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Brainstorming the Armory?

Saturday 11th March 2006
For those of you who missed it, the West Side Highway and Pier 90 not only played host to the Armory Show on Saturday - there were also scientists! Alongside a scientific study about the art world (in Chelsea) the Brainstormers set up camp as a human Etho-Rhythm machine. Their question was "how good are you?", and the request from fair-goers was simply to fill out their questionnaire about various aspects of the NY art scene. The tone was absurd, but the point was clear enough. Each participant handed in their survey form and received a "Brainstormers Report" and a hand-drawn pie chart. The "Brainstormers Report" laid out their recent findings for all to see, with a recreation of the Chelsea Gallery Guide - color-coded to show the galleries with most and least gender equality in their ranks. The pie-chart documented Jerry Saltz's recent article stating that only 17% of the solo shows in Chelsea in the Fall of 2005 were by women artists!!

Oh, and since we're partly talking about the Armory here. What do you make of these two paintings? The one on the left was in Kerlin Gallery's booth, and the right hand painting was at the Frith Street booth.

Callum Innes has made a name for himself making very elegant and simple 'process paintings', but I needed to take these photos of his work at these two galleries to see that there is indeed quite a difference in color. Though there was plenty of interesting work at the Armory this year, as usual the 'repeats' were laughably conspicuous.... I can't say I'd have put money on Jonathan Lasker and Alex Katz being 'the ones' this time round!

Rob Carter