P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center is pleased to present The Gold Standard, on view in the Kunsthalle from October 29, 2006 through January 15, 2007. All of the works in the exhibition are gold in color, and deal with the iconographic complexity of gold. The exhibition examines the idea that otherwise uninflected objects, through material and surface transformation, become objects of desire, expanding upon and negotiating the chimerical presence—both materially and symbolically—of gold. Themes such as alchemy and religion, symbols of power and wealth, the ostentatious and the sublime, are also of chief concern. The exhibition includes historical figures alongside younger artists, and numerous works commissioned especially for The Gold Standard.
The formal groundwork or strategies that seem most urgent for these artists raise questions of substitution, doubling, copying, decoys, and spectacle in relation to a material that has, as its base, a sense of unrelenting authenticity and power, a fantastical foundation for exchange–both literally in an economic sphere, and in a more general social sense.
The artists in the exhibition include: John Armleder, Andisheh Avini, Barry X Ball, Marcel Broodthaers, Tim Davis, Thomas Demand, Jessica Diamond, Sylvie Fleury, Felisa Funes, Piero Golia, Wayne Gonzales, Kent Henricksen, Thomas Hirschhorn, Fred Holland, Alfredo Jaar, Annette Kelm, Terence Koh, Yayoi Kusama, Louise Lawler, Daniel Lefcourt, Sherrie Levine, John Miller, Geof Oppenheimer, Mai-Thu Perret, Paul Pfeiffer, Seth Price, Rob Pruitt, David Ratcliff, Tim Rollins and K.O.S., Haim Steinbach, Sturtevant, Vincent Szarek, Wolfgang Tillmans, Kelley Walker, James Welling, and Eric Wesley.
The Gold Standard is organized by Walead Beshty and P.S.1 Curatorial Advisor Bob Nickas.
