MEET WARADISE: a temporary venue for things to happen
Curated by Fjord Photo
Directed by Alice Wells, with a forthcoming exhibition curated by Karen Archey, and design by Caroline Askew
NOVEMBER 19, 2008
Opening Reception NOVEMBER 19, 2008 6-10PM MEET WARADISE
17 Orchard Street
New York, NEW YORK (map)
Fjord is a one-night exhibition in which the general expectations of a photography exhibition will be broken and the viewer will be able to directly interact with the photographs. This exhibition features the work of 66 photographers from the Fjord collective. The photographs will be displayed in an un-mounted, un-bound fashion in order to promote direct interaction between the viewers and the work.
Exhibiting photographers are:
Dustin Aksland, Nicole Akstein, Mary Amor, Michelle Arcila, Daniel Augschöll, Mikaylah Bowman, Coley Brown, Alana Celii, Céline Clanet, Gerald Edwards III, Jon Feinstein, Bea Fremderman, Dana Gentile, Gustav Gustafsson, Jessica Hans, Paul Herbst, Nicola Kast, Clare Kelly, Jonathan Knobel, Andrew Laumann, Shane Lavalette, Bryan Lear, Miranda Lehman, Seth Lower, Sophie Lvoff, Michael Marcelle, Alexander Martinez, Lydia Anne McCarthy, Andrew McComb, Mark McKnight, Ye Rin Mok, Chad Muthard, Erin Nelson, Erika Neola, Jennifer Niederhauser, Kaarel Nurk, Grady O’Connor, Ulijona Odisarija, Nils Orth, Cristina Maria Oswald, Justin James Reed, Jessica Roberts, Lazaro Rodriguez, Tamara Rosenblum, Bryan Schutmaat, Daniel Shea, Brea Souders, Jake Stangel, Will Steacy, Tim Steer, Sean Stewart, Joseph Tripi, Brad Troemel, Jesper Ulvelius, Elo Vazquez, Kamden Vencill, Corrie Vierregger, Greg Wasserstrom, Shen Wei, Alice Wells, Ian Whitmore, Mark Wickens, Jessica Williams, Grant Willing, Sarah Wilmer, and Davin Youngs
So they Say: Meet Waradise: a temporary venue for things to happen.
A project to promote interaction, exchange, and connection.
An excuse to juice a dense network of emerging artists and thinkers.
An exhibition of fantastical works by fantastic artists.
A place for performance, discussion, presentation, listening, dancing, relaxing, you name it.
Meet Waradise is your escape den.
Meet Waradise is your happy hour.
Meet Waradise is your mind blown.
Meet Waradise is your livingroom.
Meet Waradise is your haunt.
Meet Waradise is where everybody knows your name.
Come See some of my photographs + Books of New Insanity Strewn Across this rad pop-up space on the Lower East Side. MY CNN style hologram will be in attendance, but unfortunately my corpse shall not.
OPENING RECEPTION: November 14, 2008 from 6 – 9pm
EXHIBITION DATES: November 14 – December 12, 2008
GALLERY HOURS: Monday – Saturday, 10am – 8pm
PRESS CONTACT: Chris Fitzpatrick
Photo Epicenter
26 Lilac Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-550-0701
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Can an exhibition generate a film in the minds of its viewers?
Photo Epicenter in San Francisco will present AS ABOVE SO BELOW, an interdisciplinary group exhibition, from November 14 through December 12, 2008. It will feature work by local and international artists in photography, installation, sound, painting, video, the gallery’s answering machine (415-550-0701), and a green screen sculpture for psychic activation. A large selection of scripts, stories, visual publications and other texts commissioned from writers will also be on display. The exhibition is free and open to the public, with an opening reception on Friday, November 14, from 6-9 p.m.
Curated by Chris Fitzpatrick, AS ABOVE SO BELOW takes its title from the Emerald Tablet and has been organized in response to a series of photographs that document the Chaitén volcano as it erupted during a lightning storm last May. Diverse themes—from the fungal Nordic roots of Christmas to claims over Nikolai Tesla—will emerge in each artwork and text, presenting a seemingly disparate series of triggers that will elicit an infinite combination of subjective narratives.
