Criticism Seminar (Gerard's Section)

Hi all. I wanted to invite you to eavesdrop on my section of Criticism Seminar by visiting the blog we've set up. Here's a link, and I'll put one to the sidebar of the site. On the Criticism blog, you'll find links to many of the students in the program.

Hope your summer is off to a good start.

UArts Alumna called 'lowbrow' in review!

Congrats to UArts MFA Deb Yarrington, who forwarded news from Workhouse Arts Center, that included a photo of her and recent work. You can read the glowing article here. What are y'all up to, anyway?!?

Gettin' the work out there

Okay, you missed auditions for Work of Art, but there's still time to make the deadline for Vox Populi's 6th jureid exhibit, cleverly titled...(wait for it) Vox VI.

Follow this link to post your work for on-line judging. May you not be found wanting.

Hey, good news from the College Art Association!

Thought some of you might be interested in this...

At its meeting on May 2, 2010, the CAA Board of Directors voted to restore several important programs for the next fiscal year, beginning July 1. After a year of conservative budgeting in response to the economic downturn, the board eased financial constraints on the following programs that benefit CAA members.

Below are the highlights; see http://bit.ly/9I8bFP for full details.

Fellowships to MFA students
In 2010, CAA will award five Professional Development Fellowships in the Visual Arts of $5,000 each to outstanding students who will receive MFA degrees in calendar year 2011. CAA hopes that Professional Development Fellowships in Art History can again be awarded to doctoral candidates in 2011.

Art writing grant(s) that support individual projects

2010 GRANT APPLICATION NOW OPEN
Application Deadline — Monday, June 7, 2010

The Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program supports individual writers whose work addresses contemporary visual art through grants in the following categories:

• Articles
• Blogs
• Books
• New and Alternative Media
• Short-Form Writing

Grants range from $3,000 to $50,000 depending on the needs and scope of the project.
Designed to encourage and reward writing about contemporary art that is rigorous, passionate, eloquent and precise, as well as to create a broader audience for arts writing, the Arts Writers Grant Program aims to strengthen the field as a whole and to ensure that critical writing remains a valued mode of engaging the visual arts.

here are the guidelines

Space Program

Hi all - I wanted to give you a heads-up about studio space that's available in Philadelphia.

If you've not been to Art Making Machine Studios (3000 N. Hope Street in Philadelphia) you might want to check them out. They have shared wood and metal shop facilities, wi-fi, a kitchen, and other swanky amenities. You might want to check it out, and you can by sending an email to them.

NCECA: Jun Kaneko Lecture

Antonio Fink: NCECA 2010

The Haverford School
Centennial Hall Gallery, 450 Lancaster Avenue, Haverford, PA
610-642-3020

Antonio Fink 2010 Tiles
Antonio Fink's first tile exhibition took place in May of 1997 at the Clay Studio in Philadelphia. Since then, Fink has developed his tile technique, as well as his depictions of the human face, and figure. The visual impact of these tiles are a conglomerate of influences from Jose Clemente Orozco, Frank Stella, Bellows, Viola Frey Picasso and Matisse, to name a few. This exhibition features contructivist, high relief tiles that are full of color and reflections on contemporary life.
Mar 28-Apr 30. Sun-Sat 11:00am-7:00pm. Reception Apr 2, 6:00-9:00pm

Terri Saulin: NCECA Exhibitions 2010

Hello All,
Happy Spring!
I am hoping to see you at this year's NCECA festivities.
Perhaps you may be able to catch one of the two shows in which I will be participating.
Nancy Agati is also participating in "6-III."
Here's a Link to NCECA.
There is great work this year.
Hope you get to see it!
Warm regards,
Terri

Art21 wants to hear from YOU

Got a story to tell about graduate school? There's a really cool opportunity to get it out there through the Art21 Blog's new Open Enrollment column.

It would be so great for students in the UArts program to participate in this because your graduate experience is a unique mix of independence and community. I hope you'll contact them (the deadline is March 5), and that I'll see your blog posts soon...

Best ~gerard

Swoon in North Philly

Swoon, has made her way to the streets of North Philadelphia to participate in Philagrafika 2010, a citywide festival celebrating the role of print in contemporary artistic practice.
Check out:
ROBOTS WILL KILL

Miss Martha Graham Cracker

Hello All,
This Friday, 1/29/10 is Pig Iron Theater's Annual Benefit Show.
Come and see Miss Martha and a slew of others perform.
Hams Across America will take place at the Trocadero Theater, 1003 Arch St. in Phila.
7pm - ?
Go here for more info!!!

And now for Joanna Platt's...

More thesis fun and games. JoannaPlattThesis_2_.pdf

Karen Topping's Thesis

Here is a link to Karen's thesis.

Tiernan's Thesis

If you would like to know what's going on in my work, what's up with all the hair, and what I would look like if my head was cut off and then ritually shrunken by the Shuar people of Ecuador, read my thesis! Tiernan_Alexander_Thesis_Final.pdf. Feel free to comment.

www.incca.org is a great resource to know about - that I stumbled on 1-2 years ago researching how to document video installations. Even if they are in the Netherlands, they pretty much do everything in English.

They are doing a call for posters addressing 'best practices' conservation and installation of contemporary art for their annual conference Contemporary Art: Who Cares? More info and links below if you are design inclined.

What is INCCA?

INCCA is a network of professionals connected to the conservation of modern and contemporary art. Conservators, curators, scientists, registrars, archivists, art historians and researchers are among its members. Members allow access to each others unpublished information (artist interviews, condition reports, installation instructions etc) through the INCCA Database for Artists' Archives.


I would like to draw your attention to the Call for Posters from the International symposium Contemporary Art: Who Cares? For details and to download a poster application form please go to: http://www.incca.org/cawc-callforposters

Hey ya'll this is a call for Art (and papers-if so inclined). I was on a panel at the 2008 conference - it was blast and happens during art week in NYC. Its not really a 'show' - but they screened some of my work and with the theme of collective - who knows what you could propose.... I met some slammin' smart people there that are still really supportive of my work. Give it a try - submission due in January.

