Friday January 14, 2011
Mindy Rose Schwartz: New Work
Jan 14th - Feb 26th, 2011
Opening reception: Fri, Jan 14th, 6-9pm
Artist talk: Thur, Feb 10th, 7pm
Certain conventions of American home decorating and interior design from the seventies and eighties and the mundane domestic objects featured in that décor become fantastic when in the hands of Mindy Rose Schwartz. Working in ceramics, paper, and plaster, Schwartz’s sculptural installations blur the boundaries between recognizable household trappings and almost nightmarish manifestations from the natural world that encroach upon and overtake their environments. Schwartz is interested in the mutability of those sentimental objects and surroundings that absorb our personal histories and accompanying emotions. Her final installations seem animated with the drama of everyday life, becoming monstrous, ghostly or otherwise charmed by the sentiments they have been repository for.
In Evocative Objects, Sherry Turkle describes how “when an object is lost, a subject is found.” Objects, once disparaged as excess, hobbyism or perversion, are actually the centerpieces of emotional life and provocations to thought. Schwartz’s work explores this rich territory, where objects become container for feelings and desire and move into the magical and uncanny. She traps the moment when things morph into the meaningful, loaded with the ‘people’ who chose, cherished and projected onto them.
Mindy Rose Schwartz has shown her sculpture and installations throughout the United States with exhibitions in Houston, TX; Brooklyn, NY; St. Louis and Kansas City, MO; Miami, FL and Chicago. Her work has been written about in artnet Magazine, Beautiful Decay (online), Time Out Chicago, The Chicago Tribune, Newcity, ArtForum, Frieze Magazine, Art in American and Whitewalls. She was the recipient of a 3Arts Fellowship to Ragdale in 2010 and a Frankel Foundation Full Fellowship Award to the Vermont Studio Center in 2005. Schwartz earned her MFA at the University of Illinois, Chicago. To learn more visit mindyroseschwartz.com
Friday January 21, 2011
Subtitles 1: Doves and Crocodiles
Friday, January 21
6:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Image: Still from "To Helen," by Robert Ladislas Derr. Image courtesy of the artist.
Subtitles, a series of projects inspired by the writings of Edgar Allen Poe, Doris Lessing and Roald Dahl, begins Friday the 21st with “Doves and Crocodiles”. Participating artists, Robert Ladislas Derr, Jac Jemc, Ryan Dunn and Joseph Kramer, will present work influenced by Edgar Allen Poe’s body of work. Poe is most known as the father of the detective story, the master of horror and the voice of “The Raven”, but he also wrote hoaxes as news, comedic works, satire, parodies, sketches and experimental stories.
"To Helen" by Robert Ladislas Derr is a psycho geographical walk (wearing four video cameras) through Providence, RI at midnight, loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe’s poem "To Helen." Beginning at the Athenaeum where Poe was known to write, Derr traced the footsteps that Poe might have taken while creating this poem written to his beloved Helen Whitman, resident of Providence. Dressed in white, reminiscent of Poe’s remembrance of Helen "clad in white upon a violet bank", Derr moves through the dark night on historic Benefit Street toward the First Baptist Meeting House, then down Meeting Street to Waterplace Park, continuing on the Riverwalk, and back to Benefit Street. Upon the John Brown and Nightingale Brown houses, Derr looked for the roses that Poe says "grew in an enchanted garden". From there, he continues on Benefit Street until the Point Street Bridge, where he meets in Poe’s words "the mossy banks and the meandering paths."
In "The Dreaded Miscellany," Jac Jemc will try her hand at the Gothic - the genre for which Poe is perhaps most famous. A miscellany is gifted the narrator by an intellectually curious uncle who has met an untimely end. On a daily walk, the life of a stumbled-upon fruit bat slips away without explanation. The book calls to the narrator, drawing him away from his own livelihood, and asking him to believe the content of its pages despite his most common sense.
Ryan Dunn and Joseph Kramer will take on Poe the trickster in this fake news broadcast. In 1844's "The Balloon Hoax", Poe created an entirely fictitious story of a balloon crossing the Atlantic in three days, and published it in the New York Sun, ostensibly as fact. Here, Dunn and Kramer subvert traditional notions of fact and fiction through obscured language and varying levels of intelligibility, while simultaneously questioning that which should be viewed as an authoritative broadcaster of information.
