Filed under: Art Fairs, Art World, Chicago, On the Road | Tags: Art Chicago, Chicago, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, CONVERGE, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Dina Deitsch, Dominic Molon, Evan J. Garza, NEXT, Talk Shop, William Cordova
From left: William Cordova, Dominic Molon, Dina Deitsch, Evan J. Garza at the Art Chicago | NEXT Talk Shop
We were thrilled to participate yesterday in CONVERGE Chicago: Contemporary Curators Forum at the Art Chicago | NEXT Talk Shop. New American Paintings Editor-at-Large, Evan J. Garza was the moderator for “Beyond the Stretcher: Breaking Down Spatial Limitations in Contemporary Painting,“ a panel discussion featuring Dina Deitsch, Associate Curator at the deCordova Sculpture Park + Museum, Dominic Molon, Chief Curator for the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (and the juror for NAP edition #85), and New York, Miami, and Lima-based artist and curator, William Cordova.
A packed crowd gathered to take in the discussion as throngs of collectors and fair-goers passed up and down the aisles of booths at NEXT. The curators discussed issues of material specificity and spatial concerns in contemporary painting practices, and examined the work of cutting edge artists whose work ignites a dialogue about sculptural and installation forms of painting. The event and conversation were great, and the company we were in was even better. Check out our pics after the jump!
Filed under: Art Fairs, Art World, Chicago, On the Road | Tags: Antonia Gurkovksa, Art Chicago, Katie Bell, NEXT, Susanne Ghez, The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago
Antonia Gurkovska, Untitled (Europa), 2010 | Oil, acrylic, wax, latex paint, fabric, and enamel, 92 x 72 inches. Courtesy the artist and The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago.
As part of the Special Projects on view at Art Chicago | NEXT this weekend (opening today!), New Insight is an exhibition featuring 18 of the top MFA candidates from some of the strongest graduate studio programs in the country. Curated by Susanne Ghez, director of The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago, an institution with a vast history of exhibiting cutting edge work, this year’s New Insight show, now in its fifth year, is right in line with NEXT‘s mission of being a platform for new ideas and young, newly emerging artists.
With MFA students freshly on our brains at New American Paintings, with the recent release of #93, our new MFA Annual book on newsstands, the presence of national, high-profile MFA talent is tantamount to the idea behind the fair itself. And with works not available for sale by the students, the show drives home the point that the attitude at NEXT seems to put content over commerce. —Evan J. Garza, Editor-at-Large
Filed under: Art Fairs, Chicago, On the Road | Tags: Andrew Katz, Art Chicago, Chicago, NEXT, NEXT Art Fair, Obey Giant, Shepard Fairey
Shepard Fairey poses with New American Paintings #93 and posse, Dan, Nick, and Z
Being a student at RISD, it’s impossible to not know the name Shepard Fairey. Even back in 2001, when I was studying there, he was already a legend and referenced often by the students and faculty. Some stories true, some total myths. His stickers were passed around like nudie mags in an elementary school boys’ bathroom. They seemed to appear out of no where, like magic. He must have still had someone on the “inside,” dishing them out to students.
I’ve also had the pleasure of working with Shepard at my own gallery, back in 2004, moments before he went from famous to mega-famous. Though our working relationship was brief, he is always gracious and extremely friendly whenever I see him. He’s that way to total strangers too, which is ultimately why he’s liked so much by his fans.
I was thrilled to learn Shepard would be around for the NEXT art fair opening, DJing the opening party. It’s always great to see him and his posse (shout out to Dan, Nick, and Z), as I’ve gotten to know them well over the past few years as well. Glad to pop off these shots while he was in action. Hope you enjoy, it was a great night at NEXT.
Were you there? Any favorite artworks to speak of? Let us know. More pics after the jump!
—Andrew Katz, Associate Publisher
Shepard Fairey spins at the 2011 NEXT opening
Filed under: Art Fairs, Art World, Chicago | Tags: Art Chicago, CONVERGE Contemporary Curators Forum, Dina Deitsch, Dominic Molon, Evan J. Garza, NEXT, William Cordova
(flickr via Renaissance Society & Art Chicago)
In the dead center of NEXT‘s layout at Merchandise Mart this weekend, in what would otherwise be prime real estate for galleries willing to shell out big bucks for sprawling, centrally-located booths, is instead the Art Chicago | NEXT Talk Shop, the site of CONVERGE Chicago: Contemporary Curators Forum, a 4-day series of public panels and talks with major national and international figures from the art world.
Curator, critic, and New American Paintings Editor-at-Large, Evan J. Garza, will serve as the moderator for “Beyond the Stretcher: Breaking Down Spatial Limitations in Contemporary Painting,” a CONVERGE panel discussion with three prestigious curators, this Friday, April 29 at 6pm at the Talk Shop. (Click to attend and share the event on Facebook!)
As the practice of painting moves ever further from the confines of the canvas, it continues to pour over into sculptural forms, installation, and new media. Curators will discuss issues of materiality, multidisciplinary influence, and the spatial and material undertakings in recent contemporary painting practices. Panelists include: Dominic Molon, Chief Curator, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (and the juror for edition #85 of NAP), Dina Deitsch, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA; and William Cordova, (featured in 2003 MFA Annual, Spotlight #86) artist and curator, New York, Miami, and Lima, Peru.
Filed under: Art Fairs, Art World, Chicago, Features, Q&A | Tags: Art Basel, Art Chicago, DCKT, Evan J. Garza, Kavi Gupta, Ken Tyburski, NEXT, Paul Morris, The Armory Show
Photo credit: Timothy Tompkins, Explosion_v3, 2010.
