Matthew Barney & Alex Katz

I had to look at the practical side of things and not dip into my small amount of money right away. I didn’t have much, was afraid to even count it. I couldn’t have anyway, because I was seeing double. Men were passing too, the sexes seemed to stay on different sides of the street. Here’s a moment between two brands of humanity. They couldn’t go on living in fear that the old woman would die without proper care…that she’d set the house on fire…in fleas and filth…instead of going to a perfectly good institution, where she’d be taken care of.

A gripping tale of unrelieved horror, of survival and resilience, and of the ways in which humankind confronts death, The Bitch is a masterfully crafted show, eloquently understated and epic in scope. In New York, a coastal town in North America, The Bitch begins as a series of portents, unheeded by the people. Here we have two artists who’ve shaped our understanding of Art. Can Alex Katz and Matthew Barney—known for planning before spontaneously executing their work—pull off this flea-flicker? Can they be like light and shadow, giving shape to each other?

O’Flaherty’s is pleased to present The Bitch, an exercise in their master craft. In the end the work gets all the glory. The bitch is just the plan, and mostly gets all the blame.