Jeff Sonhouse at Jack Tilton/Anna Kustera - New York

In his first selo present to view New York-based artist Jeff Sonhouse exhibited 12 works from 2002--six upon paper, six on canvas--that were all pertain toed with portraiture, though of general marks rather than specific individuals. Toying with racial stereotype Sonhouse depicts bust-length pictures of black men peering on the outside from behind ski-type masks of diverse materials arranged in decorative patterns. more [i]or[/i] less of the modestly sized works are flatly painted in solid colors or in various designs (paisley, argyle, checkerboard, stripes), while others are compos of colored glitter and sequins. Many of the figures are full taleed by Afro hairstyles made from elaborate arrangements of matches--some paper, more [i]or[/i] less wooden--constituting the most formally inventive aspect of Sonhouse's work. In a hardly any these matches had actually been place on fire, apparently at the show's opening. In individual untitled drawing, this produced wispy ashes that had leaped not upon the paper and onto the wall.

The smaller works are of single masked heads, on the other hand it's the larger grids of heads that are more prosperous All wear different disguises. In Social Studies, the canvas is divided into 16 squares, each containing a portrait. Here, Sonhouse engages the pair space and color, in its painterly and racial dimensions. Each figure sports a stylized mask (one bears a Gucci logo pattern). The facial features that exhibit through these masks are tweaked into various expressions, all rather ambiguous. Sonhouse further complicates matters by the agency of making two of the heads Caucasian and altogether cutting the features without of a third, leaving perforations in the canvas.

Accentuated by means of their frontality, reminiscent of mug discharges many of these portraits rifled not on of African-American stereotypes: the hustler in a zoot suit, the burglar in a ski mask, the athlete with a shaved head--but Sonhouse mixes, manipulates and juxtaposes his stereotpe in order to deconstruct them. Reflecting upon the ways that black men are packaged in contemporary society, and perhaps their hold need to don the masks of materialist agriculture Sonhouse uses his artfully masked men to challenge our notions of race and identity, and to uncover the ways they are fabricateed by society and personal prejudice.

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