Tom Burr / Walter Pfeiffer | The New York Times

Jan 14 2008

With a transgressive sense of humor, the artists in this joint exhibition invite us to peek into closets of various kinds.

Space-challenged New Yorkers will appreciate Tom Burr’s installation, “The Storage Project.” Mr. Burr has filled the gallery with storage furniture made from cheap fiberboard. Closets and nightstands, in various states of assembly, hold a motley assortment of the artist’s own clothing. A tangle of black socks spills from a drawer; stacks of faded corduroys are piled on shelves.

With this installation Mr. Burr reprises his 1993 project in an empty apartment of a French building designed by Le Corbusier, and inspired by the cluttered balconies of neighboring units. Mr. Burr’s shoddy closets have less resonance in a Manhattan loft gallery than those in Corbu’s famously unlivable spaces did; here storage seems more of a luxury than a right.

Walter Pfeiffer’s photographs have been exhibited previously alongside those of Karlheinz Weinberger and Ryan McGinley; like them, he has an affinity for rebellious, homoerotic subcultures. This selection of Mr. Pfeiffer’s work dates from the late 1970s to 2007, and includes both black-and-white and color shots.

Images of well-coiffed, pouty young men in leather jackets mingle with crisp, diaristic still lifes. In one photograph a bundle of Mr. Pfeiffer’s laundry is neatly wrapped in red-and-white-checked paper. Others show shirts and used towels, as if to extend the space of Mr. Burr’s installation.

Mr. Burr’s worn-out wardrobes and Mr. Pfeiffer’s alternately glam and grungy vignettes combine to form a personal space in a productive state of disarray.

KAREN ROSENBERG