Repository 133: Art is Alive | Spot Report from NYC

I've just returned from a 4-day art soak in NYC - it was perfect and productive, and my consensus is that art is alive. While I would say that art seems most alive in the most venerable art institution, and some of the contemporary art galleries in Chelsea and the Bowery. There was a load of "meh" - especially in the major contemporary art "institutions". Overall though, it felt more promising than other visits.

Art is in transition: that is one certain fact. And it is one more reason why it would be vain to attempt anything in the nature of pontifical judgement on its immediate manifestations. We should be content with the fact that art is alive – more vital and experimental than at any time since the Renaissance. – Herbert Read, Art Now

The MetJean-Baptise Carpeaux's worketudesUgalini and His Sons Saturn Devouring His Sons-The Whitney BiennialWithin this curriculum, contours can be drawn around three overlapping priorities: contemporary abstract painting by women; materiality and affect theory; and art as strategy-in other words, conceptual practices oriented towards criticality*. Theoretically, the works that I included will each demand from the viewer a varied network of analysis.Michelle GrabnerThe surfaces and spaces of the gallery respond in kind, playing multiple roles - from white cube to theater to cinema to publishing forum, and sometimes all of these at once.I looked to answer Breuer's question with twenty-four artists and groups that fit a statement by poet Susan Howe: "I believed in an American aesthetic of uncertainty that could represent beauty in syllables so scarce and rushed they would appear to expand though they lay half-smothered in local history."was

5. Sarah Lucas and Collier Shorr - Hey ladeez!! Right next to each other in Chelsea, there is an uncharacteristically pretty and funny exhibit by Sarah Lucas at Gladstone Gallery, and a more quiet and thoughtful exhibit of Collier Schorr work at 303 Gallery. Both artists play with concepts of gender, identity and sexuality. Lucas' show "NUD NOB" is her first in the US in a decade. For it she's revisited some of her older work from the nineties with a twist of irony and success. Where they used to be gritty, found sculptural works in the early 90' (e.g. the brilliant piece "Au Naturel"), they are now shiny (Koon-ish), and big (Museum Please Collect-ish). Large eating banana photos and bronze penises are sure to provide a giggle or two. Schorr's work next door is a collection of images of eight women, titled simply "8 Women". The presentation and diversity of the types of imagery have a diary feel, as if you are reviewing the artist's private notes on the topic. In this regard, the mix of intimacy and gloss, it is successful.

*criticality (used in Michelle Grabner's Whitney curator's statement) is a fairly recent nuclear term that refers to the balance of neutrons in the system. I'm surprised the art system has acquired this term to apply to its weak and hesitant hybrid approach to artists, exhibits and theory. I don't see the art system as having nuclear power, though I am hopeful one day it can. PS. The Last Brucennial was on my list to visit when I first planned my trip months ago. However, when they announced this last rendition of show as "all female" yet refused to make any statements around the choice to do so, I decided not to go. There was a nice walk through on youtube by the gonzo art critic James Kalm which was sufficient viewing from my office. It was a seething roaring mess of female artists, yes the biggies (e.g. Barbara Kruger) are mixed with the no-names/up and coming (multiple colleagues participated), though this did not make up for it's lame absence of a premise. If you are going to pit art with females only Bruce, I prefer to know your intentions before agreeing to engage. So far the similarities to the Whitney Biennial are obvious: both have works of art featured that are cookies on a cookie tray (really), and both are like looking into the locker of an art school student showing their inspirations past and present. While this is the last Brucennial, I will submit the following for consideration at a future date: