The chaotic, haphazard and bizarre nature of modern art is easily explained: The painter finally settles for whatever satisfaction may be involved in working not as an independent member of a society that needs him, but as a retainer for a small group of people who as a profession or as a hobby are interested in the game of comparing one mutation with another.
- John Canaday (former art critic of the New York Times)

I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum.
- Claes Oldenburg

By now, though, let's hope you are convinced that you need to see this show for yourself. It isn't to be missed, even if you have only a casual interest in contemporary art.

- Robert Pincus, “It starts with a good eye: Mark Quint's 30-year gallery history is richly dotted with highlights” SignOnSanDiego, September 3, 2009.

Preface

If you are not already immersed in its functioning, much of the art world can resemble a micro-industry supported and continually inflated by a host of individuals and entities who are willing to give lip-service and their last breath to keep it afloat, but for whom the “power of art” has been discarded in favor of a model defined by status, power, money, and social networking.  Reform is needed in these parts, much as it is in any other industry or governmental agency that is more often than not flailing these days.  While it is growing increasingly difficult to differentiate between what some might call standard practice in the art world and what good is being done by those who still believe art is important, I would argue that this schism is having a significant effect on the types of shows being organized, the artists chosen, and the internal complacency that sometimes exists between institutions.  As a result, the public’s interests get neglected and their public trust in an institution can be jeopardized.

Detail of Olive Branch Rorschach, © 2008 Roman de Salvo. Courtesy the artist. Quint: Three Decades of Contemporary Art, California Center for the Arts, Escondido.

For all the good that is being done elsewhere in the industry by galleries and artists committed to their craft, there are others it seems who no longer wish to be at the service of anyone who is not part of their community.  The end result creates a “dialect” between the parties, and to a certain extent fosters apathy — lost is any need to convince others.  This can stifle a larger recognition and a broader audience for art, making what is produced more difficult to understand and place within a specific context or idea (and also less open to criticism), and desensitizing any nagging responsibility to explain oneself and one's actions when organizing an exhibition.  I find myself at the crossroads of one such instance currently unfolding here in San Diego.

There exists any number of factors that define an individual’s character or achievements — actions, for one — and other factors that don’t, which might prevent you from even hearing about them at all.  Not being “in the loop”, as we say, is one example.  The point I’m trying to make is that these factors I believe often depend on the shared knowledge of a specific community, a town, or even a city the size of San Diego.  Often the things we know about a gallery, Quint Gallery for example, are groomed to a specific and knowledgeable audience which maintains that information up-to-date.  Often, the acts of artists, their works, and the galleries that represent them appear heroic within a region, but are in fact rather standard fare compared to other enclaves that exist outside their territory.
 
In his essay Art & Authority the artist Vito Acconci points out that “every art-work falls under - on the part of both artist and viewer - the assumption of an atmosphere of authoritarianism.  The art-work makes an appearance as if out of nowhere, as if it’s existed from all time: since you can’t put your finger on where it began, the piece presents itself to be wondered at, venerated (whether for reasons of finance or ‘culture’) - the art, in other words, is bigger than you are.”  There is, I believe, an institutional authoritarianism which exists undetected by an art viewing public that can transform a gallery with very real pragmatic reasons to operate commercially into a gallery inducted into the hallowed halls of art history - bigger than you or I.