(F)art.

“There is ample variation here to maintain captivation, but one is compelled more so to call attention to the unusually solid cohesion (high praise to Factory Fresh on that).”

Do we really expect so little of the resident curators and gallery directors of our neighborhood, as to be impressed when all the artists included in a group show are dealing with the same subject? We’re actually going to note the success of an “unusually solid cohesion”? Not only has this article strayed from a critical discussion of work in the show or its curatorial intention, but this statement is buoyed solely on the critics sense of style, thus useless and inflammatory.

Lets expect a little bit more from group shows; they need to be ‘curated’, not just installed. Lets expect a little more from critics: they need to think, analyze, interpret, and when necessary, judge, not issue pats on the back.

“‘Between high art and crumbling economy there is a common ground for inexpensive works, keenly tailored for broad appeal,’ says the description on the Factory Fresh website. This is artistic pragmatism; a thorn in the side of the purist, perhaps, but for this group of artists a clever and practical packaging that addresses the lethargic economy head-on, and even in some cases satirizes it.”

This statement by Factory Fresh is incorrect; first of all, the definitions of “high” and “low” art have really been defunct since the early 1970s, rendering them in this twenty-first century conversation meaningless. What they mean to say is that in between contemporary art gallery prices and “street” art prices, there is a profitable median that may now be appealing to an art dealer down-on-his-luck.

Neither is this beneficial to the artists that exhibit in Bushwick (driving their selling prices down) nor is it beneficial to the galleries that exhibit here; thus, not pragmatic.

Many Bushwick galleries maintain a stringent and exciting program of showing challenging, exciting, and unmitigated contemporary art. Why must we blur those programs in with “street art” one might find on Broadway in Soho, or in an antique shop in the East Village, or as a mural on the wall of a bar — contexts that by definition are void of critical thought and cultural significance.

“It is art that one is wise to keep an eye on, art which depicts the ‘inward significance’ of which Aristotle spoke.”

Invoking the work of Aristotle in a discussion of contemporary art is brave at best; is there not a more relevant, perhaps more recent philosopher we could discuss? Invoking the word of Aristotle in a discussion of the work exhibited at Factory Fresh last Friday night is unthinkable. Yes, art has historically mirrored life. Yes, Factory Fresh is attempting to address our contemporary time (e.g., the recession). This usage of Aristotle — and worse, Faulkner (in the same paragraph, no less) — is a claw reaching out of the grave of mediocrity in which this article is buried, attempting to grasp the root of something meaningful. Leave Aristotle out of it, and attempt to construct your own meaning.