Reality Waits To Be Determined: What art is crucial for the contemporary now and who has the guts to show it?

The art world is at a crossroads and in the crosshairs at the same time. An ideal art world will not spontaneously form; rather, it will be found in the art that comes next and in what art is chosen to be displayed publicly.

Over the last year, forces of mainstream populism, institutional cowardice, anti-intellectualism, and politics around the globe have mounted an overt game of chicken with art organizations, institutions, and galleries—young and old. Rather than accept this doom spiral as the future reality, how can this time period be leveraged as an opportunity to fix the unignorable widening cracks in how the art world routinely operates?

Artists have not changed. Deep and responsive artwork is made with the same tenacity as it always has been, despite ever-mounting challenges to the artist. Artists remain resilient, but what places make an overt effort to seek out and show their work? What spaces prioritize support for this work in the face of constant external pressure?

This session aims to showcase histories that can guide us, artwork that leads the way, and the physical spaces that bridge the gap between rhetorical ideals and the day-to-day labor involved in showing groundbreaking art.