DAVID GIBSON WRITING

The downtown art scene in New York City has a long and illustrious history that can hardly be contained in any one exhibition. Yet The New Museum’s “Come Closer: Art Around the Bowery 1969–1989” makes it possible to say a great many things. Organized by Ethan Swan, “Come Closer” is about the many individual forms of expression that included the active and sometimes volatile Downtown New York scene of the 70s and 80s. It is also about the individuals who made these statements, about the timbre of their shared existence, and about how we may celebrate of the real and mythical proximity between them.   The exhibition actually emerged out of a more extensive project called the “Bowery Artist Tribute” which so far has comprised three printed publications, a film, and an interactive website from which anyone can travel along the lengths of the Bowery, starting at Canal Street and ending at the corner of 4th Avenue and 10th Street, clicking links along the way to read h