Contents for May 13, 2024
CONTENTS (please click on the links or scroll down for complete information on each post):
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Weekly Spotlight: Paco Cao, Pablo Helguera, FF Alumns, live online at the FF LOFT, Monday May 20, 2024, 6-7 pm et
- Saya Woolfalk, FF Alumn, at Woodson Art Museum, Wasau, WI, thru Aug. 25 and more
- GOODW.Y.N., FF Alumn, now online at YouTube.com and more
- Supermrin, FF Alumn, at PS122 Gallery, Manhattan, opening June 1
- John Jesurun, John Kelly, FF Alumns, at The Segal Theatre, Manhattan, May 23
- Liliana Porter, FF Alumn, at Sicardi/Ayers/Bacino, Houston, TX, opening May 18
- Galinsky, FF Alumn, at Jefferson Market Library, Manhattan, May 17
- LAPD, FF Alumns, at Gladys Park, Los Angeles, CA, May 25, and more
- Alexander Hahn, FF Alumn, at Kunst(Zeug)Haus, Rapperswil, Switzerland, thru April 6, 2025 and more
- Jay Critchley, FF Alumn, at Skoke Gallery, South Boston, MA and online, May 23
- James Casebere, FF Alumn, at T Space Archive Gallery, Rhinebeck, NY, July 20-Oct. 13
- Norm Magnusson, FF Alumn, in front of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Manhattan
- M. Lamar, FF Alumn, at Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, June 15
- Todd Ayoung, FF Alumn, now online at LaborArtReview.net
- Jeff McMahon, Bob Holman, FF Alumns, now online at AnthemToUs.org
- R Sikoryak, FF Alumn, at The Society of Illustrators, Manhattan, May 22
- m Burgess, FF Alumn, at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Manhattan, thru July 19
- Peter Downsbrough, FF Alumn, at Labor Neunzehn, Berlin, Germany, opening May 16, and more
- Elizabeth Murray, FF Alumn, at Gladstone 64, Manhattan, thru June 12
- Agnes Denes, FF Alumn, at The Menil Collection, Houston, TX, thru Aug. 25 and more
- Helene Aylon, FF Alumn, at FOMU Foto Museum, Antwerp, Belgium, thru Aug. 18 and more
- Greg Sholette, FF Alumn, launches online Labor Art Review
- Ana Mendieta, Andy Warhol, FF Alumns, now online at NYTimes.com
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Weekly Spotlight: Paco Cao, Pablo Helguera, FF Alumns, live online at the FF LOFT, Monday May 20, 2024, 6-7 pm et
Upcoming Franklin Furnace LOFT event: Presentation of the book Museum Beauty Contest by Paco Cao in conversation with Pablo Helguera.
May 20, 2024, 6-7pm ET
please register at this link:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIkcu-hqDojGNw0nxkCk4A7H9X3mUh3jFYV#/registration
This live presentation with Paco Cao in conversation with Pablo Helguera and the public will focus on the creation and development of the Museum Beauty Contest project organized by La Galleria Nazionale di Roma between 2016 and 2017. In an exploration of age-old questions surrounding traditional notions of beauty; mated with the dynamics of contemporary, competitive reality shows; thirty-five female portraits and thirty-five male portraits belonging to La Galleria Nazionale di Roma’s collection were selected and entered into a beauty contest in which the public served as the jury, casting both paper and online voting ballots. Images of the development of the project from the book will be shared, and the challenges faced during the process of creating the volume will be addressed.
During the presentation, a special question will be asked of the public and whoever is first to answer correctly will receive a book by Paco Cao from one of his previous related projects, and exploration of the contest format from an artistic perspective.
Museum Beauty Contest by Paco Cao has been made possible through support from La Galleria Nazionale and Rome-American Academy in Rome
This project is made possible with funds from Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the members and friends of Franklin Furnace Archive.
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1. Saya Woolfalk, FF Alumn, at Woodson Art Museum, Wasau, WI, thru Aug. 25 and more
Saya Woolfalk
Women Reframe American Landscape:
Contemporary Practices
Woodson Art Museum, Wasau, WI
through August 25, 2024
Century: 100 Years of Black Art
Montclair Art Museum, NJ
through June 23, 2024
Artists as Cultivators
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art Museum
through July 7, 2024
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2. GOODW.Y.N., FF Alumn, now online at YouTube.com and more
Hello All,
Wanted to share some news. My newest works are up on YouTube, a collaborative feature called Inner Spaces Episode #3, will play everyday on YouTube at 8am for eight days. One episode per day.
