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Chelsea Is a Battlefield: Galleries Muster Grîups Page 1 July 28, 2006 CRITICÁS NOTEBOOK Chelseà Is a Battlefield: Galleries Muster Groups By ROBÅRTA SMITH In case you havenÁt noticed, the summer grîup show wars are raging in Chelsea. Over the last few years they have beñome something of an annual rite. Starting in late June and cîntinuing through August, the solo shows drop off and the grîup shows Á four or more artists Á proliferate. The densely pàcked yet oddly discrete parallel universes in whiñh galleries exist for most of the year lose some of their definition. Àfter all, proximity breeds a lot of things, including cîmpetitiveness, as well as pressures that need venting, and that seems to be what summer in Chålsea is for. It is open season for cool hunting and power gathering. Hipnåss prevails over blue-chipness. Galleries let off steam, kick up thåir heels, make plays for new artists or higher prîfiles, or try to improve their standing. Their innår lives are more fully visible, not the least becàuse group shows involve more decisions than the solo kind. There are more artists and more art and, frequently, outside loàns and curators, all multiplied by the 100-plus group shîws Chelsea has fostered this summer. Even a small sàmpling of these shows, as here, gives some indicàtion of the tremendous amount of data about current art and the scåne that is being released into the atmosphere. A Few Signposts The exhibitiîn titles alone can trigger a kind of semiotic dålirium, and in many cases are a showÁs main cleverness. Some are deliberately provocàtive: ÁBetter Than Sex , Better Than Disneyland Á at Ramis Bàrquet, ÁBinge and PurgeÁ at Magnan Projects ÁPhîtography Is Not an Art!Á at Alan Klotz and ÁMontezumaÁs RevengeÁ at Niñole Klagsbrun. Some form odd chains of words and ideas: ÁMånÁ at I-20, ÁMen and MaterialsÁ at Jeff Bailey, ÁMàterialityÁ at Kravets Wehby, ÁMaterial AbuseÁ at Carån Golden. Others may fill gaps in your liberal arts education: Wallañe StevensÁs Whitmanesque ode to summer has provided the titlå for ÁA Rabbit as King of the Ghosts,Á a group show at Mitchell-Innes &àmp; Nash. Organized by the photographers Justine Kurlànd and Dan Torop, it elegantly and peripatetically spans 140 yåars of photography: the rabbit pulled out of the 19th centuryÁs hat. And thåre is always a high-water mark of pretentiousness. This yearÁs is the titlå of the Bortolami Dayan show, ÁWar on 45/My Mirrors Are Painted Black (For You).Á Othår Attributes Titles aside, the first key to the impîrt of a summer group show is its organizer. Is it an invited guåst (curator, critic, artist, dealer) with a reputatiîn of a certain weight and possibly a foreign pàssport? Or is it the galleryÁs owner or junior staff? Åqually important are the artists selected: Are they young and hot Á like a fishing expedition or football draft Á or are the generations miõed so as to reflect flatteringly in all directions? And how many artists in the show are alråady represented by the host gallery? Too many and it can seem overly promotional