Exhibitions: What It Do... (Part Two)

If one displays a great deal of art in a private home and a visitor, being overwhelmed by what he or she sees, a person might find that home to be something of an exhibition. That’s not inaccurate. There’d be art on the wall for guests to see. And really, that’s basically how museums and the like function. Right?

An art exhibit can simply exist in the mind of the individual whereas all those that surrounds him or her remain oblivious or simply uncaring. Undefined spaces can instantly become a forward thinking gallery displaying any range of visual art.

Not appreciating what’s on display won’t disallow a collection from being understood as an exhibition if in fact the individual finds it sensible to consider the amassed artwork as such. But when the perception of that gallery or museum goer strays to something less than flattering  there’s a chance that just having collected and displayed a spate of work doesn’t necessarily constitute an exhibition regardless of intent.

While some struggle to define enclosed spaces as galleries and exhibitions, there are people who believe that  navigating the physical world of art and its gallery scene to be less than inviting. Whether purposeful or not, there’re an ever growing clutch of artists that eschew traditional art spaces for the sides of buildings, trains and even an unsuspecting moving truck or two.

Artists that traffic in pasted up images, spray paint or stenciling aren’t necessarily going to find their way into a gallery space making all of outdoors rife with possibilities. In that, the old factory down the way might suddenly become dashed with color over night. While most won’t consider walking slowly down an urban block in order to take in the expanse of whatever street art there is, there’s nothing drastic that differentiates this scenario from that of a proper gallery – apart from walls.

Moving even beyond physicality, though, are the increasing number of artists, museums and galleries that have taken to the internet in order to gain exposure traditional media outlets can’t or won’t afford. In this act a new, non physical space is created. The curious can peruse any collection of images from the comfort of his or her den as long as the institution or artist takes the time to make available some selection of images. This isn’t necessarily a case of creative people intentionally making a new space to view art, it’s simply a necessary part of arts’ evolution. So when people attempt to define an art exhibit, they might too frequently conjure images of white walls and such. That, though, is no longer a necessity.

With cultural and social changes now accelerated by the expanse of communication tools, notions of how the world functions are being washed away amidst new conceptions of space, art and business. Solving the global warming problem isn’t necessarily around the corner, but there will be innumerable ideas regarding that quandary – just as many as there are ways to figure an art exhibit.