Angela Strassheim's Untitled (Alicia in the Pool).   (Photo: Angela Strassheim/Marvelli Gallery)

4. Angela Strassheim
Marvelli; 526 W. 26th St. Through December 2.
Honing the spectacularly apprehensive vision of midwestern family life she revealed in the most recent Whitney Biennial, Angela Strassheim focuses on daughters in her new photograph series “Pause.” Saccharine shots of birthday parties and horse-riding lessons are interspersed with more awkward and dramatic moments—presumably, the kind that later surface in therapy sessions. We see a JonBenet clone holding a dove on an immaculate canopy bed, a tween Botticelli standing in a backyard kiddie pool, and—more disturbing—an older girl being spanked by her father in a dimly lit bedroom. With its punched-up color (more pinks and greens than the Pottery Barn Teen catalogue), this series could easily have become cloying, but Strassheim, with her background in forensic photography, makes it work.

Related:

• Archive: “Art Features”
• Articles by Karen Rosenberg
• Table of Contents: Nov 13, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!