It seemed as if the entirety of the American art world descended upon Chicago at the end of April last year, and with good reason. Now heading into its fourth edition, 2011 will mark the first year that NEXT, the Invitational Exhibition of Emerging Art, will sit side-by-side with the stalwart Art Chicago on the 12th floor of the Merchandise Mart, April 29 – May 2. Growing larger and to more and more critical acclaim in the last few years, the Spring fairs in Chicago received a staggering 50,000 visitors in 2010, and that figure is almost certain to get blown out of the water this year.
NEXT really seemed to be the hot ticket last year, featuring young, hot (even unheard of) galleries, exciting new work, and panels at Talk Shop + CONVERGE Contemporary Curators Forum, right smack in the center of the fair. However, with both NEXT and Art Chicago exhibiting alongside one another this weekend, the opportunity exists for each fair to stand out more than ever before.
So, what does the new layout mean for viewers? To find out, we spoke with NEXT‘s Curatorial Director, Ken Tyburski, who puts the “KT” in DCKT when he’s not designing art fairs with Curatorial Advisor and NEXT co-founder, Kavi Gupta. Our conversation after the jump.
—Evan J. Garza, Editor-at-Large
Filed under: Competitions | Tags: 96, Cassandra Coblentz, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, West
The Western Competition of New American Paintings is in full swing, with artists from across the region applying by the hundreds. But apply online soon! The deadline to apply is April 30! The competition is open to artists in AZ, CO, ID, KS, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OK, SD, TX, UT, & WY.
This year’s Western Competition is juried by Cassandra Coblentz, Associate Curator of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA), Scottsdale, Arizona. (Read our recent interview with her here!)
The West book is one of our most anticipated editions of the year. Apply online today!
Filed under: Art World, DC, Q&A | Tags: American University Museum, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Drapes, Kenneth Noland, Matthew Smith, Morris Louis, Richard Tuttle, Sam Gilliam, Washington Color School, William T. Wiley
Installation view, Sam Gilliam, Close to Trees, 2011 | Acrylic, polypropylene, nylon, and a mirror, site-specific installation. Courtesy the American University Museum and Marsha Mateyka Gallery, Washington, DC.
Sam Gilliam’s most celebrated accomplishment — the suspended painting — made its debut at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in September 1969. While other artists like Richard Tuttle and William T. Wiley were also experimenting with the unstreched canvas during the same period, Gilliam’s sculptural approach was revolutionary in that it repositioned the viewer’s relationship with the painting to include the object as well as the space around it, blurring the boundary between painting, sculpture, and architecture for the first time. Hanging from ceilings and walls but also from freestanding objects like sawhorses, Gilliam’s “drapes” left the wall behind to create physical environments that redefined the conceptual and aesthetic boundaries of abstract painting. —Matthew Smith, DC contributor
Filed under: Art World, In the Studio, Seattle | Tags: Erin Langner, Kirkland Arts Center, Margie Livingston, sculpture, Seattle
Margie Livingston, Study for Spiral Block #2, 2010 | Acrylic, 5.75 x 6 x 6 inches. Photo: Richard Nichol.
Overlooking Seattle’s industrial, corporate SoDo neighborhood, Margie Livingston’s long, spacious studio rests in a building of independent, office-like workspaces. A canopy of overhanging grid sculptures and an adjacent geometric bookshelf at the studio’s entrance reference Livingston’s grid-based paintings of several years prior. Her most recent three-dimensional Paint Objects appear with greatest frequency at the opposite end of the room. Moving through her space, from entrance to window, Livingston’s studio offers an unconsciously structured progression of her approach to painting, beginning with the most theoretical objects and ending with the most physical. —Erin Langner, Seattle contributor
Filed under: Art World, Features, San Francisco | Tags: Catharine Clark Gallery, Islam, Los Angeles, Nadiah Fellah, Quran, Sandow Birk
Sandow Birk’s fourth installment in his American Qu’ran project is currently on view at Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco, a 114-part series in which the artist has tediously transcribed each prayer of the Quran (in English), and illuminated the page with a scene from American life, his own interpretation of each particular passage. The text is done in a typeface inspired by Cholo graffiti, a style native to East LA, and the scenes vary from the politically loaded to the mundane. In their final forms, these works are a merging of the artist’s identity growing up in Southern California, and an attempt to connect an oft-misunderstood religious text to an American audience. —Nadiah Fellah, San Francisco contributor
Filed under: Art World, New York | Tags: CANADA, Cherry and Martin, Chuck Webster, Dallas Museum of Art, Evan J. Garza, Joe Bradley, Matt Connors
Matt Connors, Primary, 2011 | Oil, acrylic and colored pencil on canvas, 60 x 45 inches. Courtesy of the artist, Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles, and the Dallas Museum of Art. © Matt Connors.
In an industrial corner of Wiliamsburg, right on the East River, is the studio building of New York’s Matt Connors, whose unique brand of abstraction is as reductive as it is playful. Featured in our 11 to Watch in 2011: Editor’s Picks earlier this year, Connors’ work has been steadily pared down in recent years, revealing intimate details about the practice that created it, and informed by everything from poetry to techno music. His practice reveals a great deal about who he is as a contemporary practitioner—and a clever one at that—even taking previous paintings and using them as visual fodder for new works in progress, right down to pressing finished canvases against wet works in progress.
Currently featured in Concentrations 54 at the Dallas Museum of Art, and fresh off the heels of his first artist book, published by Ooga Booga, Connors chatted with me recently in his Brooklyn studio about his work, his practice, and Joe Bradley. —Evan J. Garza, Editor-at-Large
