Review: Tanyth Berkeley at Danziger Projects

 

Exhibition Reviews

Having relocated to 24th Street, Tanyth Berkeley’s “Grace” is Danziger Projects’s first show in its new space. A good move: the new gallery space is quite an improvement over the old one.

Grace Longoria, the sole subject of Berkeley’s portraiture in this show, is an albino woman of Mexican descent and, if what I hear is to be believed, quite the character. It shows. I’m glad that with one exception the photos stick to what years ago were “normal” sizes - not only do the sizes work well within the confines of the exhibition space, they also don’t smack you over the head. That’s left to the images themselves.

I left the show wondering whether Berkeley maybe relied too much on the looks and theatrical personality of Grace (maybe up to the extent that people, with their propensity for simple hooks, might remember her as “the photographer who did those albino woman photos”)? I just couldn’t shake that thought. Maybe she was deceiving me with her considerable photographic skills. Maybe. Maybe not.

There always is the danger of too much theatricality becoming mere entertainment, with everything else falling by the way side.

In any case, a show not to be missed (it’s still up for a bit more than two weeks), especially for the one larger piece in the show, a full-body photo of Grace (standing next to a ball - don’t worry, you won’t miss it).