Capsule Reviews

Annette Lawrence: Edge Annette Lawrence makes flat striations of color that sit against the wall, what some might call "painting," from stacked two-inch strips of hand-torn paper. Ultimately, though, the pieces that make up this work, July-October 2005, are more sculpture than painting. Nevertheless their color palette and relationship to the wall bring to mind the long history of flatness and handmade marks of painting. The forms of July-October 2005 are the result of the artist's careful amassing, organization and ritual tearing of junk mail she collected over a four-month period this year. Lawrence has found an avenue of peaceful vengeance that reflects the monotony of junk mail. There is deadpan beauty to this work, from which emanates a cultural ethos of bureaucracy out of control and white noise given paper form. Also hung on the wall are several things-to-do lists in black and white paint on open brown paper bags. These pieces reflect a society run amok temporally speaking: a people most interested in functionally filling every day, hour, minute and second with work and productivity. Through December 17 at Dunn and Brown Contemporary, 5020 Tracy St., 214-521-4322. (Charissa N. Terranova)