The Sewers of Mars

An eclectic mix of artists, with practices spanning painting, film, and installation, are behind the idiosyncratic constellation of work presented in “The Sewers of Mars,” on view at Reena Spaulings.

A major theme among the pieces on view is the concept and realization of pastiche: For instance, in the video Body Double 23 (2007) (pictured), Brice Dellsperger, dressed in drag, emulates the murdered starlett Elizabeth Short as depicted in Brian De Palma’s The Black Dahlia (2006); elsewhere, Ken Okiishi’s Marcel Duchamp on StreetEasy.com (2011) pays homage to an iconic 1940s Manhattan restaurant called Gino’s while also referencing a real estate listing advertising Marcel Duchamp’s former studio.

Artists including Juliana Huxtable, Kai Althoff, Ei Arakawa, and Merlin Carpenter also have work on display.