It’s spring and it's finally starting to feel like it. Thank gawd. Get ready to get sexy NYC and to dust off the winter crust in
both external and internal ways.
March is the teaser month, it’s just winter wrapped up in a nice
sounding name. But have no fear,
the earth turns, the seasons change and it will only get warmer and
warmer. Spring is the best because
it makes you feel like life, love, and adventure are all possible again. This is true for art and I can’t wait
for the new crop of things to come up in the coming weeks and months. Going to openings, hanging out with
friends, seeing shows will not feel like a trek but an event to see and be seen
and to have prolonged talks and walks.
I’ve been busy living life in a way, which is good but exhausting. I saw a little bit of art this week but
nothing that stuck with me so instead I will use this post to reflect on
trends, predictions and whatever else pops into my mind. New Years may be in January but I think
April is when things will start blooming and the seeds sown will grow into the
flowers or the duds they will become for the upcoming months.
Still Lifes – Still lifes are going to be so super in that
it’s going to be like, whoa.
Really. This is a tried and
true form and it is being done in new ways now with the internet kids loving
their consumer products and all but the new still life will be more referential
and specifically recalling traditional forms. Food, flowers, dead things are going to be center
stage. Themes of opulence,
abundance, death, and life have been and will be the underlying focus in this
new iteration but things will be hyper-realized with new aesthetic and
composition. I hope that in this
new batch there is some oil paints and also sculpture with some ooziness and
not all just slick reboots. Grab
some tulips, an orange and a dead rabbit and give it a go yourself if you find
yourself in the mood.
Overalls – Get a pair, they are comfy and stupid all at the
same time. Yay.
Veganism – It was en vogue in the 2000s and if you are a
certain age you have probably given it a whirl yourself. Veganism in a mass-pop way has never
been “in” but I think this time around more will be participating in it then
you think. Maybe if they rebranded
the word ‘vegan’ or made a new name for it like ‘best life’ then it would be
more conceptually palatable for people.
I don’t know about you all but the whole bacon on everything, paleo-diet
is like sorta mental to me. I’m
not a vegan, never have been but I think that everything from the 2000s is back
and has been back in a big way and it’s already loosing its irony fringes so
the next step in being as was then is in what one eats. Encapsulate a time for real and bite
into lentil, quinoa, everything.
No Art Districts – Everyone can feel this already. Yes there are pockets of art areas,
Chelsea and the Lower East Side most notably, but there is no need for this
really. Art galleries are storage
spaces and announcement cards for art these days and at times a meet and
greet. If you are someone who
wants to be a gallerist/dealer/gallery owner then no need to be in these art
districts or in New York even. In
fact, if you want to be a successful new dealer I recommend you doing your
thing outside of New York. New
York needs a new gallery like it needs a hole its big apple head. Well, that’s not true, we always like
new blood so that it seems like there is some sort of eco-system life cycle
going on, but really, the glut is too much and there are too many middle
players in a field that has a full roster. Those that are smart in the game and want to stay in/be in
NYC will just go wherever the rent is cheap. Location is not a place anymore but an installation
shot. Having a small room with one
work by a big name is all one may need soon. It’s all about inventory baby. Sell, sell, sell.
White Supremacists – They are making a comeback, scary but
true. I think that in the next few
months we will be seeing a lot more of this in the news and in the air. This time around white supremacists
groups are going after other white people so it will be oddly not responded
to. This will get interesting. Scary, crazy, but interesting
nonetheless. We are at a time when
wearing a swastika if you are certain person with a certain confidence and an
indestructible sense of humor you can pull it off. Bizarre but true.
Irony has no bounds.
Social Media Suicide – It’s already happening but it will
happen more. People are over the
internet and not just the people who were grumpy, not very into it in the first
place but people that are figures in it or are celebrities or know it well and
have mastered it to some degrees.
Facebook is so passé, Tumblr is for tweens, snap chat I don’t even…,
Instagram is were selfies and life moments go to die, and twitter is
twitter. If these things are not
already those things for you, they will be and they will be to many. These internet deaths will be with
discreet account deletes or with hari kari performative goodbyes. There will be many funerals for the
friends, followers and followed who will say bye-bye to the self-inflicted
panoptican gaze.
Art Fun – This will be a season of fun art, or art will be
fun or both. I am really
optimistic, possibly tragically needy, in believing that this spring and summer
will be fun. Fun is not
necessarily the best thing. Fun
doesn’t mean that it will be thought provoking or that interesting, or
revelatory in anyway really but it will be fun. Fun can be dumb but good and that’s okay. I’ll take fun. I’ll take art and fun over art and
serious or self-gratifying. This
fun will not be about humor per se or about content. I think it will be more in
how people get together, enjoy being at a thing or looking at something and be
able to enjoy themselves and think that that was a-ok and feel like time was
spent well. I hope it will be fun
for you and that art can be a giant background for a life being lived.
