Making Art History

This Sunday at 4:30 join me for a discussion on "Making Art History Outside The Mainstream Art World" at David & Schweitzer Contemporary, 56 Bogart St., Brooklyn. Moderated by Lisa Corinne Davis, the panel includes Deborah Brown, Loren Munk, Krista Saunders Scenna, and Cynthia Tobar. The event is part of a series of discussions around the hardcover book "Making History Bushwick" (for which I am a contributor) and the group exhibition "Seeking Space," a benefit for Arts in Bushwick curated by Julie Torres that will be closing this Sunday at David & Schweitzer.  

The weekend also offers another chance to see my exhibition "Bushwick Chronicle: Photography by Meryl Meisler, Writing by James Panero" on view at nearby Stout Projects before it closes on October 30.

Read the latest on the exhibition in Meryl's interview with Dana Schulz out today in 6sqft.    

"Joe Zucker: Armada" in The Brooklyn Rail

Joe Zucker: Portrait of the artist. Pencil on paper by Phong Bui.

"Joe Zucker: Armada," the exhibition I organized at The National Arts Club, is reviewed by Harrison Tenzer in The Brooklyn Rail

Joe Zucker has avoided the limitations of working in a cohesive style, instead embracing logic to produce diverse bodies of work that seek to unite subject, technique, material, and support. From his cotton-ball paintings depicting the ills of slavery with the very commodity that fueled the trade in human flesh to his lake paintings, the result of paint being poured and hardening in a shallow container to create monochrome works about their own creation, Zucker constantly intertwines art history with practical craft, logic, and wit. Much has been written about this formal and conceptual balancing act, but relatively little attention has been paid to Zucker’s subject matter in itself. Armada, the recent retrospective of his works on paper and studies from the 1970s to the present that feature nautical themes curated by James Panero offers an opportunity to consider a specific topic that has proven particularly fruitful to Zucker over the decades: piracy. 

Read the full review here. 

What can the tech bubble learn from the art bubble?

James writes:

What can the tech bubble learn from the art bubble? I offer some thoughts in this piece by Gary Sernovitz in The New Yorker.

The art world knows about prices floating ever higher on abstraction and hope. The resonances aren’t completely coincidental. Both venture capitalists and art buyers are in the business of valuing the invaluable. Both stake their reputations on exquisite selection. Both nurture talent before it can support itself. Both have a soft spot for youth, for unbowed ego, for the myth of solitary genius, for the next new thing. Both operate in a world of frustratingly limited information and maddeningly unpredictable success. Both depend on consumer culture while holding themselves superior to it. And both the art market and venture investing have become increasingly winner-take-all games, with more clout to the companies and artists backed by the most powerful dealers or venture capitalists.

Complete article here.