Top of the Trash Heap

Jason Mecier is a portrait artist who uses the junk-drawer detritus of consumer society to painstakingly construct images of famous people. His skill is severe -- he does not simply attach buttons, plastic combs, and paper clips to paintings, but instead creates three-dimensional mosaics by carefully arranging the odd and ends. It's one of those baffling, witchcrafty talents that real artists use to torture people who aren't. But what if Mecier used military-grade, highly sought-after junk instead of garden-variety crap he found around the studio -- meaning, what if he used the very junk that the stars used to own? Sha-zam! Mecier gets a gold star, a loft in Soho, and Chuck Close's private line. His show, "Celebrity Junk Drawer," perfectly executes this brilliant idea, and it includes a dizzying array of notables (and their stuff -- which is decades more interesting than regular stuff), including Phyllis Diller, Morgan Fairchild, Parker Posey, Pink, Elvira, Tura Satana, Lydia Lunch, Margaret Cho, Kate Pierson, Sara Gilbert, Ryan Adams, and Heidi Fleiss.