My It’s Time to Fight and It’s Time to Stop Fighting show at Charlie James Gallery was the backdrop for these 3 videos encouraging people to vote in the election.
I Am Voting:
Vote Like a Champion:
Vote Your Dreams:
Wake The Beast Videos
November 2012
Creative Time Summit Presentation
October 2012
I’m feeling good after the Creative Time Summit this past weekend. I’ve been looking forward to it for years and was glad to participate.
Below is a video of my presentation. All the presentations are limited to 8 minutes and the end of 8 minutes is indicated by a musician playing on the side of the stage. When asked to speak, I knew immediately how I would finish.
If you didn’t see the rest of the presentations, I can point to some highlights like Jeff Chang and Leonidas Martin.
The second day of the summit was very rewarding. I did two 90 minute sessions, one with Stephen Duncombe on Utopian Strategy and another on my own on communication models for activists and artists. This was where the real value came as I got to work with around 40 people total and share some valuable tools that we usually can only share in Center for Artistic Activism weekend workshops.
With so many smart people in town, there’s been some great follow up meetings and conversations. I have a feeling some exciting things will come from this.
Solo Show: It’s Time to Fight…
September 2012
It’s Time to Fight and It’s Time to Stop Fighting
2012 solo show at Charlie James Gallery
Details on the work included in the show:
- Capitalism Works For Me! True/False
- Tell the Truth
- Enduring Values
- Give and Give and Give
- Wealth or Happiness
- How Change Happens
Required Reading: Printed Material as Agent of Intervention
September 2012
Required Reading: Printed Material as Agent of Intervention
October 3 – December 15, 2012
Opening reception: Wednesday, October 3, 6-8pm
Center for Book Arts, 28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor, New York
Curated by Yaelle S. Amir
Required Reading: Printed Material as Agent of Intervention presents fifteen projects that range from published books and correspondence to performance and video documentation, and are meant to challenge a political or social issue. The works in this exhibition demonstrate the ability of printed materials to act as symbols of ideologies and beliefs. They are used by the participating artists as social agents—intervening in public space to expose an audience to new opportunities and alternative concepts. In a culture where visual noise is inescapable, printed matter provides an opportunity to pause, grasp, ruminate, and pass along. We use it to educate ourselves and others, to create a gash in a stagnant situation, articulate a new context, and imagine our society as it can and should be.
Included Artists/Projects:
Amy Balkin
AREA Chicago (Samuel Barnett, Euan Hague, Jayne Hileman, Dave Pabelllon, Daniel Tucker, and Rebecca Zorach)
Yevgeniy Fiks
Pablo Helguera
Marisa Jahn (REV-) with Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center
Packard Jennings
Jen Kennedy and Liz Linden
Steve Lambert and Andy Bichlbaum of The Yes Men (with 30 writers, 50 advisors, 1,000 volunteer distributors, CODEPINK, May First/People Link, Evil Twin, Improv Everywhere, and Not An Alternative)
Lize Mogel with Mara Cherkasky, John Cloud, and Ryan Shepardt
Queerocracy and Carlos Motta
Occupied Newspapers (The Boston Occupier, The Occupied Times of London, The Occupied Oakland Tribune, Occupy Pittsburgh Now, and The Occupied Wall Street Journal)
Sheryl Oring
Dread Scott
S.W.A.M.P. (Matt Kenyon with Doug Easterly)
Temporary Services, Tamms Year Ten and Sarah Ross
Red76 at NY Art Book Fair
September 2012
Sam Gould and Red 76 will be at the NY Art Book Fair this weekend. At their booth you can pick up the new Journal of Radical Shimming, which includes Abbie Hoffman’s “Fuck The System” and I wrote a new introduction for it. Which I think is pretty good.
MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Avenue at 46th Avenue
Long Island City (Queens), NY
Preview: Thursday, September 27, 6-9 pm
Friday, September 28, 12-7 pm
Saturday, September 29, 11 am-9 pm
Sunday, September 30, 11 am-7 pm
LA Weekly: Political Prankster Steve Lambert Brings His Interactive Signs to Charlie James Gallery
September 2012
The LA Weekly ran a piece about my solo show at Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles. You can read the whole thing at the LA Weekly site.
Making Art in Dystopia
Adam Stock wrote a piece in Alluvium that included a reference to Light Criticism and Capitalism Works For Me! True/False. You can read the full piece on the Alluvium site.
Solo show in Los Angeles opens Saturday September 15th
September 2012
Press Release
It’s Time to Fight and It’s Time to Stop Fighting
September 15 – October 20, 2012
Opening Reception: September 15, 2012, 7-10pm
Charlie James Gallery
969 Chung King Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90012
T: 213.687.0844
WED – SAT, 12 – 6 PM
Charlie James Gallery is delighted to present It’s Time to Fight, and It’s Time to Stop Fighting, the second solo show by gallery artist Steve Lambert.
The center piece of Lambert’s upcoming show is Capitalism Works For Me! True/False, which is on a nationwide tour of museums, non‐profits and public spaces in 2011 and 2012. The sign has been exhibited in Cleveland, Boston, San Diego, and Santa Fe, NM so far this year, and its travels will continue after the gallery show concludes in October. The Capitalism project is among Lambert’s most ambitious to date, in both its scale and its level of provocation. The sign itself blares a question seldom posed so clearly, while also serving to divine public opinion and understanding about capitalism. At every stop on the sign’s aforementioned tour, Lambert interviews viewers about their experience of the piece, posing whether capitalism does in fact ‘work for them’. These video‐captured testimonials illustrate how people define and understand capitalism, and their relationship to it.
