PS1 and Studio Space

MoMA’s PS1 started a project a while ago called Studio Visits, in which artists of the boroughs of New York can upload images of their art in their studios to be featured on the virtual apartment complex. Photos include not only artwork installed in their sites of conception, but of the exterior of the studio’s building, perhaps for context, perhaps for a greater sense of realism in having visited the space.

A Studio Visit feature: Suhee Wooh

Increasingly, the studio has become a space of interest in the art world, but is typically excluded from participating directly in the highly-glossed circle of the art market. Perhaps this is because the studio is still romanticized as a place of genius, or individual creative expression–separate from transaction or commerce. The studio, as a site of process, remains conceptually and somewhat physically isolated as a result.

With Studio Visits, PS1 takes on the solitude of the artist in his studio and attempts to make it accessible. If nothing else, the collection suggests that there is a way to expose these small and intimate spaces with a large viewing public, at minimal cost and inconvenience. Studio Visits is effectively a gallery in which studios become complete works in themselves. The space, the artist’s psyche, the process all become curated objects in a very interesting presentation that to some degree de-mystifies all three. (Then again, the association with a big name like PS1 might re-mythicize.)

While this project seems to present a valuable alternative way to look at and conceptualize artist studios, I don’t think it should be looked at as an attempt to replicate or replace the studio visit itself (the photo of the building’s front might be an attempt). Much of what is present in the physical studio–the mess, the work-in-progress, the interactivity, the artist’s presence–cannot be fully realized in these presentations. Instead, Studio Visits suggests that there is a larger body of art work that exists beneath the market’s radar that deserves attention, and perhaps a physical visit.