X-MAS IN AUGUST-

Tonight we’re at Cappellini SoHo for the private press opening for Christmas in the Summer, a conceptual bi-coastal art show by Derrick B.Harden & Laura O’Reilly featuring paintings by Kathy Grayson (Deitch Projects).

The entire idea of the show is that you can’t see the art for sale before you buy it. All paintings are wrapped in gift wrap and tied up with big bows, and an audio guide made by the curators offers your only intimation at what might lie beneath.

This is what the pieces look like. The idea is that viewers walk into the bright red showroom like an eager kid on Christmas Eve who has to wait to open their presents until the next day– or in this case when the show is over.

Just because you don’t get to see the art, doesn’t mean that you don’t see the art: the visual show of pre-gift-wrapped paintings by Ms. Grayson is accompanied by a looped 20-minute audio tour of the exhibition. The central conundrum of the exhibition is the decision of the collector to ever make the painting and image public, thus controlling information and highlighting the luxury of privacy in our mobile media obsessed cultural moment. They may choose to never share their present with anyone.

X-mas In the Summer opens tomorrow at Cappellini, 152 Wooster St between Houston & Prince, SoHo NY and runs through August 23rd.