Martha Rosler, Point and Shoot, 2008, photomontage, dimensions unknown. Via e-flux.

OUT NOW!
Opens 6-8pm Friday 5 September 2008
e-flux - 41 Essex St, New York NY

The Brooklyn Rail Silent Art Auction
6-9pm Thursday and Friday, 4 and 5 September 2008
Pace Wildenstein - 534 W 25 St, New York NY

Tomorrow night e-flux opens OUT NOW!, a group exhibition and event program at their new Essex Street location. Organized by Anton Vidokle, OUT NOW is a timely gesture towards the upcoming presidential elections and the ongoing public debate about the legacy of the current administration and a war that is at once the name of a ruined state and perhaps the single most defining issue of American international affairs in the past five and a half years. Comprising a small international group of artists, writers and activists, OUT NOW takes an unapologetically direct thematic approach to politics -- an uncommon decision, perhaps, in a cultural terrain where irony and formal hermeticism enjoy a much stronger currency over political earnestness and openly discursive art making.

Meanwhile in Chelsea, The Brooklyn Rail hosts the second day of their two-day Fifth Annual Fundraiser at Pace Wildenstein (the first day of which is tonight, from 6-9pm). The impressive roster of artists who have donated work -- which will be on view from noon to 6pm, and auctioned off from 6-9pm -- is available on the benefit web site.