REED DANZIGER at McKenzie Fine Art, 55 Orchard Street

A CLOSED SYSTEM, 2013 | Watercolor, gouache, ink and graphite on paper
27 x 27 inches | Courtesy McKenzie Fine Art

Effervescent abstractions that hint at issues of ambiguity: the universe bubbling up from the bottom of an infinite pot, contained and complemented by names that sound like subtitles of post-doctoral dissertations. I enjoyed this exhibition for the pureness of its appearance, and for the malleability of meaning it projected. It brought me back to the time around 2001 when works on paper were just seeing a re-emergence, partially due to the Flat Files at Pierogi 2000 in Williamsburg. The varieties of artistic expression so often used in tandem with paper were also making a comeback, such as drawing, and the minute mark. Back then, especially after 9/11, I thought of abstraction as a means of validating the personal in a era of overwhelming world events. Now I see them again as I once did, and as Danziger specifically impresses me: as mastery of implied meaning wrapped in a palimpsest of talent.