PATRICK KRAMER Masterworks in Ruins

In his second solo show at Arcadia Contemporary, Patrick Kramer offers an array of "destroyed masterpieces." Kramer recreates famous paintings as if they had been damaged in some way.

- Meg Daly

Using trompe l'oeil, or trick of the eye effect, the masterworks appear in three-dimensional settings, scraped, covered in rubble, surrounded by objects or otherwise in a state of decay.

Kramer made a name for himself with his impeccable realistic still lifes and figures, often featuring butterflies, flowers and beautiful women. In recent years, his tone has turned darker as he began imagining famous paintings under duress. One influence has been his wife's work as an archaeologist. He started playing with covering masterpieces in rubble, as if they were excavated at an archaeological dig.

This approach is evident in paintings like Discarded Goddess, in which the goddess Venus peeks out coquettishly from clumps of dry earth. Venus' face is taken from The Birth of Venus, the 15th-century painting by Sandro Botticelli. The original painting shows Venus emerging fully formed into the world, attended by angels, flowers and gentle sea breezes. Kramer's Venus, however, has not weathered the ravages of the earthly realm. She looks almost laughingly fragile compared to the encroaching dirt.