by Holland Cotter

And Jack the Pelican Presents, after a memorable David Shapiro solo, brings together the work of four women artists whose careers have been in forward motion since at least the early 1980's. In that show, "Wry Material," Margaret Evangeline contributes a set of classy abstract reliefs created with sheets of stainless steel and a shotgun. Samm Kunce moves Earth Art into the gallery and lets it grow. Fariba Hajamadi photographs images of war and everyday life reflected in droplets of raw petroleum. Elana Herzog, in three 2001 pieces, unravels the fabric of patterned bedspreads thread by thread, leaving whatever remains intact attached to the walls by thousands of staples. Altogether, the work is formally direct, and art-historically trenchant; it makes much of what is happening elsewhere look tentative.