Contents for December 11, 2023
CONTENTS (please click on the links or scroll down for complete information on each post): ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Susan Kleinberg, FF Alumn, In Memoriam
1. Gabriel Martinez, FF Alumn, at Leather Archives & Museum, Chicago, IL, thru July 28, 2024
2. Eileen Myles, FF Alumn, now online at SpikeMagazine.com
3. Willie Cole, FF Alumn, receives Newark Public Library’s Literary and Cultural Award 2023
4. Karen Finley, FF Alumn, now online at NYTimes.com
5. Dolores Zorreguieta, FF Alumn, now online at YouTube.com
6. Zackary Drucker, FF Alumn, to curate Whitney Biennial 2024
7. Peter Downsbrough, FF Alumn, publishes new book
8. Aviva Rahmani, FF Alumn, December news
9. Georgia Lale, FF Alumn, at Consulate General of Greece, Manhattan, opening Dec. 15
10. Linda Sibio, Edward Gómez, FF Alumns, now online at BrutJournal.com
11. Jacob Burckhardt, FF Alumn, at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, opening Jan. 23
12. Nancy Azara, Claudia DeMonte, FF Alumns, at John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Manhattan, thru April 2024, and more
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Susan Kleinberg, FF Alumn, In Memoriam
Susan Kleinberg 1949-2023
In Sweet Memory
Susan passed away peacefully in her studio Friday, after a quarter century of beating the odds over a rare cancer, liposarcoma.
She had a storied life in Art, beginning when she was 18, studying Gaudi in Barcelona, and went to a bullfight with Salvador Dali. She graduated from Pomona College, where she studied with Jim Turrell, and got her masters at Hunter, where she studied with Robert Morris and Tony Smith.
Her first loft in New York was on White Street in Tribeca before it was Tribeca. Only a few years earlier it had been Barnet Newman’s studio. Larry Bell and Mel Bochner were her neighbors in the building.
Her first major show in New York was at Leo Castelli’s uptown gallery. Her work was in one room, Robert Rauschenberg was in the other. A thrill!
She had a beautiful show one year at the Public Theater on Lafayette St., in the lobby of the theater where Broadway deities Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronin were starring in another of their major theatrical events.
In 1995, for the Venice Biennale’s “Arte Laguna,” she floated “Spozalizio del Mare” in the Grand Canal between San Marco and San Giorgio. We spent an enchanted week on the island of San Servolo in the Venice Lagoon securing the objects from Venetian history that Susan had made at a Broadway set design studio in Brooklyn, and which she had spray painted gold on the front stoop of her loft at 29 Mercer Street in Soho. (The stoop retained specks of gold paint for a decade later…)
The thousand-year-old Venetian ceremony, Spozalizio del Mare, symbolized the marriage of the Venetian Republic with the sea. On Ascension Day, the Doge threw a gold ring into the Grand Canal or into the Adriatic. Susan’s gold ring was created by the guys who had made the yellow floatation collars for the Apollo spacecraft.
When we were finished fastening all of the objects onto the trampoline-like inner layer of the “ring” and tried with two-dozen strong arms to lift it, Susan worried that it was too heavy and would sink. She called the guys, still in Cape Canaveral, although the technology was now used for oil spill barriers, They said, “Susan, don’t worry, you could float a Chevrolet on it!” We dropped it in the lagoon, it floated perfectly and was towed out into the Grand Canal, where divers dropped the anchors.
In 1997, Susan was at the American Academy in Rome after having her first major cancer surgery. She had been deeply moved by the courage she saw among other cancer patients and began working on her piece, “Fear Not,” in which she asked people of all walks of life what courage meant to them. Everyone from Gore Vidal, whom she visited at his villa in Ravello on the Amalfi Coast and sat in his “Ben Hur” chairs, to a Dominican domestic worker on the Upper West Side in Manhattan. Besides Vidal, her favorite interviews in English were with Astronaut Sally Ride and Congressman and Civil Rights legend John Lewis.
In 2000, Harold Szeemann, who was curating the 2001 Venice Biennale, invited her to show “Fear Not” in the Arsenale. But he asked her to do an Italian version along with the English version. Susan spoke Italian well and spent the year doing just that. She asked the two candidates for prime minister of Italy for interviews. Only Silvio Berlusconi said “yes.” Her favorite Italian interviews were with philanthropist Susanna Agnelli, a fish vender in the Rialto market and with three gondolieri. The fish vendor first exclaimed, “Courage? I thought you wanted to talk about fish!”
