Caleb De Jong reviews the exhibition Caro Niederer Paintings at Hauser & Wirth, New York, on view through July 27, 2012.

De Jong writes: "Niederer's transformation of photograph to hand-made object informs her entire practice… [Her] pre-existing source material, family snapshots, postcards, Indian erotic imagery, is twirled through her chosen medium, in this case paint…  Niederer's exhibition questions the aura of painting, how it is only activated in a gallery space in juxtaposition to the photograph which is active at all times in our waking and dormant life. For Niederer, painting is aesthetic and hierarchical, while the photograph is mercurial, transitional and most of all, personal."