Stony Brook Art & Philosophy conference Theme for 2010 - Collectives!

As collectives arise and disperse, we often find ourselves with a dearth of criteria by which to judge their success and viability. This conference will investigate the forms, motivations, methods, justifications, and consequences of persons and things acting collectively. We encourage submissions from across the artistic and theoretical disciplines that approach these themes from practical and theoretical perspectives. Projects may be collaborative in nature, and may examine the collective as an entity or activity.

Everything you need to know here: Stony Brook 2010 Philosophy And Art Conference

The seminal candy work circa 2008 premieres in DC. Wish me luck. Thanks-Karen



District of Columbia Arts Center
2438 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009

www.dcartscenter.org
202-462-7833

October 16 - November 15
Opening Reception: October 16, 7-9pm
Curated by Lea-Ann Bigelow and Blair Murphy

Featuring work by Deborah Carroll Anzinger, Peter Gordon, Michael Matason, Lisa McCarty, Kathryn McDonnell, Karen Joan Topping and Jenny Walton

In a show of new work, DCAC’s resident collective explores the artistic process as a mode of inquiry, a space of exploration focused less on the production of definitive answers than on the acknowledgment and negotiation of paradoxes and contradictions.

Terri Saulin: Lines of Flight

September 17 to October 20, 2009

Opening Reception: Thursday, September 17, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Artist talk begins at 7:15 p.m.

Flipping, deleting, expanding, speeding up, slowing down, layering and distilling visual material into art pieces, Terri Saulin creates artwork organic in nature and layered with meaning. Her interest in biology, botany, classical music, geology, and gastronomy are evident in every nook and crevice of her densely textured ceramic pieces. Although her process begins in sculpture, it develops into drawing (a backward play on the traditional preliminary sketch to final sculpture). Drawings and plaster prints, supplemented by their ceramic references will be exhibited in Lines of Flight.

Finlandia University
601 Quincy Street
Hancock, MI 49930
carrie.flaspohler@finlandia.edu

FOOD FOR THOUGHT LECTURE SERIES

The University of the Arts’ MFA Program in Ceramics, Painting and Sculpture announces the 15th Annual Summer Lecture Series featuring noted visiting artists and critics. This year’s initial lecture will be held at 6pm on Friday, June 12th. All other

Host:	University of the Arts, MFA Ceramics, Painting, Sculpture
Type:	Education - Lecture
Network:	Global

Start Time:	Friday, June 12, 2009 at 6:00pm
End Time:	Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 9:00am
Location:	CBS AUDITORIUM, UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS, HAMILTON HALL
Street:	320 S. BROAD STREET
City/Town:	Philadelphia, Jordan

Phone:	2157176489
Email:	JSHANKER@UARTS.EDU

SUSAN STEWART FRIDAY JUNE 12, 6PM
Susan Stewart is a poet and critic who has authored several books of essays on art, aesthetics and poetry including: The Open Studio: Essays in Art and Aesthetics, (2004). Poetry and the Fate of the Senses (2002); Crimes of Writing: Problems in the Containment of Representation (1991); Nonsense (1989); and On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection (1984).

Her honors include a Lila Wallace Individual Writer's Award, two grants in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Pew Fellowship for the Arts, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. She was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2005. Stewart is currently Professor of English at Princeton University where she teaches the history of poetry and aesthetics.

PETER KRASHES WEDNESDAY JUNE 24, 9AM
Four years ago, Peter Krashes’ work shifted away from the magnificently painted series of distorted, liquid images that he had been exhibiting. Developers were given permission to exercise eminent domain to build a stadium in his Brooklyn neighborhood, threatening the community. He took on: “…life as a community organizer with a work practice as an artist that embraces my efforts outside of the studio... Put simply, I play a role in shaping what I paint before I paint it. A letter in my work is a letter that needed to be sent, a meeting is a meeting I helped to organize… As a result, the paintings are the last step in a process I have been engaged with from beginning to end….The imperatives I feel outside the studio are explicit so the outcome in the studio is particular and linked to the real world.”

CORIN HEWITT WEDNESDAY JULY 1, 9AM
In his recent performance/installation at the Whitney, Corin Hewitt turned the museum’s Lobby Gallery into a semi-private theatrical photo studio that he worked in 3 days a week. Equipped with food, shop tools, kitchen appliances, art supplies, photo and office equipment, Hewitt explored a range of material processes through “cooking,
sculpting, heating and cooling, casting, canning, eating, and photographing of both organic and inorganic materials” creating a body of 71 photographs over the three month period.

NICOLE CHERUBINI WEDNESDAY JULY 15, 9AM
In an essay by Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio for the exhibition One Part Clay, Nicole Cherubini’s work is referred to as “…not polite”, saying: “It is in its way anti-pottery, anti-craft and anticonventional beauty. She is an artist working outside the usual expectations of ceramics. The bridge between art and the design-look is missing. The work is still primarily clay albeit playing host to a wide array of other, mostly found, materials. Her craft is determinedly without finesse, cherishing its inelegance like a clunky badge of honor, but it is not without intelligence. She knows what she is doing and what disturbances she wants to create and just how far off balance she wants to keep the viewer.”

KRISTIN JONES WEDNESDAY JULY 22, 9AM
Kristin Jones’ most recent project, Tevereterno (Eternal Tiber), has been working toward revitalizing Rome’s river by transforming it into a site for the cultural life in the city. “Here innovative contemporary work will bring the river to life by drawing the public to a new experience of the Tiber. The evolving program invites international artists to create proposals for site-specific, multi-disciplinary installations inspired by the river.”. Tevereterno is a solo project by Jones, who has also worked collaboratively for years with Andrew Ginzel. A statement made about their collaborative work applies to this solo project as well: “A fundamental sense of wonder at the perception of time and the natural world motivates us to construct contemplative work aimed at magnifying a sense of place and present.”

