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December 7, 2010 – Review
All That Glitters: Merlin Carpenter at Formalist Sidewalk Poetry Club
Adam Kleinman
![](https://images.e-flux-systems.com/aa_2011_04_wpid-12917665801.jpg,1600)
Wishing for respite from the throngs at Art Basel Miami Beach, I walked over to the Formalist Sidewalk Poetry Club, a new gallery launched not in the obligatory blighted-cum-gentrifying Wynwood “gallery” district, but nestled in a former shoe store on one of South Beach’s rather banal shopping strips. As the unusual name and strategic locale may suggest, the venue, run by Columbia MFA holder, Clayton Deutsch, is going for something a little different. And with the owner’s training, associations, and some generous nest egg support covering overhead, the space is conceived, and, thus far, kept safe as an acerbically minded project space/artist-run gallery versus that of the conservative “business types” trading in the fair. Those dubious of such positions, but unable to visit South Beach, should request a mailing of their forthcoming catalog: a Barney’s fashion supplement stylizing the art of the second exhibition (a group show). Although timed for the opening of ABMB and its offspring, FSPC’s first exhibition is better read by simply taking a look around the city. This reflection could also be considered in relation to the fair, as the fair did chose its host—and in so doing, bespeaks a question, quite literally of what is …