Today David Byrne published an essay on why he doesn't care about contemporary art anymore. Some may ask, David who? That is a good question but pretty much anyone age 30-60 knows he was once the bellwether of postmodern artyness and yes he made some music too.

I'm not going to comment so much on the content of the art he has lost interest in but to me it seems like it is a very community based critique (and anti-marketplace) of how much Art has lost its awkward struggle at certain tiers of the art world. Also, there is an implicit lament of... where is the cross pollination between the visual and other genres when Art becomes an industrial product as a type of entertainment? IE has Art become too mainstream? I suspect the answer is to simply shift our gaze rather than to give up. Blaming the art market is like saying you hate doctors because they work in large hospitals... simply change the practitioners you visit. Sometimes a big hospital can do things the small offices can't and vice versa.

Art exists in spite of its market not because of it and I like Portland because I see weird/innovative things happening here in pockets of smart people that don't get co-opted by more mainstream society for 6 months to a few years. It happens other places as well and I'm pretty certain that this moment only provides an opportunity for artists who really want to change the way we look at our world... through art. I never buy the art is dead argument, but it is interesting to ponder. Instead, I think it is important to better define the stakes and reevaluate where you are looking for art. I mean that geographically, demographically and ideologically.