"Ultralounge" Diverseworks
ARTFORUM
1998
In his essay for “Ultralounge: The Return of Social Space (with Cocktails),” critic Dave Hickey, who curated this exhibit of eleven young artists based largely in Las Vegas and on the West Coast, dubbed his show a “piece of concrete journalism” that would document a shift in attitude among the participants, away from the exalted realm of museum-sanctioned high culture and toward an awsthetic that affirms the casual social environment of the artstists.
Art Is Dead. Let's Have a Drink.
Houston Press
1998
A frequent visitor to Texas, Dave Hickey is one of those art critics whose essays achieve the elusive: They make art fun for the non-artist. He writes about art and cars, art and guitars, art and reruns of Perry Mason. He is a studied art-world renegade, a critic on behalf of Margie and Joe next door: He lives in Las Vegas when everyone else lives in New York or L.A.; he advocates beauty when beauty is passe; he argues for democracy when everybody else is a snob.