“Assembled,” TEMP Art Space, 47 Walker Street, closes June 14
I like David Scanavino’s murals a lot. In this show curated by Alex Ahn and Ari Lipkis, the Brooklyn-based Scanavino (who had a cool solo outing at Klaus von Nichtssagend gallery last year) works in his characteristic material, wood pulp applied directly to the wall. Finger marks are still in evidence, giving a sense of the quick-fire process; from a distance the rectangle of the dried material resembles an abstract quilt, shimmering immaterially with color but also radiating a defiant oddball object-ness. At TEMP Art Space, Scanavino’s mural (and wall-mounted Formica sculptures) are highlights of a group show hailing from a sub-genre of contemporary art consisting of things that look like painting, but arrive at the look by quirky means: Evan Robarts uses metal scaffolding to frame squares of paint applied directly to the wall, making a Mondrian-like grid; Gabriele Picco brings together bunches of colored scouring pads for painting-like assemblages… Still, Scanavino’s precise but dreamy process is what best shows the potential of this line of thinking for me.