AS ABOVE SO BELOW features an active papier mâché volcano by the collective Anonymous Orphan, vinyl wall text and thousands of matchbooks by Francesca Bennett & Nicholas Matranga, a left-handed painting by James Bradley, video by Aleksandra Domanović, a reappearing photographic composite by Gerald Edwards III, retroactive computer-generations of Carlos Gutierrez’s photographs of the Chaiten eruption, photography and mushrooms picked by Uri Korn, a light box by Bessie Kunath, a quantic experiment by Raimundas Malašauskas, video by Daniel Oates-Kuhn, an immaterial evacuation by Post Brothers, a message smoked on the gallery ceiling and an installation outside its window by Rick Predovic, as well as a video by Brad Troemel created to induce seizures. Alternate scripts and other texts written by Francesca Bennett & Nicholas Matranga, Jon Frechette, Israel Posinov/Geoffrey Post/Post Brothers, Ray Potes, Sally Szwed, and many more will be displayed on a large table with Mandarin subtitles to a non-existent film by Xiaoyu Weng, a children’s coloring book by Michelle Y. Hyun, and new visual publications by Anonymous Orphan.
During the opening reception on November 14th from 6pm – 9pm, Popcorn modified with colors and flavors inspired by the Chaitén eruption will be served, Post Brothers will stage a reading enacting a scene from grandpa Posinov’s The Capsule. At the closing reception on December 12th from 6pm-9pm, two performances of Van Halen’s “Eruption” on the electric guitar will occur simultaneously.
Aleksandra Domanović
James Bradley
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West Coast Team! Get out the goat and get to the Burger World cause Fitzpatrick is bringing some more heat. If Lil Wayne were able to provide Chris Fitzpatrick & Ray Potes with an inspirational endorsement of the exhibition schedule at HEPE i think it would be something like “You can’t get on my level cause I am so unlevel” Hell, it’s all gonna be on overload, I hope you guys can make it out and send me a mind map of what is going down.
Exhibiting Photographers:
Matthew Baum, Dan Boardman, Michael Bühler-Rose, Gerald Edwards III, Emiliano Granado, William Lamson, David La Spina, Alison Malone, Rachelle Mozman, Eric Percher, Cara Phillips, Matthew Porter, Amy Stein, Christian Weber, Hannah Whitaker, Sarah Wilmer, Ofer Wolberger
ON VIEW: Tuesday, November 4 – Saturday, November 15, 2008
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday, November 6, 2008
PRESS PREVIEW: 4PM – 6PM | PUBLIC RECEPTION: 6PM – 9PM
THINGS ARE STRANGE
New Century Artists
530 West 25th Street, Suite 406
New York, NY 10001
GALLERY HOURS:Tuesday – Saturday | 11AM – 6PM
Humble Arts Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of Things Are Strange, curated by Jon Feinstein. The group exhibition, which opens on Election Day, presents work by eighteen photographers whose images explore the peculiar, idiosyncratic and often absurd elements of the contemporary world, using them as a metaphor for the current state of social and political affairs. The work includes a range of subjects, from the bizarre phenomena of Emiliano Granado’s documentary pictures of ghost hunters and Cara Phillips’ transformation of plastic surgery machines into terrifying robots to Eric Percher’s exploration of the alienation of late night finance workers and Amy Stein’s images of stranded American travelers. Each photographer, by varying degrees, alludes to a world that is gradually falling apart at the seams.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Jon Feinstein is the Curatorial Director of Humble Arts Foundation. He has curated numerous exhibitions, most recently “Young Curators New Ideas” and “31 Under 31: Young Women in Art Photography.” His own photography has been published in Gotham, Nylon, Heeb, New York Press, and Vice and has been exhibited throughout the United States. Jon holds a BA in photography from Bard College.
ABOUT HUMBLE
Humble Arts Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that works to advance the careers of emerging fine-art photographers by way of exhibition and publishing opportunities, limited-edition print sales, twice–annual artists grants, and educational programming.Founded in 2005 by Amani Olu and Jon Feinstein, Humble has been a pioneering hub for showcasing new fine-art photography, and has served as a resource for collectors, galleries, museums, curators, photo editors, and bloggers internationally.
Things Are Strange is made possible in part with public funds from The Fund for Creative Communities, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts and by Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and administered by The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
For additional information and visuals, please contact KATE GREENBERG PRESS@HAFNY.ORG.
