Art Studio alumna Juliana Paciulli (MFA 2004) has a new exhibition, “Uh-Huh,” opening January 16 at Greene Exhibitions. In her second solo exhibition at Greene Exhibitions, Paciulli advances her examination of the complex psychological relationship between women and popular culture with a new series of photographs, video, and three-dimensional objects that employ the language of the absurd. Large-scale photographs depict a woman’s hand or hands interacting with colorful consumer objects and mass-produced props against a seamless beige background. These photographs use the sleek and economical vocabulary of advertising and commercial photography to stage humorously incongruous juxtapositions between the female body and charged objects: a hand with faux fingernail extensions fondles a molting rose, a flowering head of green lettuce is mischievously held over the pelvis of a skeleton sporting a bowtie, a handkerchief waving from a dainty hand bids adieu to a conch shell lying perilously on toy railroad tracks. Operating between still life and performance, document and artificial construction, these playful images cultivate an uncanny disturbance that invites viewers to interrogate their own relationship to fantasies of desire and consumption.

“Uh-Huh” runs from January 16 to February 27, 2016. An opening reception will be held Saturday, January 16 from 6-8 pm.