004. Bad art days are inevitable.
So are good ones!
Pessimism about literally ANYTHING grinds my gears, so you can imagine my physic/mental/emotional state over the past week has been fraught. I have no time for people advancing their personal doomsday theories and indicating they have no intention of doing anything meaningful to prevent them from coming true.
Speaking of pessimism, one thing the art world peanut gallery loves to do is complain that the art of their moment is terrible!
The truth is that there’s always been a ton of gunk in the art world. There has always been a lot of “bad art” - whatever that means to you. Bad art can be overly conceptual, a fine idea poorly executed, or just really fucking ugly. It’s also subjective. You’re allowed to go against the consensus of “bad” and “good.” I would rather have a conversation with someone who metabolized a piece of art completely differently than someone who parrots my opinion.
I started ARTBREAK in the hopes of doing something positive and optimistic, but sometimes, even I have a “bad art day.” I’ll realize I walked an extra 20 minutes to a gallery that isn’t even open. I’ll find that a painting that looked cool on Instagram falls flat up close. I’ll feel like whatever I’m looking at is failing to light up whatever it is inside me that responds brightly to visual art.
Wednesday was one such day! I bopped around the East Village, LES, SoHo, and Tribeca, checking out some shows I had starred on SeeSaw. I’m sharing a few good ones below, but mostly, I felt icky and disinterested. It happens to the best of us, and it’s OK to not love or understand everything.
The important thing is to keep looking and listening closely to our own thoughts :)
A few things I liked (a lot of shows I’m excited about are opening this week, so I’ll hopefully have some fun recommendations later in the month):
March (East Village, 62-64 Ave A) - Y. Malik Jalal’s show is called “Break Neck Speeds” and incorporates materials, imagery, and themes of the interstate highway. I personally took from the show a reinterpretation of religious decorative elements (unclear if this connection is intended) - the ironwork inlaid with pixelated images reminded me of stained glass you might see in a church, if the church was a club in Ridgewood or something. I look forward to following Jalal now, new to me :)
Rachel Uffner (Lower East Side, 170 Suffolk - this show is inside and then UPSTAIRS) - You know I’m about to recommend looking at some small-scale paintings with bright colors and gestural flowers! Anna Jung Seo presents some beautiful work that deserves an up-close look. Her colors are INSANE. I really love these - interesting compositions that pack a lot into a small frame, and wonderfully complex color palettes that peel away to reveal the layers underneath.
Silke Lindner (Tribeca, 350 Broadway) - ALERT - CLOSES TOMORROW 11/16! Tommy Xie’s work explores the act of “mothering” as it relates to queerness, which sounds sort of heady and tangled up in identity that might not be relatable for all viewers, but what is there on the surface of Xie’s paintings is mysterious, sensual, moody, and not un-loving despite its coolness. Painting-heads will enjoy technical flourishes like curling smoke, luminescent skin, and ambitious perspectives.
Ok, not a book, but have you seen Anora yet? I saw it for the second time this week and it was even better on a re-watch. Films like this are what it’s all about.
As always, hope you enjoyed and please pass along to a fellow enthusiast :) xx