THE NEW YORK TIMES — Slater Bradley ‘Charlatan’ by Roberta Smith

In his second solo show, Slater Bradley investigates the spatial and emotional possiblities of video, concocting moments of filmlike artifice, real-life documentary and 6-o’clock-news intrusiveness with unusual concision and impact. Different as they are, the four projected videos in this show, each about three minutes long, have a consistent sense of finality, specificity, and revelation. 

Most elaborate is “The Laurel Tree (Beach),” which features the actress Chloe Sevigny standing on a beach reciting a brief excerpt from Thomas Mann’s 1903 short story “Tonio Kroger.” The passage, which swiftly and eloquently contrasts the sacrifice of being an artist with the touching yet irritating presumptions of the dilettante, is written in an unmistakeable 19th century male voice. To hear it commandingly spoken by a woman against a lowering sky drained of color and accompanied by the romantic strains of Georges Delerue’s score for Godard’s “Contempt” is deeply affecting. It is a declaration of artistic intent that makes one eager to see what Mr. Bradley will do next.