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This show is going to be maximized, and hopefully will be a great celebration of the amazing election of our new President (don’t jinx it) On the downside, if the election does not go to Hope, it will be a sobering look at some of the intense, and often bizarre problems we humans have created for ourselves along the way. Come out, celebrate either the possibility of new frontiers, or lament the missed opportunity of epic freshness. See you there!
still from Patriot Games Redux (The Grand Follies of White Sharks) by Gerald Edwards III
SOPHIE L. & ANNA W. are pleased to announce our first joint curating adventure entitled TO DIE IN AN APARTMENT
The show will open on THURSDAY, AUGUST 28TH, FROM 7-9PM and will be on view until
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1ST, at A WOLF, a temporary gallery space/idea in Manhattan.
A WOLF
122 EAST 64TH #3R
SOPHIE LVOFF & ANNA WOLFGANG
28 AUGUST 2008
Featuring the work of up-and-coming artists:
Antione Catala
Alana Celii
Gerald Edwards III
Nichole Frochuer
Nate Hill
Jessica Ingram
Katie Kline
Michael Koehler
Sophie Lvoff
Santiago Moslyn
Grady O’Connor
Shabd Simon-Alexander
Jordi Wheeler
Grant Willing
The selection of work is a response to a theme in literature relating to death in one’s transitory living space. The nature of modern death begs the question, “Where do the dead go in such a time and place; to your upstairs neighbors, or down to the 6 train?” Parallelly, A WOLF without art is an empty apartment lacking personality, life, and memorial. The work presented is a collection of photographs, drawings, sculpture, video and sound and is the first time some of these artists have shown together.
BOND STREET GALLERY
297 Bond Street | Brooklyn, NY 11231 (Carroll Gardens)
718.858.2297 | DIRECTIONS: F/G to Carroll St. or R to Union St.
GALLERY HOURS: Tuesday – Saturday | 11 am – 6 pm
BOND STREET GALLERY is pleased to announce Young Curators, New Ideas, a group exhibition organized by amani olu and curated by Alana Celii & Grant Willing (Fjord Photo), Michael Bühler-Rose, Jon Feinstein (Humble Arts Foundation), Laurel Ptak (I Heart Photograph), Amy Stein (amysteinphoto.blogspot.com), and Lumi Tan (Why + Wherefore).
The exhibition examines different trends and perspectives in contemporary art photography through the bias of six new and seasoned curators. Each curator (or curatorial group), using roughly ten feet of space, aims to engage viewers in a discussion on where he or she believes art photography is today.
Völuspá, curated by Grant Willing and Alana Celii, focuses on the themes of magic, otherworldliness, secrets and nostalgia. The exhibiting photographers were curated from the Fjord collective, and include Mikaylah Bowman, Gerald Edwards III, Bryan Lear, Miranda Lehman, Seth Lower, Mark McKnight, Erin Jane Nelson, and Jesper Ulvelius. The images from these eight artists represent the ideas of a multi-verse, which is a self-contained, separate reality. All of the photographs point to a place or moment that feels familiar, but objectively is known to rarely exist. These spurious emotions allow the viewers to address a personal memory or follow one’s spiritual quest; yet when presented with the facts that directly make up the photographs, they feel like something that cannot be experienced.
Artist Michael Bühler-Rose presents Opposing Photographers by Charles Benton. Benton’s work examines the nature of portraiture by returning fine art photography to its roots in conceptual art practice. Benton enables the viewer to be placed within the middle of a photographic “volley” to experience not just the gaze of the photographer towards his or her subject, but also to reflect that gaze back and enable the viewer to experience both subject and object simultaneously. Through this lo-tech presentation Benton reassess the slide presentation/photographic document’s traditional function of “pointing to…” and enables the viewer to experience being pointed at.
In Jon Feinstein’s exhibition, Light and Color, he explores notions of science, mysticism, astronomy and the unreal using photographs from Hannah Whitaker, Talia Chetrit, Noel Rodo-Vankuelen, and Ann Woo. Much of the work utilizes stripped down elements such as prisms, rainbows, and seemingly banal sunsets to investigate common themes in art history and larger conceptual issues surrounding the process of image making.
