Friday, September 12, 2008

· A surprisingly affecting group show, "Way Down in New Orleans" memorializes the Crescent City's Hurricane Katrina travails. Dread Scott's elegiac installation -- posters of Katrina dead plastered on massive sheets of plywood of the kind used to protect storm-threatened homes -- marks the show's emotional center. Yet even the simplest print collage depicting a utility pole notched with past flood heights (Katrina tops a catastrophic 1849 levee breach) proves mournful.

Way Down in New Orleans at Civilian Art Projects, 406 Seventh St. NW, Wednesday-Saturday, noon-6 p.m., 202-347-0022, to Oct. 11.http://www.civilianartprojects.com.