David Cohen reviews the exhibition Bianca Beck: Body at Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, on view through December 23, 2011.

Cohen writes: "There is something deliciously grubby about the paintings and sculptures of Bianca Beck. She favors distressed, punctured, encrusted surfaces, an earthy, at times visceral palette and painterly gestures that border on violence. Lacerations, smudges and sgraffito incisions attack the paint as if in a last-ditch attempt to extract imagery from recalcitrant materials."