One of the current predicaments of art was recently captured in a statement by media theorist Alexander Galloway. Speaking at the book launch of e-flux’s The Internet Does not Exist, Galloway proposed that, contrary to the aspirations of the art of the modern period, art today isn’t really operating as a vanguard.

Jason Dodge, an American artist living in Berlin, works in a conceptualist style with a narrative twist (some call it poetic) that has worn well throughout the biennial circuit.

Artist and writer Ian Wallace recently remarked that we “hear a lot about ‘Artschwagerian wit,’ but there’s never been much of an attempt to define it.” We could approach Sculpture after Artschwager, a modest selection of post-war objects at David Nolan Gallery, as an attempt at such a definition.

In 1971 Vito Acconci performed “Seedbed” at Sonnabend Gallery. The artist masturbated for hours at a time beneath a low ramp built upon the gallery floor while patrons walked above. Acconci’s provocative statements played over speakers, establishing an environment of threatening sexual presence.

With The Decline and Fall of the Art World, Part I: The One-Percenters, Freight + Volume assembles several subversive gestures that expose the various dysfunctions and inequalities of contemporary art production.