Art Review : Neususs: Sizzle Over Substance

Modern technology serves romantic purposes in Floris Neususs’ variously scaled photograms at Stephen Cohen Gallery. Glowing and ghostly, at once slick and mysterious, these unique camera-less images capture light as it permeates the surface of photosensitive paper, sometimes leaving crystal-clear traces and at other times recording indistinct shadows.

Neususs is a master of the arcane, difficult-to-control process in which he has worked exclusively since 1960, when he was 23. Taking giant rolls of chemically treated paper and dozens of lights into gardens and streets at night, he creates dense, layered images that seem to wrest the invisible essences from things, magically documenting the auras that emanate from people, plants and common household objects.

Initially, it’s fascinating to explore the artist’s capacity to draw with light, to watch him exploit contrasts between light and shadow, demarcating crisp silhouettes and freezing light’s luminous movement in the eternal present.

After a while, however, Neususs’ subjects fail to sustain interest. Without more engaging motifs than portrait silhouettes, leafy patterns and abstract forms, his stunning technical proficiency seems to be all smoke and mirrors, a repertoire of illusionistic tricks with little substance behind them.

* Stephen Cohen Gallery, 7358 Beverly Blvd., (213) 937-5525, through Saturday.