July 10 & 17, 2006 The New Yorker > Galleries-Chelsea

Martin Schoeller

Yikes! If you think that the closeup portrait photos Schoeller makes for the pages of this and other magazines are disconcerting, wait until you see them looming more than four feet high on the wall like Big Brother (and Sister) posters. Schoeller zooms in so near to Angelina Jolie, Valentino, Pele, Donald Rumsfeld, and Jack Nicholson that the viewer has to back off just to get some perspective on the odd terrain. The faces that appear impervious to this sort of scrutiny (including Bill Clinton’s and Brad Pitt’s) are, in the end, no less alarming that those that have clearly weathered some storms. But it’s interesting to see Cindy Sherman in this company—the master of disguises looks just as inscrutable without on. Through Sept. 1. (Hasted Hunt, 529 W. 20th St. 212-627-0006.)