Looking Back: the Fifth White Columns Annual, selected by Bob Nickas

Now in its fifth year, the White Columns Annual held by the White Columns Gallery in New York provides an overview of the events and exhibitions that took place in the New York art scene during the previous year, as seen through the eyes of one individual (an artist, curator, writer). The aim of the show is to 'reveal something of the complexities involved in trying to negotiate - and engage with - New York’s constantly evolving cultural landscape' and 'establish – albeit temporarily – a new ‘narrative’, a conversation, of sorts, amongst artists and artworks, that seeks to illuminate and/or explore certain underlying tendencies, conditions, or connections that perhaps might otherwise have remained elusive or obscured.'

The current edition, Looking Back, (on show until 29 January) is the work of New York-based independent curator Bob Nickas, who explains his working practices in an exclusive interview with Phaidon.com: 'I kept a kind of diary throughout the year, making a list of shows I wanted to see and studios to visit. Subsequently I collected images of whatever I was curious about, and that was an ongoing process over twelve months. As the year went on, some things really stayed with me, had lodged in my mind, and for various reasons. I loved them, and either knew why — or not. You sometimes wonder why you can't get something, or someone, out of your mind. In this respect the artworks you encounter can be like the people you meet. And I've always said that you can be in art what you can no longer be in life: promiscuous. In art, you can choose from everything, and with this show I did.'