Marc Straus presents a pop-up exhibition at its annex on 284 Grand Street: a 19th-century building that once housed a bustling fish market. Curated by Director Ken Tan, the exhibition features more than ten new site-specific installations by Korean artists Jong Oh and Jinsu Han. In the October 1976 issue of Artforum, the cover story by Nancy Foote, titled “The Apotheosis of the Crummy Space”, featured the Rooms show in what was then the recently opened P.S.1. Foote appreciated how the site “can be ‘amended’ subtly by small additions that comment on its nature and adapt their posture to its own; it can serve as a medium, directly or indirectly, also as subject,” and noted a “disaster area ambience.” Ever since the 1970’s, the unpolished, dilapidated quality of abandoned spaces have been favored by avant-garde artists who not only worked within but on the space itself: its floors, walls, ceilings and architectural features. 284 Grand Street was home to a Chinese family-operated seafood market, offering everything from baby shrimps to exotic sea urchins, but about two years ago the fishmongers vacated. In “The Apotheosis of the Fish Market”, a nod to Foote’s eponymous review, the site is finally exalted to the zenith of its existence before it makes way for a new building that will be constructed the following Spring. In reaction to its spatial configurations, Jinsu Han and Jong Oh have transformed two floors of the building into a gritty, sensory experience with their respective site-responsive installations. On view until December 1, 2016 at a Marc Straus pop up space, 284 Grand Street. photographs by Adam Leher
