I met Brian Andrew Whiteley at Arts & Leisure gallery in East Harlem during that eerie, quiet period between Christmas and New Year’s. As we brunched on (formerly) Haji’s chopped cheese sandwiches and mimosas, we discussed his recent series of paintings and his upcoming mid-career retrospective.

Brian Andrew Whiteley is the quintessential provocateur. A visual artist and curator based in New York, his prowess lies in his performance art acumen. His multimedia artistic practice spans sculpture and new media art. Whiteley works as an investigative performance artist and is best known for his large-scale, interactive projects meant to provoke and manipulate media observations.

Wandering the aisles at VOLTA NY can be compared to browsing the racks at your local upmarket thrift shop: every now and then an Armani jacket catches your eye among the Merona sweaters. This year’s edition was no different. 

September 11th seems like a strange date to schedule an art event. A dark cloud will always hang over that date in this country, especially in New York City. I spent it in the most patriotic way that I could think of. I joined a group of artists and friends at Freight + Volume gallery for the closing reception of Rebecca Goyette’s exhibition, Ghost Bitch USA.