Multitasking painters like me

As if in response to my discussion with hyperallergic Hrag last night about multitasking vs. concentrated monofocus, in the NY Times this morning Holland Cotter reports that most of the painters selected for “Younger Than Jesus” are committed multitaskers. “The artists Tala Madani, born in Iran, and Jakub Julian Ziolkowski, from Poland, do oil-on-canvas pictures of a conventional sort; Emre Huner, from Turkey, combines painting with animation; the German-born artist Kerstin Br�tsch uses hers as performance aids; and the New York artist Josh Smith treats his like prints, churning out dozens of pictures at a time and stacking them for distribution. Ryan Trecartin uses paint cosmetically, as an extreme form of makeup. Applying it directly to the body, he transforms himself and the other performers in his videos into frenetically walking, talking surrealist abstractions. Born in Texas in 1981, Mr. Trecartin is probably the best-known artist in the show, though with his extroverted, look-at-me spirit, among the least representative. He�s certainly one of the most versatile. A blogosphere baby, a child of the chat room, a YouTube native, he shifts effortlessly among realities while pushing sculpture, film, performance, music and language � so much language � through digital scramblers and mixers. There is some danger of his motormouth wizardry sliding into shtick, but right now it�s mesmerizing.” Read more.“The Generational: Younger Than Jesus,” organized by Lauren Cornell, Massimiliano Gioni, and Laura Hoptman.New Museum, New York, NY. Through July 5. Related posts:
Younger than Jesus: Thomas Roberts
Wiser than God