Summer shows: Airing out the inventory

If you want to get to the galleries in the summer, it helps to be a stay-at-home parent, unemployed or,, of course, independently wealthy. Galleries hours in the summer are working hours, so unless I want to play hookie, there's no photography for me this summer.

Which is a shame because this summer there has been a lot of interesting stuff on display. As I've said before, group shows are a great way to get exposure to a range of styles, subjects, photographers as it's an opportunity for galleries to show off the inventory. The two below feature primarily contemporary works.

Painter in Diorama, Museum of Natural History by Lisa Kereszi

In the same vein as recent shows by Thomas Struth and Justine Cooper, Yancey Richardson Gallery has organized a collection of photos taken within the museum environment. The show has a Russian doll feeling: a show where you can look at pictures of people looking at pictures. Or perhaps it's just another example of the art world's self-infatuation, much like the prevelance of Hollywood movies about making a movie.

On View: Photographing the Museum
Through Aug 26 at Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd St
(646) 230-9610

View from Villa Franca by Jack Pierson

"What I Did on My Summer Vacation"
Dealers are apparently not an imaginative lot. (If they were, they'd be artists, not dealers.) So we get the obvious summer themed shows like this. Which is not to say the collected pictures aren't interesting themselves. It's fun and who wants to think so hard when it's hazy/hot/humid and no end in sight?

Through Aug. 19 at ClampArt
531 W 25th St
(646) 230-0020