Dike Blair/Noah Sheldon

Untitled (Katie)

Photograph: Courtesy D’amelio Terras

While not overtly intended as a collaboration, this joint exhibition of Dike Blair and Noah Sheldon’s works at D’Amelio Terras yields a nuanced spatial and visual experience that is more than just the sum of its parts. Blair’s images of singular eyes—scans from his paintings over the last several years—are centered on white paper and framed in light wood; the pieces are spaced evenly and mounted nearly to the ceiling in columns of four. Occasionally there are two eyes in the frames, though rarely do they form pairs. The renderings are delicate and very, simply beautiful, and allude to peering through windows or a camera viewfinder.

Noah Sheldon’s ordinary-yet-extraordinary snapshots, taken while on a road trip in Canada, are available for rifling in simple paper sleeves on a centrally located picnic bench. These images are at once banal—winter landscapes, hotel interiors—and yet dazzlingly gorgeous. The clarity in Sheldon’s 4" x 6" prints allows for minute detail in the clear crest of a roiling wave or the slightly psychedelic texture of an industrial carpet. There is also a quality of airlessness reminiscent of De Chirico that heightens the immediacy of the images. The pairing of these artists conjures, both in the sets of floor-to-ceiling peepers and in the photos, the idea of looking as a double entendre, while also reaffirming the importance of the simple act of carefully observing—a revitalizing reminder indeed.

—T.J. Carlin