Review: ‘Summer Group Exhibition’ displays understated eloquence

“Summer Group Exhibition” is not the kind of title that screams “come and see me.” Its nonchalance, however, nicely matches the subtle satisfactions that this seven-artist show at Matthew Marks Gallery delivers with understated eloquence.

If anything unites the 13 paintings and sculptures that are given plenty of breathing room, it’s the magic that happens when three-dimensional reality gets translated into two-dimensional images. And vice versa.

Martin Honert’s “Polar Bear” is exemplary, its flattened form’s trompe l’oeil details making it seem to be a childhood memory that has come alive. “Toto,” Rebecca Warren’s juicily painted bronze totem, brings light-handed humor to heavyweight sculpture, its festive bow recalling a similar one worn by Dorothy’s dog in “The Wizard of Oz.”

Paul Sietsema’s four tiny canvases and Gary Hume’s huge painting variously use sleight-of-hand illusionism to send deliberately mixed messages. The same goes for Terry Winter’s big red abstraction, Katharina Fritsch’s super-sized image of a legless ladybug and Darren Almond’s bright yellow sign, on which is printed, “Coming up for Air.”

At a time when exaggeration, hyperbole and overstatement seem to be the norm, “Summer Group Exhibition” is a breath of fresh air.

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Matthew Marks Gallery, 1062 N. Orange Grove, (323) 654-1830. Ends Saturday, Aug. 25. www.matthewmarks.com