Allison Meier reviews the exhibition Phong Bui: Work According To The Rail, Part I (After The Flood), curated By Ricardo Kugelmas at Show Room, New York, on view through December 16, 2012.
Meier writes: "Despite the loss that preceded it, the tone of the exhibition at Show Room is one of exuberance, with an engaging playfulness with materials and techniques. … To say that the materials in the collage are eclectic is an understatement. Drawings of things like viking ships and tiny houses that could have been done by a child are juxtaposed beneath gouache and watercolor with envelopes, handprints, maps, newspapers from France, and pages and image from art and natural history. Bui used both his right and left hands to create the collage paintings, and there is a balance in their chaos and form. "