THE END - of an era, of a mindset, of imposed limitations. Our transformation has now begun, at the dawn of the 21st century.

Do you remember when art was meaningful? When it held the promise of something new, of revelation? Before FOMO-fueled performative shopping events we call art fairs? Do you remember when art wasn’t the domain of the cool kids and the mean girls? When it was powerful, art was the realm of geeks and freaks, fantasists and visionaries. That past, as imperfect as it was, seems impossible now - if you even remember it at all. Now we have romantic stories, packaged as musicals and movies, of artists’ garrets, the Cabaret Voltaire, manifestos shouted while standing half-drunk on chairs, printed in blocky serif typefaces on crinkly newspapers. Now we have BMW sponsored VIP rooms at the collector preview party, and virtual viewing rooms to push the latest drop to your Hamptons home without the inconvenient mess of a sticky East Village opening. Art is rebranded as a fashionable investment vehicle, gussied up as lip service for social justice and identity issues. Awkward conversation and the exchange of unusual ideas have been wrung out of art.

Don’t mourn what we burnt down. Piece by piece, we dismantled it because we were done with it. The simulacrum that now stands in its place is a placebo for the sentimental and the naïve, the poseurs and the ignorant. Don’t cling to it, see it for what it is; a false god freshly placed upon the alter of the old by invading barbarians - after we abandoned the temple. If you are looking for the familiar past you won’t find it today. Look instead for the future, and you will create it.

Now here we are, on the other side. Our new world is not meant to replicate the old, it is an opportunity to build better, on stronger foundations so that we may go higher. The juice that was wrung out of art is now the nectar we drink; a pure and fermented fuel.

This exhibition is not the end, it is the last step on a bridge to a beginning that we create together, to Expanded Field Art. This is a threshold that cannot be crossed without purpose or passion. With over forty artists, all new to the gallery, this large exhibition shows how pervasive and vigorous these new shoots are. This will be the final exhibition at the gallery’s current location and under the guise of Culture Object.

Culture Object is dead, long live culture object.

Expanded Field Art - The Stockholm Manifesto (PDF)