LISA SANDITZ WEDNESDAY JULY 29, 9AM
Living in upstate NY, single industry cities (Tannersville, Gloversville, etc) caught Lisa Sanditz’ attention. Her most recent paintings are based on single-commodity towns that she visited in China. In a TimeOut New York review, T.J. Carlin wrote: “Sanditz’s work is undeniably crowd-pleasing in its brilliant use of color, and she has a great excuse for this beauty: It’s the double-edged sword that forces us to balance our enjoyment of these scenes with our understanding that they represent our exploitation of the developing world. Such compositions as Oil Painting Village, which subtly probes the idea of art as another item in a production line, inject a sense of self-deprecating humor. It’s refreshing to see work that’s at once a truly aesthetic experience and a political statement.”

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

mmm mmm. you may have already seen this on the art blog today. I thought this was just too important and user friendly not to share again. My other alma mater, The American University's Center for Social Media breaks down fair use into a mash up all its own. Go here for the written guide in simple people words, sure to become a favorite...

Printmaking Without A Press with Shelley Thorstensen July 10, 17, 24 & 31

THE PRINTMAKING COUNCIL OF NEW JERSEY

SUMMER WORKSHOPS

Printmaking Without A Press

with Shelley Thorstensen

July 10, 17, 24 & 31

Friday, July 10, 10am-4pm

Don’t Even Call this Rubber Stamp: Relief Print and Frottage

Beginner - Learn to carve big and small relief prints free hand or from transferred photographs. We'll use easy-to-cut rubber stamp material that works on paper and/or fabric, with oil or water based inks. Techniques include making repeat patterns for fabric, thin or thick paper. Use them to chine collé into prints, collage into works on paper, and/or integrate them into book arts. Learn a surprisingly simple way to use offset techniques to print onto 3 D surfaces. Pre-carved mirror image blocks made by artists will be available for you to use to make repeat patterns and background materials. Bring sketches, ideas and photographs to photocopy; carve and print; and bring home blocks you've carved to keep printing and creating. Advanced students can create multiple blocks to make Chiaroscuro Relief Prints, or CMYK registration techniques. Students will leave with at least 2 carvings printed relief, repeat and frottage on lots of papers and variations. Fees: $ 100 members/$120 non-members. Materials: $15. Register on-line at www.printnj.org.

Friday, July 17, 10am-4pm

The Gelatin Print Extravaganza

Beginner - Gelatin printing is a form of edition and monoprinting. You'll use gelatin plates with water-based mediums. The process is like magic - simple and versatile and is equally well suited for professional printmakers, professional artists, and those wishing to expand their artistic vocabulary. The basic materials are non-toxic and clean up with water. We'll supply the gelatin plates on trays (print size 12" x 14"), you bring brushes, water-based mediums. We can send you a list of the best kinds – but everything works! Mostly, bring your imagination and be prepared to have fun and make gorgeous prints. Collage, stamping, stencils, overprinting – the possibilities are close to endless. Permanent results, perfect for archival printmaking papers. Advanced – Now you know how! Create and/or refine or work with editioning possibilities. Email Shelley and she’ll work with you to set up what you need. Students will leave with many gelatin prints on paper. Fees: $ 100 members/$120 non-members. Materials: $15. Register on-line at www.printnj.org.

Friday, July 24, 10am-4pm

The Definitive Plaster Print

Beginner - Any etching technique can be printed in plaster – as a way to proof prints; as a step to continue into the work with paint and pencils; to carve into the plaster; or as a beautiful plaster print (an end in itself). We'll work small (about 10" x 10") but size does not have to be a limitation with this process - with little artistic engineering. There will be examples and ideas on how to make very large plaster prints. We'll make easy-to-understand plaster prints and see how all etching techniques can be used to make these prints, including drypoint on plexi or metal, and etched and relief plates of all kinds. Bring small plates to print, or we'll supply the basic ingredients for plexi drypoint that can be printed many ways including using surface rolls, selective wiping, stencils, and even chine collé with paper. Advanced – Learn ways to make bigger and lighter stretched prints, and use additive techniques. Email Shelley and she’ll work with you to set up what you need. Fees: $ 100 members/$120 non-members. Materials: $15. Register on-line at www.printnj.org.

Friday, July 31, 10am-4pm

Painting for Printmakers (It’s Inside Out!): The Cast Acrylic Print

Beginner - Paint and scribe into the surface of the plate with acrylic paint. Once it’s quickly dry, it is backed with adhesive materials and can be transferred to paper, fabric or plaster. This technique allows for the inclusion within a single image, of other media (wet or dry) such as paper, fabric, dry acrylic elements, watercolor, waterbase crayons, pencils, felt pens, waterbase inks, water mixable oil paints, oil pastels and oil paint sticks because of the bonding ability ties of acrylics. It is equally useful for handpainting, collage (cut them up and re-group them!), stencils and monoprinting. Use all the techniques you've learned in the past weeks or start fresh with acrylic paint. Advanced – Learn the process using etching plates. Fees: $ 100 members/$120 non-members. Materials: $10. Register on-line www.printnj.org.

440 RIVER ROAD<SOMERVILLE, NJ 08876<908-725-2110<WWW.PRINTNJ.ORG

THE PRINTMAKING COUNCIL OF NEW JERSEY

REGISTRATION FORM

Printmaking Without A Press

with Shelley Thorstensen

July 10, 17, 24 & 31, 2009

Shelley Thorstensen is an artist/printmaker living and working in Philadelphia. She has an MFA in Printmaking from Tyler School of Art and a BFA from Syracuse University in Experimental Studios. Recent solo exhibitions include The Preponderance of Evidence, at The Print Center in Philadelphia and Houghton College, Buffalo. Group exhibitions include Intaglio a go go, Etching Moves Forward, curated by Ron Rumford at the Print and Picture Collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Synesthesia, curated by Annabelle Rodriguez at The Painted Bride in Philadelphia and Four Plus One at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester NY. Shelley has taught many places such as Rutgers Mason Gross, Moore College of Art, Minneapolis College of Art, Tyler School of Art, and Women’s Studio Workshop. Shelley Thorstensen is represented by Dolan/Maxwell Gallery, www.dolanmaxwell.com.