Tuesday January 25, 2011
Public Culture 4 with Penelope Bingham
Tuesday, January 25th 7:00-9:00PM
Please join us for the next Public Culture lecture. This month, Penelope Bingham will present "Who Cooks? American Cookbooks and Changes in Gender Roles."
"American cookbooks—their authors, their implied audience, the social structure implicit in their recipes and meal plans—tell the story of the changes in the role of women and social structure in 20th century America. The cookbook is much more than a 'how-to' manual; itdocuments... the expectations for 'good food' and for a 'good cook.' Looking at the century’s most popular cookbooks brings to light its changing values. This program invites the audience to think about the links between who cooks our food and how our society is structured."
Bingham will be bringing a number of vintage cookbooks from her epic collection to share.
About Bingham:
Following lifelong passions for books and for cooking, Penelope Bingham began accumulating cookbooks over 40 years ago. Her personal collection of cookbooks now exceeds 2,000 volumes. She is particularly interested in the stories American cookbooks of the last two centuries tell about American culture and identity. She has given programs on American Cookbooks and Culture to libraries and cultural organizations throughout Illinois as a Road Scholar for the Illinois Humanities Council, as well as in conjunction with the Smithsonian's traveling exhibition, "Key Ingredients: America By Food". She has also addressed the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the Culinary Historians of Chicago, The Wednesday Club of the Newberry Library of Chicago, the Cookware Manufacturers Association, and home economists of Kraft Foods. Her work with American Cookbooks and Culture was recently featured in Chicago Magazine and on WBBM/TV’s “Table For Two”. Since 1990, she has been the volunteer "Cookbook Lady" for the Annual Book Fair of the Newberry Library of Chicago, preparing for sale the thousands of vintage cookbooks that are donated each year. Penelope holds degrees from Wellesley College and the University of Chicago. She is a member of the Culinary Historians of Chicago and the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
The Public Culture Lecture Series, co-organized by Randall Szott and InCUBATE, seeks to highlight examinations and enactments of public culture. Rather than following a preformed idea of what public culture actually is, the lecture series treats it as an open question and invites attendees to explore the question with us. A variety of people and practices will be drawn on to present the ways that the notion of “the public” emerges in their work and/or informs it.
Tuesday February 1, 2011
threewallsSALON: Curating the Turn
Tuesday, February 1, 7:00 pm
In the first session of the @work SALON series, we explore alternative models of curatorial practice.
In May 2010, e-flux editor Anton Vidokle published “Art Without Artists?” in which he described the dangers and demerits of the rising power of the Superstar Curator. The polemic essay elicited a flurry of equally polemic critical response from curators and artists, thus kindling the flames of a discontent with the increasingly independent role of the curator that have flickered since the 1970s.
In this SALON session, we respond to this discussion by proposing to move beyond it. Instead, we accept the premise of the creative curator, and ask: what are some boundaries-pushing, interdisciplinary curatorial models that fully embrace all the potential inherent in that role? How has the “educational turn” changed the stakes for independent and institutional curators? How are curators (aspiring or established) responding to, profiting from, or perhaps even ignoring, the academicization of their practice? And what are some thoughtful ways in which curatorial practice is responding to different institutional models, as well as reaching beyond the arts institution, to address activism and politics?
Invited guests Anna Cerniglia (Johalla Projects), Nicholas Frank (Inova), Aay Preston Myint (No Coast) and Kelly Shindler (Art:21) will help to lead a discussion that will address these questions and many more.
Anna Cerniglia is a curator, visual artist, and the director of Johalla Projects. She received her BFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago in 2006. Over the past five years, she has worked throughout Chicago to convert unconventional spaces into alternative venues for exhibiting art. Cerniglia founded South Union Arts in 2005 and has since curated for ALLRiSE Gallery, Grolsch, Buchanan Art Project, Lakeview East Art Festival, and Johalla Projects. Outside of the United States, she has worked as an assistant curator as at Berliner-Liste and as a co-curator at La Porta Blu Gallery of Rome. Most recently, she has begun working with the aldermen of Wicker Park and Logan Square (Joe Moreno and Rey Colon, respectively) to foster and promote public displays of art.
