Avish Khebrehzadeh, Backyard (2005). Graphite on layers of paper (120 x 90 in.) with video animation projection (1 min 40 sec.)

December 2008 Field Guide

Anri Sala

Predrive: After Technology

Experimenta Folklore

Javier Ramirez Limon

Indian Art

Mark Manders

Klara Liden

Andre Kertesz: On Reading

Ron Arad

Pipilotti Rist

Transpop: Korea Vietnam Remix

Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans

Ree Morton

Avish Khebrehzadeh Nalini Malani Yoshitomo Nara Mithu Sen Blum & Poe Times Four Sotheby’s Sees Strong Sales in Hong Kong Yoshitomo Nara Free of Graffiti Charges It’s Basel Time

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In a hyperbolic year that brought us Damien Hirst's sinister diamond-studded skull and Paul McCarthy's giant inflatable turd wreaking havoc across the Swiss countryside, it's comforting to know that there are still artists who quietly sit in a studio drawing pictures. This exhibition of 16 artists, including Nalini Malani, Yoshimoto Nara, Mithu Sen, and Avish Khebrezadeh, interprets drawing loosely, expanding it into animation, shadows, and installations, but embraces the rubric "emotional." In "A Perspective on Contemporary Art: Emotional Drawing," emotion refers to works that appear fragile or unfinished, a wavering, shaky line alluding more poignantly to our flawed being than the grid of perfection could, we suppose. Perhaps this show will take a quiet stand as an alternative to today's prevailing schools of icy conceptualism and pricey tabloid-fodder shenanigans. "Emotional Drawing" originally appeared in the December 2008 / January 2009 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' December 2008 / January 2009 Table of Contents.