Christian Viveros-Fauné gives a big nod to Chris Verene’s new Book, Family in today’s Village Voice and throws down this assessment of “most artists” work:
…Substitute the word “art” for “cultural theory,” and you’ve just described a parallel universe for much of the stuff that regularly fills contemporary galleries and museums. While rafts of visual artists today flock to subject matter like Michael Jackson’s praxis and the emancipatory possibilities of “hamster nests,” very few sign up to tackle what were once tagged “grand narratives”—stories about how regular people deal with poverty, injustice, and suffering, among other conditions not fully captured by the drolleries of air quotes.
