Ryan McGinley’s Wall of nude kids… provocative or same old biz?

Ryan McGinley’s lastest exhibit “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” launched last week and hipsters in skinny jeans, fedoras, and printed tees streamed all along Grand Street. So many of them  converged that the NYC Fire Department was called in to close  the gallery down and disperse the crowd.

If, as McGinley so sagely says, his provocative nudes of teens and barely adults leads to nowhere, why does he continue to glorify the image? Perhaps because he knows that hundreds of his subjects and their friends will storm the doors of his gallery.

Whatever the case, it is more of the same, almost adults who walk the tightrope between innocent experimentation and no turning back, an example of the latter being Dash Snow, McGinley’s close friend who OD’d from drugs in a bathtub last summer.

McGinley does include a few amped up photos that are developed in a colorful way so that they resemble paintings. A couple are included in the slideshow below. (Ryan McGinley, “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,”  at Team Gallery, 83 Grand Street, Until April 17th.)