Nicholas Frank is curator at the Institute of Visual Arts (Inova) and a co-founder of the Milwaukee International. He ran the Hermetic Gallery in Milwaukee from 1993-2001. His projects and work have been exhibited at the Tate Modern (London); Kölnischer Kunstverein (Cologne); Swiss Institute, Gavin Brown's Enterprise’s Passerby and Small A Projects (New York); Angstrom Gallery (Los Angeles); Locust Projects (Miami); Hyde Park Art Center, SAIC Sullivan Galleries, and many others. His solo and collective activity have drawn attention from The New York Times, Art Forum, Art in America, Sculpture, ANP Magazine and New City. He has written on art and other subjects for New Art Examiner, Purple, X-tra, Sculpture and Artpapers. A current project is featured at the Poor Farm in Manawa, WI. Frank is represented by Western Exhibitions, and teaches at MIAD.
Aay Preston-Myint is an artist who does collaborative programming with No Coast, Mess Hall and Chances Dances, and edits an online journal called Monsters and Dust. Year-round summer jams and mixtapes are available via the »Off Chances Podcast as well as »100 Days of Disco, a fluid archive of dance subculture.
Kelly Shindler is currently completing a dual Master’s in Art History, Theory, & Criticism and Arts Administration & Policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since 2003, she has worked at Art21, producer of the Peabody award-winning PBS documentary series, Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century, where she is presently Director of Special Projects and runs Art21’s blog. She also works with SAIC's experimental moving image series, Conversations at the Edge. As a curator, Kelly co-founded of the Package Deals film series, whose programs have screened in over thirty cities around the world. She has curated exhibitions and programs for the Australia Cinematheque, Oulu Music Video Festival in Finland, Scandinavia House in NYC, Sequences Festival in Reykjavik, and the Sullivan Galleries in Chicago, among others.
Tuesday March 1, 2011
threewallsSALON: Crisis-Free Arts Criticism
Tuesday, March 1, 7:00 pm
If any single role in the art world has been questioned, dismissed, vindicated and debated more than any other, it is arguably that of the art critic. In Chicago alone, panels, exhibitions, and blog posts galore have declared an apparently ceaseless “crisis of criticism.” While the reasons for this insecurity are many, prominent amongst them is the fact that the traditional role of the critic — interpreting art works and art movements for the viewing public — has been co-opted by curators and artists themselves.
In this second session of the @work SALON series, we decide to put the so-called “crisis” behind us and ask how art writers understand their roles in the cultural landscape today. How can criticism itself can become a creative and performative experience? What is the critic’s role in the production of meaning? Can art writing flourish in its own right, independent of the work itself? If the traditional print publication and the amateur blog both have a hard time generating revenue, then what are innovative, productive publishing models that could do better? What do arts writers see on the horizon of their profession?
This conversation will be led by invited guests Jason Foumberg (Newcity), Claudine Isé (Bad at Sports), Lori Waxman (60wrd/min), and Pedro Veléz (Artnet.com).
Jason Foumberg is the art editor for Newcity, an alt-weekly published in Chicago, for which he contributes a weekly art criticism column. Jason also works as the Department Coordinator in Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Claudine Isé is an art writer and a regular contributor to badatsports.com, art:21 blog, artforum.com, and Chicago magazine's Guide section. In previous years, she worked at the Wexner Center for the Arts and the Hammer Museum as a curator, and was a freelance art critic for the Los Angeles Times.
Lori Waxman writes criticism for the Chicago Tribune and Artforum, and teaches art history at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As the "60 wrd/min art critic," she performs in public, across the country, on demand for any artist who wants a review of their work. For this she was awarded a Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. For just slightly more conventional work, on urban walking as an art form in the 20th century, she has a PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts.
Pedro Veléz obtained his M.F.A. at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and his B.A. in Communications at the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in Puerto Rico. His work incorporates art criticism, curatorial projects and sculpture into one extended narrative. Vélez maintains a regular column about the art scenes in Chicago and San Juan in Artnet Magazine and his writing has been published in New Art Examiner, APT Global Insight, Arte al Día and others.
