Artist Jonathan Grossmalerman's satirical scheme to seduce a museum curator for institutional support

In December 2016, artist Jonathan Grossmalerman published a satirical account of his desperate attempt to secure museum backing through romantic manipulation. Facing a collapsing art market and negligible visibility, he devised a plan to transform a scheduled studio visit into a candlelit dinner with a curator. His strategy involved answering the door in a bathrobe, feigning confusion about the appointment date, and offering backrubs while playing adult contemporary music. Grossmalerman expressed frustration with his gallery representation, suspecting theft by a Bushwick gallery that had vanished from physical and digital spaces except possibly Snapchat. He dismissed lesser museums like the Ronkonkoma Community Museum, Wichita Museum of Contemporary Art, and Cincinnati Center of Cultural Kreativity, aiming instead for a first-class institution. The artist's elaborate deception risked failure due to his own poor record-keeping and inability to verify the appointment. This humorous critique of art world politics appeared in ArtReview's December 2016 issue.