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

The show is up until April 22nd.

Lincoln, MA, March 27, 2012 – DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum announces the tour dates and locations for Steve Lambert’s Capitalism 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

Thanks to the deCordova Museum.

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 by le 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.

Read an extended version of this text here.

Saturday, January 28 – Sunday March 11, 2012

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

Capital Offense: The End(s) of Capitalism
Curator’s Statement:
Since the global economic crisis began in 2008, our economic situation has become all the more urgent to understand and discuss. Social unrest is on the rise as time passes and nothing changes.

Artists, intellectuals, and non-specialists alike are growing increasingly concerned with aspects of the global economic order, including: the destruction of the planet as a means to profit, the exploitation of artists and other workers as a means to economic and cultural capital, the deception of the populous (through fear tactics and disinformation) to maintain the status quo, the impact of gentrification and an unregulated housing market on affordable housing, the increasing power of corporations over people, and the effects of the recession on everyday life, to name just a few.

Artists, intellectuals, and concerned citizens of the world are engaging in various tactics to initiate social and economic change: analyzing the financial sector, illustrating the consequences of economic policies, illuminating relationships between the art world and the world of economic power, democratizing knowledge from specialized spheres, revealing the impact of the economy of fear, questioning capitalist systems of value, and organizing to find solidarity after years of atomization, again, to name a few.

As the disparity in wealth continues to grow, so does public interest in understanding and changing the social order that allowed for it. It is necessary to consider our own complicities in the impact that global capitalism is having on the world and its inhabitants. Please join us and add your voice to this important conversation.

Beacon Arts –

Housed within the iconic Beacon Arts Building, the venture offers innovative art programming to enrich the cultural landscape of Los Angeles. Its primary directive is to provide and maintain the integrity of an exhibition space for contemporary fine art by Southern California artists working in all media, including painting, sculpture, installation, video, and performance art. Works by both emerging and established artists are presented in an effort to provide a variety of ideas in different forms that both challenge and inspire. The endeavor seeks to enrich public understanding and appreciation of contemporary fine art by creating conversations through special events, lectures, symposia, and panel discussions with intellectual commentary on exhibitions. Beacon Arts is now over a year old, having completed its successful inaugural Critics-as-Curators series – consecutive shows conceived and curated by art writers and critics. This series ran for the first year of the space, from October 2010 to October 2011. The gallery plans to continue programming into 2012 with Prince at the Forum curated by Steven Bankhead and Jesse Benson March 24, 2012 – May 6, 2012 and a series of shows in the summer featuring our favorite artists (TBA), peppered with summer night video screenings.

Beacon Arts Building –

The 32,400-square-foot Beacon Arts Building is an iconic four-story, solid reinforced concrete structure located in the heart of the burgeoning Inglewood Arts District. Having stored inanimate items for close to sixty years, originally as the legendary Bekins Moving and Storage Company, this dramatic 1951 edifice has now transformed into a springboard and “beacon” for artistic expression. In addition to ground floor gallery and retail spaces, the building offers a gorgeous New York warehouse-style environment for professional artists, with spaces in various sizes up to 6,000 square feet with 11’6” ceilings. It has a high rear loading facility, large freight elevator, WiFi availability, and sprinkler system throughout. Beacon Arts Building sits prominently on La Brea Avenue, just South of Centinela, located only 11 minutes south of the 10 Freeway (I-10). Free parking is available in the on-site lot or on La Brea. For further information about availabilities in the Beacon Arts Building, please contact Scott Lane at 310-576-3543 or scottlaneco@yahoo.com. For more information, images, and interviews please contact Caroline Meer @ impulse2impact@gmail.com

From the deCordova website:

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.

The 2012 deCordova Biennial Artists:

Antoniadis & Stone      Caitlin Berrigan
Taylor Davis                   Jo Dery
Kim Faler                        Matthew Gamber
Jessica Gath                 Jonathan Gitelson
Eric Gottesman             Corin Hewitt
Lauren Kalman             Steve Lambert
Mary Lum                       Megan and Murray McMillan
Ann Pibal                        Matt Saunders
South End Knitters      Chris Taylor
Ven Voisey                    Anna Von Mertens
Joe Wardwell               Cullen Bryant Washington, Jr.
Joe Zane

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.

This Space Available

THIS SPACE AVAILABLE: Press Release

Billboards and commercial messages dominate the public space like never before. But is a movement taking shape to reverse this trend?

The Texas Contemporary Art Fair

• Texas Contemporary Art Fair website
• Announcement on Charlie James site

Houston, Texas. Charlie James Gallery is Booth: 803

October 27 – October 31st