The Winter Art Show (February/March 1993 | Volume: 44, Issue: 1)

The Winter Art Show

AH article image

Authors:

Historic Era:

Historic Theme:

Subject:

February/March 1993 | Volume 44, Issue 1

The ubiquity of the photograph has somehow failed to diminish trompe l'oeil’s fascination—in fact, rather the reverse is true—and nobody handles the medium with more eerie skill than Keung Szeto. Born in Canton in 1948, he gained his M.F.A. from New York’s Pratt Institute in 1979. Szeto has carried John Peto’s empty canvases about as far as they will go—one of his works features a single matchbook stuck to a black surface—but this example is so shaggy with persuasive tape that it’s impossible to pass by without feeling one’s hand twitch with the desire to touch it.