postcardlike

In the beginning, picturesque simply meant "like a picture" - in many cases a poor picture, a sentimental, postcardlike depiction of a self-consciously natural country scene.

It showcases a funky mix of video installations and photography as well as paintings ranging from postcardlike realism to more adventurous abstractions.

But the undercurrent of darkness is balanced by frequent signs of tenderness, like the postcardlike poster for a Bill Monroe concert in which the time, date and location of the event are to be found nestled in the postmark.

He had the singers act as naturally as one might, given the circumstances, and both Ron Kadri's set, a blown-up postcardlike backdrop of a mosque, and Anna R. Oliver's turn-of-the-century costumes abetted the sense of physical realism.

With its live feed from cities around the world and its sci-fi-noir, postcardlike snippets of spoken text, "Time Deferred on Cancellation," by the German-born, New York-based artist Jenny Vogel operates in the same orbit as Mr. Rondinone's and Fischli/Weiss's contributions to "Hard Light."