if we were immortal
Tonight I performed and succeeded at a rare task. I went to openings both in Chelsea and Soho. Now while this may not seem to be a difficult undertaking to those who sit outside of the New York Gallery scene, in fact its oddly challenging! Often at openings the conversation with familiar faces as well as alcohol of some sort both tend to flow freely. Tonight, on a mission of conquering two quasi-polar neighborhoods, I chose not to drink. Sure enough I ran into friend and artist Ted Holland at ZeiherSmith during an opening for Matt Stokes with whom we met in together in Venice. Taking the time to catch up, I stayed at the gallery about 45 minutes before hopping in a cab downtown.
if we were immortal The current new exhibit of work by Slater Bradley at Team Gallery, is what brought me downtown. I’ve enjoyed his work immensely especially the doppelganger series of videos shown several years ago in the top rotunda of the Guggenheim.
In relation to his fascination with melancholic absurdities as filtered through the band Joy Division, Bradley has made what is in my opinion a small shift away from video. The gallery features a few black & white framed photographs (both shown above) along with paintings on canvas. The paintings are fairly simple yet carry a craftsmanship that made me wonder if they were actually painted by Bradley or not. Either way, I don’t think it matters. Once again he has brought us into a pop-culture reality that may or may not exist, and this time while utilizing a smaller scale, intimacy between the viewer and the work is quite apparent.
Slithering through the crowd along with another Team gallery artist Ryan McGinley, it was evident that while not my favorite of Slater Bradley’s artwork, he feels oddly more accessible and after ten years with Team, I’m sure that he’s not going anywhere soon.
Slater Bradley: if we were immortal, will be on view until December 19th.
xo
— Posted from my iPhone
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