Cool Hunting

Judging by 24-year-old artist Ryan Trecartin's infectious, semi-hallucinogenic debut, "A Family Finds Entertainment," reports of video art's demise have been greatly exaggerated. With nods to Jack Smith and very early John Waters, the 40 minute piece—packed with refreshingly raw computer graphics and a manic soundtrack—loosely follows the story of an unstable gay boy who comes out to his parents, gets hit by a car and is somehow reborn as the life of a very wild party. Trecartin made the video with friends in New Orleans before their house was swept away in Katrina. After a curator stumbled onto the piece via Friendster, Trecartin relocated to Los Angeles in 2005, where he prepared his first solo show at the Q.E.D. gallery in Culver City. Now his video, one of the most convincing statements from a young artist in recent memory, will be on view at the Whitney Biennial in New York. (2 March –28 May 2006.)

by Nathan Cooper