TimeOut New York, January 19-25, 2006

Kim Levin, “Notes and Itineraries, 1976-2004”

No matter what rarefied air readers expect art critics to breathe, what people actually ask when they get within shouting distance of me are questions like "Who decides what shows get reviewed?" or "How can I get press?" Chances are these kinds of queries will initially motivate most people to see this exhibition of notes, press releases and hand-penned itineraries culled from the files of longtime Village Voice art critic Kim Levin. But once they've seen the show, such concerns might become moot.

Levin has saved announcement cards for such onetime newcomers as Fred Wilson (his seminal 1990 show "The Other Museum" at White Columns) and a guy named Brian Eno (a Soho installation in 1983). She's made list after list on press releases and invitations (this in pre-Blackberry days), noting when a show opened, when it closed, the gallery's address and what issue of the Voice it might run in. And she always abbreviates. Ronald Feldman's address gets the shorthand 31 M (as in Mercer Street). Ruth Root's abstract paintings get the apt notation "Post Mary Heilman/infl. of circuitry." Take my word for it; it's hard to be that succinct.

All this may sound esoteric, but if viewers can stick with Levin's lists, they will get an overview of the continuum of the New York art world. Levin documents thousands of shows here—and every artist in them was new once. Seen through Levin's lens, art criticism looks less like a cynical, insider's game and more like any other reporter's beat, where it's the writer's job to keep it real.

SARAH SCHMERLER