Did 2013 make you sad? Good. It should have. Auction records were amassed, while long-term housing for artists seems increasingly unstable. Dave Hickey quit, and the remaining critics praised the art of reckless warlords and celebrities. And everywhere you look, Kanye seems to have tentacle in the mix.
So go to Boo-Hooray’s current show, Semina 1955-1964 Art Is Love Is God.
“Semina,” the 1950s zine by assemblage granddaddy/beatnik Wallace Berman, may be half a century past its heyday, but the spirit remains. The show is evidence of an alternative tradition, which has roots at least as far back as Dada, and loosely includes generations from Cabaret Voltaire, the Beat Generation, punk zine-makers and Internet artists. As “Semina Culture” author Michael Duncan put it, Semina’s community was driven by the desire to “…transcend the ‘monster’ of postwar meaninglessness.” Since there’s no shortage of vapid things to transcend, we’ll be going to this show.
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