In December Saatchi Online will present its first exhibition in New York at the Sara Tecchia Roma New York gallery entitled "And Who Are You? Work from Saatchi Online". This group show of artists based in New York, all of whom are registered on the website, will explore questions about how the established art world parcels out or responds to value, fame, favoritism, integrity and pretension. The question "and who are you?" can be the start of a cocktail party confrontation, an opening gambit for flaunting one's own CV or the catalyst for a profound crisis of existentialist and creative purpose. The exhibition, curated by Saatchi Online magazine critic Ana Finel Honigman, will open on 18 December.
Since its debut 18 months ago, Saatchi Online has made its mark as an ever-expanding, democratic network of artists. The website now averages over 50 million hits a day and is one of only 3 UK websites to be ranked among the top 500 websites in the US (the other two UK sites are the BBC and Bebo).
Each of the artists in "And Who Are You? Work from Saatchi Online" explore in their work questions about how the established art world parcels out or responds to value, fame, favoritism, integrity and pretension. Whether thought to oneself or spoken to another, the question "and who are you?" can be the start of a cocktail party confrontation, an opening gambit for flaunting one's own CV or the catalyst for a profound crisis of existentialist and creative purpose.
Eric Doeringer, The 'Bootleg' series
The artists selected for the show include Boston-born and Brooklyn-based Eric Doeringer, who grants gallery goers' wishes for affordable small canvases of images made by their favorite art stars by selling his 'Bootlegs' series outside hot Chelsea galleries, inside international art fairs, at the Whitney Biennial and now on Saatchi Online.
Jay Batlle, 'In Two Minutes It's Done' from The Minimalist Series, 2006
Jay Batlle, who has shown extensively abroad as well as at the Whitney Museum, New York's Thomas Erben Gallery, L.A's The Happy Lion and Blum & Poe Gallery, will present an ongoing body of work entitled "The Minimalist Series," paintings that combine fragments of teaser lines and recipes from Mark Bittman's New York Times culinary column, "The Minimalist."
Sara White Wilson, 'Fuck You?', 2006
Digital Media
New York- and Paris-based photographer Sara White Wilson, who has not previously shown in New York, will present an installation of images shot on the streets of Paris and Berlin in which unintended juxtapositions between peeling posters and graffiti markings illuminate larger cultural dichotomies.
Fame Theory
The artist team Fame Theory will present a performance lampooning artist pretension. Loki-like social commentators, Fame Theory members mix Ivy League academic backgrounds in economics and sociology with sophisticated satire to emerge as agent provocateurs channeling Andy Warhol, Andy Kaufman and everyone who eagerly wished that JT Leroy was intended to be an actual hoax, not the wan brainchild of another hopeless wannabe.
Airyka Rockefeller
Examining a similar theme is recent MFA graduate Airyka Rockefeller, whose series of photographs test how much of herself an artist ought to show, when youth and cool are prioritized so highly in the contemporary art community.
Bill Durgin
Photographer Bill Durgin, whose surrealist fashion imagery could be seen in Paper Magazine's recent fashion issue, will show self portraits from his series figurations, that use physical distortion to question limitations of artistic identity and signal to the way artists' ideas can be oversimplified and pushed out of context.
Joshua Powell, Still from 'Le Dilettante Montage' (2007)
For his debut art exhibition contribution, video and sketch comedy director Joshua Powell, of Dilettante Films, will work deriding discrepancies between hipsters' hedonistic urges and aspirations for the moral high ground.
Nora May Klumpp
Questioning the legitimacy of moving art in an on-line marketplace, German-born and New York-based video artist Nora Klumpp will present a video game demonstrating the disquieting possibilities of flexible on-line identities.
Eva Roovers
In the same vein, Amsterdam-based artist Eva Roovers will offer samples of her "How to become a famous artist" kit.
Miranda Maher
Brooklyn-based Miranda Maher will stage a three-part installation entitled "The Anxiety of Influence", inspired by Harold Bloom's theories on creative influence
And artist/ fashion designer/ musician William Lemon III will contribute pieces from his multi-media art-opera to highlight the importance of timeless creative inspiration and the significance of pushing past a desire for immediate artistic validation.
'And Who Are You? Work from Saatchi Online', 18 December 2007 - 26 January 2008, will be at
SARA TECCHIA ROMA NEW YORK, 529 West 20th Street, between Tenth Avenue and Eleventh Avenue. Opening hours: Monday through Friday, 11am to 6pm or by appointment. T: +1 212-741-2900; www.saratecchia.com.
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