Here we are met with formal elegance, with careful, almost obsessive craftsmanship, and clear thematic lines. Yet a profound unease unobtrusively takes root while at the show and grows after leaving the gallery. The fascination of Versailles is its apparent ability to change the rules of life — to impose a mental construct on nature that pushes our awareness of “absence, darkness, death — all that is not” firmly aside and insists we can inhabit a world of perfection. Fensterstock’s parterre shares enough of the means and methods of such places to lull us into that same illusion, and yet the bejeweled and rotten banana in the vitrine whispers the truth.
Ken Greenleaf can be reached at ken.greenleaf@gmail.com.
Related:
Poetic sense, The power of 'Cool', Jazz on paper, More 
- Poetic sense
For the last end-of-the-year review I had to rely on the kindness and opinions of others, having just started reviewing again after a long hiatus.
- The power of 'Cool'
"New York Cool" is required viewing for anyone who has an interest in contemporary American art. Comprised of nearly 80 works, the show, at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art through July 19.
- Jazz on paper
A gem of a show, two shows really, has quietly appeared at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
- Deep cuts
The beauty of Kara Walker's silhouettes lies in their concurrent brutality and daintiness, and in her unabashed exploration cutting to the meat of the black-and-white binary in American contemporary culture.
- Forceful feelings
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) was one of the greatest sculptors in history.
- Nature times three
Lauren Fensterstock’s new show is black and dirty.
- Lesson from a master
Philippe de Montebello retired at the end of last year from his position as director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York after 31 years. During his tenure, the museum nearly doubled in size to two million square feet and increased its collections by some 80,000 pieces.
- Growing Maine art
Long ago an art critic of my acquaintance remarked that New York was a border town to Europe, and until fairly recently that was true. Artistic ideas would be born in Europe, often France, and migrate slowly across the Atlantic and take root.
- Looming dark
In "Twilight," now showing at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art, four artists pull some roots from the Gothic Romantic tradition and rearrange them to fit their needs.
- Words over pictures
My first thought when I learned about the project to paint 16 of the tanks in the big South Portland tank farm was “Why would anyone think this is a good idea?”
- Coming alive
Back in the day, winter and early spring used to be a dead zone in the Portland art year, but 2008 seems to be shaping up pretty well.
- Less
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