Taking flowers or nature as the theme for a summer group exhibition isn’t particularly original or necessarily avant-garde. Still, nature’s beauty and uplift as symbol of regeneration is irresistible to audiences and to the curators of ‘A Rose is a Rose is a Rose’ at Jack Hanley Gallery, who apologetically admit that painting flowers is ‘embarrassing.’ This paper sculpture by Daniel Gordon, which recalls still lives throughout art history (think Cezanne and Matisse) and pushes the possibilities of photography as sculpture, suggests that the show’s organizers have nothing to worry about. (On view on the Lower East Side through August 3rd).
