Fast forward to 2009. Gone are the days of the staged edginess, the provocative behavior and the big hair that characterized the hard rock bands of the Eighties. A new generation of nicely shaved and preferably cute, wholesome individuals has made its way to stardom, thanks to TV shows like American Idol and Who’s got talent.

This text by MARK CLINTBERG is published alonside KENNETH DOREN‘S Rule Britannia: A Low Opera in Grand Shite Style exhibition. The Vernacular Opera by Mark Clintberg KENNETH DOREN‘s Rule Britannia launches an assault, from the first moment. That is, after a pensive and slightly sentimental…

They have divided the gallery into four shops and handed the reigns over to a selected number of artists who are pumped to hustle, sell, consult and charm as entrepreneurs and salespeople, cheerful retail renegades of their own brand before they are artists.

They step down from being the untouchable ArtStars too snotty to give us their time or handshake. Here, they are not rare and precious rubies, or the quixotic, straggly starlets shining in the glossy pages of Artforum. They get real, for once.