If you feel the need for an honest reassessment of current affairs, head for Hell's Kitchen. At Exit Art, on 10th Avenue at 36th Street, NYC, artists are creating works on site for The Labyrinth Wall: From Mythology to Reality. Papo Colo, curator and co-founder, frames the impulse for the exhibition in terms of today's geo-political climate. "Chance is the payback...for arrogance. Glory is never there...because it is in other places. So where are  we going, with this disappearing wonder, condescending  into a moment of confusion?...What are nations if not walls that become a labyrinth?"

Think Knossos and the Minotaur and the moral ambiguity that caused death and destruction in a sun-drenched island town 2,500 years ago. Translate that into the moral outrage that pervades the post-911 world and find the labyrinth redefined in the narrative art now being created at Exit Art. I found out about this enterprise from David Sandlin, one of the 51 artists invited to create a piece for the show.

Left to right: The Labyrinth from above; David Sandlin makes a necessary correction; Seher Shah with her mural. Photos: Peggy Roalf.

First of all, the scale of the installation is colossal. Sean Cohen, the gallery manager, gave me a ride in the scissor lift so I could see the layout from above. Each artist has taken an 8-by-8-foot segment of wall in a maze-like structure that snakes through the 8,000-square-foot gallery. Then I was given a tour at ground level by co-curator Lauren Rosati, who detailed how the show came together. In a word, quickly. This fast-track approach gives the proceedings a decidedly high-octane buzz, as artists laden down with supplies continued arriving on the scene.

David Sandlin is using the occasion as a last-blast showcase for his long-term series "A Sinners Progress," which is nearing its end-time. Yesterday he was inking in details on a piece that proclaims "a new dawning of hope" as capitalism crumbles. As we spoke, Peter Kuper showed up, ready to start on a piece thematically linked with his World War III series. Across the way Daniel Zeller was working his way from the top down on a charcoal drawing in which he has interpreted the human brain as another type of labyrinth. And down the hall, Seher Shah was delicately touching up her highly detailed vision of an urban setting that seems at once utopian and apocalyptic.

The public is invited to drop in during gallery hours to see art in action. The participating artists are: Josh Abram Howard; John Ahearn; Madeleine Arthurs and P.S. 274; Francisca Benitez; Liz Brown; Luis Camnitzer; Russell Christian; Tyler Coburn; Papo Colo; Ernest Concepcion; Anton van Dalen; Robert Dandarov; Iliana Emilia Garcia; Mike Estabrook; Teo Freytes; John Fekner and Don Leicht; Juana Gallo; Scherezade Garcia; Rico Gatson; Guerra de la Paz; Peter Hildebrand; Vandana Jain and Doris Caciolo; Charles Juhasz-Alvarado; Jayson Keeling; Fawad Khan; Saeri Kiritani and Dario Solman; Matthew Kirk; Lucretia Knapp and Lynne Yamamoto; Christopher Knowles; Charles Koegel; Peter Kuper; Ligorano / Reese; Joan Linder; Miguel Luciano; Yucef Merhi; Bryan Mesenbourg; Marcus Morales; Irvin Morazan; Rune Olsen; Tom Otterness; Kevin Pyle; Carlo Quispe; Beau Rhee; Rudy Royval; David Sandlin; Jacolby Satterwhite; Seher Shah; Dan Tague; Panayiotis Terzis; Seth Tobocman; World War 3; Heeseop Yoon; Daniel Zeller; François Ziliff

The opening reception for The Labyrinth Wall is Sunday, December 14, 3 - 9 pm. The show will be on view at Exit Art from through February 7, 2009.  475 10^th Avenue at 36^th Street, 212.966.7745.

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