Having her cake and eating it too?

Untitled (Birthday), 2007, from Kim Dingle’s show of slightly demented and possibly drunken childrens’ birthday parties. The image dissolves, just like the frosting does, as one assertive and naughty-looking brushstroke detaches itself from the existentially challenged celebrant and drifts into the ocher ground.  

In another daring gesture, the press release explains nothing—but it least this time it’s the artist’s choice.

It was ostensibly hijacked by Dingle, who, pronouncing that she has erased the bio the gallery wrote for her, issues a coy disclaimer. ”Subjects are useful for paint and for using line,” she writes. “If what is depicted makes the artist laugh then all the more fun for the artist and maybe for the viewer, too – but it is usually an accident. That is all it is.” 

Courtesy Sperone Westwater, New York

Desperately Seeking Susan? 

Just a few more days to catch Anh Duong’s Portrait of Susan Sarandon (2009). She’s hanging around amidst figures ranging from nobles and cardinals to Pinnochio, Jackie Kennedy, and Krusty the Clown in “Portraits/Self-Portraits: From the 16th to the 21st Century,” at Sperone Westwater.  

Courtesy Sperone Westwater, New York