The New York Times Special Edition will be included in “…Is This Free?”
…Is This Free? is NURTUREart’s 2012 summer exhibition series. Curated by Marco Antonini, the project will consist of three separate exhibitions, featuring artworks, ephemera and publications that have been conceived and produced to be freely distributed.
Historically relevant artworks, ephemera and publications will be presented side by side with contemporary work by emerging artists, including a series of project-specific artworks commissioned by NURTUREart. Community high school classes as well as members of our audience will be involved in the production of open source artwork, instructional pieces and performance workshops, producing artwork that will ultimately become part of the three exhibitions.
…Is This Free? will also include two side projects: Lawn School (curated by Megan Snowe and Rachel Steinberg), a series of free outdoor classes on various topics of practical and theoretical interest, open to any and all to teach and attend, that will take place in city public parks and …Can I Take This? (curated by Megan Snowe), a regularly updated bookshelf of free publications.
The program aims to address a series of equally timely and important questions: Can Art really be Free? At what cost do creative ideas exist (and thrive) as acts of generosity? Who owns a work of art, once it is freely distributed and supposedly liberated from commercial interests? Conceived as a collective effort and produced with the collaboration of a large group of artists, individuals and organizations, …Is This Free? responds to a highly visible trend in the development of artistic practices that use free or alternative forms of exchange as forms of distribution, bypassing the art markets and their rules. The program’s inclusion of artwork, ephemera and publications dating back to the sixties provides a historical frame of reference for the younger artists involved, tracking down the paths of surprising inter-generational trajectories.
The three segments of …Is This Free? will respectively open on:
Friday, July 6
Friday, August 3
Friday, August 31
The …Can I Take This? bookshelf will be permanently installed in the exhibition space and present rotating selections of materials, while the Lawn School will follow the exhibition schedule with weekly meetings (classes TBD) for the whole duration of the summer program.Contact info:
Marco Antonini T.
marco@nurtureart.org
www.nurtureart.org
NURTUREart, Non Profit Inc.
56 Bogart St., Brooklyn, NY 11206
MINUS SPACE en Oaxaca
Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca Alcalá (IAGO)
Macedonio Alcalá No 507, Centro
Oaxaca, México, CP 68000
MINUS SPACE en Oaxaca presents an overview of graphic arts strategies employed by 31 reductive artists working around the globe, including North and South America, Europe, and Australasia. Spanning multiple generations as well as divergent contexts, the artists on view in this exhibition share a core interest in the language of printmaking and editioned works of art.
The exhibition features an extensive array of printmaking methods, including monoprint, silkscreen, etching, woodcut, lithograph, letterpress, chine-collé, digital inkjet, and offset. The exhibition also includes works of art produced in multitude, such as artist books, record albums, postcards, paintings, and porcelain and wax objects. Many of the works on view extend printmaking’s traditional boundaries by hybridizing two or more artistic media, including photography, computer arts, installation, performance, and written language, resulting in entirely new forms with multiple layers of meaning.
Participating Artists: Josef Albers, Soledad Arias, Hartmut Böhm, Sharon Brant, Vicente Butron, Vincent Como, Mark Dagley, Julian Dashper, Linda Francis, Cris Gianakos, Daniel Göttin, Michelle Grabner, Lynne Harlow, Daniel G. Hill, Juan Raúl Hoyos, Gilbert Hsiao, Kyle Jenkins, Steve Lambert, Vincent Longo, Stephen Maine, Rossana Martínez, Russell Maltz, Manfred Mohr, Victoria Munro, Rose Nolan, Carrie Pollack, Erik Saxon, Robert Swain, Tilman, Jan van der Ploeg, Patricia Zarate
Lincoln, MA, March 27, 2012 – DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum announces the tour dates and locations for Steve Lambert’sCapitalism Works For Me! True/False sign, which will be placed in public spaces via one-day installations throughout the Greater Boston area April 6 through 12. The artist will be on site to install the sign, encourage voting, and engage the public in this timely dialogue.
