Parallel to the panels of the folding screen to the right, the objects and people in Sally J. Han’s painting ‘Grandma’s Color Television’ (a standout in the summer group show ‘The Selves,’ at Nicola Vassell Gallery) lead the eye back into private, domestic space that suggests insights into the artist’s life. A glass dish in the foreground brings viewers to a young woman in a traditional Korean robe (Han was born in China and raised in Korea before moving to the US at age 17) and beyond to her grandmother, dozing in front of the TV. On the room’s back wall is a painting of a celestial body that recurs in Han’s work, in one earlier work hovering over the protagonist as she lies in bed. Children’s drawings on the wall nearby speak to creative production over time. Spare and tranquil, the environment suggests reflection; gorgeously colored clothing, a brightly lit space and ripe fruit on the screen and in the young woman’s hand speaks to the pleasure of the senses. (On view in Chelsea through Aug 9th).
