Megan and Murray McMillan

Julia Hechtman, Before the Fall, 2007, (video still), 2 min. single-channel video

Another standout Boston gallery, Samson Projects is the kind of confident-cool space that sends out press releases imploring the audience to “Go Outside!” instead of checking out their new landscape show, which is titled, with ironic accuracy, simply “… a landscape show.” Of course, this is no mere landscape show, but a savvy survey of the outside through the postmodern lens of 13 observant and analytical artists.

From Noriko Furunishi’s mash-up of a waterfall to Dan Torop’s achingly invasive Sprinkler, to Shay Kun’s couch-friendly landscapes with inappropriate killer whales and rescue helicopters and the elegant Alex Katz’s economic portraits of people and nature, this exhibition runs the gamut of contemporary interpretations on a very traditional theme.

Julia Hechtman’s prophetic video, Before the Fall, introduces the show, and with good reason. The artist in the corner of the television screen leads the viewer through a series of natural disasters, a thematic statement that provides just the right dose of relevancy to a show that could otherwise lean too heavily on beautiful imagery. Quoting again from the gallery statement, “The release of the elements as kitsch fodder? Is it necessary to elucidate more on the decorative aspects as well as the intelligent designer/ spiritual tenet?”

The only answer: see for yourself.

…a landscape show
September 7 – October 20
Samson Projects