Damian Loeb, "Sol d"

Neither Damian Loeb's celebrity lifestyle nor his photo-based paintings (with their sometimes surreal, sometimes noir undercurrents) have been truly embraced by the art world. His work has been disparaged in critical quarters for unironically flirting with kitsch, and not without reason. His latest show, however, takes the literal high ground by including views of the earth from space, or rather from the boundary separating the planet's surprisingly thin envelope of air from the cold, dark vacuum beyond. Not quite as in-your-face as his previous efforts, they use spectacular color effects to convincingly reflect on the fragility of existence.