Every July, New York swells with group shows. Slotted during the safest time to test new waters, these curatorial round-ups give dealers the chance to foreground young artists and contextualize them with established favorites. Themes are common but by no means mandatory. The best ones offer something fresh. Others trip over clichés.Clearing opts for transparency with its self-consciously titled “Fritto Misto.” While acknowledging the ubiquity and tradition of the summer group show with this play on the name for the fried Italian dish, the gallery manages to produce something that feels light and satisfyingly new.That feeling begins at the door, with the first New York presentation of artist Marguerite Humeau, the 29-year-old artist who just opened a solo show at the Palais de Tokyo, in Paris. Her elemental and polished sculpture at Clearing belongs to the body of work on view there. Based on research into elephant death rituals and the origin of language, the cast anamorphic “Gisant 2” looks like something from a post-apocalyptic sci-fi film. It stares at a large, flaming denim painting by Korakrit Arunanondchai and a petite stone wheel by Belgian artist Koenraad Dedobbeleer. The trio seems at once futuristic and primitive, like a snake eating its tail. The dynamic shifts in the second room, where a gigantic metal sculpture by the late Austrian futurist Bruno Gironcoli stands at attention. Cleaned up from its life outside, the work depicts a fictional knight atop an imaginary beast decorated with Edelweiss blooms. The only other pieces in the space are a 2014 painting by Harold Ancart and a 1990s-era sculpture by Huma Bhabha. Embracing a nostalgic albeit space-age aesthetic, both works use the rudimentary tools of the past to project into the future, like “The Jetsons.”In the show’s final space, the sun-flooded atrium, are three more works: a bronze onion blossom by Zak Kitnick, a flag by Marina Pinsky, and a clay purse by Calvin Marcus. The erect figure sitting atop Marcus’s purse looks longingly at Kitnick’s sculpture through the tangle of live pea plants that climb Pinksy’s flagpole. Composed of pieces by the gallery’s brightest stars, the tableau encourages a reading that balances conceptualism with humor. Nothing is too serious or too precious. It is the art equivalent of the Goldilocks principle; everything finds a natural equilibrium.Skillfully restrained, “Fritto Misto” succeeds in creating a coherent narrative that enhances rather than detracts from the individual voices. Representative but not comprehensive, the exhibition helps frame the cult that has grown around the relatively young gallery.
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