NEPO
@ Lewis Bag
3808 S Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL 60609
Opening Saturday, September 13th, from 6PM - 10PM
On view through Friday, October 31st
NEPO
Bosco Bae
Robert Chase Heishman
Rogrigo Lara
Kellie Romany
Joe Reihsen
Nate Young
September 13th – October 31st
Opening Saturday, September 13th, 6pm – 10pm
Organized by Tony Lewis in collaboration with John Schmid
Critics, art schools, and even the art market have had a stronghold on the “artist critique”. It’s one of the most effective tools and vulnerable experiences for artists, but after art school it’s mostly underutilized, and a rare occurrence. In my experience, friendship is a rare social structure where critical feedback can be achieved among artists without transaction. Inherent to critique is mutual acceptance, which is often a foundation of friendship. To field a remark that might cut you deeply, you need to know the person saying it isn’t trying to cut you down, but that they’re trying to build you up- that kind of openness comes from trust developed over time.
Over the past 16 years, I’ve argued with each person in this exhibition, and we’ve all verbally cut into one other at some point or another. We’ve dealt with the realities of life together, just as we’ve dealt with our ridiculous obsessions with our respective material tendencies. The most vulnerable conversations I’ve had about art have not been with dealers, critics, art school professors, collectors, but with artist friends.
This exhibition does not have a theme or art historical context to bring the work together (unless we accept that friendship is distinct from art history), rather it relies on that collective acceptance and trust between friends. Normally this might be seen as cliché, but any hesitation is less about true friendship, and more about how short-term and shallow exhibitions are. It’s a manufactured context where long-term commitment among artist friends is typically not celebrated, despite the fact that friendship is one of the last great sources of genuine critique, and where it can be most effective. It’s where the truth can hit us at our most vulnerable and leave us begging the question: “Are we still friends”? The answer is yes.
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Tags: Bosco Bae, Bridgeport, Joe Reihsen, John Schmid, Kellie Romany, Lewis Bag, McKinley Park, Nate Young, NEPO, Robert Chase Heishman, Rogrigo Lara, Tony Lewis
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