Steve Lambert
Many artists aspire to be revolutionary, but Steve Lambert is truly original and radical. To begin, it takes more than a few seconds of preemptory scanning of his webpage – the main hub for his action and web-based work – to fully understand what he is about.  Second, his intended audience is much larger than the art world.  Though he possesses traditional degrees in art from respected institutions, he has managed to escape the solipsistic trap that often results from such training to create work that anyone, anywhere, can connect with and understand.   Finally, though the final product is frequently something that cannot be owned or possessed as an investment in a traditional sense, this is not his sole intention or driving concept.  Instead, Steve Lambert has dedicated his career to creating pubic signs, freeware, websites, and publications that will truly cause anyone who is lucky to witness them to stop and think, or to just improve their lives in a simple but meaningful way.

Take for example his freeware Firefox application titled ADD-ART, which replaces all ads on the browser with artwork.  Or his special mock edition of the New York Times (http://nytimes-se.com), which unlike its sarcastic relation The Onion, envisions a truly guileless and utopian alternate reality in which all public universities are free and Condoleezza Rice holds a press conference to frankly confess that the Bush Administration knew all along that there were no WMDs.

Lambert brought this spirit of enjoyable subversion to his residency at the Printshop with a series of three prints that challenge basic ideas behind ownership of art.  He was guided by one of two (or a combination of both) of the following self-determined principles.  First, he wanted people who buy the work to have to come to terms with the fact that “you can’t get a perfect one.”  This concept sprang from Lambert’s interest in Buddhist ideas, specifically, that one must accept things as they are, because that is how they should be.  OUT OF IDEAS is a screenprint in Lambert’s signature brushwork lettering style (downloadable on Lambert’s website) and each impression is either torn in two, splashed with coffee, or both, depending on the artist’s whim.   Likewise, each impression of the variable edition screenprint This is Perfect is uniquely off register.  No two are alike, but also – none are perfect.   Lambert’s choice of palette for this print was inspired by the color scheme for a palace he visited during a trip to Turkey with a friend, who noticed that one of its tiles had a mistake in the pattern.  They later learned that this was intentional and all Islamic art incorporates a flaw, as Muslims believe that nothing can be perfect but Allah.

Lambert was also interested in overturning the expectation that a collector can buy his work and simply look at it.  This was the guiding principle for In BLANK days… , an interactive print that requires the owner to fill in the chalkboard-painted blanks.  Depending on the choice of words, the resulting statement can become a directive/goal, a means of stress release, or a source of humor.  “If you own the work, you have to do something.  It’s not just…I own it, and that’s the end. “

Steve Lambert presents a live classroom-style video lecture exploring passages of historical inquiry through clips found on YouTube.  This presentation will be one of a series of thematic lectures comprising “The YouTube School of Social Politics,” a project conceived by Headlands Alumni Artist In Residence Sam Gould.  The lecture, entitled “Judo Practice”, explores creative activism, leveraging balance and the precise application of force to overcome a more powerful opponent.  Please Be Advised: This presentation contains mature and controversial content.

Headlands Center for the Arts
Open House Summer 2010
12-5pm

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

Staff
Holly Blake, Painting

Buy your Just Art 2010 tickets for the June 24 event here before they sell out!

via Tinca Art – Home.

Group show Palling Around with Socialists questions the nature of an individual as an autonomous being or as a component to an equitable community.

“Our nation presently finds itself in a culture war, where language is traversing outside the bounds of denoted definitions: words like socialist, fascism, czar and terror are volleyed around public debates,” the gallery said in a statement about the exhibit.

“While different parties and groups fear a loss of personal freedoms, we may be at greater risk of misarticulating the perceived conflicts with which we are faced.”

Concerns about the nature of private property, authorship and current intersections between economics, ethics and philosophy are raised by artists Shinsuke Aso, Gabriel Boyce and Preston Link, Alton Falcone, David Horvitz, Justin Kemp, Steve Kemple, Julia Schwadron and Steve Lambert.

