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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

The Future

Streaming on Gagosian

In a 2019 interview with Granta, the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips discussed the risks of taking refuge in therapy during politically dark times. “When external reality becomes unbearable, people begin to have elaborate internal worlds,” he replied. “One could become, as it were, fascinating to oneself at the cost of engaging politically.” But looking inward has also resulted in non-egocentric flights into fantasy—see George Orwell’s 1984, which is surely the product of an “elaborate internal world” but is far from politically disengaged. Indeed, during periods of dread and doubt, some become seers rather than self-examiners. This exhibition looks to the former category, drawing together a group of artworks that take the future as their theme. Part of the annual collaboration between the Gagosian and Jeffrey Deitch galleries, it is the first online-only edition, and includes paintings, sculptures, and video works from Trevor Paglen, Nam June Paik, Sterling Ruby, and other artists, who double here as soothsayers. —C.J.F.

Ed Ruscha, “The Future,” 1999. © Ed Ruscha. Photo: Jeff McLane. Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian.