No One Here Gets Out Alive by William Powhida at Charlie James Gallery in Chinatown was the demonstration of an artists love/hate relationship with the art world.  Powhida’s show contained hand written lists, letters, and newspaper articles directed towards the artists of today.  My personal favorite was the list of ‘Tips for Artists who want to Sell.’ Number 12 is one of the funniest critiques I have heard of video art in a very long time – “Performance and video are for porn” – is something I would completely agree with if it were true. Although, it is very very amusing to agree with Powhida.  Charlie James Gallery did a good job presenting the work, no bells and whistles which is what I would assume is exactly what Powhida wanted. 

Powhida gives us a view of the art world from the center – New York.  The artist himself is based in Brooklyn aka the ‘new’ New York if you ask me.  I doubt anybody would blame Powhida for writing hate mail to the art market of today.  If there were a bad time to be an artist – besides the fact that it is always a bad time – it would be right now.  At first I felt that Powhida’s works were too cliche and typical, I felt like it wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen a million times, but the more I thought about it the more I decided that I was wrong.  The way it was presented – as trompe l’oeil notebook paper – reminds us of our Intro to Drawing classes from high school, drawing pieces of crumpled up paper with No. 2 Ticonderoga pencils on inkjet paper.  He brings us back to the basics of being an artist forcing us to remember where he began, and where he is now.  The short witty phrases he gives us are hilarious (you cannot deny it, you would’ve been laughing even without that extra Tecate).  It is always nice to see someone who has a sense of humor about what they do for a living – and William Powhida is THE epitome of that.

Charlie James Gallery is located at 975 Chung King Road in Chinatown. For more information see William Powhida’s website at www.williampowhida.com.