To register for workshops, please print this form and mail to: PCNJ, 440 River Rd, Somerville, NJ 08876. Class size is limited, so please register early!

Name_____________________________________________________________________

Address___________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

Phone_______________________________, Email________________________________

Please register me for the following workshops:

 Friday, July 10, Don’t Even Call this Rubber Stamp: Relief Print and Frottage

 Friday, July 17, The Gelatin Print Extravaganza

 Friday, July 24, The Definitive Plaster Print

 Friday, July 31, Painting for Printmakers (It’s Inside Out!): The Cast Acrylic Print

Check one: Member__, Non-Member__, Would you like to become a member? Yes , No 

Membership Fees:

____ Individual $ 35 ____ Sustainer $100

____ Family $ 50 ____ Senior/Student $ 25

Workshop Tuition $__________________

Materials Fee $__________________

Membership $__________________

Total $__________________

Check Enclosed Yes , No or Charge my Visa or MasterCard (circle one)

Number__________________________________Expiration Date___________

Signature_________________________________________

440 RIVER ROAD<SOMERVILLE, NJ 08876<908-725-2110<WWW.PRINTNJ.ORG



Shelley Thorstensen
120 W Lancaster Pike
Oxford PA 19363
(609) 932 6475
jane_doe_press@yahoo.com
portfolio:www.dolanmaxwell.com

Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Accepting Applications

holycreamoly - another crazy amazing arts writing grant op - you know who you are -
Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Accepting Applications

The Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant provides project grants to individual authors whose work addresses contemporary visual art. The program is spearheaded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts as part of its broader Arts Writing Initiative and is administered by the Creative Capital Foundation.

The Arts Writers Grant Program issues awards for books, articles, short-form writing, blogs, and new and alternative media projects. The program aims to support the broad spectrum of writing on contemporary visual art from general-audience criticism to academic scholarship.

Only individuals are eligible for a grant. Applicants must be an art historian, artist, critic, curator, journalist, or practitioner in an outside field strongly engaged with the contemporary visual arts. Nominees must also be at least 25 years of age and be a published author (specific publication requirements vary depending on project type).

Applicants are not eligible if applying on behalf of an organization or for a project in which his/her primary involvement will be as an editor. Full-time students in degree-granting programs (with the exception of those students who are simultaneously maintaining professional careers as arts writers) are not eligible.

The program supports approximately twenty to twenty-five projects a year. Grant amounts range from $3,000 to $50,000 each, depending on the scope and complexity of the project.

Visit the program's Web site for project-specific requirements and application procedures.



http://www.artswriters.org/guidelines.php



http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/rfp/rfp_item.jhtml?id=250900025

Fear(s) of the Dark

This film is a Blockbuster exclusive. If there's one near you, make sure to rent it.

The disparity between great art and bad art is ridiculous. In the world of bad art, an amazing film like Fear(s) of the Dark doesn't seem possible. In the world of good art, Paul Blart: Mall Cop doesn't seem possible. One of them is bluffing.

What about art criticism?

I thought y'all might be interested in the April 23 Junto hosted by P'unk Ave, whose website promises "a discursive discussion, beer". In addition to the beer and discursiveness, you can hear from Sid Sachs, Roberta Fallon and Libby Rosof, Katie Murken, and Andrew Suggs about art criticism. Yeah, art criticism!

Hope to see you there ~gerard

holy moly

As much as possible given the time and space allotted. from Galerie Leonard & Bina Ellen on Vimeo.

OK - I seriously do not know what to think about this...as someone who has worked behind the scenes in museums, (in the collective I work with in DC - DCAC's Sparkplug more than a 1/3 of us have 'done time' in museums as I know 1-2 of you in SUMFA do now). This is a painter-centric type of rant - which is a little funny coming from me - but here it goes...

I have seen 'the stacks' and know the beautiful collisions that can happen on those racks where items are put together solely based on available space-like a little Daumier painting ending up next to a big Bonnard, where proximity creates affinity. Dollars to donuts that's the kind of thing you'd have to travel through space and time to actually see hung up in a museum - unlikely matches happen, but rarely.

It also struck me that this show looks a lot like the proverbial mid-century SOHO painters loft (Alice Neel's is infamously described in my circle of education) where finished paintings line every available space not needed for walking or working. This kind of chaos is often where us 'art professionals' work - why not drive that point home to the pedestrian public?

Well frankly, because when I see it on 'tv' I realize how freaking insane it looks - how does clearness of message arise out of this horror vacui?

Well brother - it just does. Contemplate that.

Make Sense

Before the Internet, when texts were confined to publications or notebooks, they were solid (or at least encased). They had a place, a center, and their meaning was partly derived from their participation in objecthood. They had to be copied, printed, and passed around from hand to hand. One could trace their history and track their movement.

These days, however, texts are like water. They spill and run through the infinity of cyberspace, being absorbed into everything or evaporating before you know it. As a writer, I’m almost afraid—better yet--embarrassed, to pour. Without cups to catch and hold them, texts just slip through our hands into the abyss.

Better to be a visual artist then! The problem discussed above is of no concern to the painter or the sculptor (we’ll suspend consideration of the photographer) since we deal in objects. A word is a word whether it’s in a book or on the Internet. But a painting on the computer screen is not a painting. It’s a picture of a painting and it doesn’t come close to recreating the experience of an actual painting. One can only judge the size of a painting relative to his or her height and one can only examine the thickness of the paint by viewing it from all sides. To see a large painting in person is to enter it; to see one on the Internet is only to catch a whiff.

