<p>GALERIE ANNE BARRAULT 22, rue Saint Claude, Paris October 18 &ndash; December 20 2008 &nbsp; Heidi Wood embraces the visual efficiency of abstract geometric painting through a strategic application of shapes and colors. By rotating a selection of her new and recent paintings and photographs during each week of this exhibition&rsquo;s nine-week run, Wood insists nothing is final in her practice. The general palette of these works is derived from the women&rsquo;s autumn/winter 2008 collections featured at Galleries Lafayette, one of Paris&rsquo;s premier department stores. Wood also gathers the eerily familiar yet enigmatic shapes in her paintings from popular iconography &ndash; street signs, souvenirs, billboards and institutional architecture. In her 2007 series of photographs and illustrations &ldquo;Authentic New Mexico,&rdquo; she unravels the myth-making potentials of image and design. Documenting several &ldquo;faux-dobe&rdquo; neighborhoods and businesses, including a McDonald&rsquo;s, she highlights the construction of cultural identity and its systematic distribution. In <em>Authentic New Mexico 1</em>, for example, Wood juxtaposes a photograph of a teepee-shaped drive-through with her rendition of a kachina doll, the popularized Hopi totem. &nbsp; In turning the gallery into an evolving showroom and allowing her works to &ldquo;freeze&rdquo; only when acquired by a collector or museum, Wood demonstrates her estimation of the art market. While her paintings are unique, they are available for customization according to patron&rsquo;s specifications. Likewise, Wood treats her painted canvases &ndash; often made on upholstery fabric &ndash; like disposable products. As stated in the title of the show, &ldquo;use-by date,&rdquo; these works have a shelf life: five years. After this period, if Wood has not sold a painting, she will destroy it &ndash; enacting perhaps the sharpest assessment of trade in visual currency. &nbsp; <strong>Lillian Davies,</strong> December 2008<strong>&nbsp;</strong> Critics&rsquo; Picks Artforum.com</p>