Mixed Greens at The Parrish Art Museum
Art Commentary, Dan's Papers, Marion Wolberg Weiss/ May 01, 2009

The current show at the Parrish Museum, where well-known artists picked their own personal favorites from among 260 entrants, is, indeed, a field of "mixed greens." Yet the works are similar in that they all stray from traditional subjects and materials. There are no landscapes and few figurative pieces. Instead, one finds several geometrical abstractions and a few conceptual works.

A more interesting point, however, is the question of whether the selecting artists were guided by their own work. Did they look for similarities between themselves and the artists they chose? There's nothing wrong with that, by the way - it comes naturally.

I would like to suggest that there are obvious (and not so obvious) connections. Donald Sultan's choice of "Tip to Toe" by Stephen Laub is an obvious example, pure and simple. It recalls for this critic at least, Sultan's "Smoke" installation where shadows were created on a screen. This shares obvious similarities with Laub's shadows of shoes and hats on the wall. Also, Laub employs optical illusion in his installation recalling Sultan's sense of fun and whimsy. Lastly, we recognize Sultan's love of ordinary objects, turned into something more literal by Laub.

Other similarities between selectors and selectees are present, including the use of bright colors in fun ways. We can see, therefore, why Richard Kalina was drawn to Peter Dayton's day-glo birch panels, even though Kalina's abstract designs are not hard-edged like Dayton's.