Ice Cream: Contemporary Art in Culture

"A compendium of cutting-edge art." - Miami Herald.The summer forecast for contemporary art is decidedly "cooler" than expected. Massive cutting-edge international exhibitions including The Venice Biennale, Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany and Sculpture Projects Muenster are all scheduled for June 2007 and the art world will be abuzz. But what if you can't make it to these events and you want a piece of the action?"Ice Cream: Contemporary Art in Culture" is an up to the minute collection of the most exceptional contemporary artists of tomorrow. It presents 100 of the world's top emerging artists selected by 10 esteemed curators including Jens Hoffman, Director of the CCA Wattis Institute in San Francisco; Shamim Momin, Associate Curator at the Whitney; Philippe Vergne, Chief Curator at the Walker Art Center; and The Wrong Gallery, formally "the smallest exhibition space in New York" that is now housed within the Tate Modern.Continuing the phenomenon established by its predecessors Cream (1998) Fresh Cream (2000) and Cream 3 (2003) as in "one that rises to the top, "Ice Cream" identifies the cutting edge artists to watch in the future. The previous titles were a favorite among collectors as they accurately predicted a number of art stars including Tacita Dean, Olafur Eliasson and Thomas Hirschhorn. Stylishly designed, "Ice Cream" also upholds the series' heritage of innovative packaging by featuring a shiny iridescent cover.In "Ice Cream", each curator has selected 10 important new artists who have either emerged internationally over the past five years, or are still relatively unknown. Their definition of emerged means that an artist has had solo shows, but nothing large-scale in a major institution (apart from a couple recent exceptions), has been reviewed in the international art press, but not been the subject of a major monograph, and has been given sufficient exposure without yet becoming fully established.In the selection process, no limitations on geography or media were imposed. Over 25 countries are represented including China (a current favorite with collectors), Brazil Russia, Canada, Slovenia, Korea, Israel, Kenya, Mexico and the U.S. Age was also not a factor. The Wrong Gallery even went so far as to select the "most unlikely candidates." Massimiliano Gioni explained, "In other words, we went for the wrong ones: artists who are more than 60 years old; artists who are not emerging, but have emerged or simply stuck around long enough to make their voices heard by anyone who would listen." They selected artists such as Maria Lassnig, David Medalla and Jiri Kovanda."Ice Cream" opens with a conversation between the contributors as they debate the changing role of the curator and current trends in contemporary art, including: the blurring of roles between artist and curator demonstrated by the fact that artists have recently been invited to make selections in exhibitions. For example, The Wrong Gallery curated the 4th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art (2006) and presented an exhibition within the 2006 Whitney Biennial. The ICA London also exhibited the "Artist's Favorites" show in 2004.This book also debates: the shift in the conception of the exhibition that expands beyond museum walls - Inserting art in different environments; the effect of private art spaces that are run by collectors to display their own collections. [Jens Hoffman states, "This will have a strong impact on the overall landscape of contemporary art, since many of those collectors who are opening spaces are also the people who give money to public institutions, which they'll probably cease to do (once they have their own location)."]; and, the impact of the booming art market on artists who seem deeply affected by the pressure to conform to market forces and adapt their work.Each of the 100 artists is featured over four pages with a selection of their work together with a commentary by the curator who selected them, an exhibition history, and a bibliography. Every curator also selects a Source Artist, namely any artist from any previous generation whom they feel remains of key significance either to art at large or to his or her own thinking."Ice Cream" is a dynamic showcase of the next big flavors of the year. It provides a glimpse of what the future may hold and is a must-have for collectors and for anyone who follows or is beginning to explore the contemporary art scene.