The Younger Than Jesus Stress Test

What I actually found most interesting while doing this research was how truly international the group is. I think for newer artists, the consumer market tends to be really ethnocentric—and Younger Than Jesus is promoting artists here that may have had solo shows somewhere abroad, but haven’t shown commercially (or at all) in the US.

What I actually found most interesting while doing this research was how truly international the group is. I think for newer artists, the consumer market tends to be really ethnocentric—and Younger Than Jesus is promoting artists here that may have had solo shows somewhere abroad, but haven’t shown commercially (or at all) in the US.

This is such a great post! Thank you for doing this research.

Loris Greaud? come on!nHis piece in Younger than Jeezus belongs to Dakis Jouannou. I’m in the commercially successful column, with one solo show in an alternative space in athens, and somebody wiith a giant-budget solo at palais de tokyo is untested???n nanddd Chu Yun sold the ‘this is xx’ performance and she’s currently showing in the Arsenale!nnstephen rhodes has ONLY been a group show at saatchi? take away that asterisk!

what i think the real lesson is here, is that there is little distinction between a high profile show in a public museum and one in a gallery. Collectors can still buy work from a museum… the only difference is that the artist probably doesn’t have to give 50% of the money to a dealer.

Daniel, thanks for pointing those out, I think for the most part making distinctions between successful / unsuccessful is pretty arbitrary; i.e. making assumptions about someone’s success is just as flimsy as making decisions about their commercial worth based on where they’ve shown. As we can all agree, there are many bad artists that are successful, and many good ones that aren’t. For me, the real problem with Younger than Jesus is that the work is mostly only new, but has very little to do with new ideas. It has the flash and pop of something we don’t quite understand yet, but when you cut through the crap, a lot of the work is boring. These are just my opinions of course but for me the discussion should be more about that instead of an argument about whether or not the curators did their job in finding ‘unsuccessful’ artists. I’m seeing more and more that somebody’s visibility is often confused for their quality, and in many cases, the opposite is true.

Daniel – Thank you for that info. I’ve updated the list to reflect your comments. My research was inevitably uneven, since I was going on what info was available (and in a language I could read) on gallery websites and artist CVs, but it might be helpful to explain the criteria I used. I looked up each artist to see if he or she had had a solo show at a major gallery or showed regularly in the last several years at commercial galleries vs. not-for-profit spaces (museums fell into the latter category). Like any single methodology, it can obviously end up leaving certain things out–especially, as has been mentioned, because the distinction between “successful” and “commercially untested,” as well as what it means to show in a gallery vs. a museum or alternative space, is so murky as it is.

Josh Smith shows with Luhring Augustine in New York, but he’s definitely in the right column. Thanks for breaking this down!

I think the main complaint should be the name of the show. “Younger Than Jesus” is a vapid and silly name. People need to stop obsessing on that long dead cult leader.

Good job AFC intern. I think we all have to see what the next YTJ show brings before we can pass extreme judgments.

Intern, you rock!

Also — to be chintzy and all — I have to say there ain’t nothin wrong with someone making money from their work and commerical. We all have to pay the rent–critics too, no?

This strikes me as boring accountantcy.

I don’t like the show any more or less knowing this info. Its seems like you’re picking at a minor point.

The New York Times thought the artists in this show were not established. This shows the accuracy of a feature dedicating a significant amount of word real estate to that idea. It is definitely not minor.

This preoccupation with “commercial viability” and “success” really is distasteful – on all sides. I can’t think of anything less fascinating than sitting down and trying to figure out who is successful and by what criterion. Ultimately, a list such as the one made above, reinforces an attitude towards art and art production that is far too focused on money, success, and symbolic capital. More importantly, what about Cotter’s assertion that the exhibit was “awfully sedate and buttoned-down for a youthfest.”

I applaud the effort, but wonder if time could have been better spent.

um, josh smith has had 2 solo shows at luring augustine.

Note: Comment has been edited for trolling.

Galeria Comercial closed two years ago.

Galeria Comercial closed two years ago.