At a time when the Internet is swallowing all—newspapers, books, the mail—it can’t touch art objects. Going to a gallery cannot be replaced by browsing the web. If someone makes a drawing, there’s still a delay between its construction and its public presentation unlike blogs, which can be “published” immediately upon completion by anyone, anywhere. The gallery system continues to function as the publication industry did before the Internet. It decides who’s in and who’s out, acting as a necessary filter to retain the value of the goods.

Make an object and be proud! That object holds a significance that exists in no other place. By locating meaning, you are making sense in a world that desperately needs some.

Elsewhere Artist Collaborative



WOW - this gem was brought to me by my BF listserve - artinfobank - so brilliant - residencies in a former thriftstore that was never cleaned out - a shangrila of stuff to make art with - I can hear your 'mouths' watering - xo Karen

Residencies at Elsewhere

Elsewhere’s dynamic architectures and the immense 58-year collection of American cultural objects (thousands of toys, books, periodicals, clothing, fabric, games, trinkets, bric-a-brac, furniture, antiques, army surplus, and historical documents) housed on-site serve as a resource for the cultivation of new creative processes and the creation of new works.

Elsewhere’s residency program invites emerging and established artists and scholars to create site-specific works using the plethora of objects and dynamic spaces as materials for works or as a foundation for conceptual or technological projects. Residents launch projects from within the theoretical framework of an evolving exhibition of objects and artworks across media, composing an experimental museum rethinking the premise of the collector and collection, questions of history and myth, the stasis of the art object, the role of the artist, and the relationship of process within production.

Elsewhere offers a dynamic alternative to the museum and gallery spaces and traditional residency formats. Artists find Elsewhere residencies to be intensive, conceptually challenging, and highly playful. Working within transforming installations, artists engage interactive environments as platforms for conceptualizing their practices. An Elsewhere residency becomes an ongoing artistic happening formed by an evolving dialogue that explores responsive artistic practices as a means of communication within an artist community. While artists are given control over their individual work for the time of their stay, artists collaboratively build upon others’ visions in response to the developing installation. The opportunity to build alongside, work with, or even transform past artists’ work yields layered histories of experimentation, communication, and art production that resituates the creative possibilities for the museum-as-medium.

While all work produced with Elsewhere’s objects stays within the space (works in reproducible media are shared with Elsewhere and curated within the environment), artists have the opportunity to expand and apply their body of work on an unprecedented scope and scale while furthering the development of a collaboratively built museum. Elsewhere’s collaborative framework cultivates continued feedback and response throughout the creative process from the directors and other artists. Interns and production staff assist artists with documentation, creation and curation.

Residents are encouraged to spend one month creating in the space. No proposals are requested. Instead, we ask artists to draw their ideas from the space itself, its resources, and the multiplicity of systematic arrangements and performative organizations that interweave resource, artwork, and collaborative artistic response.

Residents pay a $200 residency fee and $50 deposit to hold space upon acceptance of invitation. Residents are required to fund their own travel, although Elsewhere, as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, can assist artists with granting opportunities. Collaborative or collective groups are encouraged to apply. Shorter residencies and student-residencies are available.

The application requires a written portion including a written application, resume/CV, digital work samples, and a phone interview.

Eileen at the Locks Gallery

Try to make it out for Eileen's opening at the Locks Gallery this Friday...

http://www.locksgallery.com/exhibit/2009/neff/neff09.html

Self Exposed

Mike liked to sketch faces. His drawings were similar to this Cezanne sketch:

(picture used with the courtesy of http://www.jamesharrisgallery.com/Previous%20Exhibitions/junctions.htm)

However, during a trip to NYC, Mike's world was rocked by Kwang-Young Chun's Aggregations (pictured below):

Afterwards, he abandoned his face studies and dedicated himself to exploring the sculptural potential of paper (a practice related to but not the same as Chun's).

Does this mean that Mike's facial explorations through drawing were insincere (because he dropped them at the first sight of something cooler) or that Mike's facial explorations were sincere but Chun's work opened a new creative path in Mike's mind that was more "authentically representative" of his creative self than his sketches?

Of course, one would actually have to know Mike to answer this question but I propose it because it gets one thinking about the recurring proposition: How does an artist stay true to herself? This inquiry relies on many assumptions, one being that there is a "true self" and another: that the potential for singular and honest artistic expression exists in each artist.

Cultural critic Lionel Trilling recounts J. J. Rousseau's ideas of how the pure self becomes corrupt in his 1972 book Sincerity and Authenticity:

The individual who lives in an urban setting is subject to the constant influence, the literal in-flowing of the mental processes of others, which, in the degree that they stimulate or enlarge his consciousness, make it less his own. He finds it ever more difficult to know what his own self is and what being true to it consists of...Rousseau's "savage" lives within himself--proof of perfect autonomy.

The biggest problem with this line of thinking is that ignorance then becomes the goal. Hiding from new information is the cure for the disintegration of the self. When one thinks about it, this logic is absurd because from the moment of birth one is subject to an "in-flowing" of information that is not one's own. Only an impossible, abstract version of a horrible person who couldn't absorb any information could be the ideal pure self.

My interest here isn't to make people defiant of cultural refinement. I'm not saying "Don't look at other people's art, be true to your self," but rather focus on the gate. What's in your garden? What's outside of it? Where did the stuff that's in come from? Why do you keep other stuff out? Are you conscious of what is in and is out? How much so?

Let's say that Mike's facial studies were beget from the habitual drawing of the human form in a drawing class rather than a pure fascination with the subtle movements of a smile. This state is less sincere than that of Jennifer's, who was hypnotized by the peculiarities of the mouth and thought that drawing was the best medium to examine this phenomena.

The core of this thought process is actual interest vs. simulated interest. When I was a child, I liked sports because my dad did. I simulated his interest. However, as I got older, I developed a love for the passion and dizzying movement involved in the game. My simulated interest progressed into an actual interest.

