Old Walls Gallery - Aesthetic Capture!

Aesthetic capture (AC) is the art world parallel of regulatory capture; that process by which industry and the rich co-opt attempts to curtail their freedom to accumulate and protect their wealth.

This show proposes that AC functions in both overtly and subtly.

Overtly AC controls what art rises into the mainstream. Philanthropic art institutions can only exhibit work that will not jealousies the wealth, or contentment, of their donors. This control creates the aesthetic found at every major art institution. Its markers are radical lip service, tokenization, and wealth justifications.

Subtly, AC functions within the minds of artist. It shapes the ideas we investigate and then means we use to exhibit our works. In many ways need to sell is the most powerful, yet least examined, aesthetic influence on contemporary American artists. What if it wasn’t?

This exhibition seeks all artwork they evades capture, or needs to be liberated. Work…