American artists from Ed Ruscha to Andy Warhol have embraced the sunset as source material for their art. In the hands of Sam Friedman, the setting sun takes on an eastern slant closer to a Murakami painting then, say, a Richard Prince cowboy painting. Friedman abstracts the landscape into elements that make this beach series uniquely watchable--and one of the few instances where it's perfectly fine to stare at the sun.