Tuesday March 29, 2011
threewallsSALON: Unschooling Arts Education
Tuesday, March 29, 7:00 pm
As formal educational opportunities become increasingly taxing for the artist (insert educator/critic/historian), students question the value of traditional learning experiences. At the same time, educational institutions have developed formalized disciplinary tracks in arts administration, curatorial practice and criticism, and now the increasingly popular PhD in visual arts. What does this say about the baseline criteria that art professionals need to meet before being allowed to do anything in the arts? Is formal education valued over experience, and if so, what does this mean for the democratization of voices in the art world?
In response to several pedagogic movements of the last century, as well as current practices in DIY and self-education, we are seeing a rebirth of public access education. In turn, this trend is raising a new set of questions, including: who, exactly, is sanctioning what is worthy of being learned, who is worthy of receiving that learning and where that learning should take place?
This session of the @work SALON series will focus on the rebirth of arts education in the public access form. Popping up in Chicago and other cities is a new version of this free education system, which is partially defined by free (or very low-cost) seminars and skill-sharing with an emphasis on democratic education. Participation is open to all, for students and teachers alike, in this horizontal peer-to-peer alt.institutional structure. Creativity, flexibility, experimentation, and collaboration are highly valued in the arts. Why shouldn't these traits be applied to the ways in which we access knowledge, as well as to its content?
Invited guests include Zachary Cahill, Erica Meiners (Northeastern Illinois University), Rebecca Zorach (University of Chicago), and more.
Tuesday March 29, 2011
threewallsSALON: Unschooling Arts Education
Tuesday, March 29, 7:00 pm
As formal educational opportunities become increasingly taxing for the artist (insert educator/critic/historian), students question the value of traditional learning experiences. At the same time, educational institutions have developed formalized disciplinary tracks in arts administration, curatorial practice and criticism, and now the increasingly popular PhD in visual arts. What does this say about the baseline criteria that art professionals need to meet before being allowed to do anything in the arts? Is formal education valued over experience, and if so, what does this mean for the democratization of voices in the art world?
In response to several pedagogic movements of the last century, as well as current practices in DIY and self-education, we are seeing a rebirth of public access education. In turn, this trend is raising a new set of questions, including: who, exactly, is sanctioning what is worthy of being learned, who is worthy of receiving that learning and where that learning should take place?
This session of the @work SALON series will focus on the rebirth of arts education in the public access form. Popping up in Chicago and other cities is a new version of this free education system, which is partially defined by free (or very low-cost) seminars and skill-sharing with an emphasis on democratic education. Participation is open to all, for students and teachers alike, in this horizontal peer-to-peer alt.institutional structure. Creativity, flexibility, experimentation, and collaboration are highly valued in the arts. Why shouldn't these traits be applied to the ways in which we access knowledge, as well as to its content?
Invited guests include Zachary Cahill, Erica Meiners (Northeastern Illinois University), Rebecca Zorach (University of Chicago), and more.
Tuesday April 26, 2011
threewallsSALON: Arts Administration
Tuesday, April 26, 7:00 p.m.
Almost paradoxically, the blending together of roles in the art world has accompanied the specialization of arts-related careers. As the last gathering in the @work SALON series, we will wrap up with a look at that always hard-to-define role, the arts administrator, in the context of the discussions we’ve had throughout the series.
Are we observing a conflicted moment for arts administrators? Why are arts administrators forced into a demanding fluidity that requires a never-ending accumulation of skills in order to support the flexibility and creativity that is now encouraged (in fact, demanded) of other positions in the arts? It is "support," after all, that arts administrators are understood to be good for. So, where does this leave the arts administrator? If the so-called "educational turn" is generating new possibilities for artists, curators, critics and educators that include an increased self-reflexivity and transparency, how can arts administrators not follow suit? How can we define or describe this profession, which encompasses so many specialized roles? And why can’t anyone think of a better name than “arts administrators”?
Arts administrators don't work in isolation, and frequently collaborate with (or step into) many of the other roles that have been discussed in this series. So isn't it just as important for administrators to critically embrace (or reject) these changes in ways that push for an increasing dynamism in the arts?
This discussion will be lead by invited guests Rebecca Keller (School of the Art Institute of Chicago), Erin Nixon (Noble and Superior Projects), and others.