"Few art-historical moments are eulogised quite like New York's Downtown scene in the 1970s and 80s. At Frieze New York (until 17 May), the city's late-20th-century history of experimental artistic production anchors a number of gallery presentations: a monumental linear abstract painting by the veteran New Yorker Virginia Jaramillo dominates Hales's stand, while Champ Lacombe is showing archival footage and artefacts from Antoni Miralda's Gesamtkunstwerk restaurant-cum-art project El Internacional, which operated in Tribeca between 1984 and 1986."
"As the city's dealers and collectors reach back to this radical recent past, the realities of a more commercially-minded present are front of mind, thanks in part to the artist Josh Kline's widely discussed essay “New York Real Estate and the Ruin of American Art.” Published this February in the academic journal October, it argues that the city's prohibitively high rents have entirely eliminated the potential for its artists to foster risk-taking practices."
"Kline hardly articulates a new phenomenon by decrying New York's exorbitant costs, and his polemic belongs to a long tradition known as the “Why I'm Leaving New York” essay. But the article has nonetheless gripped art world discourse. Published a few months after the democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election on a platform of affordability, its central question is poignant as ever: what must be sacrificed in order to live here?"
"If mounting financial pressure is corroding the imaginations of New York's artists, it is also forcing young galleries to stretch themselves during the city's turbo-charged May art season. For several small New York galleries, this means simultaneously participating in multiple art fairs."
New York’s late-20th-century Downtown experimental art scene is presented through gallery programming that includes Virginia Jaramillo’s monumental linear abstraction and archival materials tied to Antoni Miralda’s El Internacional restaurant-cum-art project in Tribeca from 1984 to 1986. As dealers and collectors look back to this radical past, current conditions shaped by commercial pressures come into focus. Josh Kline’s essay “New York Real Estate and the Ruin of American Art” argues that prohibitively high rents have removed opportunities for risk-taking artistic practices. The question of what must be sacrificed to live in the city is framed as urgent, and financial pressure also forces young galleries to stretch during the May art season by participating in multiple art fairs.
#new-york-art-scene #downtown-experimental-art #art-market-and-galleries #real-estate-and-affordability #contemporary-art-criticism
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