Jonah Samson was surprised when the folks at G. Gibson Gallery considered a visitor warning about the sexual imagery in his work. I never thought of it as being offensive in any way, he tells me over the phone from Vancouver, BC. But there are so many layers to the way society reacts to sex. Samson assembles and paints miniature sets that he then photographs. His playful new series Pleasantville depicts tiny figurines having raunchier sex than Gene Simmons in his heyday. In Porn Set, for example, a well-manicured lawn is taken over by a man directing a couple to have sex atop a car. Samsona family doctor by daywouldnt necessarily decorate his office with these dioramas, but he thinks theyre easier for viewers to accept because they dont involve actual people. Most of these figures are only an inch tall, so it looks funny if theyre having sex, he says. But we draw strange lines between whats entertaining and whats controversial. Im not sure people would laugh if this were done on a larger scale. Also included in the group show View Master are photographs by Lori Nix and Grace Weston. Oh, and theres no advisory about the small sexual content. ERIKA HOBART
Thu., June 4, 6-8 p.m.; Tuesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Starts: June 4. Continues through July 11, 2009
