Artists have continually questioned their status and place in society. The widespread vision of the artist as an outsider from the peripheries of social life, a utopia seeker, a celebrity selling works for millions or an erudite nonconformist who voices his or her opinions in the public debate, has spawned many myths concerning their privileges and obligations in the contemporary world. The exhibition formulates a question about the way artists define their status and position in the realm of an ever-widening economic gap: that of the possibility to reconcile dreams of social justice with the needmof artistic freedom and autonomy. At the same time, the show highlights the tension between artists’ rather ...

“Defacement” introduces twelve contemporary artists, and presents them in context alongside the “Situationist International,” an intellectual, social and artistic organization active from 1957-1972 which included Asger Jorn and Guy Debord. The Situationists aimed to critique the evolving mass-consumerist society resulting from the globalizing force of capitalism. At the core of the exhibition is a re-reading of the strategy détournement, specifically interpreting the concept of defacement. The exhibition includes painter Jacqueline de Jong, who was one of the original members of “Situationist International,” Andy Warhol, whose use of repetition negated the concept of preciousness and posed a question to our conception ...

CIVIL WAR| HOLOCAUST|PHOTOGRAPHS BLOODY, SEVERED LIMBS PILED UP. BEAUTIFUL FOREST VIEWS, LIGHT CASCADING THROUGH THE FOLIAGE, BATHING THE SKULLS AND BONES HAPHAZARDLY SCATTERED ON THE GROUND. THE WHIPPED AND SCARRED BACK OF A BLACK SLAVE, SITTING DOWN LIKE RODIN’S THINKER. WOUNDED SOLDIERS, THEIR EXPOSED BONES MUSHROOMING WITH INFECTED, PROLIFERATING FLESH. LEVELED MAIN STREETS IN DESTROYED CITIES. POST-BATTLE LANDSCAPES WITH UNDEFINED HORSEMEN IN THE BACKGROUND, RIDING AMONG WASTED NATURE AND DEAD BODIES. THE CORPSES LAY WITH THEIR FEET BOOTLESS, THEIR ARMS AKIMBO, THEIR MOUTHS OPEN. WALT WHITMAN DESCRIBED PRISONERS OF THE CIVIL WAR: “CAN THOSE BE MEN—THOSE LITTLE LIVID BROWN, ASH ...

The work of Nicolás Guagnini and John Kelsey manifests itself in distinctly different forms, yet the two share an affinity for playing with the roles and structures of the art world. The conversation includes discussions of some of their recurring topics and themes: gossip, the jeune-fille, institutional critique, the abject, humor and their participation in collaborative ventures (Orchard and Union Gaucha Productions for Guagnini and Reena Spaulings and Bernadette Corporation for Kelsey).