New Mirrors surveys the state of current painting through the work of seven New York-based artists. In particular, this exhibition positions painting as a way of thinking about perception in the age of digitization, information and instantaneity.

Painting continues to re-invent itself with each new movement, each technological advance that threatens its existence. The history of this ancient language in the West, like the history of wars, is one of innovations trumping obsolete technologies and strategies; therefore, it is a narrative marked by small deaths that clear the way for “the new.” The artists in this show engage in what painter Benin Ford refers to as a “critical recovery” of past methodologies and techniques, revisiting certain failures, triumphs and lost moments in painting’s history.

Ever since the advent of photography, it has become necessary to look at how painters animate their practices in the information age – an environment that seems particularly untenable for painting. But rather than lingering over aspects of the current cultural moment that might limit painting's impact—the speed of information, social networking, digitization, out-sourcing, reproduction technologies and dematerialization—many young artists today concern themselves with theoretical inquiries into the logistics of painting: images, symbols, gestures, colors, materiality and texture. While considering the possibilities of these lingering issues, they also think about how new technologies and social dynamics influence perception of the visual field. The artists in this exhibition do this with an eye towards innovation – dragging the corpse of painting to the limits of legibility with processes that mirror a philosopher’s probing, discursive thinking.

Curated by Associate Curator Herb Tam.

SUPPORT

This exhibition is sponsored by a major grant from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust.

General exhibition support provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Bloomberg LP; Jerome Foundation; Lambent Foundation, a project of the Tides Center; Pollock-Krasner Foundation; public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn; Exit Art’s Board of Directors and our members.