West Street Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of the works of Michele Abeles and Dominic Nurre. Works by each New York-based artist use the art object to isolate psychic charges in the environment.

Dominic Nurre has responded with a site-specific architectural installation. His untitled corrugated metal flap, set on a hinge, demarcates the space of the exhibition and the living room from the entrance hallway. The porous surface of the metal refracts light without obfuscating views within the space, creating a material but easily overcome obstacle. Nurre also shows a video, Rainbow Hunt (2007), which sees him returning to his home town of Mankato, Minnesota, riding in the passenger seat of his father’s car. Nurre records the subtle interactions between father and son as they set out to find the end of a rainbow. They are confronted with the scene’s dumb symbolism: Finally, visualizing the end of the rainbow yields no disappointment in the phenomena's myth.

Abeles’ Rock Test (2009) features a dull rock resting on a base. Like a maquette, the photograph was not initially intended as final, but as the first link in a series of images that would add components around the rock. This is a typical strategy used by Abeles, whose use of the photographic images often seeks to interrogate the subject being pictured and the object encountered. The artist’s 28th of August (2008) records an architectural surface, upon which read looping, humorous, and surprisingly alive accounts. This turns out to be an ad hoc diary of a New Orleans resident enduring the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Abeles' deliberately removes the image from its historical context, suspending its role as document.

In Spare Room, Joel Mesler shows new monochromes by Joshua Smith.