We recently read Doug MacCash's review of the Hot Up Here show at the CAC. While we wholeheartedly agree with his assessment that the show was a rehashed mish-mash of the same work we've been seeing at various venues for the past five years (he calls it deja-vu), we found the “two-timing” exhibitions of Dan Tague's newest drawings at Good Children Gallery (Lessons Learned with Fists) and Jonathan Ferrara Gallery (Fist Talk) way more surprising and troubling. It would seem that many of these drawings debuted at Good Children just weeks prior to their commute to Julia St. In fact, they were even removed from the walls of G.C.G. while the show was still underway in order to meet the throngs at White Linen Night. What’s more, the drawings somehow accrued value as they traveled, too, quadrupling in price as they moved the few miles westward one hot Summer day.
What does everyone else think about these practices? They seem so commonplace in New Orleans. Is it alright for an artist to "two-time" his/her work in the same city? And what about people who show the same pieces again and again at different galleries in New Orleans? NOLA Constructive believes the work needs to be seen, but we would prefer that after a work is on display at a gallery in New Orleans once, for a month or more, that the artist endeavor to show the work in other cities thereafter, or not at all.
Our rant aside, the drawings themselves (text-on-knuckle tattoo illustrations) are a fun and tightly constructed tongue-in-cheek collection of those briefest of mottos by which we choose to live. Tague's drawings, not unlike much of the works in the nearby CAC Hot Up Here show, hold their own- that isn't our criticism. Our beef isn't so much with the art, but with showing them a second time (especially in such a short time frame, with exhibition overlap, and with the price mark-up), which almost completely invalidates the exhibition at the earlier venue. It's as if the Good Children exhibition was merely a trial run for the "real thing," when, in actuality, Good Children is at least on par if not the better of the two galleries in terms of programming. In addition, we the art consumer grow weary of seeing the work more than once. Isn't there something else? Can't our galleries do better? There are tens of thousands of artists in this country, must we continue to view the same set of works by the same 40 or 50 people again and again? Can New Orleans ever emerge as a credible locale for contemporary art if we remain so insular? It's as if the art world here were one giant rubik's cube, with curators shifting pieces here and there endlessly until the game itself grows tiresome for the audience.
We have, however, underestimated Gina Phillips. Her portrait of Fats Domino in thread and fabric currently in the Hot Up Here show at the CAC made us simply giddy. If you haven't seen the show, you actually probably already have, or at least most of it. With the exception of some of Phillip's work, maybe some new work by painter Rachel Jones, and photographs from Chris Sullivan who we'd never seen at all, Dan Cameron chose work that has already been shown in New Orleans (sometimes several times over) for this group show. Gina Phillip's work and an installation of Brad Benischek drawings (many from his Meat Vs. Dirt show at Antenna Gallery) may be worth the admission price... but if we know New Orleans, and if you are patient, you could probably see these pieces again elsewhere for free. We appreciate a lot of other work in the show too, but we generally appreciated it more the first or second, not as much the third or fourth time around. We are curious now to check out Ms. Phillip's work currently up at Tulane's Carroll Gallery. If you've already seen it, let us know what you thought about it!
As always, we hope this is somehow constructive. If you disagree with us, please let us know.
