Ben Aqua, Hunter, 2010

Perhaps most surrealistic of the group is the work of Ben Aqua, including a haunting photographic portrait of a man dressed in head-to-toe camouflage in the woods. Without seeing his face and the seamlessness of shifts from the man’s patterned clothing to the branches that surround him, the only human characteristic evident is his bright orange cap, without which we might mistake him for a semi-human woodland character from the X-Files.

Helen Maurene Cooper, Junknails with Jam and Mexican Cookie, 2009

Helen Maureen Cooper’s photographs of nail art follow in this investigation of pattern and its relationship to the body. In this case, Cooper’s large format color photographs focus on the elaborate decorations that define Chicago nail art styles, revealing the subtle influence of race and class.

Yumi Janairo Roth, In Situ Houston, 2009

The sculptures by Yumi Janairo Roth combine authoritarian objects that are usually associated with drab unadorned order with bright, shiny and festive decoration. Also included are photographs of these objects in particular sites. For instance, one image of a barricade as disco ball covered in mirrored mosaic is placed on street corner in front of a deadpan policeman.

Thomas Cummins, Unit B, 2010

The exhibition also includes works by William Betts with his pixilated paint fields on mirrors suggesting the surveillance of 747 jets as well as works by Thomas Cummins , Michael Eddy and Matthew Noel-Tod. All together, these works evoke strange uncanny combinations that are beautiful and wild.