Coke Wisdom O’Neal’s “Blue Nude” traps its subjects in a Plexiglas box
Mixed Greens
531 West 26th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through Saturday, March 19, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
212-331-8888
www.mixedgreens.com
www.cokewisdomoneal.com
Since 2005, New York City-based artist Coke Wisdom O’Neal has been filling Mixed Greens with enchanting photos of men, women, and children standing in a twenty-two-foot-tall unpainted wooden box. Although the photographs appear to be digitally manipulated, they are not; the subjects are encouraged to dress however they want and bring objects with them, but their identity gets lost inside the mammoth specimen box, making them look minuscule and unreal until visitors get up close and spend time with them. For his fifth solo exhibition at the gallery, O’Neal has turned things around with “Blue Nude,” a series of striking photographs of naked men and women who have squeezed into a small, transparent Plexiglas box, folding and twisting their bodies to desperately try to fit in the cramped space. From a distance, it appears as if the people are trapped in the white walls of the gallery itself, trying to burst free, but up close their contorted bodies are both beautiful and painful to look at. While O’Neal’s previous shows offered his subjects several layers of freedom, these claustrophobic photos snatch that away from them, robbing the anonymous men and women of any identity whatsoever, making the viewer both awestruck and uncomfortable — and wondering if they would be able to fit in the box themselves. As with O’Neal’s earlier work, many of the photos seem unreal, primarily the ones in which the bodies push up against the box, at times looking more like paintings. “Blue Nude” is another fascinating show from this inventive photographer.