Like New.

The inaugural show at Alexander Gray's new gallery, J. Morgan Puett's Wholesale: To The Trade Only 1985-1997 looks like the past, but it couldn't be more now. With all the renewed feverish talk about the collision of the worlds of art, fashion, and commerce . . . (Oh, shut up.)


Stop. Pull the record back. Scratch it. Fuck the past. This is just a wonder of a show to walk into today. Overwhelming in fact. It's going to mean a lot of things to a lot of people depending on their experience. My experience with Puett's work was nonexistent, and it sent my head and heart swimming. It didn't make me wistful for some past that I missed. (Read the exhibit info for the story of her influential shop in SoHo in the 80's and 90's.) Puett covers the history of her store--12 years of it--in beeswax, and somehow it doesn't feel like preservation. It feels like a sculpture living in the constant now, and filled sweetly with promises that will be kept.