“From One O to the Other”

Chapter 8: Christian P. Muller’s picture of Andrea Fraser performing “May I Help You?” at Orchard in Front of Louise Lawler’s picture of an Andy Warhol painting behind a Tony Smith sculpture

Photograph: courtesy Orchard Gallery

If making good work is analogous to being in the pilot’s seat and manning ground control at the same time, then the show “From One O to Another” is a beacon of self-reflectivity. The exhibition highlights this element of awareness in the work of R.H. Quaytman, as well as in the overarching endeavors of Orchard, the cooperative gallery she runs and to which she belongs.

Quaytman’s paintings, executed in groups called chapters, are made specifically in response to the context in which they will be shown. Chapter 10, presented here, constitutes a mix of approaches, all of which reflect Quaytman’s experience both as artist and gallery director. Digital printouts of images taken of and in the gallery during its three-year history (it’s closing in May) are often overlaid with gauzy visual patterns that register as screens of memory or subjectivity. More painterly works include an image of a note left for Quaytman by her then-nine-year-old daughter advising her on ways to relax when she took on her directorial role.

These and projects by other gallery members are presented in an exceptionally informal manner, dissolving the often gaping divide between spectator and artist. Amy Sillman’s ink-wash portraits of personalities closely associated with the collective are laid out on a picnic table for visitors to rifle through; Rhea Anastas’s archive of the press surrounding Orchard includes both positive and negative reviews. Let’s hope this kind of critical programming spirit finds a new home after this remarkable space shuts its doors for the last time.

—T.J. Carlin