The first artwork you see upon entering Adrienne Elise Tarver’s third solo show at Victori + Mo is a painting of a woman’s lower body under water. Her white bathing suit and brown legs float amid ripples of navy, grayish blue, and aquamarine. The piece, “Head Above Water” (2018), suggests glamorous freedom — but by the time I encountered it again on my way out, I understood it differently.
The exhibition plays on two meanings of its title, “Escape”: a vacation getaway and breaking free of bondage. Ms. Tarver connects them via the tropics, a frequent subject of hers and a region where idyllic beaches can mask histories of colonialism. In a series of small collages, she frames historical images of enslaved people and plantation workers within advertisements for cruise lines. They are cutting.
The highlights, though, are Ms. Tarver’s paintings, which are capacious enough to evoke ideas of voyeurism and exoticization alongside beauty. “Three Graces” (2019) is a life-size depiction, based on found photographs, of three women who were kept in 19th-century human zoos. Posing amid lush foliage, they look forlorn yet dignified. I thought of them when I returned to “Head Above Water.” Now, instead of seeing a scene of luxury, I imagined one of the women swimming to freedom.
JILLIAN STEINHAUER
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/arts/design/art-galleries-new-york.html