From the category archives:

We Went To…

We Went to Aneta Grzeszykowska: NO/BODY

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on September 9, 2016
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Paddy: There’s an idea in art that because it’s supposed to be timeless it should be immune to trends. In reality we all know that’s not true and this smart show by Grzeszkowska is a good example of that. If this exhibition took place even five years ago, I could imagine myself being dismissive of its goth flavor.

Michael: The first piece one sees walking into Lyles & King is an enormous video projection of the artist (who is caucasian) painting herself jet black…

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We Went to Artscape: Weird Futures on Saratoga Street

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on July 21, 2016
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Do you believe the children are the future? What about their future pasts? At Maryland Art Place we checked in on Young Blood, a survey of recent area MFA grads, including DIY Star Trek and paintings corrupted like future JPEGs. Upstairs at Terrault Contemporary, Kaita Niwa time travels with the magic of CGI and a creepy child avatar.

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We Went to Artscape: The Artist-Run Art Fair

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on July 19, 2016
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We returned to Open Space’s Artist-Run Art Fair at Artscape in Baltimore.
Michael: About fifteen feet into the garage, I was struck by the impression that the scrappy Artist-Run Art Fair had suddenly started to look much more like… an art fair.
Paddy: So, the elephant in the room: “The White Guilt Confessional Booth”.

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We Went to Baltimore Part II: Platform, Springsteen, First Continent

by Michael Anthony Farley and Molly Rhinestones on July 14, 2016
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Artscape, Baltimore’s annual, gigantic public art festival, and the Artist-Run Art Fair launch this week. Yesterday, we posted about a few local galleries ahead of time to scope out what’s on view across town from the main festivities. Today, we’re discussing exhibitions from Melissa Godoy Nieto and Lane Harlan at Platform, Colin Foster at Springsteen, and Michael Assiff at First Continent. 

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We Went to Baltimore Part 1: Current & Open Space

by Michael Anthony Farley and Molly Rhinestones on July 12, 2016
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Artscape, Baltimore’s annual, gigantic public art festival, and the Artist-Run Art Fair launch this week. We visited a few local galleries ahead of time to scope out what’s on view across town from the main festivities. We saw too much art to fit into one post, but we’ll start off with solo projects from Jonathan Latiano, Jon Duff, and Jihyun Hong.

Molly: I want to preface this by saying I have a “cheeto as medium” art fetish to a fault…

Michael: This installation is so calmingly sparse I wanted to live in it. It’s also such a puzzling assortment of objects that everyone had a great time speculating what it was all about. Even a seemingly-inebriated couple who happened to be walking by the gallery had their take…

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We Went to Philly Part 2: ICA

by Michael Anthony Farley Whitney Kimball on June 23, 2016
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Four shows: many tiny paintings, one huge painting, art with moms, and TOO MANY VIDEOS.

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We Went to Philly Part 1: Vox Populi

by Michael Anthony Farley Whitney Kimball on June 21, 2016
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Michael: I like this collection of small shows because it’s like a survey of what’s hot on the NADA circuit without being as polished or obnoxiously-soul-less as an art fair. (How sad is it that art fairs now feel like the default art-viewing point of reference?) Houseplants! Oversized clothes! Cartoonish vaginas! These are all trends we’ve talked about before, and they’re all trends I’m 100% on board with.
Whitney: I think it’s safe to say by now that plants are no longer a trend; they are a medium (except for potted palms).

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We Went to NADA: No Spider Bites Yet

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on May 6, 2016
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Paddy: Raging contemporary art trends: pastels, particularly in pink, smiley faces, plants, tropical themes of any sort, the 80’s.
Michael: I suppose I am always grasping for something to reassure me abstraction still has teeth and relevance beyond decor—even if that means a representational painting of tiny abstract paintings.

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We Went to Frieze: Ate Shit, but Didn’t See the Ass

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on May 4, 2016
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One could more or less have the same experience of Frieze by looking at documentation of most of the work. This, despite the fact that visitors can sample dystopian “food” products and see a live donkey (sometimes).

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We Went to The Armory Show: HOW TO SPEND IT

by Michael Anthony Farley and Molly Rhinestones on March 4, 2016
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Michael: Every time I go to a fair I’ve been told is going to suck, I’m pleasantly surprised by the first few works I see and actually like that are somewhat engaging. Then, usually within an hour of arrival, fair fatigue sets in and I want anything to shatter the stifling boredom.
Molly: I’m honestly devastated I didn’t know that the “YOUR MOM” balloons were free for me to take.

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