So, I did indeed attend last week's First Friday Art Walk, as per usual. My lateness in blogging is due to last weekend's beautiful weather and the subsequent busy work week.

I'll begin with Taken Out of Context, on view until June 30 at Whitney Art Works. The exhibitions at Whitney always impress me, and this show is no exception. Aaron T. Stephan's works are at once universal and insular, mind-blowing in their conceptual scope.

As soon as I walked into the gallery, I was immediately drawn to an assemblage of tiny people atop a pedestal. These minute sculptures reminded me of myself and my fellow gallery-goers: a disparate group united by a single purpose, yet somehow still distant from each other. In a way, that sums up the work in Stephan's one-man show.

I am always delighted to see his painstakingly created serial drawings depicting famous masterworks. The likes of Rodin and Vermeer are included, but Stephan does not merely replicate the works. He creates entirely new pieces using those iconic images as intellectual catalyst. In his artist statement, Stephan writes: "Here, repeated images and dissected forms bring to mind a careful exploration of what art history means to an individual art practice."

The "reinterpretation of...iconic forms" is a major theme of the exhibition. "Flat World/Round Map" is a riff on a mapping structure designed by Buckminster Fuller, while stacked classical Greek columns provoke meditations on culture and architecture.

"The Burden Crates" is a profoundly interesting work. Standard wood packing crates take the shape of the two characters in Chris Burden's performance, "Shoot," in which he was shot in the arm in front of an audience. Accompanying the two massive crate figures are Stephan's serial drawings depicting the performance.

The exhibition is absolutely worth visiting, and certainly worth hours of contemplation. Simply stunning.

At June Fitzpatrick Gallery, the Charles Darwin inspired works of Dorothy Schwartz are on view. From her artist statement, Schwartz explains the exhibition: "The drawings and prints in this exhibition reflect our links to each other and to endlessly evolving forms." I was especially intrigued by the many fine-line pen drawings on canvas, which are "an adaptation of penschilderij, a technique originated by 17th century Dutch artists." The collection of tiny, shimmering circles on black canvas were mesmerizing depictions of biological forms.

On a slightly un-art related note, I also dined at Emilitsa on Art Walk night. I have been wanting to try this new Greek dining experience since it opened not too long ago, and I am glad I did! The food, service, and atmosphere are all lovely.

Until next time!