This past weekend, I went to New York for a panel discussion on portraiture, and I managed to attend two extremely noteworthy shows/events. First, I caught the big Gilbert & George show at the Brooklyn Museum. It’s one thing to see their art work reproduced on websites or in books and quite another to see it in person. I find it quite interesting that despite the fact that most of their art is photography based (the individual panels of the pieces are all photographic prints) the show has not been mentioned on any site of the blogosphere: Two of Britain’s leading contemporary artists come to town and nobody finds it worthwhile to talk about it (which I find particularly jarring since each and every one of Damien Hirst’s pranks stunts always gets a lots of virtual ink)?

I also got to see Phillip Toledano’s America - The Gift Shop at a place called The Apartment. When I first saw the website I wondered whether all the individual pieces were real, and now I know that they are (and they’re for sale!). I did not buy an Abu Ghraib bobblehead (even though I was tempted), but they’re as real as they could possibly get: They have a “Made in China” sticker underneath (yes, I looked). As Phillip told me, he had everything custom-made in China, and it was great to see the stuff and to chat with Phil.