Isaac Layman: Photographs From Inside A Whale

A peek into a medicine cabinet, a look into a dirty sink, an aerial view of a crusty four-burner electric stove—Isaac Layman’s large-scale digital images capture messy domestic scenes in gorgeously exacting detail. (SINK, 2008, is shown above). Yet each photograph is a complete fabrication. From the wire-tangled rear view of a hand-me-down stereo to a lettuce-clogged sink to a kitchen drawer crammed with familiar, branded objects, it’s all hyper-real. Created with a 4-by-5-foot digitized panoramic camera, each framed image is a composite of many individual photos. The depth of field is off: There are areas of sharp detail not just in one area but all over the picture plane, and in some cases (for this viewer anyway), your eyes hurt in their effort to focus. This visual strangeness is not immediately recognizable because the images are so very clean. My favorite work in the show is the image of a white plastic ice-cube tray. Each of the 14 cubes in the tray is its own shiny framed object, one bluer, another greener than the next, all with a bit of sediment from the first rush of standing water in the morning. One cube is completely melted, another bears a skin of thin, crackly ice, several others contain ovoid solids afloat in liquid puddles. The melted ice is outlined by the white parallel lines reflecting the overhead fluorescent lights in the artist’s studio; these lines help delineate what’s liquid and what’s solid. For all their high-res details, these images are slippery with the truth. Reception Thurs., July 17, 6-10 p.m. Brunch and exhibit walkthrough with the artist Sat., July 26, at noon. Free. Tues.-Sat. Ends Aug. 30.

Tuesdays-Saturdays. Starts: July 17. Continues through Aug. 30, 2008