Debtfair Proposal

Sculpture

Oct 24

Written By Tal Beery

Occupy Museums, Debtfair Proposal (2014). Three pieces: two at 39" x 50" x 24" each, one at 42" x 24" x 24". Mixed media. Exhibited at Work It Out, curated by Eric Heist, Momenta Art.

Occupy Museums’ Debtfair Proposals consist of scale models designed to expose hidden debt in the art market by intervening in commercial gallery and art fair spaces. These models introduce a new narrative into art fairs by exhibiting “bundles” of artwork from indebted artists on auxiliary walls attached to existing structures. In commercial galleries, the goal is to display works by these artists between the studs of a typical gallery wall and behind an existing show.

Debtfair Proposals were first exhibited at Momenta Art in Brooklyn, NY, from October 24 to December 21, 2014, as part of the exhibition “Work It Out,” which also featured artists Greg Sholette and Matt Greco, Nsumi Collective, Peter Fend, Huong Ngo & Hong-An Truong, and Mierle Laderman Ukeles. The installation displayed one proposal for a commercial art gallery, one for an art fair, and one table holding broadsheets explaining the project and printed for the show.

ALL WORKS IN THIS SERIES

Debtfair New Mexico

516 Arts (Albuquerque, NM)
Nov 17, 2018 – Feb 23, 2019

Debtfair Whitney

Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art (New York)
Mar 13-Jun 11, 2017

Debtfair (a project of Occupy Museums) is a means of exposing the hidden layer of debt within the art market and its institutions, making visible the relationships between art practices and financial realities in the U.S.