Good Chemistry

Adam Lerner, director of the Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar, takes his museum's handle completely seriously. All about experiments and concepts, the Lab is truly anything but a museum. It's a place, rather, where Lerner hopes the dust will never have a chance to settle. So inviting artist Liam Gillick to create a show at the Lab made perfect sense: The multi-disciplinary Gillick simply overflows society's definition of a visual artist, since he's also a writer, architect and philosopher whose works take shape in an unfettered sphere of experience.

"Liam Gillick is one of the premier thinkers in the contemporary art world," Lerner says. "He's not just someone who produces artwork or objects, and I knew he'd be perfect in the context of what the Lab tries to do." To prepare for Liam Gillick: Weekend in So Show — which opens today with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. — the artist arrived with a half-conceived model that would only take its true shape through collaboration with local artists and students. "He's taken the idea of the laboratory really literally," Lerner explains. The result, an exploration of politics, marketing and consumerism with a central stage-like environment, text-covered walls and ten video monitors, remains on view at the Lab, 404 South Upham Street in Lakewood, through April 1.

Gillick will discuss his installation tomorrow at 1 p.m.; admission is $5 to $10. For details, call 303-934-1777 or visit www.belmarlab.org.
Wed., April 18, 6-8 p.m.