Laurel Ptak’s exhibition takes the show in a different direction by commissioning 26 photographers, designers, and new media artists to embrace the animated GIF. Appropriately titled Graphics Interchange Format, the show explores how a lo-fi digital image technology invented in 1987 fares in contemporary context. Ptak gave artists only 3 days to complete the commission and encouraged the use of photographic materials. A few of the artists had never made an animated GIF before, while others were notorious for it. “Some use the form epically,” says Ptak, “like a novelist or film director; others are self-reflective about the limits of technology and representation; many challenge photography’s usual atemporal disposition; and then some just make me giggle.” The results are 67 artist-made animated GIFs shown on 44-inch flat screen in an infinite loop. Each are sold in an unlimited edition for $20, accompanied by a personalized note from the artist.
Graphics Interchange Format features works by Victor Boullet, Tyler Coburn, Petra Cortright, C. Coy, Daniel Everett, Thobias Fäldt & Per Englund, Martin Fengel, Jason Fulford, Nicholas Grider, Pierre Hourquet, Konst & Teknik, Eke Kriek, Emily Larned, Matt MacFarland, Katja Mater, Kelci McIntosh, Ilia Ovechkin, Robert Overweg, M. River, Noel Rodo-Vankeulen, Asha Schechter, Trevor Shimizu, Jo-ey Tang, Anne De Vries, Karly Wildenhaus and Damon Zucconi.
In her exhibition, photographer and critic, Amy Stein, selects five photographers working in the tradition of Cindy Sherman, Ralph Eugene Meatyard and Gregory Crewdson. Featuring Alison Brady, Olga Cafiero, Alix Smith, Alex Prager, and Ofer Wolberger, these photographers employ directorial image making strategies to explore identity and representation of the self. Whether they are directing loved ones, friends or relative strangers, these five photographers bring us lush, evocative cinematic moments that transport the viewer into a space that is alternately unsettling yet strangely familiar.
Writer and curator, Lumi Tan, presents three photographs from Brian Bress. In these photographs, Bress conflates the space around us, leaving the viewer disorientated and distracted by a certain distorted familiarity. His use of ordinary objects in seemingly chance combinations and chaotic arrangements are uncanny, asking to be decoded but simultaneously resisting interpretation. By engaging the viewer in absurd performative exploration, he points out how easily we are lost in our own cultural detritus.
Allla! Thomas and I had a radical day thanks to the fine ladies of Schroeder Romero, the folks at NADA and all of the hootenanys that came out to Jock Jam Karaoke and do some end zone dancing. Here is a super brief encapsulation of the day, my personal award for best booth of the day definitely has to go to William Powhida and Jade Townsend who killed it with a self-contained wooden lemonade stand, complete with wooden cash register. Probably the only real money maker of the day, those guys had a line stretching down the block. Most selfless and awesome human award always goes to Matt Bua, who gave a true real estate developers demonstration of B-Home, the ideas and methods that go into his upstate property of sprawling sustainable buildings.
Come check out Thomas & I make a fool with some Jock Jams Karaoke and an End Zone Dance Contest
NADA’s County Affair July 26th Noon - 6pm 27th Street between 11th and 12 Avenues. NEW YORK CITY
The New Art Dealer’s Alliance (NADA) is organizing an event for 27th street that follows the theme of an art oriented county fair, and will be called “NADA’s County Affair”. It will consist of artist run game booths, swap meet, tag sales, live entertainment, DJs and a benefit raffle! The goal of this event is to create a fun “block party” type event, which both NADA members and their artists will be invited to participate in, as well as engage the general art-going public. We thought that this would be a great first time NADA summer public event. The event will occupy approximately half the block, sidewalk, and one lane of 27th street between 11th and 12th Avenues.
Participants include:
John Connelly Presents - Tag Sale, and Mungo Thomson’s Bouncy House
Matt Bua ( Derek Eller Gallery )- The Architectural Cribbage Design Table
Martha Friedman ( Wallspace ) - Martha Friedman’s Prize Winning Zucchini!!!
