Deana Lawson at Gagosian in Chelsea, NYC: Edge Control Closes October 24

Deana Lawson's first solo exhibition with Gagosian is on at 541 West 24th Street in Chelsea and closes October 24, so only a couple of days remain. According to the gallery, the show brings together mirror-framed photographs and holograms that deal with personhood, surveillance and control.

The core of the show is Edge Control, a series Lawson began in 2023. It takes its cue from the surveillance snapshots of customers that beauty-supply stores pin behind the counter to deter theft. Hyperallergic's review describes the practice as a long-standing ritual of humiliation. The review also quotes Lawson from a recent New York Times interview, saying she feels more kinship with the people on the wall, as if she were stealing a picture of them stealing.

The other thing to know before you go: photography is not allowed. Hyperallergic's critic reports that visitors are handed Gagosian-branded stickers to cover their phone cameras. The critic found that having to rely on memory alone fed into the show's questions about who gets to authorize or deny access to an image.

Lawson was born in Rochester, New York, and is known for photographs that look like intimate documentary scenes of Black life but are carefully staged. She has also worked with mirrors and holographic photography. In 2018 she became the first photographer to win the Guggenheim's Hugo Boss Prize, and ARTnews reported in 2022 that Gagosian would represent her alongside David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles.

The gallery sits in Chelsea's West 24th Street cluster. Gagosian's other current New York show, new sculptures by Jordan Wolfson at 555 West 24th Street, also closes October 24.