Polly Apfelbaum
Flatland: Color Revolt
Hansel and Gretel Picture Garden
511 West 20th Street, New York, NY
On view: 3/1/12 - 4/28/12
Flatland is a kaleidoscope of visual information, like walking into Harry Winston’s
with 3D glasses on. 174 individual Revolts are fashioned of Plasticine rolled flat
with glitter poured on top. Each is a delicate but fixed object created in
Apfelbaum’s studio, and then transported to the gallery via truck.
Apfelbaum played alchemist with a deftly improvised mix of pre-packaged glitter
sets, academic color theory and boldly irreverent color play. The work resists being
about any one thing, instead shifting between references—alien buffet, drugs to
snort, disco altars, botched science experiment, post-post-modernist shopping mall.