The Standard

George Condo is one of the heroes of the 1980’s East Village art scene. He was close buds with Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Schnabel. Along with these names, Condo was instrumental in the international revival of painting in the 1980s. He’s been a singular voice in American and European art for almost three decades.

The New Museum is finally assembling his career and gracing us with the collection in a show called George Condo: Mental States showing from January 26th to May 8, 2011 on the 3rd and 4th floors at The New Museum.

To use his own words, his paintings “reflect the madness of everyday life” with meticulous attention to naturalistic detail coupled with elements of the grotesque and the absurd.

George Condo: Mental States presents what the artist has calls a “conceptual survey” of work over the past thirty years. The show is divided into four sections, each of which examines a particular theme or genre central to his work. It demonstrates that no matter how varied his artistic language or strategy, Condo’s paintings and sculptures create a singular view—dystopic, humorous, empathetic, and critical—of our post-humanist age.

If you miss the show, you’ll want to purchase the 190-page catalogue, produced by Hayward Publishing. It’s a keeper!

For more info, go to New Museum, George Condo: Mental States. The New Museum is located at 235 Bowery New York, NY 10002. Phone 212.219.1222