NEXT Art Fair

NEXT, the Invitational Exhibition of Emerging Art, opened April 29 and ran through May 3. It's a specific fair: More diverse than The New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) Art Fair in Miami Beach, NEXT combines contemporary art, talks, performances, studio visits, and special exhibitions this year—seemingly all titled for retro rock bands. Emerging art from Spain was the focal point of a suite of galleries collectively called "Spanish Edge"; gallery Club Nutz brought offbeat comedy and musical performances from Milwaukee. Tara Strickstein's artist project, Bloodshed Event, presented Pataphor, a macabre game show that roped fair visitors into feats of endurance. Meanwhile, New Insight offered a selection of work by MFA students from some of the country's most influential graduate art programs and Independent Curators Inc (ICI) invited 35 international curators to select a current video, which was part of a continuous screening. The band played on, with a new tune.—Paul Laster