Jeffrey Tranchell - YouTube curated playlists Kim Holleman - “Trailer Park”
BoBo’s on 27th Street ( Foxy Productions )
William Powhida and Jade Townsend ( Schroeder Romero ) - “Lemonade Stand” Thomas Seely & Trey Edwards - Armchair Quarterback Sweet Tooth of the Tiger - Renegade Bake Sale and Face Painting
Sara VanDerBeek and Anya Kielar ( Guild & Greyshkul Gallery ) - Jewelry, postcards, friendship pins
Justin Tripp, Ryan Foerster and Shawn Kuruneru - Zines
Andrea Smith ( Zieher and Smith ) - Tag sale Nicelle Beauchene Gallery - Make your own Shrinky Dink crafts
Elizabeth Lovero and Jesse Bransford - Tarot Card Readings
Scott Hug/K48 - Tag sale, K48’s and Merch
The Gamble of Life by Jacques Louis Ramon Vidal ( Sunday ) Sweeeeet Zine ( Cleopatra’s ) Little Cakes - “Turtle Club” Zak Kitnick - Oriental Trader
Liz Luisada ( Klaus von Nichssagend ) - Experimental Drawing Booth
Ronna Lebo - Tag sale Color Wheel
Alexia Lewis and Peggy Jo Pabustan from the performance group “Vos”
Bob Linder - DJ
Ceci Moss - DJ
Joshua Smith and Jennifer Teets - Advice for a Quarter. Like Lucy in the Peanuts. Museum of Miniature Art - Portrait Miniature Replica of Barack Obama Aaron Lazansky-Olivas (aka Spaze Crafte One) - “Comics, Characters & Colors” & LIVE ART spray painting with stencils
Olive’s first showing of pictures commenced last night, and I must say, that they are much more elegant than anything I will ever be able to muster. Up and about for about one month’s time, go sneak in and see them at the Shala Yoga Studio @ 815 Broadway near Union Square. Regs Biz Hours, get up in that spotty immediately, buy all of her photos, then head over to the Mollusk Surf Shop in Brooklyn, purchase 10 surf sticks, pick me up from my house, and let’s go to Montauk, like yesterday.
As Always, she has much much more on her cosmically charged webber HQ - The Olive Branch
June 27 - July 27, 2008
Opening Reception June 27, 6-8pm
Schroeder Romero Gallery
637 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001
T: 212 630 0722
Curated By Trey Edwards & Thomas Seely
Artwork By
Elaine Kaufman, Maria Dumlao & Jane Johnston, Alex Brown, Rob Carter, Institute for Aesthletics, Marisa Olson, Javier Piñon, Shannon Plumb, Justin Rancourt & Chuck Yatsuk, Fernando Sanchez, Tom Sanford, Jessica Tam, Lee Walton
Featuring
Opening Reception Participatory Street Sporting Event by the Institute of Aesthletics
29th Anniversary Screening of Disco Demolition Documentary Film (July 12, 2008 6-8pm)
Limited Edition Hyper Super Blooper Reel Commemorative DVD
Exhibition Poster Catalog (Available at Schroeder Romero Gallery)
Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words, it is war minus the shooting…There cannot be much doubt that the whole thing is bound up with the rise of nationalism — that is, with the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige…There are quite enough real causes of trouble already, and we need not add to them by encouraging young men to kick each other on the shins amid the roars of infuriated spectators.
-George Orwell, The Sporting Spirit, 1945
On July 12, 1972 a Chicago radio disc jockey, strolled out to Comiskey Park’s center field, dressed in Army fatigues. There, he gave a brief rallying declaration before detonating a box filled with thousands of disco vinyl records. The 50,000 fans in record attendance promptly stormed the field and began rioting. The fires, and destruction of the stadium was only quelled at the arrival of Chicago’s riot squad.
Almost two thousand years earlier, Roman Emperor Commodus crafted his public image in the light of the warrior god Hercules, defeating all challengers in gladiatorial battles, through staged battles performed to reinforce his status as the protector of Rome, a god on earth.
This year we will experience two highly anticipated world events, the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing, and the U.S Presidential election. With each of these events we see athletics and games intertwined with issues of human rights, war, globalization, gender politics, fashion, and the environment. Professional sports embrace nationalistic fervor on all scales, while adopting metaphors of war and conquest and simultaneously operating as branded corporate entities. Similarly the lexicon of sports, the embrace of spectacle, the championing of team apparel and team (brand or party) identity manifest themselves in our politics, military and foreign policy.
The Main Event draws from across the spectrum of human competition searching for a degree of clouded understanding in the ways in which the spheres of sports, and athletics penetrate and intermingle with the larger world, brought together by competition of all sorts. Is the boxer different from the artist? Is the wrestler different from the politician? What do the Meadowlands share with Capitol Hill?
