Andra Ursuţa, who was born in Romania in 1979 and has lived and worked in New York since 2000, operates in several modes, all cheerfully dark. There are the fine little nature studies of decomposing human forms and crawling insects framed in cast dirt that she has exhibited at White Columns, and the cutely sinister dollhouselike rendition of the modest one-room house she grew up in that can be seen, along with more drawings, in Ostalgia, an exhibition of art inspired by life in Eastern Europe at the New Museum. This little chamber is overseen by a white phantom made of the soap that her parents produced for a living.
For her second solo at Ramiken Crucible, Ms. Ursuţa has created a life-size tableau titled Vandal Lust that was partly inspired by The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment, Ilya Kabakov’s 1984 installation piece about escape from Soviet Russia. Vandal Lust centers on a crudely made catapult that has apparently been used in an attempt to launch the artist into space from the gallery. That she didn’t get very far is suggested by a large dent in the back wall and a babushka-wearing female mannequin (with a face resembling Ms. Ursuţa’s) that lies, slightly flattened by the impact, crumpled on the floor.