New York culture and especially their art scene come off as what'd I'd expect to find if I were to open a magazine off the shelf and look through the ads. IMO stagnate and incestuous [1] [2] [3] ? Maybe I am not aware of the full breadth of NY's art scene?

It seems like Berlin [4], Los Angeles [5], Hong Kong/China & Japan all have much livelier melting pots of subcultures that may have been washed away in NYC due to cookie cutter art schooling or aspects of the local (sub)cultures?

[1] http://whitney.org/Exhibitions

[2] http://www.moma.org/

[3] http://www.warscapes.com/opinion/sentimentality-critique-hum...

[4] http://www.transmediale.de/

[5] http://machineproject.com/