LOUCHE: Sleeping Through the Apocalypse

A group exhibition exploring cultural production's continuation amid political upheaval, ecological crisis, and democratic erosion, staged as deliberate indifference rather than resistance.

Why go

The show explicitly rejects critique and awakening, instead performing 'exhausted lucidity'—a farce of spectacle and excess that implicates viewers in their own anesthesia. It's a rare exhibition that refuses moral clarity or exit, lingering instead at the limits of what art can do when conditions have hardened into lived reality.

What to expect

A multi-media exhibition spanning painting, sculpture, neon, video, and installation—from Yael Bartana's neon text to Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg's stop-motion animation, Keith Haring's ink drawings, and large-scale works by Dana Schutz, Joyce Pensato, and others. The curatorial frame emphasizes moral ambiguity and the slackening of critical post

Things to know

• Exhibition title references the state of 'drifting in moral ambiguity, at the edge of clarity and propriety.'
• Follows Petzel's 2017 show 'We Need to Talk,' which captured a moment of collective alarm; this one settles into 'exhausted lucidity.'
• Features 23 artists including estates of Philip Guston, Keith Haring, and Martin Kippenberger alongside contemporary practitioners.
• Includes newly commissioned works from 2026 by Simon Denny, Seth Price, Pieter Schoolwerth, and others.
• Press release explicitly states the exhibition 'does not try to awaken its viewers, but implicates them.'
• Gallery hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 10 AM–6 PM.

Plan your visit

Gallery is open Tuesday–Saturday, 10 AM–6 PM. Located at 520 W 25th Street, Chelsea. Contact info@petzel.com for inquiries.