Marilyn Minter, Fuzzy Pam (Pamela Anderson), 2007, C-print, 218.4 × 152.4 cm. Ed. 1/3.

“If I were to draw a picture of current art criticism I’d make it a hydra, fitted with the traditional seven heads … the Sixth is descriptive art criticism, the most popular according to a Columbia University survey: its aim is to be enthusiastic but not judgmental, and to bring readers along, in imagination, to artworks that they may not visit.”
— James Elkins, what ever happened to art criticism?

The Hydra School Project has just completed its eighth year. This annual contemporary art event offers the Athenian arts scene a weekend outing to the most elite of the Aegean islands. The Hydra School Project, an island onto itself, presents a mix of established international and emerging artists to an equal mix of international artists, gallerists, curators, critics and other cosmopolitan tourists of the art world.

Branded with the words of LA punk-illustrator-turned-art-star Raymond Pettibon, Whatever's Whatever (the title of this year’s exhibition) combines the spooky, childlike ‘art brut’ of Eddie Martinez and Chris Johanson with the luscious glam of Marylin Minter. Several drawings by Argentinean video artist Mika Rottenberg were included, though I would have loved to see one of her virtuostically quirky, Barney-esque video works like Cheese, 2007, which was recently featured in the 2008 Whitney Biennial. Conversations wit de Churen V: As da Art World might Turn, 2006, was an entertaining trip into the soap opera drag spectacle of Brooklyn based video-performance artist and Guggenheim fellow Kalup Linzy. While Ry Fyan’s beautifully brooding painting and collage works were represented in this show by two slightly more tribal mixed media pieces, laden with his mask motif.

An interesting curatorial choice was the combination of Jannis Varelas, Michael Bevilacqua and newcomer Dimitris Andreadis. Each of these artists transformed one schoolroom into a wall-to-wall drawing installation of their own design. Varelas, Bevilacqua and Andreadis took full advantage of the exhibition space they were given, coating the interiors with their unique aesthetic and style to the point that they took on a personality of their own and were referred to by the guests of the show as the black, green and cardboard rooms respectively. Perhaps the communicative success of these works was simply due to the fact that this exhibition space is a high school, a place where the walls beg to be covered in personal graffiti. A special treat was the playful works executed by Bevilacqua and Varelas on large twin chalkboards that stood against a wall in the playground reception area.

Vassilis Zidianakis, the artistic director of last year’s rrripp!! paper fashion exhibition at the Benaki Museum, presented an installation, while Dimitrios Antonitsis, curator of the Hydra School Projects, presented his own Dark Gladiolas, Total Recall Series, an abstract photographic work created by a bubble-jet printer on reflective membrane. Hydra is a special island for all of the Athenian art royalty, and the exhibitions’ fabulous closing party was even hosted by our lovely Amateur Boyz. We’re all looking forward to the next edition of the Hydra School Project in 2009, with a little more edge.