Last Chance

Catch it or regret it

by Holly Otterbein

American men are so enchanted by their cars that, for a photo, they'll wiggle into their finest leather jackets, wax their mustaches, saddle up next to their rides and beam proudly — all despite the fact that the 'ol beater can't sputter its way down a driveway. You've no doubt seen these pictures in your dad's albums.

Such is the loyalty of the subjects in Caddie, Honda (pictured) and Rocket Car, three oil-on-canvas portraits in Michael Kowbuz 's exhibit "Michael, Where Are You? Altered States of North America." Though the show includes 16 pieces total — almost all of which involve cars, a curious fixation given that Kowbuz doesn't own one — these three works are by far the most compelling. They prod the viewer to ask herself questions about identity, objecthood, nostalgia and the dubious similarities between crushing on a car and falling for a woman.

Kowbuz, co-owner of Cerulean Arts, is exhibiting for the first time since opening his gallery in 2006, and blames his laborious pointillist style for holding things up. It was well worth the wait: In Caddie, Honda and Rocket Car, his dots of paint look as elaborate as needlework, and his layers of yellow, purple, red and opaque glazes give the illusion of photographs left in the sun.

Kowbuz's method also deftly reflects the exhibit's themes of nostalgia and the past. "To me, the dots are like a dream, or memory," he says. "They are coalesced now, but could in a moment dissipate into the ether."

Ends Jan. 8, Cerulean Arts, 1355 Ridge Ave., 267-514-8647, ceruleanarts.com.

If you have blood pumping through your veins, the first piece you'll see in "The Return of the Horse" group show is Yigal Ozeri 's Untitled: Jana and Jessica in the Field. The nearly life-size painting, rendered so realistic that your nose hairs will brush up against it before you realize it's not a photograph, depicts two pretty young things prancing naked in the grass. While it's undeniably gorgeous and skillfully wrought, it hardly speaks to the exhibit's theme like Natalie Frank and Vincent Desiderio 's paintings do.

According to curator Osvaldo Romberg, "The Return of the Horse" asserts that figurative painting can once again become art's most powerful medium. To do so, though, Romberg muses in his curator's statement, it must "adopt relevant and important subject matter. ... As the subject devolves, futility can plague any medium and it becomes craft." Ozeri's work borders on craft; Frank and Desiderio, who depict weathered Rwandan women (pictured) and Amish men in mourning, respectively, rise to the challenge.

Ends Dec. 26, Slought Foundation, 4017 Walnut St., 215-701-4627, slought.org.

According to curator Julien Robson, Barkley L. Hendricks ' "Birth of the Cool" show has been one of the best-attended PAFA exhibits, ever. That's quite a feat, but it comes as no surprise to longtime followers of the photo-realist painter and PAFA alum. See his larger-than-life '70s portraits of cool, confident African-Americans before they get sucked up into some New York museum forever.

Ends Jan. 3, $8-$15, PAFA, Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building, 128 N. Broad St., 215-972-7600, pafa.org.

(holly.otterbein@citypaper.net)