Through June 26. Noon-4 p.m. Saturdays. U·turn Art Space 2159 Central Ave., Brighton. West End. E-mail: u.turn.artspace@gmail.com

Via Cincinatti.com

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
21 June 2010 – 26 September 2010

EMMA GRAY: HollywoodMerchmART!
Curator Emma Gray will transform LACE’s storefront space into an artist-created souvenir shop. HollywoodMerchmART! aims to engage, confuse, and delight summer tourists on Hollywood Boulevard with works by both local and international artists. Ranging from postcards and maps to t-shirt and mini-sculptures, the store inventory draws inspiration from social-media and internet trends, as well as local objects found in nearby souvenir shops, thus speaking the language that is Hollywood. Prices will range from $1 to $200!

Participating artists: Emily Joyce, Ashley McPeek, Collective Field, Richard Lidinsky, Brian Bress, Carolina Caycedo, Matthieu Laurette, Anthony James, Max Maslansky, Micol Hebron, PLUS the LA Vajazzlers, Kathryn Garcia, Kirsten Stoltman, John Kilduff, John Knuth, Steve Lambert, John Bucklin, and Zoe Crosher.

In a brave attempt to multitask outside HollywoodMerchmART! John Kilduff of Letspainttv.com will jog on his treadmill on the Walk of Fame, while performing various mundane and creative activities (from eating chicken and blending drinks to painting portraits) for a modest fee. Kilduff will be performing on various occasions throughout the summer.

A text-themed group show at Park Life Gallery, San Francisco

June 11, 2010 through July 18, 2010
Opening Reception Friday, June 11th 2010. 7 – 10 pm.

This exhibition will showcase work by emerging and established artists who deal with semiotics and whose use of type and language is a reoccurring part of their artistic vernacular. The work in this exhibition will both conceptually driven, purely abstract, or may use type expressionistically.

The Artists:

• Stephanie Brooks
• Dana Dart Mclean
• Michael Dumontier
• Karen Flatow
• Neil Farber
• Ed Fella
• Tom Friel
• Jeff Gabel
• Jason Jagel
• Steve Lambert
• Bob Linder
• Tucker Nichols
• Nigel Peake
• Mike Perry
• Jason Polan
• William Powhida
• Nathaniel Russell
• Michael Scoggins
• Josh Shaddock
• David Shrigley
• Zoe Strauss
• Wendy White

more at Park Life.

Note: Event requires RSVP, you can do so at this link.

As a token of our appreciation for their time with us, we're planning to hold a farewell reception the evening of June 23, 6:30 – 9:00, including presentations of their work while at Eyebeam, and their exciting plans on the horizon. Come drink a toast to their illustrious careers and bright futures. The event will take place in conjunction with our spring exhibition, RE:GROUP: Beyond Models of Consensus. If you’re interested in Eyebeam, this is a great way to learn more about the Fellowship model at the core of our mission and the artists, hackers, coders, engineers, and other creative technologists that make Eyebeam such an inspiring and energetic organization at the nexus of art and technology.

via Senior Fellows Farewell | eyebeam.org.

June 5th – 26th, 2010
Opening reception: Saturday, June 5th, 7:00 – 10:00 pm

Cincinnati, OH—Since its inception, U·turn Art Space has sought to facilitate discourse towards imagining questions about the methods and practices of a functional society. In Palling Around with Socialists, a number of artists and the gallery collective have come together to curate an exhibition that questions the nature of an individual as an autonomous being or as a component to an equitable community. Our nation presently finds itself in a culture war, where language is traversing outside the bounds of denoted definitions: words like socialist, fascism, tsar and terror are volleyed around public debates. While different parties and groups fear a loss of personal freedoms, we may be at greater risk of misarticulating the perceived conflicts with which we are faced. Concerns about the nature of private property, authorship and current intersections between economics, ethics and philosophy will be raised through the work of Shinsuke Aso, Gabriel Boyce and Preston Link, Alton Falcone, David Horvitz, Justin Kemp, Steve Kemple, Julia Schwadron and Steve Lambert. The presented works continue to exercise aesthetic sensitivity, demonstrating a belief in form contributing to the advancement of concepts. Critically playful and directly engaging our community with optimistic, activist strategies, U·turn and these artists seek to contribute to a larger dialogue with art that presents unexpected viewpoints and makes note of abstractions that may expand upon or resituate current discussions about social responsibility, power and control.

