Art Star

Since her acclaimed 2002 debut show about Frank, the last man on Earth, Dana Schutz has become one of the most praised painters of her generation, known for her absurdist scenarios and raucous use of color and gesture. For her latest exhibition, “Fight in an Elevator,” opening September 10 at Petzel gallery, in New York, the Brooklyn-based Schutz, 38, once again puts her panoply of characters in impossible situations. A chic couple exchange blows in an elevator, their fight refracted in the compressed, mirrored space. Students in a life-drawing class grapple with a giant octopus. A lion eats its tamer. “The compositions are jerry-rigged and feel like they could fly apart,” Schutz says. “The paintings are about the feeling of being in a body.”