NEW YORK MINUTE: 60 ARTISTS FROM THE NEW YORK ART SCENE

The expression “New York Minute” refers to the speed with which New Yorkers react to stimuli - with a mixture of impatience, ingenuity and amazing alacrity. The 60 artists represented here, show a rapid and inspired response to the particular issues their generation has to face up to. Their work explores some of the latest trends in New York art: up-dating action painting and abstraction with the toughness of street life, synthesizing pop culture into hand-made and honest artefacts, taking conceptualism to new and absurd heights, organizing themselves into collectives, taking inter-disciplinary art on tour and introducing a punk attitude to assemblage, collage and sculpture.
Dash Snow, Terence Koh, Nate Lowman, Aurel Schmidt, Agathe Snow, Hanna Liden are just some of the many artists who typify the “street punk” trend, transforming dark energy into heartfelt confrontational projects that include collage, performance, music and sculpture. They are attracted to the danger and anarchy of the urban environment and produce down-to-earth works that reflect this attraction.
Chris Johanson, AVAF, Paper Rad, Takeshi Murata, Francine Spiegel are amongst the many artists whose work represents the so-called “wild figuration” style. They favour prismatic pigment explosions and both handmade and found materials, make references to the world of comics, including the graphics, together with an imaginary low-brow pop culture to create new and radiant creatures. The communal way in which they work is underlined by the way they so often organize themselves into collectives and bands.
A third group of artists choose to explore ‘new abstraction’. Some, like Dan Colen, Rosson Crow or Sterling Ruby prefer to update the New York School of abstraction with the energy of the city's streets, whilst others, like Tauba Auerbach, Xylor Jane and Ara Peterson, revitalize out-dated conceptual approaches to abstraction with new visions of the digital age. Far from being cerebrally remote, these new abstract artists communicate with urgency and immediacy.