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postmasters gallery

New Strategies Emerge and Diverge For Surviving Art Fair Costs

by Paddy Johnson on May 3, 2017
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Art fairs aren’t cheap. Participating galleries take on additional real estate costs, not to mention shipping and staffing expenses. These costs add up. As a result, some dealers in the emerging market are starting to renegotiate the common 50/50 commission split between artists and galleries.

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This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Constructing Paradise or the Devil Giving Birth to the Patriarchy?

by Michael Anthony Farley on January 30, 2017
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It’s a strange week in post-America, indeed, when the least dystopian art event involves Kim Kardashian ass-workout tapes.

That would be Cindy Hinant’s solo show at MuseumofAmericabooks Monday night. Tuesday, perpetual AFC fav Peter Burr is speaking at the New School, and never has the thought of retreating into one of his installations and imagining life in an underground city been so tempting. But if you’re an artist ready to join the resistance, head to ICP School on Wednesday for a discussion about the role of artists in activism during these dark days. Thursday, every opening feels timely, even Mary Beth Edelson’s 1970s feminist mythologies on view at David Lewis. Down the street, Bea Fremderman waxes apocalyptic at Shoot the Lobster, and the New School has an exhibition about the US/Mexican border that will probably break some hearts.

The weekend brings more timely events, such as David Diao exhibition about his childhood experiences as a refugee (at Postmasters) and a Sunday conference at the New Museum about bodies under duress. Come get advice from lawyers and activists about civil disobedience, the migrant crisis, environmental crises, and more.

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Who is “Fuck Theory”? Find Out, Sundays This Month

by Michael Anthony Farley on January 5, 2017
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We’re not sure exactly what to expect from Postmasters Gallery’s Lectures for the End of the World. The series features presentations from porn star/writer Stoya, artist/nightlife personality Juliana Huxtable, outspoken punk illustrator Molly Crabapple, and more. But none of these identity-centric artist/activist/writers will be speaking as themselves. They “will serve as live stand-ins” for “the pseudonymous philosopher FuckTheory.”

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Molly Crabapple Hands Over The Paintbrush To Her Muses At Postmasters Gallery

by Emily Colucci on September 16, 2016
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The relationship between an artist and their muse is one of the most romanticized clichés about art making. Just think of the movie Titanic in which the protagonist, a penniless artist named Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) draws the wealthy first class passenger Rose (Kate Winslet). If you look beyond the tale of class mobility, the artist/muse relationship is one big power trip. And it is the (male) artist who has control.

Molly Crabapple entirely reshapes this relationship for her current exhibition Annotated Muses at Postmasters Gallery. While not as overtly political as her well-known revolution-focused Shell Game series, the exhibition returns agency to the muse, continuing Crabapple’s drive to break repressive power structures. It also allows for an increased intimacy between the viewer and the usually silent, passive muse.

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No Justice: An Interview with Jennifer Catron and Paul Outlaw

by Irena Jurek on April 15, 2016
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Anyone who’s seen Jennifer Catron and Paul Outlaw’s work, has zero chance of forgetting it. In the past, their work has involved placing a dinner table and its diners on a hydraulic lift, live chickens, pig fountains, a crawfish food truck, a tour Chelsea tour bus that sold editioned knock offs of famous artworks, and a gallery-sized art-world themed Monopoly game board activated by actual players. That’s not even half of the work they’ve produced.

The point of all this, is to poke fun at contemporary American culture and question the belief systems that inform it. Their current show at Postmasters, “Behold! I teach you the Overman!”, uses their trademark high-energy approach to art making to great effect. It engulfs viewers in installation, video, painting, and performance that simultaneously criticize and celebrate the role of decadence in life and art. It includes a chair that lifts you upward into a ceiling mounted video viewing cube. Inside, a parade of morally ambiguous leaders and characters engage in heavenly glee while consuming mounds of food. In the middle of the gallery, a freestanding grove of trees cover an artificial pond with a functioning boat ride. The forest’s canopy consists of a multi-media video piece starring Catron and Outlaw. In it, an intergalactic sunbathing chair propels an orange-tanned woman towards the intense light of an overpowering tanning bed, alluding to either a nuclear doomsday, or spacial bliss.  

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This Week’s Must-See Art Events: The Art World’s Grand Sausage Grinder

by Michael Anthony Farley and Rea McNamara on March 21, 2016
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Even though there was a dusting of snow in Manhattan this morning, spring is truly here, as attested by this week’s round-up of events. For graduating students wrestling with the possibility of a post-May malaise regarding their art world career prospects, Devin Kenny’s free Tuesday lecture at Cooper Union on cultural personas through the ages may or may not help in navigating all this talk about artist personal branding. (Yes, we just wrote that unironically.) On Wednesday, BOMB Magazine launches its spring issue at Brooklyn’s Greenlight Bookstore with readings by issue 135 contributors Álvaro Enrigue and Kate Zambreno. Now 35 years old (!), its artists-talking-to-artist format remains timely and engaging. And Friday’s double openings at Postmasters — AFC SPRNG BRK Man Boobs winner Paul Outlaw with Jen Catron and Zach Gage — promises a boat ride through experience economy overload and Google search autocomplete poetry, respectively.

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The Best 25 Shows of 2015

by The AFC Staff on December 31, 2015
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2015 was great for art. For all the bitching that went on about art fairs, the dominance of the market, and sub-par museum shows (cough, cough Björk), I saw more great shows than I have in my ten years working as a critic in New York. Rather than try to whittle our picks down to a few select shows, we wrote up every show we thought was truly exemplary.

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This Week’s Must See Art Events: We’re Throwing a Post-Apocalyptic Dance Party

by Paddy Johnson and Michael Anthony Farley on October 19, 2015
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Tuesday night, we’re throwing a revolutionary dance party at Brooklyn’s Lovegun to celebrate our Fall Fundraiser. The world is a pretty dystopian place—and we need you to join the resistance. We’ll be collecting donations at the door; offering fabulous raffle prizes; and enjoying performances, DJ sets, and more post-apocalypstick than you can possibly scrub off your collar from Trey La Trash, Molly Rhinestones, Orlando Estrada and Ellen Degenerate.

But enough about us—if you survive tomorrow night’s apocalypse, you’re in for a week of solo shows opening, lectures from the likes of Ta-Nehisi Coates, open studios at the fantastic Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, and several nights to see the weirdest beauty pageant imaginable from Psychic Readings Company. The week ends with an epic four exhibitions closing in Bushwick just after Sunday brunch time. 

See? Art F City is always helping you navigate the treacherous wastelands of 2015. Won’t you help us survive?

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This Week’s Must-see Art Events: Waacking, Eating, Tweeting, Painting

by Michael Anthony Farley and Rea McNamara on August 10, 2015
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This week, work up a sweat learning the art of “waacking” at Otion Front Studio from dancer Coco Motion. Then, reward yourself with dinner and a movie at Postmasters Gallery. Are you the kind of person who Instagrams your food? If so, you might learn a little something about social media and our capacity for connection from AFC friend Molly Soda. Her show SAME opens Thursday night at Stream.

But really, the weekend is all about painting, painting, painting. It kicks off Friday night with paintings on cardboard and paintings of plastic at Trestle Gallery. From a Conor Backman solo show upstate to an all-painting exhibition of 50 artists in Bed-Stuy, there’s painting everywhere on Saturday. There’s so much paint happening, cans of it are starting to bulge out of canvases.

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