COVID-19
In the era of global jetset-induced placelessness, pandemic-prompted virtuality, and general art market supremacy, is a simulation of an exhibition as good as a real one? Danny Bredar and Leah Ke Yi Zheng, two painters living in Chicago, are testing out this possibility—and then some—with It Will Never Go Back To What It Was, a sensibly titled two-person show at Currency, a gallery in Münster that does not exist. Much like what brick-and-mortar art spaces are doing right now, Bredar and Zheng photographed their carefully installed and well-lit creations—Bredar paints gritty realist oils and Zheng lays out elegant strokes of color on oddly framed silk—curated an orderly PDF, and sent it out to prospective viewers. Does their virtual show feel like most other virtual shows? It does. Are virtual exhibitions pathetic replacements for in-person presentations? They are. Does it matter that their gallery is a figment? Not really, except in terms of sales and promotion. Is this a logical exercise in gullibility and disappointment? Yes, it is.
—Lori Waxman 2020-11-24 9:55 AM