“The question of social change and art becomes then a problem of discovering the manner in which a new content modifies the conventional manner of expression: the manner in which purely aesthetic changes, occasioned by social changes, modify content to accord with newer forms. But insofar as the formal change may be socially conditioned, we must distinguish between those social changes that operate on the artist directly and those that operate indirectly.” –Meyer Schapiro in his essay “Art and Social Change”

U·turn Art Space is located at 2159 Central Avenue in Brighton.
Gallery is free and open to the public, with street parking in front of the space and on nearby streets. Regular gallery hours are on Saturdays, 12-4 pm, and by appointment.

Exhibition opening: Thursday, June 10
Curators Talk: 5PM | Reception: 6-8PM
Breakfast with the Artists: Friday, June 11, 10AM-12PM
Eyebeam 540 W. 21st St (btw 10th and 11th Aves.)

Eyebeam Art & Technology Center, in collaboration with Upgrade! NY and Not An Alternative, is pleased to presentRe:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus, an exhibition which examines models of participation and participation as a model in art and activism.

Re:Group proposes that with participation now a dominant paradigm, structuring social interaction, art, activism, the architecture of the city, and the economy, we are all integrated into participatory structures whether we want to be or not. The exhibition showcases work that subverts existing systems or envisions new alternatives to the ways in which individuals can take part, or choose not to take part, in social and cultural life.

Re:Group opens to the public on Thursday, June 10, 2010, with a curators talk at 5PM and a reception at 6-8PM. The curators talk will be moderated by Beryl Graham of UK-based new media curatorial research institute CRUMB.

Please note: The public opening is preceded by a benefit & private viewing on Tuesday, June 8, 6:30-9:30PM. For ticket information, visit eyebeam.org.

The opening week continues with a “Breakfast with the Artists” reception & talk on Friday, June 11, 10AM-12PM, moderated by Re:Group curators and featuring exhibiting artists Institute for Infinitely Small Things, Christopher Robbins, and Giana González.

Re:Group features work by thirteen artists, designers, hackers, activists, and collectives exploring both the potential and limitations of participation, networked collaboration, and distributed labor. From the “crowdsourced” projects Ten Thousand Cents and White Glove Tracking to the tactical media art of The Yes Men and Ubermorgen, from the urban interventions ofJohn Hawke and The Institute of Infinitely Small Things to the open platforms of Ushahidi and MakerBot – the exhibition represents a diverse range of critically and socially engaged work that rethinks the institutional practices within urban planning, civil engineering, transportation, industrial design and production, relief work, and the news media.

Re:Group will include a full complement of public programs, organized as part of Eyebeam’s annual Summer School program. Eyebeam Summer School offers a lively mix of master classes, free public lectures, hands-on workshops and skillshares, and youth programs. Visit eyebeam.org for a complete schedule of activities.

The exhibition not only presents completed work through gallery installations, but also functions as a platform for new collaborative work. Through workshops, master classes, and discussions led by the exhibiting artists, the processes and methodologies behind the work are opened up to gallery visitors and invited communities, providing an opportunity to extend and reinterpret the artists’ ideas in new and unexpected ways.

Re:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus is curated by Upgrade! NY, the New York node of the international network, Upgrade!, founded in 1999 by media artist Yael Kanarek. The curatorial team is Eyebeam program manager Paul Amitai,writer/activist, Marco Deseriis, Beka Economopoulos and Jason Jones of Not An Alternative, Eyebeam education coordinator Stephanie Pereira, and designer/educator Mushon Zer-Aviv.

Participating Artists:

John Ewing, Christopher Robbins & Carmen Montoya – Ghana Think Tank

Giana González – Hacking Couture

John Hawke – Mandatory Minimum: We Have Moved!

The Institute for Infinitely Small Things – Corporate Commands

Aaron Koblin and Takashi Kawashima -Ten Thousand Cents

Steve Lambert and Packard Jennings – Wish You Were Here: Postcards from our awesome future

MakerBot Industries – MakerBot

Christopher Robbins – Work Projects Administration 2010

Evan Roth and Ben Engebreth – White Glove Tracking

Ushahidi – Crisis Map of Haiti

Ubermorgen.com – [V]ote-Auction

The Yes Men – Good Cop 15

YoHa (Yokokoji, Harwood) – Social Telephony