At 9 feet high and 20 feet wide, Steve Lambert’s Capitalism works for me! True/False? brazenly asks for your participation—your vote—in an ongoing debate that has recently occupied Wall Street, Dewey Square, and public discourse throughout the world. Using the space of art as a space for dialogue, Lambert harnesses humor and brashness to address one of the most common and complicated issues of our time—the economy and growing state of class disparity.
His sign, currently on view in the front entrance to deCordova’s Museum as part of The 2012 deCordova Biennial, will travel throughout the Greater Boston area this April to create and capture dialogue, and even more so, votes. As the global economic crisis worsens and Americans take to the street in protest, Lambert’s project echoes a growing public anxiety.
The sign will be at the following locations on the dates listed below (times approximate):
Friday, April 6, 10:30 am–2:30 pm
Davis Square, Somerville (near JP Licks)
In collaboration with the Somerville Arts Council
Saturday, April 7, 10:30 am–2:30 pm Price Rite Parking Lot
892 River St., Hyde Park
In collaboration with Finard Properties
Monday, April 9, 10:30 am–2:30 pm
MassArt
Adjacent to Kennedy Building, Huntington Ave, Boston
In collaboration with MassArt
Thursday, April 12, 9:30 am–1:30 pm
Newton North High School, inside the main entrance
457 Walnut St, Newton
In collaboration with Newton North High School and the New Art Center
ENACTING POPULISM IN ITS MEDIÆSCAPE Curated by Matteo Lucchetti
February 18 – April 22, 2012
Press conference: Thursday February 16 at 11 am at Kadist Art Foundation Opening reception: Friday, February 17 from 6 to 9 pm.
Alterazioni Video, Heman Chong, Luigi Coppola, Danilo Correale, Foundland, Nicoline van Harskamp, Steve Lambert, Oliver Ressler, Anna Scalfi Eghenter, Société Réaliste, Jonas Staal, Superflex.
with a screening program curated byle peuple qui manque a public conversation with Ernesto Laclau (Thursday February 9, 7-9 pm)
Kadist Art Foundation is pleased to present Enacting Populism in its mediaescape, an exhibition curated by Matteo Lucchetti, following his residency at the Foundation.
Enacting Populism is an on-going project on the possible relationships between art practices and the populist mediascape that connotes the current political zeitgeist of Europe. At Kadist Art Foundation this project will develop into an exhibition that will take place during the last two months of the presidential elections campaign in France. The space here is interpreted as a sui generis political bureau, immersing the exhibition in an ambivalent environment where the works can be seen as elements belonging to a political party office where a campaign is being prepared.
The show is focusing on the European populism that has heavily influenced the public imagery on politics for the last twenty years. Its leaders and agitators understood at an early stage the shift that occurred both in portraying the figure of the politician and in the role of the political discourse in the mediascape. In fact, when political ideologies ceased to give shape to the political agendas, with the end of the Cold War, the Western parties started to progressively mirror this ending with the flattening of their positions in the public debate, starting to respond only to a general capitalism discourse about a global market that needed to find its way. From that point the political action softened the natural antagonism of democracy, thus creating a lack of opposite and distinct political projects. This situation left space for a popular frustration to arise and consequently demagogues articulated it. Therefore those who understood how the space of politics worked slowly moved from being representative to openly playing with its representation in the media.
Ernesto Laclau was one of the first to acknowledge to populism a dimension inherent to any democratic regime, looking at it through a historical perspective and not just as a right wing party phenomenon. As Laclau states,“democratic politics requires the construction of a ‘people’ on the basis of one or more empty signifiers as well as an antagonism between ‘us’ and ‘them’ “ .
