Renegade Artists Band Together for New Exhibition 'Gargle/Spit'

Art world guru Kenny Schachter brings together nine artists, from Vito Acconci to Chris Burden, for an eclectic cross-generational exhibition at New York gallery, TBD.

by Sami Emory

May 19, 2015, 7:30pm

Katherine Bernhardt, Palm Trees, tube socks and cigarettes, 2015, acrylic and spray-paint on canvas, 60 x 48 inches, Courtesy of TBD, Photo: Jeremy Harris.

The nine artists currently housed in the showrooms of Lower East Side gallery, TBD, share little in common, with the exceptions being their immunity to conventions, the rarities intrinsic to their approaches, and their love for Kenny Schachter. Rallied together by the described "art-world-guru" into Gargle/Spit, the dealer's first show in NYC in 11 years, the artists bring old works—like Vito Acconci’s photographs from the late 60s and early 70s—and new, like Katherine Bernhardt’s latest Pop acrylics—to the nascent New York gallery for an interpersonal exhibition of enduring relationships and renegade practices.

"Each has created work that either completely defies the prevailing ideas of what art is, or has taken the familiar methods and materials of art making and disregarded their accepted uses to create something utterly inappropriate and audacious,” gallery owner Tomasz Nakarko, who opened TBD in November 2014, explains in the show’s press release. “They make it difficult for the viewer to digest, and instead often make them recoil spit. Some of these artists have harmed and abused (or amused) themselves, their artwork, and in turn the art world. For this reason, despite international exposure, retrospectives and critical praise, the fame and public acceptance often bestowed upon their peers largely eludes them. Nonetheless, the impact of their work cannot be ignored. It’s their brazenness that defines 'Art'; that makes the art of the future possible.”

Schachter himself has filled many roles in the art world throughout the years and, as Nakarko says, "Whether as a gallerist, curator or critic, Kenny, like these artists, has done it his way. He even had Vito Acconci design a gallery for him. The space was, arguably, one of the most unconventional and least user-friendly galleries ever built: like the work of the artists in Gargle/Spit, a defiant gesture in an increasingly fawning art world.”

Check out some of the artworks in Gargle/Spit below: