Three painters explore semiotics without tears in solo New York exhibitions

James Hyde, Suzanne Caporael, and Graham Parks each have solo exhibitions in New York galleries, presenting work that revisits art and language without the arid posturing of 1970s semiotics. James Hyde's show at Brent Sikkema runs until February 5, incorporating parquet and toy bricks to literalize building blocks, with one piece titled "Paragraph." Suzanne Caporael's exhibition at Greenberg Van Doren Gallery continues until February 12, featuring her "Reading Time" series with literal imagery like figures and buildings, while her earlier 2003 series "Littoral Drift" was inspired by John Stilgoe's "Shallow Water Dictionary." Graham Parks displays new work at Feigen Contemporary until February 19, moving from functionalist architecture to nature scenes photographed in Spokane, Washington, and Kyoto, Japan. Hyde's current exhibition marks a departure from recent sumptuousness, returning to rough, ready inquisitiveness with surfaces of plastic sheeting, chromed steel, and vinyl. Caporael's paintings exhibit dispassionate intensity with slippery grounds and ambiguous colors, while Parks's new images show increased intricacy and density compared to his earlier haiku-like precision. All three artists engage in what might be called semiotics without tears, laying bare pictorial syntax while encouraging poetic whim.