The exhibition is based on the eponymous novel by Richard Price - nine chapters, nine galleries, the story unfolds en route. The novel is set in the contemporary LES and through a murder investigation exposes the dynamically changing neighborhood, which despite its evolution retains a ghostly and vital link to its layered past (not a ghost, just a shell - OhMI).
The galleries host concurrent exhibitions, each referencing one of the nine chapters in the book. The curators selected one artist from each gallery to participate in the exhibition and solicited from each of them one additional artist recommendation of an artist not from one of the nine participating galleries. The curators then supplemented this base group of eighteen artists to complete nine exhibitions, ranging in size from three to twelve artists.
Our friend Kianga Ellis will be "checking in" from the Lower East Side throughout the exhibition. Friends are welcome to meet up and be interviewed about the show for the fellow blog: http://www.lushlifeles.com/
Sue Scott Gallery, 1 Rivington Street, suescottgallery.com
On Stellar Rays, 133 Orchard Street, onstellarrays.com
Invisible-Exports, 14A Orchard Street, invisible-exports.com
Lehmann Maupin, 201 Chrystie Street, lehmannmaupin.com
Y Gallery, 355 A Bowery Street, ygallerynewyork.com
Collette Blanchard Gallery, 26 Clinton Street, colletteblanchard.com - featuring Ishmael Randall Weeks
Salon 94, 1 Freeman Alley, salon94.com
Scaramouche, 52 Orchard Street, scaramoucheart.com
Eleven Rivington, 11 Rivington Street, elevenrivington.com
More upon return...
Upon return, did we get the satisfaction? Yes. Do we have anything (critical) to say? Of course. The distributed exhibition is a very good idea - and fun to follow, to physically connect the points of the (unknown) story in space, in which the story digresses in the way of telling. Yet exhibitions themselves are indistinct from one another except for loose thematic affiliations; gallery space is used in the most conventional way, there are no surprises, finds, or thrillers, but gallery business as usual, or even more so. Too many pieces, motives too repetitive - for instance, Chapter 3: First Bird (A Few Butterflies) at Invisible Exports presents bird after bird after bird, when what really flies is Owl by Xaviera Simmons, which, paired with her Untitled (2) evokes the darkly masked atmosphere of Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.
Chapter 6: The Devil You Know at Collette Blanchard gallery attempts to recreate the edgy mugginess outside; while kids who stayed behind cling to the doorways, the entry does not deliver the desire. The installation is not crowded and crawling enough to excite. As we move about, I am pointed to the perfect street intersection where to perform the rites for removal of evil eyes that are carried away by 4-way traffic as the devil egg crackles or explodes.
Back in the gallery, certainty softens and crumbles in view of Ishmael's workbench constructed of pulped and recycled New York Times (4 months of it, the title suggests); the same newspaper delivered a review of the exhibition in the morning:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/arts/design/09lush.html
Ishmael Randall Weeks, 4 month, 2010. Photo by Sidhant Bhagchandani
Back in the night, afterparty at the White Slab wasn't happening, but the female bouncer was a sweetheart, she accepted the password "Omar" in place of ID's (OhMI and her company are not identifiable). We left and came back.
-OhMI
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