“Objects and Everyday Goods” a group show at the Mike Weiss Gallery includes a series of five of Michael Zelehoski‘s “Incomplete Cube” re-purposed wood and ply wood paintings.

The subject matter, the title as well as the materials, immediately reminded me of Sol Lewitt’s 1974 installation “Incomplete Open Cubes”. But these paintings have an extra element of complexity. The 2-D paintings acquire their perception of depth without the use of shading. Instead foreshortening and lines are used to illustrate which elements of each cube is in the foreground or the background.

In this middle painting the center horizontal leg seems to be cutting across the front of the figure but it is attached to the vertical leg at the right of the image that seems to be in the background. So this is not really a cube. if all of the angles in the form are 90 degrees it is actually an impossible figure. What I found so interesting about this work is the way it appears to directly reference historically important work but up on closer inspection there is an unexpected twist that takes the work into a more complex geometry.

Susan