In order to create alternative, cheap and fictional feelings of belonging, or rather in order to ‘construct’ that empty signifier that is ‘the people’, the visual strategies that take place on a daily basis in the media might not only be seen as completely distorted productions of our times. Instead, they can also be considered as materials that can be easily deconstructed, so as to offer a clearer vision on what democracy looks like today. The process of enacting populism, to make the aesthetic strategies embedded in the creation of a visible consensus, comes together with interferences put at play with the mediascape. Here, the artistic projects find new potentialities to impact the contemporary imagery on politics as seen in the works produced for the show. Moreover, developing a historical perspective on the idea we have on populism, generates tools through which an awareness is created.
Beacon Arts presents Capital Offense: The End(s) of Capitalism, curated by Jennifer Gradecki and Renée Fox, which presents a selection of artwork and writing chosen for its clarity in questioning, exposing and reflecting upon various aspects of the current global economic crisis and neoliberal global capitalism. The exhibition features writing, video, sculpture, participatory and interactive installation, performance, painting, photography, and posters by Critical Art Ensemble, Gregory Sholette, Holly Crawford, Andrea Fraser, Noam Chomsky, Martha Rosler, Team Colors Collective, Occuprint, Derrick Jensen, Steve Lambert, Nicolas Lampert, Bask, Alex Schaefer, Cake and Eat It, Flora Kao, Jody Zellen, Meleko Mokgosi, Mira Rychner, Bob Golub, Marc James Léger, Matt Greco, Daniela Comani and Stih & Schnock, Aaron Burr Society, Dara Greenwald, Derek Curry, Ackroyd & Harvey, Pete Yahnke Railand, Lori Nelson, Dehlia Hannah and TWCDC (Together We Can Defeat Capitalism).
Capital Offense opens Saturday, January 28, 2012, and runs through March 11, 2012. Exhibition special events include an opening reception on Saturday, January 28, 2012 from 6:00 – 9:00pm, an evening of entertaining and thought provoking performances on Saturday, February 25, 2012 from 6:00 – 9:00pm with award winning Stand-up comic Bob Golub at 6pm and a Salon hosted by Cake and Eat it at 7:30pm. The exhibition closes on Sunday, March 11 from 1:00 – 4:00pm, with an engaging panel discussion including some of the participating artists and guest speakers (to be announced). Beacon Arts is located at 808 N. La Brea Ave., Inglewood, CA 90302. Regular gallery hours are from 1:00pm to 6:00pm Thursday through Saturday, Sundays 1:00pm – 4:00pm. For additional information please call 310-419-4077 or visit www.beaconartsbuilding.com
Capitalism Works For Me! True/False is included in the 2012 deCordova Biennial. The show will be up in Lincoln, MA from Jan 22nd – April 22nd. The sign will be at the museum, and we’ll be taking it to locations around Boston around late March through mid-April – details on those trips to be announced.
The 2012 deCordova Biennial is a survey exhibition focused on emphasizing the quality and variety of work rather than any single or overarching theme. Highlighting artists from across New England, the exhibition displays a diverse range of approaches to media and content. The exhibition is co-curated by deCordova Curator, Dina Deitsch and Independent Curator and former owner/director of the Judi Rotenberg Gallery, Boston, MA, Abigail Ross Goodman. The 2012 deCordova Biennial features 23 artists and collaboratives and will occupy almost the entirety of the Museum and beyond—reaching into the park, Boston, and nearby communities through several public, off-site projects.
For The 2012 deCordova Biennial Deitsch and Goodman invited Ian Berry, Curator, Tang Museum at Skidmore College; Richard Klein, Exhibitions Director, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum; and Denise Markonish, Curator, Mass MoCA to participate as Advisory Board contributors.
The 2012 deCordova Biennial will be accompanied by an 88-page, color catalogue featuring essays by the curators and a guest essay about public art by Gavin Kroeber.
Billboards and commercial messages dominate the public space like never before. But is a movement taking shape to reverse this trend?