In the middle of the Arsenale, Susan created a beautiful space with iridescent walls a color somewhere between deep blue and purple. Samsung gave her cutting-edge jewel-like video monitors, which were new and rare at that time. Sennheiser donated elegant black headphones that swayed in the air, hanging down in the high Arsenale ceiling.
For the 2005 Biennale, with sponsorship from the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in Venice, she projected her video piece “Blood Roll” across the Campo Santo Stefano onto the institute’s high white facade. The low rumble of the digital glass globe filled with blood rolling up and down and spinning on a central fulcrum could be heard far outside the Campo…
In 2009, with sponsorship from Telecom Italia, she previewed her second video installation, “Tierra Sin Males,” projecting it across the broad inner courtyard of the 16th Century Cloister of San Salvador designed by Sansovino.
Susan’s third video installation, “Kairos,” premiered in Vervoordt’s third Palazzo Fortuny show, Proportio, for the 2015 Biennale.
And her fourth, “Balafre,” premiered in his final Palazzo Fortuny exhibition, Intuition, for the 2017 Biennale. Both “Kairos” and “Balafre” evolved out of Susan’s six-year collaboration with the scientific team at the Louvre in Paris, using their high-resolution HI-Rox digital microscope.
Susan returned to the Louvre in 2017 and created “Helix,” which premiered at the Antonio Pasqualino International Puppet Museum in Palermo, Italy, a Unesco World Heritage Site, coinciding with Manifesta 18.
Leap!
Leap! was an exquisite leap of faith at a very dark time for her in 2020. She had woken up from her
fourth cancer surgery with her right leg paralyzed. The surgeon at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles had unknowingly severed the femoral nerve in her leg. And covid was raging. She began intense physical therapy, although she was told she would never walk again without a walker. (She did, thanks to a surgeon she happened to hear about a year later, who connected two minor nerves in her thigh to the dead femoral nerve and brought it back to life!)
We went to Venice in October 2022, where she did what she never thought she would be able to do again, to walk up and down the canal bridges on her own — to be able to walk around her beloved Venice. And she attended the fabulous three-day conference organized by Simone Leigh, the American artist in the 2022 Biennale.
Not long after her 2020 surgery, Susan was enamored of a viral video of dolphins returning to the Grand Canal, reportedly because of the clean waters from the covid collapse of tourism in Venice. She loved the video even if it were false. It turned out to have been shot in Sardinia, but Susan created a video with images of dolphins in Venice and began a series of related drawings. She was in love with the idea, the cleansing and renewal. “Leap is an offer of a moment of wonder,” she said. As our dear friend Maria Morris Hambourg wrote, “It radiates Susan’s creative joy, love of the world, and generosity of feeling.” A year later, two dolphins did return to the Grand Canal.
A memorial will be held in Los Angeles tba, and we will celebrate her birthday next year with a party at the Explorers Club in New York on Saturday, November 23. Save the Date.
— Les Guthman
Thank you.
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1. Gabriel Martinez, FF Alumn, at Leather Archives & Museum, Chicago, IL, thru July 28, 2024
Sparks in a Dark Room: Exchange, Pleasure and Play
Reimaginings by Gabriel Martinez
December 1, 2023 – July 28, 2024
Leather Archives & Museum
Curated by Heather Raquel Phillips, LA&M Board of Directors
Gabriel Martinez transforms the photographic darkroom into a nightclub, a Queer church, a laser-lit dance floor dungeon that invites alchemy & the unexpected, exposing mystical evidence onto silver gelatin works. Searching and revealing various aspects of Queer dualities – trauma/futurity, sorrow/ecstasy, positive/negative, macro/micro, corporeal/celestial, destruction/regeneration – Martinez reimagines archival material into unexpected potentials.
Sparks in a Dark Room is the Leather Archives & Museum’s inaugural Artist-in-Residence exhibition featuring new work by Philadelphia-based artist, Gabriel Martinez. Through analogue and hybrid processes, Martinez explores parallels between history and the current moment. Archival material is transformed through the cultivation of a methodical yet intuitive darkroom process. Martinez integrates multi-exposed mirror-ball photograms, solarization, contact printing via paper negatives and non-traditional techniques that develop into seductive photographic works that vibrate between the magical and tragic.
Sparks in a Dark Room comprises three chapters- Leather Archives 1981; Altars; and Etienne Restaged.
Please visit this link:
Thank you.
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2. Eileen Myles, FF Alumn, now online at SpikeMagazine.com
Please visit this link:
https://spikeartmagazine.com/articles/essay-perverse-reading-eileen-myles-2023
Thank you.
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3. Willie Cole, FF Alumn, receives Newark Public Library’s Literary and Cultural Award 2023
Please visit this link:
Thank you.
