Sometimes, works of art are so attractive, so compelling, that you just have to move closer and hope they are as complex as they are good looking. Throughout the last year, Dimensions Variable, a Knight Arts Challenge finalist for 2011, has delivered on both accounts in its site-specific exhibitions.
The latest show from Magnus Sigurdarson, “Absenteeism,” might be the best example so far. Drive or walk by the space on 38th Street and from the outside you’ll get as good a look as any. The artist hung — no, really painstakingly placed — picture and painting frames, which form their own grid and, in the end, their own art piece. Looking in from the outside, they appear like a giant Mondrian; blond wood square supports, over which canvas paintings are stretched, are placed next to classic black frames, all of different sizes, to create a geometric painting all of its own.