NEW YORK MAGAZINE

By Christopher Bonanos

Edward Burtynsky makes beautiful art of horrible places: a nickel mine whose tailings turn a river blood-red, a dam project that bleaches every hit of color out of the landscape.  His "Oil" photographs take us through steel pipelines, immense ships, desolate desert fields, and the spidery highways of Los Angeles.  They're gorgeous as abstractions - but there's nothing abstract about the infighting they portent (at HASTED HUNT KRAEUTLER through November 28).