Art Club 2000

also: AC2K · Secret Art Club

movement 1993-2000 New York City United States

Art Club 2000 (AC2K) was a New York collective formed in 1992-93, when dealer Colin de Land invited Cooper Union students who had studied with Hans Haacke to stage a project at his gallery, American Fine Arts, Co. Until 2000 the group mounted annual exhibitions that turned the visual language of advertising and retail against the art market itself. Their debut, Commingle (1993), answered the Gap's 'Individuals of Style' campaign with group portraits in Gap clothing and installations built from store refuse; later projects moved through transparent fashion (Clear, 1994), gallery-gossip publishing (Soho So Long, 1996), and video interviews (1970, 1997). Anonymous and corporate in posture, they anticipated how young artists would work inside, and against, late-capitalist culture.

The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)
The Tribuna of the Uffizi (Zoffany)Public domain (credit: Johann Zoffany) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Group self-portraiture staged in branded clothing and commercial settings
  • Slick advertising-style photography mimicking fashion campaigns and catalogs
  • Appropriated corporate materials: manuals, fixtures, slat wall, packaging
  • Institutional critique delivered with deadpan humor and sociological research
  • Collective authorship: works signed by the group, not by individuals

Key figures

  • Colin de Land (1955-2003) — American Fine Arts, Co. dealer who convened the collective and hosted its exhibitions
  • Paterson Beckwith (fl. 1990s) — Core member who continued working with commercial imagery after the group disbanded

Example works

  • Commingle — Art Club 2000 (1993)
  • Clear — Art Club 2000 (1994)
  • Soho So Long — Art Club 2000 (1996)

Sources

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