calendario eventi  :: 

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16/5/2014

Four exhibitions

Santa Monica Museum of Art SMMoA, Santa Monica

Robert Swain: The Form of Color
May 17–Aug 23, 2014

Robert Swain: The Form of Color is an immersive, site-specific exhibition grounded by the artist’s forty-five years of research into the phenomenology of color. The Form of Color is Swain’s first solo museum exhibition in California, and is comprised of interlocking, modular paintings created specifically for the Museum and the quality of light in Santa Monica. Each composition is made up of individual twelve by twelve inch squares of color, and measures up to seventy feet in length. The result is an all-encompassing visual and physical encounter—a journey into the sublime.

Robert Swain has devoted a lifetime to the study of color, and inspired generations of color painters in the process. As a young artist in the 1960s, he was influenced by the chromatic and compositional strategies of Pierre Bonnard, Georges Seurat, and Paul Cezanne. Over the next four decades, Swain combined a modernist’s medium specificity with postmodern investments in both systems of knowledge and art as experience. The work on view at the Santa Monica Museum of Art is a massive network of pure paint, a comprehensive survey of the color system the artist began developing in 1973 with a research grant from the City University of New York. Swain’s color system is an index of 4,896 isolated chromatic units, along with accompanying records of their evocative properties. The multi-directional grids in The Form of Color, plotted according to value and saturation, are designed to intensify collisions and complements among hues and induce specific visceral responses. In Swain’s system, such responses take place when an individual pigment’s radiant energy—a factor of its wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum—is transferred to the viewer.

“Color,” says Swain, “is a form of energy that stimulates our perceptual processes and is instrumental in conveying emotions.” Viewers of Swain’s work experience color as an active perceptual process, an event that happens in real time. Like multi-colored test patterns used to calibrate projectors and printers, Swain’s paintings reset and rejuvenate the human mind, eye, and body. Considered head-on and at various angles, the squares dissolve into each other, betray their hard-edged boundaries, and curve away from the walls. They adjust to viewers’ locations and the time of day, alternately projecting and absorbing the natural light that floods the Museum. Robert Swain: The Form of Color transcends the precise system and decades of study informing it, providing a uniquely serene and spiritual experience for each individual viewer. For more information on the artist, please visit
robertswainnyc.com.

In conjunction with the opening reception for The Form of Color, the Santa Monica Museum of Art presents Color, Light, and Consciousness: A Conversation with Robert Swain, Executive Director Elsa Longhauser, and Curator Jeffrey Uslip from 4 to 5pm on Saturday, May 17.

Robert Swain: The Form of Color is guest curated by Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis’ Chief Curator Jeffrey Uslip.

About the Artist
Robert Swain was born in 1940 in Austin, Texas and lives and works in New York. He completed his education at the American University in Washington, D.C. in 1964. Since moving to New York City in 1965 he has exhibited regularly and participated in over ninety solo and group shows. He has been awarded ten major commissions and architectural installations and is the recipient of many prestigious awards and grants, including the grant in painting from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Distinguished Teaching of Art Award from the College Art Association. A total of 284 of his works can be found in major private and public collections such as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Denver Art Museum, the Detroit Institute of Art, the Everson Art Museum, the Columbus Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Milwaukee Art Center, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

About the Curator
Jeffrey Uslip was born in 1977 and lives and works in New York City. At SMMoA, he most recently organized Michael Queenland: Rudy’s Ramp of Remainders, Agnes Denes: Body Prints, Philosophical Drawings, and Map Projections, 1969 – 1978, Samira Yamin: We Will Not Fail, Joyce Pensato: I KILLED KENNY, Xylor Jane: Sea Legs, and Keltie Ferris: Doomsday Boogie. Uslip has also organized exhibitions for PS1/MoMA, New York; Artists Space, New York; Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, California State University, Los Angeles; and LA>
This exhibition has been made possible by the Pasadena Art Alliance, SMMoA’s Ambassador Circle, and Brenda R. Potter. Support has also been provided by the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

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Andrew Cannon: Chemical Computer
May 17–Jul 12, 2014

Andrew Cannon: Chemical Computer presents a body of work that locates new forms of abstract painting through an exploration of the novelty of illusion and the spectacle of the ornate. Cannon’s lustrous compositions reflect a multifaceted, process-based experimentation with materials more often associated with commercial packaging and display. Metallic foils, industrial adhesives, and automotive paint, are among many mediums used in intricate procedures of gilding and layering.

Constructed almost entirely on the floor and without paintbrushes, the paintings are the products of both improvisatory manipulation and technical craft. Marks made through pouring, fingerprinting, embossing, and baking, create dynamic topographies that embed surfaces with layers alternately opaque, translucent, and reflective. The phenomenological presence of the many processes active in these paintings recalls and questions the sensate history of abstraction while leaning into the physical trickery of Op art and holography.