In This Space Available, filmmaker Gwenaëlle Gobé says yes. Influenced by the writing of her father, Marc Gobé (Emotional Branding), this new director brings energy and urgency to stories of people around the world fighting to reclaim their public spaces from visual pollution.
From 240 hours of film, 160 interviews and visits to 11 countries on five continents, This Space Available charts a fascinating variety of struggles against unchecked advertising and suggests that more than aesthetics is at stake. If Jacques Attali once called noise pollution an act of violence, is visual pollution also such an act? Should we also consider, as one Mumbai resident says, “which classes of society can write their messages on the city and which classes of society are marginalized?”
Gobé offers a canny generational analysis of visual pollution, laying blame not just with the advertising juggernaut but also an entire generation of Baby Boomers, whose consumption-based culture has implicated them in the environmental fallout. She argues that it’s her generation, left to do the cleaning up, that is now leading the fight back.But the filmmaker also recognizes the history and politics behind this fight. Turning to such legislation as the Highway Beautification Act of 1965, Gobé shows how the enforcement of this landmark law, designed to regulate outdoor advertising on America’s roadways, has steadily eroded. And today, public space activist Jordan Seiler faces harsh penalties for covering illegal outdoor ads with art, while officials turn a blind eye to illegally erected billboards.
Still, the film strikes a hopeful tone. A standout interview features Gilberto Kassab, the popular mayor of Sao Paulo, who threw a stone into the quiet pond of the billboard industry by successfully banning outdoor media in his city – the eighth largest in the world. The move is not without precedent: Houston’s 1980 billboard ban was also a deliberate tactic to improve its flagging image, economic competitiveness, and quality of life.
In the end, This Space Available challenges audiences to recognize that aesthetics and beauty go hand in hand with responsibility. Gobé asks why brands continue to ally themselves with an industry that cuts down trees, hogs energy, and spends its profits in courts and statehouse lobbies, especially while younger consumers push for improved corporate citizenship? And is everyone equally to blame for enabling the spread of visual pollution, while other humble individuals show that it’s possible to reverse it?
The film navigates these issues without promoting a universal solution. Gobé instead weaves together stories reflecting diverse local responses to an increasingly global condition. This Space Available compels audiences to consider these stories long after the film ends, or at least to remember them each time we speed by a billboard.
Charlie James Gallery has been out on the road showing selected pieces at art fairs across the country. This month there are two to note and there will be some surprises at each.
“Capitalism Works for Me! True/False”
9ft x 20ft x 7ft
Just a few weeks after the Kickstarter campaign ended “Capitalism Works for Me! True/False” is up and touring Cleveland! Its home base will be SPACES and we’ll be taking it out on the down for the dates below.
More on the project will be posted soon. In the meantime, here’s the dates.
Cleveland Tour
Friday, August 26
Downtown Farmer’s Market at Public Square
Saturday, August 27
Open Air at Market Square
Beachland Ballroom
Dread Scott invited me to be a part of this exhibition at the Harlem Stage on Monday to celebrate the publishing of Bob Avakian’s new book. Dread says “times like these demand a joyous celebration of the possibility of a radically different future.” and I agree.
The show includes artwork by: Derrick Adams, Wafaa Bilal, Richard Duardo, Emory Douglas, Skylar Fein, Kyle Goen, Guerrilla Girls BroadBand, Steve Lambert, Wangechi Mutu, Dread Scott, SEN ONE UZN and Hank Willis Thomas.
“These artist span generations, work in different media, employ different conceptual and aesthetic strategies, come from different countries and show everywhere from major museums to street corners. The exhibit includes photography, screen prints, video and painting. Some of the works starkly confront a world scarred by war and oppression. Other works encourage viewers to imagine how it could be radically different.” –Dread Scott
I’ve been working away at 2 new pieces for If These Walls Could Talk a concurrent exhibition at Charlie James Gallery and Marine Art Salon. These are new signs that are lined with aluminum. I’ve wanted to use this technique for a year, but just now was able to get everything together to make it happen. I’m quite proud of how these new signs turned out. It was exhausting work but I can stand back and say “I can’t believe I actually made this.”
