The 24-year-old Queens rapper spent the 10 hours before her sixth LP dropped walking on a giant self-propelled wheel on view in a gallery in Lower Manhattan, staring ahead and staying quiet as the record played on a loop. The exhibit streamed live on Twitch; inside the gallery, fellow streamers and a smattering of real fans with signs and bouquets watched, too.
There is something very Old New York about a young woman putting herself on the lineliterallyand daring the city to keep up. Not the nostalgic, sepia-toned New York of postcards and penthouses, but the one with bite: downtown after dark, sweat and bravado, art that doesn't ask permission and music that doesn't wait its turn. That is where Lexa Gates lives right now, and Her on the Wheelthe durational performance staged at Jeffrey Deitchfelt like a perfectly tuned provocation to a city that still understands nerve.