The religious art of medieval Europe, and the Renaissance, wasn't worried much about historical accuracy in the imagery of Bible stories; they showed the characters in what was, for the time, contemporary garb. Which had the effect (perhaps deliberate, perhaps not) of making the stories more immediate and more accessible for their audience, and making it easier to identify with the characters.

Tanya Steinberg is trying the same thing with her paintings of the stations of the cross, each picture quoted straight off the newswires -- some from Latin America, some from Africa, some from here at home, and one apparently from Iraq. In Stations of the Cross 3 -- Jesus falls for the first time, three cops in riot gear are dragging a prisoner; in Stations of the Cross 12 -- Jesus dies on the cross, a dead, emaciated child is suspended in the hands of another, head blocked out, leaving only the body as a cross. The pictures are unsettling, moving, and a lot more impressive close up than in the snapshots on the net -- if you can make it to the Nielsen Gallery on Newbury Street before June 19th, that would be highly recommended.

(By the way, the gallery has faced no harrassment, which is nice to see -- a staffer there was shocked to hear about the trouble a gallery in San Francisco faced when showing a slightly more topical exhibit; that gallery was forced to close).

Also recommended, if you have the chance: the video installations at the Rotenberg gallery, collectively "Google-ing the Real", also through the 19th, and Melora Kuhn's all-too-knowing little girls at Chase through the 26th.