Lambert will also present five new sign sculptures that amplify the question(s) posed in Capitalism. If the Capitalism project asks its question(s) to the vox populi, this group of five new sign sculptures speaks directly to the demographic of people equipped to acquire them. Reflecting a fresh awareness that a broad swath of corporate and individual 1%‐ers have collected his work over three years of gallery exhibitions, Lambert has decided to create visual reminders, admonitions, and encouragements to those in positions to collect the work. Using combinations of neon and incandescent lights, one piece exclaims GIVE AND GIVE AND GIVE! Another reminds viewers to TELL THE TRUTH, while another one warns of the inverse relationship that can operate between WEALTH and HAPPINESS.
A book compiling the tour of the Capitalism project, including this gallery exhibition, is being compiled now and will be published in 2013.
Steve Lambert (b. 1976 Los Angeles) is cofounder and director of the Center for Artistic Activism and recently accepted a faculty appointment to SUNY Purchase. His work has been exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of the Sheldon Museum, the Progressive Insurance Company collection and the US Library of Congress, among others. He has collaborated with the Yes Men, winning awards from Prix Arts Electronica, Rhizome/The New Museum, the Creative Work Fund, Adbusters Media Foundation, the California Arts Council, and others. Previous to his SUNY appointment Lambert was a faculty member at SMFA Boston, and a Senior Fellow at the Eyebeam Center for Arts and Technology before that. Lambert earned his BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA from UC Davis. Lambert lives and works in Beacon, NY.
Big Ideas in Art & Culture lecture video
July 2012
The talk I gave at CAFKA/Musagetes in Kitchener back in May has been posted online.
Santa Fe Art Instute Public Lecture 7/2
July 2012
I’ll be giving a public lecture at the Santa Fe Art Institute Monday July 2nd:
Intra Country: Patriotic Expressions at Gallery Kayafas
June 2012
I’ll be showing Trust Me at Gallery Kayafas in Boston for Intra Country: Patriotic Expressions from July 6th to Aug 11th.
Gallery Kayafas
37 Thayer @ 450 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA, 02118
Time to Fight with Print & Paste in Manchester England
June 2012
My sliding-scale priced “It’s Time to Fight” letterpress print has been turned into a billboard in Manchester, England by the nice folks at Print & Paste. I was stunned and delighted to see it at this scale.
Print & Paste is a curated outdoor art space in central Manchester, located just off Oxford Rd opposite the old BBC building. Every month a new artist is invited to exhibit work on a large 16-sheet board traditionally used by advertisers. “We aim to support the artist and inspire the public by using the space for freedom of expression, positive social commentary, and the exhibition of original work.” Print & Paste is a collaboration between Micah Purnell, Dave Sedgwick, Nick Chaffe, and Jim Ralley and facilitated by Daniel Jones.
Private Property at Charlie James Gallery
June 2012
My Private Property sign opened at Charlie James Gallery tonight. If you’re in LA, it will be up for a few weeks. Here’s a video of it in action:
The lights are controlled with this flasher unit I built (see image below). It uses a program for the arduino written with Alex Reben. If you want it, it’s here.
Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT
May 2012
“Capitalism Works For Me! True/False” is in Hartford, CT. After visiting Manchester Community College and Blue Black Square, it’s now at Real Art Ways. Get more information at the Real Art Ways website.
CAFK+A Big Ideas in Arts & Culture Lecture Series – May 22
May 2012
I’m speaking at City Hall (!) in Kitchener, Ontario on May 22nd.
Tuesday May 22, 2012 – 7:00 pm
Kitchener CIty Hall Rotunda
200 King St. W., Kitchener
Steve Lambert is an American artist who works in a variety of media, commonly using print and communication vehicles as a means of developing a dialogue with his audience. He has produced interactive scoreboards, letterpress posters, signage and postcards. One of Lambert’s best known projects is The New York Times “Special Edition”, which announced the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan following the 2008 American election.
Lambert uses art as a bridge to connect uncommon, idealistic, or even radical ideas with everyday life. He carefully crafts various conditions where these ideas can be discussed with people to produce a meaningful exchange. Often this means working collaboratively with the audience, bringing them into the process or even having them physically complete the work.
He has collaborated with well-known art collectives such as the Yes Men and the Graffiti Research Lab, and other organizations such as Greenpeace. He is also the founder of the Center for Artistic Activism, the Anti-Advertising Agency, Add-Art (a Firefox add-on that replaces online advertising with art) and SelfControl (which blocks grownups from distracting websites so they can get work done).
There will be a complimentary shuttle from downtown Guelph to Kitchener for the Steve Lambert lecture, departing from 193 Woolwich St. (Macquarie House) at 6:00 PM. Seats will reserved on a first-come, first-served basis. Please visit http://stevelambertbus.eventbrite.com or contact Danica Evering at danica@musagetes.ca or 519 836 7300 x 103 to reserve your seat.
Image credit: Steve Lambert, Capitalism Works For Me! True/False, 2011. Courtesy the artist.
About Big Ideas in Art and Culture
The Big ideas in Art and Culture Lecture Series is a joint production of CAFKA and Musagetes. CAFKA is about making art happen in the public spaces of this community, introducing contemporary art to new audiences and engaging the public in new ways of seeing their city. The Musagetes Foundation has been active around the world gathering artists and public intellectuals to consider variations on the theme of social transformations through creative and artistic interventions. These open forums, or cafés, explore and apply new ideas in creative practices, social change and community development. Musagetes Cafés have taken place in London, England, 2007, Barcelona, Spain, 2008, and Rijeka, Croatia, 2010. Future cafés are being planned to take place in Sudbury, Ontario, 2011 and in Lecce, Italy, 2012. CAFKA gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the City of Kitchener, The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation – Musagetes Fund, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council in helping to make this lecture series possible.
…Is This Free? at NURTUREart
May 2012
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
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