Nicolas Party’s last major NY solo show alluded to the devastating effects of climate change with a huge mural of a raging forest fire; imagery of dead fish in his current exhibition at Karma again suggests a relationship of precarity with the natural world. Inspired by Renoir’s still life paintings of fish and Goya’s tonally darker paintings of the same subject matter (both created during wartime), Party presents a small oil on copper painting and a 14-foot-high mural featuring a pile of fish, a symbol of mortality more stark for its isolation at the center of the artwork. The shift in scale from the show’s diminutive oil on copper paintings to the vast wall piece unsubtly directs viewers back to a feeling of thought-provoking unease that pervades Party’s practice. (On view in Chelsea through Feb 14th).
