I'm back. Today I returned from the CAA conference in New York. While I was there, I did some job hunting, heard some panel discussions and papers, and paid a visit to Chelsea. This week I'll share some of the highlights.

One of the more popular panels of the conference was held on Saturday. "A Faustian Bargain? Emerging Artists, Critics, and the Market" consisted of the usual hand-wringing about art fairs and the diminished role of criticism--but it also featured Jerry Saltz and Peter Plagens, who were both brilliant.

Saltz was particularly funny, as you might expect. "I don't think that any artist wakes up first thing in the morning planning to sell his soul to the devil," he said at one point.

"Okay, maybe Jim Dine does," he added.

Unfortunately, I missed the Hans Haacke interview on Friday. Haacke received a rock star reception, and the hall was absolutely packed. I did hear from some folks who managed to get in that the dynamics were a little strange--though the interviewer has apparently known Haacke for awhile, he couldn't resist asking paragraph-long questions that left the artist perplexed, irritated, or unwilling to answer.

For now, I'll leave you with this: On Wednesday, when I arrived, I ran into my friend Barry Scott, a fellow UMCP alum/adjunct. The bad weather had delayed a lot of attendees, so on that first day, the job search tables--where employers would have open information sessions and do informal interviewing--were pretty quiet. Barry took advantage of the situation, sitting down and interviewing for all sorts of jobs, sometimes before he even knew what the position was.

At one point, after presenting his portfolio, he discovered that the job in question was a summer art camp for young girls. Naturally, Barry's paintings feature disembodied phalluses and vaginas, clusters of floppy cartoon breasts, etc.

At least he made an impression.

Pictured: Peter Plagens and Jerry Saltz, 02/17/07