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30/1/2009

Running On Empty

Athica - Athens Institute for Contemporary Art, Athens

Curated By Bart King

Participating Artists

Featured Artist: Christoph Gielen from New York City / Bonn, Germany

Athens Academy SEEDs Club (Athens, GA), Bill Bahmermann (Philadelphia, PA), Stephen Barnwell (NY, NY), Morgan Craig (Philadelphia, PA), John English (Athens, GA), Jesse Epstein (NY, NY), Craig Fisher (Toledo, OH), Christoph Gielen (New York City/Bonn, Germany), Krysia Haag (Athens, GA), Isaac King (Toronto, ONT), Mindy Kober (Houston, TX), Terri Lindbloom (Tallahassee, FL), David Macaluso (Brooklyn, NY), Franklyn Peterson (Madison, WI), Sarah Nicole Phillips (Brooklyn, NY), Christopher Rose (Brooklyn, NY) and Holt Webb (Alpharetta, GA).

Athens Institute for Contemporary Art is pleased to announce our 30th exhibition, Running on Empty, an examination of fossil fuel dependence that runs from Saturday, January 31 through Sunday, March 22, 2009. The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said emissions of greenhouse gases--released when fossil fuels are burned--must peak and begin to decline within ten years if the planet is to avoid the worst effects of global climate change. Delegates from 186 countries around the world are currently engaged in precarious negotiations to craft an international treaty by the end of 2009 to make this happen. President-elect Obama says he is committed to taking international leadership on the issue, whereas the current administration has done nothing. And the American public finally seems to be waking up to this global threat, as evidenced by the popularity of recent films such as An Inconvenient Truth and Wall-E.

With this exhibit, ATHICA hopes to raise awareness of this critical issue. From apocalyptic images of a drowned planet to the promise of future energy sources, the Running on Empty artists address this pressing issue with passion, humor and urgency. Our featured artist is international photographer Christoph Gielen, whose aerial photography reveals hidden geometries in the sprawling subdivisions and spaghetti junctions that are partly responsible for the steep increase in greenhouse gas emissions over the last half-century. Their stunning compositions and intense details bring a concrete reality to the concepts of energy production and consumption. (www.christophgielen.com). ATHICA has been endeavoring to bring Mr Gielen’s work to Northeast Georgians for more than three years.

The exhibit, which includes photography, print, large-scale painting, mosaic, video, presents the work of 17 artists and groups, drawn from more than 50 submissions from across the U.S., South America, Europe and Asia. Athens’ artists include John English, Krysia Haag and the Athens Academy SEEDs club (led by local artist and teacher Lawerence Stueck), all of whom cast light on government policies and societal norms that have led to war in the Middle East and left the United States vulnerable to soaring gasoline prices. For instance Haag’s tile mosaic, Increase Efficiency—which she created expressly for this exhibit—combines a chart of peak-oil statistics with images of bike riders and electric trains, suggesting a future that need not be constrained by declining oil supplies.

Other pieces of interest include drawings by David Macaluso; with their elegant renderings of commodity prices, which are coated with used motor oil (www.davidmacaluso.com). In addition, four large-scale paintings by Morgan Craig depict wasteland scenes from shuttered coal plants (www.lawrenceasher.com/Craig.htm). A panoramic photograph of the Alaskan oil pipeline by Franklynn Peterson—a favorite artist from this Fall’s Overload exhibit—brings into focus this often-discussed infrastructure that few have actually laid eyes upon. And Craig Fisher’s intensely detailed print of a colossus monster made of cars combines the excitement of comic book illustration with the bite of political cartoons.

The exhibit opens with a reception on Saturday, January 31st from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Several exhibiting artists will be in attendance. A spate of affiliated events have been planned to supplement the exhibits' thematic concerns, which are listed at the top of this release. (Subsequent press releases will provide more details.) The generosity of local donors REM, Bertis & Katherine Downs, the Mayor’s Community Improvement Program Fund, Power Partners and the Habitat for Humanity REStore is making this exhibit possible. A donation from REM will allow ATHICA to replace its current lighting with efficient compact-florescent track-lighting bulbs, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of the gallery.

Athica - Athens Institute of Contemporary Art
160 Tracy Street - Athens
Gallery hours are: Thursdays: 6:00 - 9:00 p.m., Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays: 1:00 - 6:00 p.m. and by appointment.

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