Douglas Friedman's Art Snaps

Regular NOWNESS contributor Douglas Friedman captures a selection of the artists behind the hyper-conceptual works at the second New Museum Triennial, The Ungovernables. Curated by the Manhattan institution’s Director and Curator of Education and Public Programs, Eungie Joo, the exhibition reflects the urgency and existential upheaval pervading the work of emerging artists born between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s. “I see this generation as being very pragmatic and creative at the same time, unlike my generation, which I characterize as a little bit more burdened by history,” says Joo. Friedman’s clean, bright portraits aimed to initiate a veiled conversation between each artist and their work. “As a portrait photographer, the challenge is hoping your subject doesn’t think what you’re doing is contrived,” he explains. “So I tried to do them justice by referencing their works in a subtle way.” The Ungovernables includes Canadian Julia Dault’s performative sheets of Plexiglas, the geometric frames of Columbian Gabriel Sierra, and the Vietnam-based Propeller Group’s resounding "Television Commercial for Communism."