Elaine Kaufman, Maria Dumlao & Jane Johnston
In the absurdist video from their episodic collaboration The Go Show, these three artists lambast the “league” of galleries, and the competitive world of artist trading by making analogy to the selection of players in the NBA draft. The art world, like the world of professional sports is ruthless, and has proven to quickly turn it’s back on those whose performance is not consistently up to par. www.brainstormersreport.net
Alex Brown
Crafts intricate battle scenes based on historical, and imagined contests of human competition. Brown’s armies highlight the absurdity and futility of war as well as our nostalgic romanticization of it. Drawn from video games and books, rather than the chaos of the embattled world at large, his figures appear almost figurines chaotically spilled across the global game board. www.esopusmag.com/files/archive_flash/7/doingbattles
Rob Carter
His photographs address “…the conflicting relationships between architecture, sport, religion, class, and entertainment” that contemporary athletic stadiums serve to represent as iconographic structures. In Wrigley Castle, Carter draws parallels between historical European fortresses and American baseball stadiums in order to reveal the power hierarchies of landscape domination, and community development surrounding these significant edifices. www.robcarter.net
Maria Dumlao
In her photograph Interrogation Mark, Maria Dumlao injects the space of the sports stadium with a sense of dread, drawing parallels between the way that war metaphors are used as rally cries in an athletic context, and perhaps recalling the history of the stadium as a primary site for death, and violence as entertainment. www.mariadumlao.com
Institute for Aesthletics
The Institute for Aesthletics is an organization dedicated to the playing of sports as performance. Aesthletics is a conscious acknowledgement of sport, especially contemporary spectator sports, as a mixture of physical activity, social interaction, performance, and ritual. Aesthletics aims to unleash the great opportunities inherent in competitive contests for social rather than monetary capital.
As part of The Main Event, the Institute for Aesthletics is organizing a participatory street sporting event during the opening reception. Bring your sneakers and some Powerade, and partake in an exciting new sport while dodging cars on 27th Street. Uniforms, equipment, and performance enhancing drugs provided. www.aesthletics.org
Marisa Olson
In a critical interpretation of political competition, Marisa Olson’s video 96-00-04-08 presents the presidential elections of the last twelve years as a glorified version of the Coke vs. Pepsi taste test challenge. www.marisaolson.com
Javier Piñon
Using the classic Western ideologies of masculine heroism, Javier Piñon attacks, and undermines over a broad range of historical record, mashing through collage conflicting epochs of fantastical feats of Man over his adversaries, bringing to light the tenuous clarity of Good and Evil. www.ziehersmith.com/a_pinon.html
Shannon Plumb
In her film Olympics Track and Field 2005, Shannon Plumb tells the story of a group of athletes jockeying for the gold, a slapstick 8mm dissection of the Olympics’ ritualistic pomp, and competitive spirt that evokes both Charlie Chaplin, and Triumph of the Will. www.shannonplumb.com
Justin Rancourt & Chuck Yatsuk
With their sculptural installation Bringing Down the Rim, these two artists create an homage to one of the most arresting events in professional sports, the unexpected annihilation of the basketball goal, transforming the game’s towering symbol of power into a fallen giant. www.vbpa.org
Fernando Sanchez
In his video, Sanchez presents the first play of Super Bowl XL1 as seen by nine different fans. The concurrent shifting of perspective whips the viewer into the thundering frenzy often experienced by the participant viewers of a large sporting event, from those watching at home, to those sitting in the stands. www.thankgodforconceptualart.com
Tom Sanford
Sanford’s twelve portraits of disgraced sports stars speaks to the systematic abuse by public figures, such as professional athletes, as they take advantage of their privileged societal positions, enlarging their human flaws to god-like caricatures of our own shortcomings. www.leokoenig.com/artist/view/459
Jessica Tam
The figures in Jessica Tam’s paintings are writhing monsters of flesh. Her pictures of professional wrestlers juxtapose the sport’s inherent savagery with its distinctive theatricality. Despite the intensely vibrant hues of oil paint, One Mask lays out a wrestling mask resembling an executioner’s hood, and Ring Monsters shows a frenetic interlocking of two sweat soaked men battling to death. Tam’s images speak to the power of costume to transform an individual into an terrifying harbinger of pain. www.jessicajtam.com
Lee Walton
His Experiential models of performance based systems, has led him to collaborate with the curators of The Main Event in order to remotely create a perpetually changing floor sculpture that maps the results of six rounds of golf played over the duration of the exhibition. www.leewalton.com
