Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Sze Tsung Leong, Cities @ Yossi Milo Gallery


Minimalism as an art practice will always have an audience and, more importantly, a market. But it is a very hard thing to do well. It requires a keen artistic eye to weed out the visual excess in a way that justifies the few elements needed to create meaning or embody a greater social or artistic context, to go past the superficial attractiveness of a stripped-down surface. 

For the first time, Sze Tsung Leong’s keen eyes and artistic sensibilities have failed him. The large detailed overhead pictures of foreign cityscapes are engaging and attractive, but fall flat. They lack the political subtext of his work on urban development in China or the virtuoso skill of his even more minimal horizon series. The work isn’t bad per se, but it is like a large monotone painting. There isn’t a lot to dislike but there also isn’t a lot to love.


Through April 2nd

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