The twenty small photographs in Melrose’s exhibition appear to be nearly monochromatic abstractions: grainy pictures of nothing but color. But they are in fact pictures of the artist’s finger seen in extreme closeup by his iPhone. The low-tech device dispenses with specifics (there’s no sense of size or shape) and records only ambient light bouncing off flesh in a range of sunset hues, from marigold to tangerine to rose to plum, from a blush to a bruise. The series recalls Richard Misrach’s big photographs of empty skies, but Melrose isn’t fishing for comparisons; he keeps his scale modest and his gorgeousness strictly contained.
Through Sept. 12. (Wild Project, 195 E. 3rd St. 212-228-1195.)