Lynn Umlauf hasn’t had a show in New York for some time, though she has been around the art scene for many years. This exhibition of seven sculptures and 11 works on paper offers an insightful, if necessarily limited, view into her concerns, underscoring her ongoing commitment to studying the particularities of light. The 3-D pieces are the revelation of the show, their power stemming from their balance of being something and being nothing. In Il Culto di Maria (1992), a loop of wire mesh is suspended from the ceiling by aluminum wire that tumbles down like a contour line. The wire extends into the mesh, cradled by the form it supports. Minimal shapes painted on the exterior in translucent layers of blue and red acrylic read as shadowy movement. The object, placed on the periphery of the space, might suggest a lightweight bubble chair, but the piece is unequivocally abstract. Sculptures like this, as well as a Plexiglas, chrome and electric light work, 1.29.1998, and the newest piece, 1.1.2016, are wonderfully unmonumental. They don’t call out for attention, but subtly attract it with the way they inhabit space. —Cathy Lebowitz
Pictured: Lynn Umlauf: 1.29.1988, Plexiglas, chrome, mesh and light, 25 by 48 by 41 inches. Courtesy Zürcher, New York.
