Parsons Photography faculty Arthur Ou‘s May solo show at Brennan & Griffin is reviewed in the September issue of Art in America, by Diana Kamin.

Visitors to Arthur Ou’s second New York solo exhibition may have been surprised to encounter a room lined with paintings. Known primarily as a photographer…Ou has previously extended his explorations of the photographic process into sculpture and installation. Still, the lush gray canvases on view at Brennan & Griffin represent a departure for the artist.

While they are compelling abstract paintings in their own right, the canvases also contain material references to photography that reveal connections to Ou’s broader body of work…The silvery surfaces, which oscillate in tone and reflectivity as one moves around the room or the natural light changes throughout the day, owe their responsive properties to silver halide, and emulsion used in analog photography…

Ou tends to embed photography within a larger discourse of image-making that reaches across mediums…Likewise, by invoking other artists’ uses of color, Ou’s custom seating subtly grounds the exhibition with a specific history of art…

Read the full review here.

Arthur Ou
View 8, 2013
Primer, enamel, silver halide, acrylic, dirt on canvas
20 x 25 inches each, two panels