Goings on About Town: Across the Trees

Title aside (“Across the Trees” is a literal translation of “Transylvania”), this tight survey of contemporary Romanian art feels anything but bucolic. Black humor rules, as in Miklos Szilard’s assemblage—a fur hat crowned by a bloody bandage and called “Father.” Gabriela Vanga gets at the absurdity of reflexive violence with a “Tom and Jerry” segment from which the goading, clever mouse has been digitally erased, so that the poor, bumbling cat tortures himself. Cristian Pogăcean also contributes appropriationist animation, with the finger in Caravaggio’s “Doubting Thomas” allowed to actively and surreally probe the wound. Serban Savu, Adrian Ghenie, and Ciprian Mureşan’s bleak, dense little paintings and drawings round out the show. Through March 30. (Nolan, 560 Broadway, at Prince St. 212-925-6190.)

April 1, 2007