Brian Alfred's 'It's Already the End of the World' Exhibition at Haunch of Venison in New York

From January 15 to February 20, 2010, Brian Alfred presented his solo exhibition 'It's Already the End of the World' at Haunch of Venison in New York City, located at 1230 Sixth Avenue. The show featured fourteen new paintings, a digitally animated video, and an installation, offering a stylized, aesthetically pleasing vision of global crises. Works included paintings of figures like Aung San Suu Kyi, Diego Rivera, and Robert Oppenheimer, alongside images of political actions such as 'Riot!' and 'Night March'. The video 'It's Already the End of the World' moved through scenes like airplanes, the Pentagon, and subways, focusing on details like a woman's red fingernails rather than violence. An installation, 'The World Upside Down', displayed flags in an inverted map arrangement. Alfred used flat forms and pastel colors to create a weightless, dreamlike atmosphere, contrasting with traditional protest art by avoiding moralizing tones. The gallery enhanced the exhibition by providing reviewers with a DVD instead of a printed catalogue. Alfred, born in 1974, leveraged new visual technologies to reflect on contemporary society's tensions between technological promise and dysfunction. The exhibition was situated in galleries atop Rockefeller Center with city views, emphasizing a detached, aesthetic approach to news events.