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4. Karen Finley, FF Alumn, now online at NYTimes.com
Please visit this link:
Thank you.
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5. Dolores Zorreguieta, FF Alumn, now online at YouTube.com
Please visit these links:
Thank you.
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6. Zackary Drucker, FF Alumn, to curate Whitney Biennial 2024
Whitney Biennial 2024 Is Bigger Than Ever, With The Addition Of 5 Curators For The Film And Performance Program
Co-organizers Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli select fellow filmmakers, artists, and curators to help develop the unprecedented Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing, opening March 20, 2024.
The Whitney Museum of American Art announces the addition of five curators to help lead the film and performance program for the 2024 Whitney Biennial. Co-organizers Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli have invited Korakrit Arunanondchai, asinnajaq, Taja Cheek, Greg de Cuir Jr, and Zackary Drucker to join them in developing a Biennial that goes beyond the Museum’s traditional in-gallery presentation to showcase the latest creativity and innovation in art, film, performance, and sound.
For the first time in Whitney Biennial history, audiences will be able to enjoy elements of the Biennial film program online, as well as during special screenings at the Museum. Artists and curators Korakrit Arunanondchai, asinnajaq, Greg de Cuir Jr, and Zackary Drucker will select filmmakers who highlight a breadth of expression through moving images today. American experimentalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and curator Taja Cheek will select a group of artists and develop a performance and sound series in the Museum’s galleries and theater space that represents the forefront of contemporary experimental performance and sound.
“The Whitney Biennial always champions the creativity, talent, passion, and vision of our time.” said Scott Rothkopf, the Whitney’s Alice Pratt Brown Director. “The strength of this edition is highlighted by the visionary curatorial talent of Chrissie and Meg and the incredible collaborators they have invited to broaden the show’s perspectives and amplify its vitality.”
“As we build the 2024 Whitney Biennial, we are fortunate to be shaping the film and performance program in concert with the unique voices of asinnajaq, Greg, Korakrit, Taja, and Zackary,” said Whitney curators Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli. “Film, sound, and performance are such significant mediums for both of us, and we look forward to sharing with our audiences an incredibly robust film program that raises questions about the porousness of boundaries and identities, along with a thoughtful curation of live performance that offers a sensorial experience centered around embodiment. Each film and performance program is deeply interwoven with the ideas coursing throughout the exhibition, articulating many of its themes in cinematic and musical form.”
Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing opens March 20, 2024, and is the eighty-first edition of the Museum’s landmark exhibition series, the longest-running survey of American art. A constellation of the most relevant art and ideas of our time, the Whitney Biennial is a showcase of contemporary artists working across media and disciplines, representing evolving notions of American art.
Thank you.
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7. Peter Downsbrough, FF Alumn, publishes new book
Please visit this link:
https://editiontaube.de/artists-books/as-then
Thank you.
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8. Aviva Rahmani, FF Alumn, December news
Aviva Rahmani Awarded a New York State Council on the Arts Support for Artists Grant!
New York City, New York and Vinalhaven, Maine – Aviva Rahmani received a Support for Artists grant from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) to support her creative work. Sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), this award will fund The Blued Trees Opera. Through New York State’s continued investment in arts and culture, NYSCA has awarded over $80 million since Spring 2023 to over 1,500 artists and organizations across the state.
Governor Kathy Hochul said, “Research confirms what we’ve always known here in New York: arts and culture are a powerhouse, with a staggering return on investment for our economy and our communities. Nonprofit arts and culture organizations and their audiences generated $151.7 billion in economic activity nationwide in 2022 and New York’s unparalleled arts and culture sector is leading the way to benefit our residents, our students and our visitors every day. I commend these grantees on their achievements and look forward to their contributions in the coming year.”
NYSCA Chair Katherine Nicholls added, “Thanks to the unwavering support of Governor Hochul and our Legislature, NYSCA is so proud to support the work of organizations and artists from all across New York. Spanning the entire breadth of the arts and culture sector – from world-renowned performers to after-school programs, from long established museums to community arts collectives – these organizations and artists together are a powerful driver of health, tourism, economy and education for our residents and visitors. On behalf of Council and staff, congratulations to Aviva Rahmani and thank you for your perseverance, your creativity and your tireless service to New York State.”
About the New York State Council on the Arts
The mission of the New York State Council on the Arts is to foster and advance the full breadth of New York State’s arts, culture, and creativity for all. To support the ongoing recovery of the arts across New York State, the Council on the Arts will award $127 million in FY 2024. The Council on the Arts further advances New York’s creative culture by convening leaders in the field and providing organizational and professional development opportunities and informational resources. Created by Governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1960 and continued with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, the Council is an agency that is part of the Executive Branch.
