Invitation image by Peter Saul, courtesy of Zürcher Studio, New York.

Comic Future artist, Peter Saul recently tried his hand at curating, resulting in If You’re Accidentally Not Included, Don’t Worry About It at Zürcher Studio in New York. As Saul explains in a statement on the gallery website, the exhibition primarily includes “friends” of the artist and that his selection process was entirely subjective, stating:

I’ve got definite criteria for good looking, long lasting, important art, but nobody I know agrees with it. For this show, if I had to choose between 2 images, I chose the one that was more pictorial, sensational, illusionistic, glamorous, humanistic, funny, sexual, quarrelsome, violent, ugly, etc. etc. In case none of these applied, I chose the one I thought was more unusual to look at. The only absolute was to choose small works, so that more and more could fit in.

The exhibition includes works by 21 artists, including: Gina Beavers, Brian Belott, Chuck Close, Steve DiBenedetto, Austin Lee, Judith Linhares, Taylor McKimens, Sally Saul, and Karl Wirsum. As well as pieces by past Ballroom artists Polly Apfelbaum, Erik Parker, and a work by Saul himself.

In a review of the show, Hyperallergic notes that:

As a curator, Saul may have a set of criteria nobody agrees with, but his rapid-fire choices based on the “pictorial, sensational, illusionistic, glamorous, humanistic, funny, sexual, quarrelsome, violent, ugly, etc. etc.” have presented us with a group of artists who display emotional truth in all its spattered, greasy, savage, hyperbolic glory.