100-word reviews are a  format that we’re trying out at m-est on a regular basis. If you would like to contribute, please send an e-mail to contactmest@gmail.com. You can see the previous sets here, here, here and here.

The Lost Empire
Fouad Elkoury
The Third Line, Dubai
April 30–May 29, 2014

In The Lost Empire, Elkoury’s lens focuses on soviet military bases located on a geographical stretch from Eastern Germany to Estonia. Having frequently returned to his conflict-ridden hometown Beirut as subject matter, Elkoury this time documents captivating desolate destinations that he visited in 2010-2011, especially intrigued by descriptions like “nothing to photograph there.” He acutely traces light in abandoned spaces (and stories), engaging the viewers with the poetics of still and silence. In his recent solo exhibition, Elkoury vividly portrays nature that took over the unserviceable sites as present and powerful, despite the heavy emptiness associated with war and destruction.
—İpek Ulusoy Akgül

Things I Learned From Comic Books and Bumper Stickers
Kristen Morgin
Jane Harstook Gallery, New York
April 10–May 12, 2014

Post-It notes piggy farts Elroy Jetson blurting REDRUM
mermaids riding unicorns
Pushpins stickers comics
Painstakingly made of unfired clay
Dust Popeye staring down his cast-iron self, Dodo bird drawn on cigarette packs
Flaming love thrilling science fiction
A miniature Titanic lurking in a line-up of 18 teacups
Hearts and heads abound
HEAR THIS
Heads can almost always separate from bodies
Her own cardboard currency
Nothing can impact anything else
Everything impacts everything else
Expressions
And we all circle around a teeny-tiny model of Goya’s firing squad.

There’s a concurrent show at Zach Feuer Gallery; these are the things she keeps.
—Abby Donovan

Annabeth Rosen          
Ventana 244, Brooklyn
May 2-June 14, 2014

Imagine for a moment that you can see the oceans we hear inside of seashells. Far-off yet intimate are those echoing colors and mass that somehow and simultaneously cradle and isolate our heads. There is a swirl and solidifying slosh as rolling waves of inchoate noise wash, gather, form, hum, spread, roar. Close, no open your eyes. It is quite possibly the cosmic clamor of blood rushing through our veins.

Annabeth Rosen was curated by Josie Browne and organized by  Dan McCarthy. An accompanying catalogue, published by Beam Contemporary and the University of California Davis, features an essay by Nancy Princenthal.
—Abby Donovan

Tip Type
Brandon Boan
An ongoing project in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania

On South Avenue an artist walks into a triangle and spends his day there. Many days actually. The triangle is home to more than a few mechanisms, including 2 working linotype machines and 5,300 brass matrices. The artist passes his time fixing making printing repairing understanding. Sometimes he finds things. The apex of this triangle is a story and a half high heavy swing door vault with worn wooden cubbyholes. The artist rides his librarian ladder 1-­‐2-­‐3 sides and imagines a lending library float-­‐sending things into the world. To return.
—Abby Donovan

The Nature of Order
Elçin Ekinci
Daire Gallery, Istanbul
December 18, 2013–February 8, 2014

A spiked foot on unity,
A stiff leg on infinity,
A flag in heavy water.
A grainy figure,
A ground,
A hole in the ground,
A whole,
A pile of hot, shiny, gracious symbols,
A contemplation of the second law of thermodynamics,
A vexillology,
A shapeology,
A multipleness suppressed by multiplicity,
A downward spiral’s humming noise,
A concrete dune,
A golden stillness within quadrilateral tension,
A natural cycle,
A mixture of minerals, organic matter, gases, liquid, organisms,
A perceived earth,
A conceived Earth,
A dirt.

—Ali Miharbi

What Is It That You Are Worried About?
Banu Cennetoğlu & Yasemin Özcan
Rodeo Gallery, Istanbul
February 25–April 19, 2014

InnerSpeak? Yes. Keys? Yes. What do we start with? Keys? Page 1? Page 2? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Can I go to the keys? Page 1? Page 2? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Page 5. What we are going to do here? Keys? Page 1? 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Floral essence? Oil? Mineral? … Yes, Auro Soma. 1-10? 10-20? 20-30? 30-40? 40-50? 50-60? 60-70? 70-80? 80-90? 81? 82? 83? 84? Auro Soma No. 84. Was there a 100% solution here? No. 90%? 80%? 81%? 82%? 83%? 84%? 85%? 86%?
—Yavuz Parlar