests in that space feel almost by our side – while the west wall reveals the alley beyond and all the iffy goings on there.
White-cube galleries have always been about keeping the outside world out. It’s nice to see one that invites it in, to the exclusion of all else.
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