Cannon’s dedication to the investigation of abstract painting is evident in the compositional and physical gravity of the works. Each painting is an autonomous visual equation that challenges the act of looking through physical phenomena. The paintings shift between complex insular systems and overtly patterned decoration—simultaneously invoking ideas of simulation, psychedelia, kitsch, handicraft, illusion, and solipsism that stand in and outside of the history of painting.

Chemical Computer is the artist’s first solo exhibition.

Andrew Cannon: Chemical Computer is organized by Laura Copelin for the Santa Monica Museum of Art.

About the Artist
Andrew Cannon was born in Redlands, California in 1988 and lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his BFA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2010 and was a student in The Mountain School of Arts in 2014. In 2013, Cannon and artist Ross Caliendo founded the gallery Secret Recipe in a garage in Echo Park, which features emerging artists in monthly, one-night-only exhibitions. Cannon recently published an interview with artist/holographer John Kaufman for The Vanity East, in addition to conducting workshops about lenticular printing for events at the Hammer Museum. His work has been included in group exhibitions across the city in galleries and artist-run spaces such as Dopps, Gallery 2A, Secret Recipe, Roberts and Tilton, Meadows Project House, and 3704 North Figueroa.

This exhibition has been made possible by SMMoA’s Ambassador Circle. Support has also been provided by the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

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Nonfictions: Jeremiah Day / Simone Forti / Fred Dewey
May 17–Aug 23, 2014

Nonfictions, part of a decade-long intergenerational and multidisciplinary project by Jeremiah Day, Simone Forti, and Fred Dewey, explores the intersection of day-to-day life and art. The exhibition includes a new video installation—the first by the trio—along with two live collaborations and an original publication. Day, Forti, and Dewey use dance, conversation, photography, improvisation, and activist modes of performance. Through art they embody experiences and events—a combination of facts and live response—to represent the interaction of personal, civic, and public life. Integral to their installation at SMMoA, the trio presents two live performances, on May 1 and May 3, prior to the exhibition’s Opening Reception on May 17.

The Santa Monica Museum of Art is pleased to present this historic iteration of Day, Forti, and Dewey’s ongoing public investigation of artistic collaboration and improvisation. Nonfictions affirms that we are all connected—in the present and through art—to the world, to our surroundings, and to each other.

Nonfictions: Jeremiah Day/Simone Forti/Fred Dewey is organized by Elsa Longhauser, Executive Director of the Santa Monica Museum of Art.

About the Artists

Jeremiah Day earned his BA from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1997 and attended the Rijksakademie in Holland beginning in 2003. He currently lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin. Day’s work interweaves photography, performance, and interventions in public space, with a focus on site, memory, and political history. His work has been shown at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Artist’s Space, New York. Day has published several artist’s books, including Portable Memorial.

Simone Forti is an internationally acclaimed dancer, choreographer, artist, and writer based in Los Angeles. She was a seminal figure in the Judson Dance Theater community that revolutionized dance in New York in the 1960s and ’70s. Forti has performed and taught in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, and South America. Her performances and artworks have been featured at prominent institutions around the world, including MoMA, New York; MOCA, Los Angeles; the Zentrum für Kunst and Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany; and the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria. Forti has collaborated with such luminaries as Robert Morris, Nam June Paik, Peter van Riper, Zev, Charlemagne Palestine, and Oguri. Her books include Handbook in Motion: an account of an ongoing personal discourse and its manifestations in dance, a poetry chapbook Angel, and Oh, Tongue, a collection of her news animations, writings, and drawings. In 2011 she received the prestigious Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award in the Arts.

Fred Dewey is a writer, teacher, editor, and public space activist based in Los Angeles and Berlin. He directed Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center, in Venice, CA from 1995 to 2009, where he organized festivals, hosted and presented public programs, curated public art projects, and edited, designed, and published numerous books and anthologies. Dewey co-founded the Neighborhood Councils Movement, which helped to secure neighborhood councils in the 1999 Los Angeles City Charter. In Berlin, since 2011, Dewey has led a free, public seminar on the works of Hannah Arendt and her German and American influences. Dewey’s most recent publications include a contribution to The Lowndes County Idea, a pamphlet by Jeremiah Day; a pamphlet titled A Polis for New Conditions; and The School of Public Life (doormats/errant bodies), a new book exploring the renewal of public life through politics and culture in Los Angeles, the United States, and beyond.