Maybe Mike's interest in the face was only simulated and Chun's work opened a path that began as simulated but will evolve into actual.

Here, I have to keep the internal/external dichotomy of the self in mind. What portion of our interests are for ourselves and what portion are for society?

Trilling mentions Alex de Tocqueville's assessment of America in the 1800's. He said:

The democratic dispensation required [Americans] to shape their speech not by the standards of a particular class or circle but by their sense of the opinion of the public...[This] democratic style doesn't signify an absence of sincerity; it does however, indicate that the personal self to which the American would wish to be true is not the private, sold intractable self of the Englishman...[This] American self can be taken to be a microcosm of American society...

This passage describes an open self, one that is simultaneously sincere (as in true) and general. But if the self is general, how can it exist? If the American self is one shaped on the public, then the public, as being the whole, consumes the self. Logically, this leads to all being the same. Of course, us being singular entities, we are physically separate. And our placement and filters distort our in-flow, causing default peculiarities.

Therefore, the artist's job is to seek and identify these default peculiarities, these variables we've been dealt, and see how they shape the world distinctly from one's vantage point (if the goal is unique, honest expression). I watch South Park (general sameness), but I watch it from Williamsport, PA (default distinction) and see it as related to my locale and my experiences.

Mike should be conscious of the fact that his new interest in paper came from Chun and that perhaps he's currently mimicking Chun's interest for the sake of Aesthetic pop. But he should also make sure that his interest in paper and his future direction with paper is not defined by Chun's. If it is, it can't help but be false. He must discover aspects of paper that are colored by his experiences; ones that make a favorable impression on him because he's him.

Chun's interest in mulberry paper came from his Korean's cultures traditional use of mulberry paper. Mike unconsciously cut up paper while he was bored in class in high school. This can be claimed as an honest interest due to a past experience. If he explores paper in that context by making tiny notebook paper sculptures, he's being true to himself. This would then be a synthesis of an inner interest combined with an external stimulant to form a particular, honest path. If others have cut up notebook paper to make sculptures in exactly the same way as Mike, it's a victory for the innate generality of the self caused by common experience, but it's sincere.

Art Lies!

The following is a link to an art magazine's website...

http://www.artlies.org/index.php

The quarterly is called ART LIES! I've only read a few articles but the writing seems well-informed and cutting edge, so, I thought I'd spread it around a bit.

Enjoy!

Malvina Reynolds - No Hole in My Head

SHE RULES!!!!

Light reading - Thesis '09

I wish I could have had these up for the critique this weekend, but it was not to be. But I've finally put up a link to the thesis papers I've received (others will be added as they are sent my way).

You can start reading here.

Congrats to all the thesis students for an outstanding show and a weekend of interesting discussion. It's a privilege to have worked with you andd I hope you'll all keep in touch.

Some images from Winter Crit and Thesis Presentations...

...maybe more to follow. Hope all are well ~gb

What with thesis coming up...

...in the past I've posted the drafts of thesis papers presented at Winter Crit on my own website. I will be happy to do that again if there's interest (and approval from the authors). I've emailed the students I have digital copies from, but comments here encouraging them and promising you'll read 'em would no doubt help...

Immersion at the Kimmel Center

Immersion
November 14, 2008 - January 15, 2009

In today’s fast-paced, media driven world, moments of immersion can be fleeting. This exhibition presents matrixes and multi-layered works that invite our delving into subjects and images that captivate and hold our attention.

The exhibition features five artists from Moore College of Art & Design’s faculty whose work in various media deals with concepts of immersion. Participating artists include: Nicole Dul, adjunct faculty, basics and fine arts departments; Karen Lefkovitz, adjunct faculty, basics and photography & digital arts departments; Tara O’Brien, adjunct faculty, graphic design department; Alice Oh, associate professor, basics and fine arts departments; Theresa Saulin, adjunct faculty, fine arts department.

Nicole Dul presents two different images of immersion as it relates to the landscape. Her colorful, multi-layered paintings of Mexico present a rhythmic barrage of images that provide a snapshot of the many facets of a place and culture. Her black and white lithographs of stark and dilapidated interior spaces are emotionally evocative images that immerse us in a world of emptiness and despair.

Karen Lefkovitz’s photographs depict a child immersed in play. The images appear surreal in the way that they invite us to join into the fantasy world of a child’s imagination, where inanimate objects are transformed into a crowd of quirky characters who inhabit a child’s rich inner world.

One can easily relate to getting lost in a good book. For Tara O’Brien, books are a metaphor for the structure and process of creating a life. We delve into it, get lost in the pages, the action, the characters, never knowing how it will end. She creates stoppages and moments of reflection in each of her sculptural forms that serve as metaphors for contemplation of the story each of us is immersed in.

Alice Oh’s abstract layers of paint and repeated forms immerse us in a microscopic world of our own body’s physiology challenging us to look closer at the matrix and patterns of light and color of life’s cellular structure that simmers beneath every surface.

Theresa Saulin’s delicate, alternating smooth and densely textured, porcelain sculptures are physical explorations of philosophical ideas. Without beginning or end, the sculptures suggest forms from nature but, just as easily, they mimic the branching, burrowing, nonhierarchical structure of the internet. Saulin’s objects are both immersed in being about an endless process as well as a final product.

About Moore College of Art & Design’s Galleries at the Kimmel Center The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts provides two exhibition spaces on the Center’s Second Tier Promenade for artwork by students, alumnae and faculty of Moore College of Art & Design thanks to the generosity of an anonymous Kimmel Center donor. This year, Moore celebrates 160 years of educating women for careers in the visual arts. The nation's first and only women's art college, Moore's student-focused environment and professionally active faculty form a dynamic community in the heart of Philadelphia's cultural district. The College offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with ten majors. In addition, Moore provides many valuable opportunities in the arts through The Galleries, continuing education programs for professional adults, the acclaimed Young Artists Workshop for girls and boys grades 1-12, The Art Shop and the Sculpture Park. For more about Moore, visit www.moore.edu.
The Galleries at Moore are open to the public, free of charge. Visit us on 20th Street and Race on the Ben Franklin Parkway. Hours: Monday – Friday 11am – 7pm and Saturdays 11am – 5pm. For current exhibitions visit www.galleriesatmoore.org.

