Party Crashers was Concertina’s curatorial take on the family and all the domestic confusion attached. They show featured a good balance of media, mostly photographs, but also prints by Canadian Inuit artist Annie Pootoogook, fax letterpresses by Micah Lexier, and a gallery-wide performance by Stan Shellabarger and Dutes Miller of their ongoing and ever distancing Pink Tube piece. Of the photography, Carrie Schneider‘s Bathtub basically stole the show for me, presenting a beautifully composed figurative rhythm, a blend of the sibling intimacy and abstract weirdness of sharing traits with other humans. Dick Blau‘s family photographs were good instances of his work, but had too much familiarity and not enough mystery, seeming to demand a wider collection to communicate best. The poster piece from Davida Nemeroff was a well capitalized accident, a photo of a photo that spoke to the reinterpretation of family roles when parties are separated, not unlike Lexier’s re-reproduction of his father’s faxes. Together, the works in Party Crashers mostly showed the family as a sideways approach to self portraiture, revealing more about the artists’ particular relationships to their siblings, parents, children, than of the particular challenges those relationships create. While it may not have taken on the heavier stuff, and just skimmed the domestic/public space issue, it still was another good show from Concertina Gallery.

Carrie Schneider, Derelict Bathtub

Micah Lexier, Fax Test

Dutes Miller & Stan Shellabarger

Davida Nemeroff, What Window Light Can do For My Dad

Dick Blau

Party Crashers opened November 21st, 2009 and ran through December 13th, 2009 @ Concertina Gallery, 2351 N. Milwaukee Ave., 2nd Floor.