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

Deana Lawson's first solo exhibition with Gagosian is on view at the gallery's 541 West 24th Street space in Chelsea through October 24. It opened September 10. The show brings together mirror-framed photographs and holograms, and its subjects are personhood, surveillance and control.

At its center are selections from "Edge Control," an ongoing series Lawson began in 2023 and is now showing for the first time. The series looks at how beauty supply stores across the United States monitor their customers. Surveillance photos of suspected shoplifters are often pinned behind the counter. Hyperallergic's reviewer calls that practice a long-held ritual of humiliation. In an interview with T Magazine, Lawson said she identifies more with the people on the wall, as if she were stealing a picture of them stealing.

Two new holograms are also on view. They are encased in layers of glass and extend the "Edge Control" series. Lawson has said they were inspired in part by Philip K. Dick's novel "A Scanner Darkly" (1977). The show also includes a selection of her recent large-scale portraits, which draw on the look of family albums as well as the careful compositions and symbolism of seventeenth-century Dutch painting.

According to the Hyperallergic review, Lawson asked that no photographs be taken in the gallery. Visitors were handed Gagosian-branded stickers to cover their phone cameras. The critic writes that being unable to photograph made her question her own sight and memory. She says the series raises an ethical question about who has the power to authorize or deny access.

T Magazine published a long profile of Lawson online on October 1 for its "The Greats" issue. The print issue, with a self-portrait by Lawson on the cover, is available October 25. The exhibition closes October 24, so only a few days remain.