Art Hag

Tomorrow is the last day to catch two great exhibits at the Pace Galleries. First is Lucas Samaras' Poses/Born Actors at the 534 West 25th space. From 2009-2010, Samaras photographed over 100 big names in the art world, including artists, collectors, critics, curators, dealers, and friends. After taking shadowy, low-lit headshots of his subjects, Samaras heavily manipulated the images in Photoshop, dramatically altering the appearance of his sitters making them appear alien, creepy, sinister. The often unflattering masks Samaras has digitally dressed his "Born Actors" with may not make for conventional or pretty portraits, but they're definitely fun and fascinating. Learn more at thepacegallery.com. Through December 24th.

For The Day After, Hiroshi Sugimoto's exhibit at Pace's 545 West 22nd venue, the photographer/architect wanted to "simulate the history of the earth in three periods: first, a dark hot planet shrouded in thick clouds of gas, its primordial sea repeatedly struck by lightning and pelleted by tiny asteroids; second, a stable atmosphere and vast murky protobiotic waters; and third, the Paleozoic sea churning with biological phenomena," (from exhibit's introduction). The results are a small room exhibiting pre-historic, Land of the Lost-like images and artifacts; a second room displaying seven of the artist's haunting "Seascapes"; and two 50-foot-long photo diptychs and nine smaller-scaled photos from his "Lightning Field" series. To create the lighting images, Sugimoto exposes sheets of film to electric discharges from a Van de Graaff generator, "creating sparks of light that scar the film with patterns reminiscent of organic life forms and tree-filled landscapes," (from gallery's website). Sugimoto's elegant, otherworldly black-and-white images somehow seem to make time stand still. Learn more here. Also ends tomorrow, December 24th.

Lucas Samaras, Poses/Born Actors (Sorry, I did the best I could to label the images...)

Top-right: Brian Hastings