Newton

Formerly MX Gallery, Newton is an exhibition and performance space. Newton refers simultaneously to the canonical natural philosopher, Isaac Newton; the historically de-centered social philosopher, Huey Newton; and a defunct Apple product that was later developed into the iPhone. Newton is the rubric under which we recognize scientific method, revolutionary impulse, critical thinking, and dissolution as universal, ’of the times,’ and essential to art’s operation. COVID-19 laid bare existential issues of contemporary art at every social tier. Nobody was safe — artists, gallerists, and organizers with extremely developed projects as well as the scrappy younger cohort. In retrospect, we can now make sense of the current market frenzy. Things are skewed, out of step with the rhythm of art history, and history at large. What is the incentive to resume ‘business as usual’ when it is not possible? We have abruptly landed in a Gretchen Bender video work — subtitles are out of sync with images of an alienated past. Narrative is a forbidden boundary separating conceptual art, understood to be the most true form of pure play, from fandom, fetish, and fiction. Exalted — Newton investigates the connection between visual art, online communities, narrative, gaming, and cinema; its programmatic focus lies on how artists approach fiction and narration. Uncompromising in its belief that cultural workers deserve to profit from their labor, we employ commercial art strategies in the selling of film, painting, digital, and other narrative works/media. We hope to nurture a new productive relationship amongst artists, new types of work, thoughtful communities, and nascent markets.