ArtReview by David Everitt HoweArtReview
April 2009

This exhibition was inspired by Newman's move from New York to St Petersburg in 2004 and is a culmination of her time there as both a resident and a foreigner. The four films collected here quietly but skillfully juxtapose, parallel and articulate Russian and American culture. 'Valhalla, New York/Chernova, Leningradsky Oblast' (2008) offers a split-screen passenger-seat view of the strikingly similar countryside around the New York hamlet and the post-Soviet vacation destination. In another split-screen video, footage of Newman's son in a nursery school is paired with video of a quiet, solemn Russian ethnographic museum. That Newman partly suppresses her own role as objective observer is commendable.