Hip to Be Square

The role of commercial art galleries is under scrutiny. Earlier this week I wrote about the debate in Sweden concerning how the press deals with young upcoming artists connected to hip galleries, like Andrehn-Shiptjenko. In retrospect I have to admit to taking the discussion less seriously than it deserved, but I blame Marianne Lindberg de Geer for that.

In a devastating review of upcoming New York artist Ellen Alfest, at the übercool gallery Bellwether, Paddy Johnson at Art Fag City complains that "she's made a series of very boring representational paintings that exhibit poor attention to surface and fail to bring any depth to the subject matter depicted."

Johnson continues by questioning if Alfest would have gotten such overwhelming reviews in the leading papers if she had exhibited her work at a less high profile gallery. Needless to say, his conclusion is: probably not.

Though I can’t really have a qualified opinion on Ellen Alfest’s art, it seems to me that there is something strange going on here. Something beyond the hyping of certain artists, which may become very stupid when seen in retrospect, but that is another issue… The hyping of certain galleries is much more disturbing, all in all. To judge the art by who the artist is, is probably unavoidable. To judge the artist by who his gallerist is, most certainly isn’t.