"Abstract Reality at Solomon Dubnick"
by David Roth, Artweek. June 2003 (excerpt)
In a region where figuration and funk have long held sway, it's hard not to be curious when a gallery that leans toward those genres decides to unveil an exhibit of nearly ninety abstract works by six artists. Though the show carries no discernable theme other than what's indicated by the title, it hits most of the bases implied by that designation: works that are loosely representational, non-objective, quasi-figurative and non-representational. What we get is the equivalent of six one-person shows. [...]
Gesture, geometry, color and an attraction/repulsion relationship with the city are the ostensible subjects for painter Laura Hohlwein. The convergence of these interests yields paintings that are festive and forebeoding. They appear to originate as darkly shaded geometrical abstractions like outlined urban grids viewed from on high. But overtop these grids, Hohlwein applies tropically colored geometrical shapes whose interiors are distressed and edges are either sharp or blurred. This collision of apparent opposites keeps the viewer engaged, but also off-balance and out-of-focus, a dynamic that effectively conveys an ambivalence about urbanity. [...]
Abstract Reality is an ambitious undertaking that showcases some exceptional artists. [...]