I will have photos up as soon as I can. In the meantime, please come (or send your friends) to these openings:
Santa Monica Reception
Saturday Feb 12, 2011 6-9pm <– I am flying out for this one Marine Art Salon, Santa Monica
False Documents and Other Illusions, looks at the various ways in which contemporary artists approach the idea of trompe l’oei, lillusion, or fooling the eye. It runs in conjunction with a traditional 19th-century trompe l’oeil painting show on view in another gallery called John Haberle: Master of Illusion.
Short Term Deviation: A Collaboration with Showpaper
September 23 – October 23, 2010
Opening event: Thursday, September 23, 6 – 10 pm
The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts | 323 West 39th Street 3rd Floor NY NY 10018
(212) 563 5855 | info@efanyc.org
Installations by: Catharine Ahearn, David Berezin, Grayson Cox, Charles Harlan, Steve Lambert, Francisco Marcial, Nadja Verena Marcin, George Pfau, Poster Company, Chris Rice, Borna Sammak.
Special four-part print series of Showpaper featuring new work from: Borden Capalino, Katja Mater, Arthur Ou, and Grant Willing,
Curators: Jie Liang Lin, Exhibition; Jesse Hlebo, Print Series and Zine Library
For up-to-date information on this project, check out the tumblr page.
EFA Project Space announces Short-Term Deviation. Beginning mid-September, this collaboration with the print publication Showpaper, is a month-long exhibition, publication, video and music event. Bringing the spirit of Showpaper—which crossbreeds music, art and D.I.Y. culture—to full incarnation, the gallery space will be transformed into a combination artist-crafted performance space, zine library, and video screening room.
Summer Open House Sunday July 11, Noon – 5PM
Headlands campus | Mess Hall Café Open | FREE Admission
Open House provides a once-in-a-season opportunity to interact with Headlands’ Summer 2010 AIRs, Affiliates, and Graduate Fellows. View works-in-progress in artists’ studios, witness performances and readings, and explore Headlands’ campus situated in a National Park.
Artists in Residence
Katie Faulkner, Dance / Choreography, California
Jeffrey Gibson, Painting, New York
Kevin Haworth, Writing, Ohio
Kühne / Klein, Visual, Switzerland
Steve Lambert, Interdisciplinary, New York
Richard Maloy, Visual, New Zealand
Farid Matuk, Writing, Texas
Mariele Neudecker, Installation, United Kingdom
Brooke Singer, Photography, New York
Allison Smith, Interdisciplinary, California
Ola Ståhl & Kajsa Thelin, Interdisciplinary, Sweden
Hadi Tabatabai, Visual, California
2010 – 2011 Graduate Fellows
Miguel Arzabe, Interdisciplinary, University of California, Berkeley
Johanna Barron, Visual, University of California, Davis
Luke Damiani, Sculpture, San Francisco Art Institute
Chris Fraser, Installation, Mills College
Jamil Hellu, Photography, Stanford University
Josef Jacques, Photography, California College of the Arts
Scott Polach, Photography / Mixed Media, San Francisco Art Institute
Tournesol Award, 2010 – 2011
Jack Leamy, Painting
Affiliate Artists, 2010
Sarah Barsness, Visual
Leo Bersamina, Visual
Colette Campbell-Jones, Visual
Christy Chan, Visual
Tyrone Davies, Visual
Christopher Gray, Visual
Robin Johnston, Visual
Julie Lara Kahn, Visual
Pawel Kruk, Film / Video
Helen Lee, Visual
Tucker Nichols, Visual
Megan Pruiett, Writing
Kristina Quinones, Painter
Sarah Rosenthal, Writing
Kimberly Rowe, Painter
James Sansing, Visual
Joshua Short, Visual
Wayne Smith, Visual / Music
Michele Theberge, Visual
