Bourgeois Problems: Curated by Catherine Taft

Bourgeois Problems responds to the current economic climate (and those of recessions past) through humorous, cynical, flashy and sharp commentary. The work included in this show is a cathartic, therapeutic, and at times diagrammatic reflection of modern problems as well as literal and figurative forms of depression. The simple, diaristic drawings of Margie Schnibbe, for example, reveal both the flux of inner thoughts and anxieties and the concrete accounting of daily life. Similar to Schnibbeʼs “figurative” drawings, Nancy Buchananʼs untitled embroideries decoratively record economic fluctuations and statistics and, in a characteristically capitalist conceptual move, the completion of these pieces was partially out-sourced to Haitian artist, Louise Evlyne Chapentier. Nikhil Murthy also takes a formal approach toward statistics, translating the data from our recent market crash into the editing pattern of his video, which splices together car crash footage from a big budget indy movie “Redline” (2007) with train crash footage from Buster Keatonʼs 1926 silent film “The General.” The work of Jeff Ostergren, on the other hand, appropriates advertisements for luxury goods, pharmaceuticals, and fiscal services to produce a dizzying and vivid mass market onslaught.