Cheap
dal 6/12/2002 al 26/1/2003
Segnalato da
6/12/2002
Cheap
White Columns, New York
In a time when many artists are utilizing cutting edge digital technologies with high production takes a look at a selection of those who embrace the use of found objects, accessible materials, and low overhead costs. Although they work with an economy of resources, these artists are exploring such topics as consumerism and commodity culture with a shared sense of humor and cleverness. Cheap brings together emerging artist who are based in New York City and Chicago.
curated by Lauren Ross and Elizabeth Ferguson Madden
In a time when many artists are utilizing cutting edge digital technologies with high production takes a look at a selection of those who embrace the use of found objects, accessible materials, and low overhead costs. Although they work with an economy of resources, these artists are exploring such topics as consumerism and commodity culture with a shared sense of humor and cleverness. Cheap brings together emerging artist who are based in New York City and Chicago. After its presentation at White Columns, the exhibition will be presented at Gallery 312 in Chicago in May of 2003. This second venue will coincide with the publication of a "cheap" themed issue of the Chicago-based magazine 10 x 10, featuring a piece by the curators of this exhibition.
Amanda Browder (Chicago) uses everyday found materials such as fake fur and AstroTurf to make stuffed sculptural abstractions that are influenced by comics such as Donald Duck, Zap, and The Freak Brothers. Eric Brown (NYC) uses minimal gestures to give his cardboard pieces form reminiscent of architectural structures and modern sculpture. Lisa Caccioppoli (Chicago) arranges painted Styrofoam cubes to investigate sensory experience and order using a self-defined visual vocabulary. Matthew Callinan (NYC) creates sculpture out of such materials as plastic soda bottles, PVC pipe and garbage cans. Jane Creech (NYC) presents a 12 ft long "painting" composed of thousands of red staples on foam core. The variation in color of the industrially produced and colored staples creates the effects of a painter's brushstrokes on canvas. Kevin Dee (Chicago) constructs storage and travel bags that are perfectly camouflaged with trash for use by transient people. The bags are designed so that they can be stashed in alleyways or near trashcans without the threat of theft. Elizabeth Duffy (NYC) folds and bends paper materials such as paint chips and gum wrappers around a wire mesh frame to create colorful sculptural works that bring to mind traditional weaving, as well as children's arts and crafts projects. Diana Guerrero-Macia (Chicago) builds collages from found vintage album covers, tape, acrylic paint, and paper, manipulating text and imagery to create wall pieces that reflect her views on western culture. Rebekah Levine's (Chicago) paper maché and plastic Gin Fountain is a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the ostensible attainment of spiritual balance through objects such as desktop waterfalls, as well as the artist's own consumption of alcohol in pursuit of peace of mind. Thad Simerly (NYC) assembles ordinary materials such as party favors and toys into complex installations based on complex narratives, such as epic battles between rival tribes. Thom van der Doef (Chicago) presents a video that follows a paper cup as it blows through the streets of Chicago. Scott Wolniak (Chicago) sculpts a fake camcorder from a coconut, rope, and paper, comically negating the idea of function while poking fun at tourist culture. Also presented is Weed, a realistic reproduction of a common weed, made entirely from garbage the artist collected from Wolniak's front yard.
About the curators: Elizabeth Ferguson Madden is an artist and curator based in Oak Park, IL. She holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a MFA from the University of Illinois at Champagn-Urbana. Lauren Ross is the Director/Chief Curator of White Columns.
WHITE ROOMS (solo exhibitions for artists unaffiliated with a New York gallery):
Cynthia Rettig presents photographs from the series "Family Outing." These photographs document her family's weekend and summer vacations at a remote spot at Lake Mohave on the Arizona/Nevada border. In addition to more commonplace activities like boating and swimming, the primary vacation pastimes favored by Rettig's family are gunplay, target practice and trap shooting. In clusters of images, Rettig explores the beauty of the bucolic landscape, her family's ease with weapons, and the effect of their actions on their surroundings. She has been photographing her family at this site since 1973. Based in San Francisco, Rettig holds a BFA and a MFA in photography from the San Francisco Art Institute. This will be her first solo exhibition.
Kevin Cooley presents photographs from the series "Night for Night." These photographs depict outdoor nighttime landscapes taken in close proximity to movie and television shoots (the series title is a term used in the film industry for shooting on location at night). The bright lights used in after hours production fill the night sky with an eerie, synthetic illumination. These images capture a gray area in which the fantasy and artifice of Hollywood overlaps with ordinary reality. Similar to Rettig, Cooley seeks to question what separates public from private domain, personal from shared experience, and examine the remnants of human action. Cooley lives in Brooklyn and holds a MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York. This will be Cooley's first solo exhibition. He will have a two-person show at Momenta, opening late November 2002.
hours: wednesday - sunday, 12-6 pm
White Columns
320 west 13th street
New York 10014
tel 212.924.4212
fax 212.645.4764