Laura Langer

Flowers pop out from a silver backdrop in What Decomposes is Nature (2021). The works are made by adhering a sheet of paper onto the canvas that is then traced and colored. Laura Langer’s edition consists of cropped and enlarged details of her eponymous painting series, which was shown this year in her solo show titled Homesick. The works’ broad strokes of silver ink shine through, contouring the flattened and colorful shapes. The silver background gives the paintings a metallic shimmer that makes it seem as if they were illuminated. Standing in front of them or at angle, the paintings shine, blurring our reflection as viewers and superimposing it with traces of marker and oil. Thus suggesting that such portraits of nature is what decomposes—and so does everything caught in their reflection. The series become projection surfaces—like silver screens bouncing light back. This reminds of Warhol’s Silver Factory, disidentifying with its blend of glamour, narcissism and art. Langer’s paintings instead register—like opaque mirrors—the decay of our own narcissistic self-reflection.