New York City’s Carriage Trade gallery has had two homes in its short history and both were small spaces that director Peter Scott packed with intelligent, thoughtful exhibits. Scott is an artist who curates exhibitions as part of his practice and they have always had a strong organizing idea, engagement with issues of relevance, and connections to the current generation of New York artists. Now relocated to the Lower East Side, at 277 Grand Street, the gallery’s first show American Interior is a response to the recent Trump election.
Theorizing that the U.S. media and psyche have avoided looking honestly into its character and habits that led us to the election of Donald Trump, Scott highlights images that open up to interiors that Americans would rather not highlight. These images take on a recognizable but haunting specter, he writes, because the “media increasingly saturates day-to-day life, [and] politics adopts its techniques, shaping reality to suit its goals.” The exhibit features recognizable but creepy domestic interiors, racism in its uniquely American expressions, and views into the American psyche. Taken on their own, many are striking—even seductive—images but together they raise the specter of a frightening uncomfortable reality we don’t like to see or admit on a daily basis.
The exhibition American Interior runs through June 3, 2017. Carriage Trade is located at 277 Grand Street, 2nd Floor, New York, New York, 10002.
