[Last nights conversation between two critics in Chelsea] "...was the Revenge of the Academics - dead-air & moribund jargon. What they had to say seemed devoid of generosity; not alive in any way; intentionally not vulnerable; only seemed aware of early "Relational Aesthetics" and "Institutional Critique" artists as legitimate; used theory more as fashion or as a "Club" or distancing tool to deal with the present; because they mask their desires with seriousness."
-- Jerry Saltz (Facebook 4-09)

"The list of artists that I posted previously [on Facebook] reflects my frustration/anger with curators who mainly choose artists who have already been chosen by other curators; who shun anything that is NOT installation, video, b/w late-late Conceptualism, or art that needs long labels. I love a lot of this art. Yet WAY too many curators are afraid of/hostile to anything VISUAL, MATERIAL, or PHYSICAL."
-- Jerry Saltz (4-09)

"Among all the madmen in world literature, Don Quixote is a peculiarly generous one. His derangement takes the form of freely giving to the world the exaltedness it lacks."
-- Matthew Sharpe (Art on Paper 9-09)

Facebook provocateur Jerry Saltz has recently called hegemonious contemporary art practice to task. Must meritorious art be mercantile, academically smart and purposeful? More than where we are, whats next? Who's talking about alternate currents and what might a new (hybrid) paradigm look like? Who are some innovators who are changing the rules, the process, the attitude, the look? Economic watershed moment + new city = new ways to conceive of art: five panelists will share their views.