By Michael Brenson
Friday, February 23, 1990
Review/Art

Ming Fay
Gallery 456
456 Broadway, third floor (near Grand Street)
Through today

Ming Fay was born in Shanghai and lives in New York. His sculptural objects suggest the traditional Chinese feeling for ritual and nature. There are blue and green plums, plenty of nuts, leaves that seem to fly off the wall like vampires and a gourd that looks like a ceremonial implement. Although realistic in shape, the objects are as much as 100 times their actual size. Several of the objects are elegant, sculptural forms that need to be seen in the round and that offer themselves for contemplation.

If these objects are rooted in Chinese tradition, however, they also boar the stamp of New York. They are very physical. They are ripe to the point of decadence. Not only are they brash, they are also more than a little naughty. A fat cherry and tall pear sitting together on a draped bench with a cool Neo-Classlcal air seem caught in a lubricious courtship. In the artist's hands, the plum, one of the most revered symbols in Chinese painting, becomes almost exhibitionistic. These sculptures may provoke contemplation, but they also provoke laughter, and they are definitely not discreet.

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