D.C.'s galleries began the year flogging hope—with a Shepard Fairey megaexhibit at Irvine Contemporary—and ended it with, um, chickens. For galleries, as with art institutions worldwide, times proved tough, but Washington's scene also saw moments of, well, hope. In her essay in our Arts in Review issue, critic Maura Judkis writes:
The market for luxury purchases [...]
They've spared us any one-liners about crossing the road, or having flown the coop. But something about Koen VanMechelen's "Cosmopolitan Chicken Project" at Conner Contemporary brings out the punniest in bloggers and writers everywhere. It's easy to see why: There's an abundance of material, from the classic chicken or the egg scenario to the [...]
Koen VanMechelen loves chickens. Live chickens, stuffed chickens, videos of chickens, paintings made with egg tempera. Saturday night at Conner Contemporary, VanMechelen's "Cosmopolitan Chicken Project (DC)" opens; it'll run to Dec. 31. According to the press release, the Belgian artist is "systematically crossing all breeds of chickens to create a world-mongrel chicken."
