SUBSTRACTION, an exhibition of abstract painting curated by Nicola Vassell, opens at Deitch Projects on March 29, 2008. This exhibition shows how today’s abstract painters are updating New York School abstraction with the energy of the streets, and the jam-packed frequencies they dispense. The title “substraction” is meant to invoke the reductive and sub or “low” influences these artists draw on: the tougher, darker and dangerous. Think subway, subwoofers and sub-prime.

Instead of an overly academic, esoteric approach to abstraction, these artists reinvigorate the more performative abstract tradition that comes to them from Yves Klein or Jackson Pollock. They are heirs to the grittier abstraction of Lucio Fontana and Robert Rauschenberg, whose tire track drawings may have been direct inspiration for Aaron Young’s “Burnouts”. These artists are more inspired by Andy Warhol’s oxidation paintings than his Marilyns, and more enthusiastic about the sculpture of John Chamberlain than that of David Smith.