Art can be boring and hard to understand. In the hands of this critic, who is known for his monthly Spike Art Magazine column, it is neither. Skewering nostalgia and reviewing the year 2020 are examples of things Dean Kissick does in “The Downward Spiral.” This year, he also branched out, organizing the gallery show “The Painter’s New Tools,” which itself spawned a disproportionate amount of art criticism.
A key player in the downtown scene who has yet to be profiled by a major publication, the artist Tommy Malekoff works on the small scale but executes grand visions in his video works, simultaneously celebrating what he aims to subvert: the mundanity and insularity of the American landscape. He is currently dating the downtown fashion designer Prisca Franchetti, of PriscaVera.
