Garage art work is raw, real with mixed identities Friday, October 27, 2006  By MARY BIRMINGHAM SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL  "Keeping It Real" is the title of the latest exhibition at the Garage. It's also a challenge to any urban art space - one that is met by this compact gallery in the Heights. Director Margaret Murphy has assembled a small but cohesive group of artists working in a variety of media, all within the realm of realism. While their work is based in reality, these five artists also incorporate elements of irony and fantasy. 

Jersey City artist William Ortega explores issues of personal identity and cultural stereotypes in his video, Aguacate/Avacado. He presents various kinds of footwork associated with Latino culture, including costumed street dancing and beachfront soccer. In a delightfully ironic scene, Ortega juxtaposes the fancy footwork of a Colombian Cumbia dancer with the awkward steps of a displaced native who can't dance. The work implicitly asks the question, "How 'real' can our expectations of a particular group of people be when they are based on stereotypes?"  

Yukiko Nakashima also addresses questions about racial and cultural identity in deeply personal work that incorporates performance, photography and painting. She sews life-sized stuffed forms that look like arms and legs - objects she calls "functionless limbs." They are legs that cannot walk, run, dance, or even support a body, thus negating their 'real" purpose. Dressed as a Japanese schoolgirl, the artist poses with these forms, creating complicated self-portraits. 

Similarly, Tiffany Calvert blurs the line between real and artificial in her paintings of architectural interiors. Though realistic looking, these scenes are ambiguous hybrids of Nature and Culture, addressing ideas of displacement in both. Calvert brings the wilderness to elegant period rooms by incorporating animals and abundant foliage. But this is Nature "tamed" by man - the animals are hunting trophies and the flowers are actually wallpaper. 

Megan Maloy shows us uncommon views of commonplace occurrences. Her color photographs produce split-second narratives, prompting the viewer to ask, "What just happened here?" While they have the spontaneity of random snapshots, they are actually carefully controlled compositions. Maloy creates pictures from scenes she witnesses and skillfully recreates for the camera. Like the best photographers, she makes it look easier than it is.

Jonny Detiger's Tripped the Light Fantastic is a sculpture installed on the Garage's exterior wall that blows aromatic bubbles into the air. While a garage is typically associated with noxious fumes, here Detiger creates a system by which the structure "exhales" a pleasant fragrance, breathing new life onto the street, negating an unpleasant reality. 

In spite of the underlying realism present in all the works, the exhibition is never predictable - there is just enough of the unexpected to keep the visitor guessing. Utilizing an actual garage for an exhibition space is also a variation on the theme. The blending of these five unique voices creates an interesting visual conversation. They not only keep it real, they keep it lively.