Fiona Banner turns the traditional nude into a ‘wordscape’ by using words on paper, or wall, or metal, or canvas to describe the body by transcribing the vision. Language plays an important role in Banner’s works, as the artist is known for creating handwritten texts that describe films or sculpting larger than life punctuation marks. Our inability to use language effectively to express our thoughts and emotions is an important theme that runs through Banner’s work.

Artist: Fiona Banner
+ frithstreetgallery.com

Why more Bill Owens? Because his work is simply too good to resist. Owens’ colour photographs are rich in clarity and exposition. Whether he is pointing out a bigger picture or not can always be discussed, but what first hits the viewer is the image itself. The smoothness of the cheese in a burger (and how the lettuce matches the salt and pepper shakers), the uniformity and individuality of an army of lingerie mannequins, the what-you-see-is-what-you-get aspect of good ol’ American cooking – you want to get right into the picture. The photos here are all from the America gallery, but be sure to check out Travel and Food, too.

Artist: Bill Owens
+ billowens.com

A recent exhibition at MOCA presented photographs from the Bill Owens’ book Suburbia, whose title says it all. The book was published in 1973 and was based on photojournalism done by Owens in the San Francisco area from 1968 – coincidentally 1970 was the year in which the American suburb was home to more Americans than either city or country. The photos in this collection are all about the icons: bungalows, station wagons, Tupperware parties, block parties and nuclear families.

More Bill Owens tomorrow.

Artist: Bill Owens
+ moca.org

Richard Bosman’s father was a sea-faring man, so water and its power was a typical topic within Bosman’s earlier oeuvre. He has hit land since those days, and Bosman’s more recent works are much woodier in nature. The broad, hasty brush strokes of Drowning Man depict a rougher ride than the smoother control evidenced in Shaker Dresses and Roadside Furniture. Bosman was once grouped with painters of Bad Painting (yes, this is a genre), but with time, his style has evolved considerably.

Artist: Richard Bosman
+ eharrisgallery.com
+ rbosman.com

Follow-up to Boring Postcards (the grey one), Boring Postcards USA (in beige) by Martin Parr, who collects them, is exactly what it purports to be: many boring postcard bound together in a book without text. Lots of blue sky and deadly dull scenes of toll booths, cafeterias and interstate highways. But somehow the plain cover and simple title are odd enough to catch the eye and once inside, it is too easy to linger. Much time is spent asking “why?, and then even more investigating the details in a “where’s Waldo” sort of search for the point of it all. Boring is the new fascinating and this is the perfect book to while away time spent in boring queues or waiting rooms. Great for storytelling.

Paperback, 176 pages, Phaidon 2004, $9.95 at Amazon.

+ Boring Postcards USA at Amazon

Shag has an exhibition of new works, Donna con Bambino, at the Jonathan Levine Gallery. More yummy palettes of hedonistic sophisticates relaxing comfortably, often with their pets (of all kinds).

Pretty:darn:swell is an online print gallery of work from artists around the world. What is unusual about p:d:s is that five dollars from the sale of each print goes to the charity of the artist’s choice. Art making a difference.

The title of Alex Gross’s latest show, The Day of the Locust, is a reference to the 1939 novel by Nathaniel West that served as a critique of the American dream. Gross’s work is allegorical, mixing elements of modern consumerism with characters stranded in time and space. Snakes, crows and butterflies surround lonely men, women and animals who may be well-dressed and well-shopped, but look terribly lost and abandoned by their own society.

Artist: Alex Gross
+ copronason.com

The works on paper by Reykjavik artist Sigga Bjorg Sigurdardottir are mysterious depictions of headless creatures relating to other fluffy, yet angular, beings of unknown origin. Are these embodiments of Icelandic trolls, elves and spirits? They wear long socks, sweaters, tutus and boas, or very little at all. The interactions between Sigurdardottir’s characters seem sometimes violent, other times loving, often times involving the outpouring of liquid. Water, blood, emotion itself?

Artist: Sigga Bjorg Sigrdardottir
+ galerieadler.com

The idea of a conventional family is one that varies enormously and the recent series called Perfect Families by Gwyneth Leech shows just how diverse the modern family can be. Having children with special needs, same sex parenting, mixed-race marriage and transracial adoption are all situations that still can turn heads. Leech calls this a “conspicuous family” and commemorates this diversity with her sensitive portraits of real families from her New York City neighbourhood. The paintings themselves are simple portraits and the topic should not even be considered out of the ordinary, but eventually it will go from being one that is modern and contemporary to a fact unworthy of any note. One day.

Artist: Gwyneth Leech
+ gwynethleech.com

Gage Opdenbrouwer is a San Francisco area painter whose work covers the realm of landscape and figurative oils that play with the notions of identity and mystery. The Day of the Dead is a recurring theme in Opdenbrouwer’s art, working its way in via death masks and skeletons. These haunting paintings can be frightening, but is it because of what lies below the surface or simply our own reaction to what we see?

Artist: Gage Opdenbrouwer
+ engageingart.com

German painter Günter Beier puts the popcorn into pop art with detailed canvases of childhood treats. Sweeter still are his depictions of licorice all sorts (you can practically taste the faint coconut flavour of the pink one) or ribbons of traditional black licorice. Beier’s series of limp balloons waiting to be blown up fit nicely into his oeuvre of pleasures of a past that does not have to be over.

Artist: Günter Beier
+ guenterbeier.de