Group shows are always a mixed bagtoo many artists with disparate styles competing for space on the gallery wall. For that reason, I actually rather like the confusion and lack of cohesion at Open House. Wheres the all-powerful theory? Wheres the curators windy manifesto? Wheres the cult of the One Great Artist wholl revolutionize the field? Nowhere in evidence. Instead we get diverse works by over two-dozen artists associated with the gallery, including Arthur S. Aubry, Jenny Heishman, and Karen Ganz. Theres much to like, or not, in this enjoyably cluttered showmuch of it priced to move. If I had the wall space, Id spring for Amsterdam by Matthew Picton, which raises that citys urban grid in multiple dimensions off a white enamel map surface. The streets and thoroughfares become colorful ribbons elevated above the blue canals and otherwise featureless burg. Street names, ordinals, and other identifying details have been stripped away. The citys simplified into a three-dimensional lattice, useless for navigation, but lovely to look at. BRIAN MILLER
Tuesdays-Saturdays, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Starts: May 7. Continues through May 30, 2009