{"id":628715,"date":"2026-10-12T22:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T22:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/628715\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T22:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T22:18:12","slug":"a-little-fantasy-goes-a-long-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/628715\/","title":{"rendered":"A Little Fantasy Goes a Long Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pocket Review<\/a><\/p>\n

In this photography exhibition, works vacillate between intimacy and unknowability, like a fractured peep show. <\/p>\n


\n \"Julia
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\"A
\n Janice Guy “Untitled” (1977, printed 2026), eight silver gelatin prints (all images Julia Curl\/Hyperallergic)<\/p>\n

\u201cAbandon the search for Truth; settle for a good fantasy.\u201d These words, taken from Fran Lebowitz and written on the wall to warn all ye who enter Luhring Augustine\u2019s Chelsea gallery, set up the premise for its current group show: settle for a good fantasy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an admittedly juicy quotation. So juicy, indeed, that the gallery has hung Shaun Pierson\u2019s photograph of a very voluptuous strawberry \u2014 seriously, it\u2019s like the Venus of Willendorf<\/a> of strawberries \u2014 right next to it, as if to underscore the point: Photography is always chasing a fantasy.<\/p>\n

\"\"Shaun Pierson, “Untitled (Strawberry on Lace)” (2026), archival pigment print<\/p>\n

The exhibition\u2019s main room leans into this, showing portraiture’s fragmentary, erotic side. Works by Pierson, David Seider, and Janice Guy vacillate between intimacy and unknowability, like a fractured peep show. Curved, freckled backs touch. Beautiful shards of women\u2019s faces are pieced together, seemingly pulled from the dark. Guy\u2019s grids of self-portraits from the 1970s are particularly arresting, and not just because she also happens to be beautiful. <\/p>\n

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Already have an account? Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pocket Review In this photography exhibition, works vacillate between intimacy and unknowability, like a fractured peep show. Janice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-628715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}