Little Tree Gallery Social Club, a collaborative project by artist Andrew Tosiello and curator Clare Haggarty, is riddled with problems, poorly executed, and ultimately not very interesting.

For those who don't know Tosiello's work, the recent MFA graduate has an obsession with Mafia culture, something that seems analogous to post-Coppola Mob fetishism. His previous works include quasi-Kienholz conceptual tableaus of artist/collector turned hitman/victim relations, and a remake of the legendary Vito Acconci Follow Piece into a fictitious FBI document. While Tosiello argues that these works are acts of appropriation, these works seem to be a fusion of undergraduate obsessions--Conceptualisim and Cosa Nostra culture--rather than a new voice based on discourses of the past. The Social Club is no different.

The project appears to model itself on Relational Aesthetics, a discourse that has varied from Rikrit Tiravanija's work from the late 90s to the more recent and local history of Tony Labatt's BULK. What could have been potentially an interesting project only seems yet again regurgatative and unoriginal. Why an art gallery was "transformed into a Mafia social club," to quote the artist, doesn't seem to make sense. Why not actually make a private social club in a setting more appropriate such as a blacked out store front, or back room? Why transform an already public and contextually defined arts space such as Little Tree gallery into a private social club, one that seemingly allows anyone within the Bay Area arts community in, while simultaneously keeping any potential "non-arts" community out? If these traits are in fact intentional then they are only an exaggeration of San Francisco's already perceived provincialism, and ultimately detrimental to the community. What is the function of playing a mobster other than pure narcissistic public theatrics? If Tossiello's interpretation of the role of the artist is analogous to being a mob boss then ultimately his role is an imitation of the corporate artist turned demigod (i.e. Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons).

As for the work--famous mob movie posters signed by the artists, and hand pressed business/lottery cards--it seems disingenuous and without conceptual rigor. The space is merely a card table with some poorly hung items on the walls; again a photo of the artist and the curator seems like pure self-absorption. There is no sense of an actual mob social club, just a small gallery with disinterested items. If the space is to be a theatrical one then it lacks all theatrical grandeur. Furthermore, the exhibition's public programming on appropriation and Lucy Lippard's dematerialization of the art object only seem to be a desperate attempt to place the project within the context of historically important projects.

Finally, it is unclear what the role of the curator is in this exhibition. Are we to imagine Haggarty as an accomplice? Her role seems opaque, and ultimately placating to the subservient role of the curator-as-lackey for Tosiello's fantasy.

This is just unnecessary public glorification and fetishism of the cinematic Mafia. Unfortunately it seems this project is met with blind support (see flavorpill's review). This is yet another example of the Bay Area arts community candy-coating arts production, rather than being critically productive.

Little Tree Gallery Social Club is at Little Tree Gallery through August 23, 2008.