Published in Review -- The critical state of visual art in new york, February 15, 1998

Ming Fay
Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris through April 17
By Robert C. Morgan

Entitled the Garden of Qian, this installation by Ming Fay is one of the best and most cohesive of his recent works. When I say recent I mean within the past ten years. Fay is interested in fruits, roots, and vegetables. These relate indirectly to his Chinese heritage. Fay has a thoroughly Americanized perspective when it comes to art issues. This is to say that Fay understands not just the style of various movements in American art since the sixties, but he also comprehends the issues that support these styles.

The history of the recent work is not unrelated to Minimal Art in the sixties. There is a structureal sense of modularity in the work. In this case, delicious fruits and berries hang from the ceiling of the gallery off to the side. They are, of course, relatively garantuan - as Fay's work has been for nearly two decades - and are thoroughly, though ingeniously simulated.

There is content in the Garden of Qian that goes beyond appearances. It is a delightfully ornamental show in the same sense as a glass installation by Dale Chihuly, yet it is also a spectacular tour de force of simulation. Every detail of the vines, the fruit, and the leaves has been followed in Fay's papier mache and wire constructions. Beneath the installation above, is a floor of dirt below. To one side are garden rocks - or, at least, one presumes they are garden rocks. They are, in fact, papier mache.

The entire installation is a luminous simulation, band a gorgeous one. It is a profound and optimistic exhibition - a celebration of craft in the best sense of the word. That word being: enlightenment.

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