I Like the Art World and the Art World Likes Me
January 14 – March 5, 2011
Opening:
Friday, January 14, 6-8 pm
323 West 39 Street
2nd floor
between 8th and 9th aves
New York
www.efanyc.org/i-like-the-art-world-and-the-a
Artists: Conrad Bakker, Marc Bijl, Jennifer Dalton, Eric Doeringer, Nancy Drew, Bill Drummond, Alex Gingrow, Simon Grennan & Christopher Sperandio, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Charles Gute, Nate Harrison, Pablo Helguera, Dan Levenson / Little Switzerland, The Matthew Higgs Society, Loren Munk, Filip Noterdaeme, Laurina Paperina, William Powhida, Ward Shelley, Jade TownsendCurated by Eric Doeringer
We welcome in a new year of art with the exhibition I Like the Art World and the Art World Likes Me—featuring artists whose subject matter is the art world. The title plays on Joseph Beuys’s infamous performance I Like America and America Likes Me, in which the German artist inhabited a small gallery alongside a coyote. Organized by “bootleg” artist Eric Doeringer, I Like the Art World and the Art World Likes Me explores the fraught relationship between emerging artists and the established art world. The exhibition title can be read as either sincere or sarcastic, as these artists all have “love/hate” relationships with the art world. They desire to participate more fully and to be recognized but are simultaneously repulsed by some key aspects. There is a critical or iconoclastic character to much of the work, but also a great deal of reverence. Despite their criticism these artists clearly love art.
Many of the artists in the exhibition use forms of mimicry to challenge the hierarchy of art world. Some make work based on pieces by earlier artists, others emulate institutions such as museums, galleries, and art magazines. A few choose to comment more directly, addressing their criticism of artists, critics, and galleries by name. Others take a more documentary approach, charting the history of their forebears and/or contemporaries. However, these works are not impartial accounts—they are personal and critical responses to the art (and the art world) of the 20th and 21st centuries. Like Beuys and his coyote, the relationship between these artists and the art world is constantly shifting—sometimes friendly, other times adversarial, with the constant threat that someone might get bitten.
An illustrated publication that includes a curatorial essay will accompany the exhibition.
Artist Filip Noterdaeme will be greeting the public at his Homeless Museum booth in the gallery every Saturday from 1 – 6 pm.
Additional events will include: a discussion led by curator Eric Doeringer with artists Jennifer Dalton, Loren Munk, and William Powhida, talking about the ways that their subject matter and art careers have influenced each other; and an evening of performances about the art world, including advice from The Estheticist (aka Pablo Helguera) and Dr. Lisa Levy.
Dates and more details on these events will be published shortly. For more information, or for press inquiries, please contact michelle@efanyc.org.
EFA Project Space is a Program of The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts.
EFA Project Space, a multi-disciplinary contemporary art venue focused on the investigation of the creative process, aims to provide dynamic exchanges between artists, cultural workers, and the public. Art is directly connected to its producers, to the communities they are a part of, and to every day life. By contextualizing and revealing these connections, we strive to bridge gaps in our cultural community, forging new partnerships and the expansion of ideas. Through these synergies, artists build on their creative power to further impact society.
The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA) is a 501 (c) (3) public charity. Through its three core programs, EFA Studios, EFA Project Space, and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, EFA is dedicated to providing artists across all disciplines with space, tools and a cooperative forum for the development of individual practice. www.efanyc.org
EFA Project Space is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Private funding for the Gallery has been received from Lily Auchincloss Foundation and The Carnegie Corporation Inc.
