Art

photo: Courtesy Feigen Contemporary

A still from Million Dollar Moment (2004)

Details

David Kramer
Feigen Contemporary
535 West 20th Street
Through June 26

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More About

• Frank Lloyd Wright
• Raymond Pettibon
• Clement Greenberg
• Visual Arts
• TV Show Reviews

Building slowly from self-deprecating drawings and sculpture to an installation with a hilarious video, Kramer twists every tired cliché in the book with the perfect timing of a stand-up comic. His wry works on colored paper (with captions or typewritten texts) are as sardonic as those of Raymond Pettibon, and his whiny truisms and complaints ("the art world is an unforgiving place, only the strong survive") may remind you of Cary Liebowitz, yet the tipsy sensibility is all his own. The stacked champagne-glass fountain-settee and life-size lamppost drunk add gravitas of a sort. But the late-night TV movie, Million Dollar Moment, playing in the vintage barroom is the true gem of this show. An 8 1/2-minute black-and-white DVD starring a critic and an artist, this parodic tale of power, undiscovered genius, and the real-life mix-up that brought Kramer to the attention of a Chelsea gallery comes complete with 1940s theme music, front-page headlines, and hilarious whiffs of Clement Greenberg, Frank Lloyd Wright, and The Fountainhead. Kramer plays himself. Joe Amrhein of Pierogi is the bartender.