Unsightly Sites

Adam McEwen's show at Nicole Klagsburn Gallery is very much about concrete--to be more precise "eyesore concrete." One gallery room focuses on LeFrak City, a 1960s housing complex, while the other room meditates on those black blotches of chewing gum on city sidewalks. The LeFrak room contains a series of photographs of the complex taken at the same vantage point and within the same minute. I had to really search for any difference in these eight or so almost-identical images, and perhaps that was McEwen's point. The chewing gum paintings contain real gum--chewed, mixed with gravel, and mashed--stuck on canvas. Would I have gone to this show if I hadn't recognized the artist's name from the Whitney Biennial? Probably not. Still, it was worth the trip. (Images via Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery)