For the first time in the past 22 years, the Lexington Art League (LAL) chose a gallerist to jury their annual Nude exhibition, QX.net Nude International 2008. And, apparently the decision to consult Jay Gorney, current director of the contemporary art program for the Mitchell-Innes and Nash Gallery in New York, stirred things up a bit.
Why would a firmly established, well-respected, non-profit organization ask a professional from a highly competitive for-profit market to put together their most anticipated annual event? Could it be that this organization just needed to step out on a limb, as some have suggested, or make a little extra money? Not a chance.
The change in this year's presentation of the Nude International was a blatant competitive maneuver, and the only real question becomes, "For what? Although the much smaller exhibition of higher quality works appears to have been designed to increase the overall profitability of the show