Moore College of Art's "Footsteps" Project in the News!

Hi Folks,
Here is the article in full...
http://epaper.philly.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=13_11_2008_141_006&typ=0&pub=519&mode=1
My "boot" (shown on the left) is now living at The Graham Building on the SW corner of 15th and Ranstead. Ranstead is located between Chestnut and Market Streets in Philadelphia. It was an interesting project to work on. I learned allot about some new materials and how a project like this is coordinated and distributed. Good stuff!!!
Best,
Terri

Oh, that Cunning Countess

Cross in the Mountains or Tetschen Altar
Caspar David Friedrich, 1807-08
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Gemaldegalerie, Dresden
(image used with the courtesy of http://www.joybunny.artfriend.com)

Art students know the situation well. It's the big critique and they have to present their work in their studio or in a classroom as if it was in a gallery. Perhaps this means painting a wall white, tidying a corner, adjusting the lighting, or preparing a pedestal among other things. But no matter how hard they try, anxious what-ifs float around like, "Would it fold this way if it was in gallery?" And a feeling of artificiality, like watching a concert on DVD, permeates the exchange.

This act of "putting on airs" characterized the setting of Caspar David Friedrich's presentation of the Cross in the Mountains in 1808. He made the painting, as one story goes, specifically to be an altarpiece in a small chapel within the Tetschen Castle in northern Bohemia. After its completion, however, it didn't have a public place yet and due to his friends' demands, he reluctantly decided to show it in his "atelier" i.e. his home studio.

As German painting scholar Joseph Koerner documents in his book Caspar David Friedrich and the Subject of Landscape, educator Johann Jacob O.A. Ruhle von Lilienstern (a mouthful, eh?) wrote, "In order to counteract the bad effect of the totally white walls of his small room, and to imitate as well as possible the twilight of the lamplit chapel, a window was veiled and the painting, which was too heavy for an ordinary easel, was erected on a table over which was spread a black cloth." Amusingly, today, most of our efforts are put towards achieving white walls. One can imagine Friedrich saying, "Now, if the painting was in its proper setting, the effect would be such and such as I intended." or "Pay no attention to unwanted variables A, B, and C..."

As most art students do, Friedrich put on this show with the hope of the work eventually achieving its intended setting. The immediate display simply being a trial run for the real thing. The problem for Friedrich is that its promised place wasn't available. To explain further: Countess Maria Theresa von Thun-Hohenstein supposedly had commissioned the work specifically for placement in her husband's private Tetschen chapel. It turns out that the painting was originally dedicated to Friedrich's king, Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden and not commissioned by Maria. Only when the king was overthrown in 1809 did Friedrich then agree to sell it to Maria. He and his "circle of friends" reconstructed the story of the origins of the work to make it seem as if he had created every detail to suit the Countess' chapel perfectly.

After Friedrich had sold the work to Maria, he wrote that he would like to "oversee the painting being installed and consecrated as a working altar." However, the work was never actually going to be placed in its promised spot. In fact, there was already an altarpiece designed by Joseph Bergler, the director of the Prague Art Academy, in the chapel in question. So, when Friedrich inquired about a visit, Maria had to make up a story that the piece was actually going to be installed in a chapel in Prague. When he said he would then come to Prague, she had to "give him the slip" again.

Hilariously, instead of the work being in a chapel it was in Countess Maria's BEDROOM! She had concocted the scheme to convince Friedrich to part ways with his masterwork. No wonder she didn't want him to come and see it...it was hanging above her bed. Rather than being a central object in worship ceremonies, I'm sure Friedrich would've loved to have seen his work shaking as the countess made love to her husband! When Friedrich was adjusting the black cloth in his atelier I'll bet that he never considered the possibility of undergarments hanging on his painting...and maybe the cat at rest on top? Perhaps he would've been better off naming it "Headboard" instead of Tetschen Altar. :P

The Boundless Landscape

Capuchin Friar by the Sea by Caspar David Friedrich
Oil Painting
(used with the courtesy of www.humanitiesweb.org)

I've been reading about Caspar David Friedrich, German landscape painter from the 1800's, and his boundless landscapes. The sentiment that I get a whiff of even by studying pictures in books is expressed exquisitely by Carl Gustav Carus, one of Friedrich's disciples, in the following words:

Stand on the peak of a mountain, contemplate the long ranges of hills...and all the other glories offered to your view, and what feeling seizes you? It is a quiet prayer, you lose yourself in boundless space, your self disappears, you are nothing, God is everything. (1)

Immediately German filmmaker Werner Herzog came to mind. Other than with my own eyes, the times I've experienced said feeling profoundly was through Herzog's films like Fitzcarraldo, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Grizzly Man, and the portions I've seen of Encounters at the End of the World. Here's a still from Fitzcarraldo:

Still from Fitzcarraldo
(used with the courtesy of http://brzinnyc.blogspot.com/2004_04_01_archive.html)

Conveniently, this shot of actor Klaus Kinski even includes Friedrich's Ruckenfigur motif, that of showing a figure, male or female, from the back. The scene from the film that I recall so vividly, and of which I draw a sufficient parallel to the mood of Friedrich's work, is that when Fitzgerald (Kinski), is playing opera as his boat of disgruntled natives travels down the river. In this particular scene, Herzog highlights Fitzgerald's small presence in the vastness of Peru's landscape. The connection between how impossibly grand and brilliant nature is and how diminutively small Fitzgerald is easily relates to Friedrich's rendering of the monk by the sea. And Friedrich's Woman in the Morning Sun among others.

