Hansi Fuchs: SUGAR CRASH

SUGAR CRASH is filled with boxes: stacked, nested, painted, turned into grids, built into whole cities. It runs on two contradictory feelings: wonder at what might be inside, and suspicion that the boxes might be Pandora's.

A shelf of primary-colored felt boxes greets you. One holds a felt orrery: a little sun, Saturn, and Earth on sticks, plus an actual Milky Way bar and a pack of Orbit gum. The solar system has become the candy aisle. Adorable.

The paintings are cheery on the surface, slightly dark underneath: a Monopoly board washed in pink, cartoons smothered with red gingham, alphabet blocks falling, shadowy silhouettes of Santa, scissors, and… handcuffs?

Deeper in, decorated vintage Viennese chocolate boxes rest on baby pillows, a nod to the Betthupferl, the sweet given to Austrian children before bed. The "chocolates" inside disturb: a cancerous rabbit, a zombie dragon, a brain that looks like excrement.

It all leads to the show's centerpiece: a metropolis of stacked gray felt storage boxes with a toy train running through the center. It might be made of Joseph Beuys's famous material of warmth and survival, but it’s held together with children's Band-Aids.

With Canal Street loud and cantankerous outside the gallery, it dawns on you that the show is a mood board for the now-trembling fairy tales we raise our children on. All we can hope for is a sweet, soft landing.

Hansi Fuchs (b. Linz, Austria, 2000) lives and works in Berlin. She recently graduated from Hamburg’s Hochschule für bildende Künste, where she studied with painter Jutta Koether. Her work has appeared in group shows in Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Ljubljana, and Vienna. She also co-runs the curatorial project Galerie Klein with artist Milena Langer. SUGAR CRASH is her New York debut.