Fitted for Travel

Artist Libby Black re-creates not only high-end fashion products, like Louis Vuitton wallets and Kate Spade shoes, but also high-end real estate, like Louis Vuitton and Kate Spade stores. For some, her shows are a wry comment on consumer goods. For others, they’re a reminder that Union Square has some of the finest shopping in the country. Her success has prompted another golden symmetry: The cost of her goods now rival the real thing. Black used to live in San Francisco, but she recently moved back home to Texas, and her exhibit "The Past Is Never Where You Think You Left It" catalogues her lonely trip across the American west. Of course, she packed for it a like a celebutante out to detox at a dude ranch. In the drawing Keep it Light Enough to Travel, a Vuitton bag hangs off a covered wagon. Hermès horse reins (orange, naturally) rest on the floor, near a stack of hat boxes and a Vuitton camp cot strewn with personal mementos. One of those is her diary, tying her past to her present as neatly as the knot on a Tiffany bow.
Sept. 6-Oct. 27, 2007