Asphalt City

J. Ivcevich is an artist who wears many hats: DJ, sculptor, painter, photographer, sock designer.

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That jack-of-all-trades approach fosters an openness to experimentation that can yield wonderfully fresh results. But it can also demonstrate a refusal to lasso multiple concepts together into one coherent little filly. Both tendencies are on view in Ivcevich’s solo show at Barbara Archer Gallery, Silhouette City and the Pastoral Paradox Reprise.

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The show touches on some familiar Ivcevich themes, including the industrial sublime of the contemporary landscape and the artist’s shout-outs to graphic design and graffiti. Ivcevich’s interest in cityscapes and industry can conjure up visions of Ed Ruscha and Charles Sheeler. But just as often, his work suggests the graffiti culture’s romantic attachment to the beauty of derelict, raw industrial spaces.

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There is much work in the show that makes one long for the old Ivcevich of stark, graphic canvases featuring water towers and utility poles. Some of Ivcevich’s familiar applications of graffiti-bright paint onto photographs of New York City landscapes can feel a bit old hat.

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But there are also individual works that show a bold, atmospheric new direction. “Colossus” is a wide-angle shot of the New York skyline that makes the cityscape look like a science fiction robot or Godzilla about to crush the viewer underfoot. Several of the images, such as “Amber Project” of an anonymous apartment block, convey the monumentality, glamour, anonymity and cruelty that a metropolis like New York City can offer.

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Also on view at Barbara Archer are Daniel Kramer’s black-and-white and color photographs from the mid-’60s of the many moods of Bob Dylan.

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There’s Bob Dylan playing chess.

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Bob Dylan hailing a cab.

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Bob Dylan standing still.

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And my favorite: “Bob Dylan Sitting in Tree with Child Watching,” which proves the ’60s counterculture could out-frolic even the Ovaltine set.

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J. Ivcevich: Silhouette City and the Pastoral Paradox Reprise and Daniel Kramer: Photographs of Bob Dylan, 1964-1965 are on view through Nov. 12 at Barbara Archer Gallery, 280 Elizabeth St., Suite A-012. Tues.-Fri., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 404-523-1845. www.barbaraarcher.com.