This exhibition has been made possible by SMMoA’s Ambassador Circle. Support has also been provided by the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

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Park Studio: Tree House
May 17–Oct 5, 2014

Park Studio: Tree House is a public art installation and program series produced through the Museum’s spring break art program for teens. The Tree House is a groundbreaking project that combines art, architecture, and a site for education. It was designed by architecture collective Knowhow Shop and built by a team of students from local high schools. Park Studio: Tree House will feature numerous free programs including: an artist residency with the Llano Del Rio Collective; screenings; performances; and teen workshops with creative professionals from GOOD Magazine, Hedley & Bennett, Dublab, and Deutsch Inc.

The Tree House is located in a thirty-by-thirty foot green space with six palm trees, in the center of the Bergamot Station Arts Center parking lot. Over two dozen students worked with Knowhow Shop’s Kagan Taylor and Justin Rice to build the structure during their 2014 spring break. Each iteration of Park Studio, an annual SMMoA education program, culminates with a public exhibition of student artwork on-site at SMMoA.

Park Studio: Tree House public programs running throughout the summer of 2014 were conceived by students, artists, and organizations in partnership with SMMoA. The teen workshop series from April 15 through 17, during SMMUSD and LAUSD spring break, consists of lunchtime discussions and activities with visionaries from the fields of design, publishing, and branding—all concepts relating to outreach and engagement in the 21st century. Summer public programs include a double-feature screening of The Source Family and Dear Comrade hosted by the Llano del Rio Collective; and a workshop on DJ basics hosted by Dublab; and many more. Click here to see upcoming programs in the Tree House.

About Park Studio
Each Park Studio program pairs teens with accomplished artists and designers. Together they produce a public project relating to art and urban life. Past Park Studio artists include: Robbie Conal; Gajin Fujita; GRONK; Homeboy Industries; Arts Refoundry; Watts Labor Community Action Committee; HIT+RUN; Center for the Study of Political Graphics; Tim Rollins; and Francois Perrin, Dante Cacace, and Gil Le Bon Delapointe. High school participants, ages 14-19 years old, come from demographically diverse areas of Santa Monica. Recruitment is conducted through Virginia Avenue Park’s Teen Center, Santa Monica High School, Olympic High School, and the Police Activities League (PAL).

About Knowhow Shop
Knowhow Shop is a collaboration between Kagan Taylor and Justin Rice, both graduates of UCLA A.UD Masters in Architecture I program. Knowhow Shop was started as an extension of their shared interests in traditional craft, digital fabrication, education, and a commitment to contemporary architectural design. Knowhow Shop is a design/build studio, laboratory for material exploration, a classroom for digital and traditional craft, and a community space for strange and imaginative happenings. In their own architectural and design work, Taylor and Rice approach projects with a craftsperson’s sensitivity, genuine good humor, and a feral strangeness combined with a belief that what they make can redirect the discipline from the hyper-digital to a real-surreal. Visit knowhowshopla.tumblr.com for more information.

Student Participants: Kaitlin Alfaro, Hunter Buckhorn, Zahari Dimitrov, Mina Dimitrova, Julio Escarce, Kathrine Gallegos, Sophia Grecco, Bradley Hijar, Amy Juarez, Chih Yu Lee, Ryan Lee, Mark Marin, Amayrany Mendoza, Kira Oikawa-Clark, Samuel Teleki, Sandor Teleki, Jordan Vazquez, and Jared Velázquez

Park Studio: Tree House is organized by Asuka Hisa, Director of Education and Public Programs at SMMoA.

Support for Park Studio has been generously provided by the Eileen Harris Norton Foundation, the Barnwood Foundation, the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, Southern California Edison, the Whittagy Fund at the California Community Foundation, and Kayne Capital Advisors Foundation. This program was made possible in part by a grant from the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission.

In-kind support was provided by Dr. Patricia Anawalt and Anawalt Lumber as well as Bergamot Café. Special thanks to Virginia Avenue Park, the VAP Teen Center, the Knowhow Shop, Ellen Bennett, Casey Caplowe, the Llano del Rio Collective, Deutsch Inc, and Dublab.

Image: Fred Dewey, Simone Forti, Jeremiah Day, Newsanimations (2012), Performance at errant bodies in Berlin, Photo by Michael Schultze, Courtesy of the Artists

For further information about the exhibition or to schedule interviews, please contact Lynda Dorf at lynda.dorf@smmoa.org or (424) 645-4620.

Public Opening: SMMoA’s Summer Exhibitions Saturday, May 17
Members’ Reception: 3 to 4 pm
Public Reception: 4 to 6 pm

Santa Monica Museum of Art
Bergamot Station G1, 2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Open
Tuesday through Saturday, 11 am – 6 pm
Closed
Sunday, Monday, and all legal holidays
Closed for installation between exhibitions.
Admission
Suggested Donation:
$5 General Admission
$3 Artists, Students, Seniors
FREE for SMMoA members

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