Peter Nagy, "Entertainment Erases History, Works 1982–1990"

The East Village gallery scene of the 1980s is recalled in this exhibition of paintings and xerox works by Peter Nagy, a gallerist as well as an artist who was a cofounder of Nature Morte, one of the key spaces in the area at that time. Using maps, floor plans, architectural motifs and other source materials (including ads for electronics from the period), Nagy created xerox works that foregrounded the image-degrading defects of the process as copies were minted from copies. A comment on late-20th-century image glut and its deleterious impact on culture, these compositions were eventually translated into paint to increasingly abstract effect. In the late 1990s, Nagy reestablished Nature Morte in New Delhi as a showcase for contemporary Indian art (and has since added a Berlin branch). This is his first show in New York since 1997.