While a couple of us on the DCist staff are still trying to wipe our minds of the image of the live circumcision performance art that happened last night at the Warehouse gallery (seriously, can you use soap on your eyeballs?), we will nevertheless try to explain that across the street at artDC … wait, what was happening over there?
Oh right, that international art show. When we told you about it last year, some of you were skeptical the concept could ever come to fruition in D.C., but there it is, in Hall E of the Washington Convention Center, and it’s a little hard to shake the feeling you’re walking into a conference on the latest issues in [that boring part of your job]. And a lot of the art isn’t helping. The wide red carpet and high-ceiling booths covered in art (and finding the bars hidden in the corners) makes the place a bit warmer — especially with the entrance flanked by three D.C. galleries — but in the end, our big fancy art fair is closer to this: an Artomatic with suits and stilettos. A maze of high art that made one wonder what the qualifications for getting in were.
Which is to say, some of this shit is bad, friends. While people probably shouldn’t be mutilating themselves for the sake of art (and by ‘probably’ we mean ‘absolutely’), we’d also like to know why the four by five foot, gold framed, lemon-in-a-bowl still life continues to qualify as unique high art. New York City brought us a lot of yawn-inducing images of Marilyn Monroe, JFK, many of The Beatles, and even Einstein. Or the cringe-worthy abstract glitter paintings brought by a D.C. area gallery this writer had never heard of, and has not been convinced to visit any time soon. Bad but creative art is one thing, but the sheer lack of vision with some of these showings gave the entire exhibit the taste of a mass produced, office art, living room furniture showroom.
But just like Artomatic, there are brilliant gems hiding in the folds. Fantastically, we don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the D.C. galleries brought it. Conner Contemporary had, hands down, the best showing in the hall, including two mind-blowing videos from Brandon Morse and the darkly funny comics of Zach Storms, both of which should keep you staring at the walls for quite some time. When it comes to contemporary art with a unique vision, Morse’s technical skill and conceptual grasp of human psychology/cosmology and Storms’ ability to keep his art humble while packing a satirical punch in content, these are the bar-makers.
Photo by Sommer Mathis