In the more than a century of separation, however, one big difference changed from Friedrich's perspective to Herzog's. Friedrich's boundlessness was a mirror of God's infinity while Herzog's is one of The Great Void. Friedrich wanted to exhibit the religious presence of nature while Herzog wants to show the terrifying, indifferent beauty of it. Don't associate "religious presence," however, with joy. Friedrich, despite God's existence, felt painful isolation in the "anxious silence" of landscapes similar to the way Herzog does.

In the Friedrich works I've "seen" (by way of reproduction), the landscape dominates the helpless figures. And while the same occurs in Herzog's films, in Fitzcarraldo, Fitzgerald attempts, unsuccessfully, to fight against the deafening quiet of nature by playing opera. It's an astounding scene in which opera represents civilization and the riverscape, the harsh brutality of existence. Herzog remarked of the jungle, "The birds don't sing; they scream out in terror." While Fitzgerald screams, Friedrich's Friar stands defeated.

(1) Taken from An Outline of 19th Century European Painting by Lorenz Eitner

The Mirror Stage

Video Stills from Keith Sullivan's Dasein
3 channel video installation for flat screen monitors
15:00 running time
Lycoming College's Digital Media Gallery
Williamsport, PA

While I watched Keith Sullivan pantomime drumming, singing, dancing, and dunking a basketball in his multi-channel video installation Dasein (pictured above), I imagined him doing the same. As I envisioned Mr. Sullivan viewing and listening to himself, he suddenly turned into me. Then, strangely, I stood there looking at myself.

To explain: I am a video artist who has also put myself in some of my work. While I always convince myself that I do so with good reason, others aren't so sure. Some of my closest friends recently told me that the biggest flaw in my art was my "egotism." I took note of their critique but didn't agree. It wasn't until I saw myself reflected in Sullivan's art and got a glimpse of what it must've been like (fictionally, of course) to see Narcissus gazing at his own reflection that I thought, "How vain!" Whatever points Sullivan has (and due to the mention of Ginsberg and semiotics, I'm sure he has many), they are lost in his enjoyment of himself.

And, much to my dismay, what is true of him in this respect is true of me. "Dammit," I thought, "I just like watching myself do things." Sullivan and I both disguise our mirror-impulses with philosophical backgrounds. We think that since we have read Heidegger, our being is more aware and therefore, innately artistic. This point reminds me of an episode of Malcolm in the Middle in which Francis berates Malcolm for his elitism. Francis says something to the effect of, "You think, because you're so smart, that you experience things deeper than the rest of us. So, you complain until you've made sure we all know how aware you are."

The title Dasein says it all. It's an exclusive term. if you've read philosophy you're in, if you haven't, you're out. And it's a German word for "existence" or "being-here." As if that were enough. "I'm here, I'm smart, and you should care."

To not be too hard on him (and me), I'll say that Sullivan does pull off some nuanced karaoke and his Jordanesque dunking is a hoot. One can tell that he's spent a lot of time perfecting his performances and the production value of his videos is impressive. The black backgrounds achieve an atmospheric quality like those old, minimalist Shakespeare plays one can find on VHS in library basements.

But, again, Sullivan is too satisfied with doing things that other people did because he is doing them. Sullivan's work, and some of mine, fits all too well into what Rosalind Krauss calls "The Aesthetics of Narcissism."

--------------------------

Keith Sullivan is an interdisciplinary artist working in video, photography, performance, and installation. He received a Master of FIne Arts degree in visual art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2007) and a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Emory University (2000), where he graduated with highest honors. His work has been shown in New York, Boston, and Atlanta.

Footsteps Opening Reception

Hello Friends!

Please join us for the opening reception of Moore Footsteps
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
7:00 - 8:00 pm

To celebrate Moore's 160th Anniversary, Moore Alumnae have organized the Moore Footsteps exhibition.
Darla Jackson '03 created 12 six-foot boots.
Selected alumnae have altered the boots, illustrating their ideas about women and the arts.
All of the boots will be on exhibit at Moore for one week before being installed throughout the city.
Participating artists include:

* e Bond '96
* Heather Bryson '92
* Dorothy Collins '93
* Collaboration -Aubrie Costello '07,Laura Graham '03, Darla Jackson '03
* Karen Daroff '70
* Gail Gaines '89
* Rochelle F. Levy '79
* Longina Rossi '70
* Theresa M. Saulin '92
* Jane L. Walentas '66
* Cathleen White '96
* Janell Wysock '04

Sponsored by Fran '66 and Bill Graham
http://moore.edu/

Instant Art Grant Program

The Instant Art Grant Program - The funniest home videos are here

Blindness

Futuristic or Post-Apocalyptic movies have a tendency to be ridiculously awful and this one does nothing to improve upon that history. While not as bizarrely cheesy as The Day After Tomorrow, as endurance-testing as The Postman, or as banal as Code 46, Blindness is nothing short of laughable.

One only has to watch the Sci-Fi Channel for a few Saturdays (Or any of the Resident Evil or Underworld series) to realize that the first sin of bad science fiction movies is self-seriousness. When everything is dark and gloomy and nobody's laughing, you know you're in for a tough ride. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the TV series that mastered the art of blending irony and humor with sci-fi drama, should be required viewing for any future director of the genre.

Try not to chuckle when people begin stripping at random times (just because I can't see doesn't mean I won't want to be WARM) or when Julianne Moore is being tackled by zombie-like blind people (who inexplicably all found her in a hurry) in a grocery store as she struggles to hold on to the food she just found.

One positive element of the film is how Meirelles enlivens transitions by weaving the camera in and out of strange spots. One never knows where a scene will start or end and whether we'll be able to see it clearly. His best tricks call to mind the hazy imprisonment of Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

The coldness of Meirelles' characters seems less like the result of a skillful hand and more like the consequence of ineptitude. So, if you enjoyed the scarily realistic City of God and the suspenseful but forgettable Constant Gardner and are hoping for another score, you'll be disappointed.