Probably Only An Art-worlder Like Me Could

Biennial Culture Is Already Almost Irrelevant, Because So Many More People Are Providing So Many Better Opportunities For Artists To Exhibit Their Work.

The Reason The Art World Doesn't Respond To Kinkade Is Because None - Not One - Of His Ideas About Subject-matter, Surface, Color, Composition, Touch, Scale, Form, Or Skill Is Remotely Original. They're All Cliche And Already Told.

I Don't Often Go To Curator Or Artist Walk-throughs Of Exhibitions. For A Critic, It Feels Like Cheating. I Want To See Shows With My Own Eyes, Making My Own Mistakes, Viewing Exhibitions The Way Most Of Their Audience Sees Them.

Chris Ofili's Suave, Stippled, Visually Tricked-out Paintings Of The Nineties, With Their Allover Fields Of Shimmering Dots And Clumps Of Dung, Are Like Cave Paintings Of Modern Life. They Crackle With Optical Cockiness, Love, And Massive Amounts Of Painterly Mojo.

While A Large Segment Of The Art World Has Obsessed Over A Tiny Number Of Stars And Their Prices, An Aesthetic Shift Has Been Occurring. It's Not A Movement - Movements Are More Sure Of Themselves. It's A Change Of Mood Or Expectation, A Desire For Art To Be More Than Showy Effects, Big Numbers, And Gamesmanship.