DSAP director Patricia Maloney selected today’s installment for our Best of 2015 series: “Ashley Stull Meyers doesn’t shy away from calling out an exhibition with as grand a title as The Great Debate About Art for what it leaves unexamined. The effort to determine the limits or properties of what constitutes art is a quixotic task, and Meyers acknowledges the absurdity inherent in the premise right from[…..]

“Art” is a contentious word. Endless positing over any succinct, defining properties has spawned countless op-eds, theses, and textbooks. The topic is comparable to that of discussing religion in mixed company—differences of opinion have more than once drawn blood. The Great Debate About Art, currently on view at Upfor in Portland, Oregon, is a small group exhibition contextually centered on Roy Harris’ 2010 book of[…..]