For more information on NYSCA, please visit this link:
NYSCA’s Facebook page and Twitter: @NYSCArts and Instagram: @NYSCouncilontheArts.
I am also very excited to announce the publication of my essay in The Work of Art in the Age of Planetary Destruction a book about art, consequence and planetary destruction with contributions from 32 creators including authors, emerging and established artists, curators and writers from Algeria, Australia, Germany, Iceland, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, the UK and the USA. The digital version is now available on the CUSSH project website
Please visit this link:
https://projectcussh.org/projects/the-work-of-art/
Complex Urban Systems for Sustainability and Health (CUSSH) is five-year Wellcome Trust funded project led by the University College London (UCL).
Finally, please check out Dark Matter Women Witnessing for the wonderful reader response to my essay, There Will Be No Managed Retreat, in the current issue, “Bodies in (and out of) Place” Part I/Issue #16, May 2023
Please visit this link:
https://darkmatterwomenwitnessing.com/reader-response/current/
Thank you.
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9. Georgia Lale, FF Alumn, at Consulate General of Greece, Manhattan, opening Dec. 15
Georgia Lale Exhibition
Neighbourhood Guild
This exhibition commemorates victims of femicide and honors people who experience domestic violence.
Opening
December 15, 2023, 6-8PM
Consulate General Of Greece
69 East 79th Street, NY
On view through February 2024
Mon – Fri 9 AM to 2:30 PM
Georgia Lale is a visual artist and cancer fighter based in Brooklyn. Their work has been featured in art festivals such as Art in Odd Places (NYC), Venice International Performance Art Week (Italy), and Brussels Nuit Blanche (Belgium). Lale’s work has recently been exhibited at A.I.R. Gallery, Border Project Space, Collar Works, Smack Mellon, and Shiva Gallery, among others. They have been invited to discuss their practice by the Dedalus Foundation, MoMA, and Yale University. Their #OrangeVest performance was presented at the Greek Pavilion of the 15th Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2016. Georgia is represented by a.antonopoulou.art in Athens.
Thank you.
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10. Linda Sibio, Edward Gómez, FF Alumns, now online at BrutJournal.com
Please visit this link:
Thank you.
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11. Jacob Burckhardt, FF Alumn, at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, opening Jan. 23
Film/Video Faculty & Staff Exhibition
Opening Reception: Tuesday, January 23, 2024, 5-7pm
Please join us on Tuesday, January 23rd, from 5-7pm, for the Opening Reception of the Film/Video Faculty & Staff Exhibition at the Rubelle and Norman Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute.
On View: January 24 – March 2, 2024
Curated by Emily Apter and Inney Prakash
Including Artists:
Fabio Andrade, Simone Barros, Gita Blak, Jacob Burckhardt, Joanna Claessens, Lisa Crafts, Maya Edelman, Jim Finn, Lorenzo Gattorna, Anton Ginzburg, Kara Hearn, Matthew Hysell, Bethany Jacobson, Sewra G. Kidane, Caroline Lathrop, Deborah Meehan, Matías Piñeiro, Christopher Radcliff, Suneil Sanzgiri, Eric Trenkamp, Joshua Ryan Troxler, Tray Tsui, Sasha Sumner, Justice Whitaker, Bryan Wizemann
The Rubelle and Norman Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute
Chemistry Building, First Floor
200 Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11205
Gallery Hours: Monday–Saturday, 11 AM–5 PM
Thank you.
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12. Nancy Azara, Claudia DeMonte, FF Alumns, at John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Manhattan, thru April 2024, and more
Join me at the exhibition, A Legacy of Making, Wednesday, December 13th at 6pm. I will share my working process and ideas around ecology and spirit. Always happy to receive and respond to questions and comments. Looking forward! Nancy
A Legacy of Making: 21 Contemporary Italian American Artists
Curated by Joanne Mattera and Joseph Sciorra
September 27, 2023 – Extended to April, 2024
The work of 21 artists in A Legacy of Making offers a richness of form, medium, subject, and style. Connections to a discernible Italian art tradition – or to Italian American aesthetic practices – vary across the exhibition, from clearly articulated to suggested to non-existent but inspired by the sense of italianità, Italianness, we all share.
Please visit this link for the exhibition catalogue:
John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, 25 W. 43rd Street, 17th floor, New York City
(212) 642-2094
Please visit this link:
Thank you.
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Goings On is compiled weekly by Farideh Sanandaji, FF Intern, Fall 2023
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