Season # 3 – Resistance – The Return (Transmission #17)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR2E-rv9N24
Season # 3 – Resistance – Hand 2 Mouth (Transmission #18)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57N8p8uPqNE
Also here is an old essay that was resurrected and republished in France! Mémoire de l’Avenir
https://www.memoire-a-venir.org/international_en.html
Please pass around in your networks!
Nicole Goodwin (aka GOODW.Y.N.)
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3. Supermrin, FF Alumn, at PS122 Gallery, Manhattan, opening June 1
Dear friends,
Please join us on June 1, 6-8pm, at PS122 Gallery in NYC for the opening reception of “Aliens”, an exhibition of recent works by artists Supermrin, and Adam Vackar, curated by Isabella Indolfi.
https://ps122gallery.org/2024/04/aliens/
Supermrin
Supermrin will also be presenting her ongoing bio-art practice FIELD at AIA Center for Architecture, NY in a panel discussion, “Eco-Critical Spatial Practices in Art and Design, moderated by Lydia Kallipoliti on May 31 from 5-8pm.
https://calendar.aiany.org/2024/05/31/eco-critical-spatial-practices-in-art-and-design
A new sculpture “FIELD family secrets” commissioned as part of a response to the legacy of Auguste Rodin and his sculpture group the “Burghers of Calais” will be on view at the Cincinnati Art Museum from June 13-September 8, as part of an exhibition she has co-curated with Dr. Peter Bell, curator for European Painting and Sculpture at the museum.
Finally, a chapter on FIELD, written by Xenia Adjoubei, is included in Lund Humphries “Towards Another Architecture: New Visions for the 21st Century” (2024) edited by Owen Hopkins, a critical rethinking of Le Corbusier’s legacy in the face of climate change.
https://www.lundhumphries.com/products/towards-another-architecture
Hope to connect.
Best
M
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4. John Jesurun, John Kelly, FF Alumns, at The Segal Theatre, Manhattan, May 23
Book talk at CUNY
Wednesday, May 23, 2024 / 7:00 PM / Free
“We Started A Nightclub”: The Birth of the Pyramid
Cocktail Lounge as Told by Those Who Lived It.
The Segal Theatre, 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA
Panel discussion with John Jesurun, Kestutis Nakas, Peter Littlefield, Samoa Moriki, Julie Hair, and John Kelly. Moderated by Frank Hentschker.
“We Started a Nightclub” is an insider’s look at the cultural history of the East Village in the early 1980s. The project, which began in 2006, represents the only in-depth exploration of the Pyramid’s origins. An oral history comprising more than 75 interviews, it covers the early years of the Pyramid from the time of its founding through its rise, near demise, and rebirth. The book includes previously unpublished photos, flyers, and other ephemera, as well as excerpts from more than 50 press releases written between 1983 and 1986. A mixture of cultures: from groundbreaking, irreverent theater and experimental music to “anti-drag” that challenged the norms of gender binaries, it began in 1981 when the East Village was considered a dangerous no-man’s-land, rents were cheap, and AIDS was still unknown.
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5. Liliana Porter, FF Alumn, at Sicardi/Ayers/Bacino, Houston, TX, opening May 18
Sicardi/Ayers/Bacino is pleased to present A Question of Scale, our eleventh solo exhibition featuring the work of contemporary artist Liliana Porter [b. 1941, Argentina], in our main gallery. The exhibition features a selection of the artist’s recent assemblages that showcase Porter’s visual exploration of time, space and the limits of representation. A text by Fernando Castro R. accompanies the exhibition.
https://ennouncement.exhibit-e.com/t/y-l-mljtyjk-jdtljdijtd-i
Liliana Porter
https://ennouncement.exhibit-e.com/t/y-l-mljtyjk-jdtljdijtd-d
Please join us for an opening reception with the artist on Saturday, May 18 from 6-8pm.
“With respect to the scale of the object in relation to its space, the smallness serves to underscore the infinite nature of the ‘place’ and the ‘aloneness’ of any entity or person.”
Liliana Porter
By mismatching the scale of her chosen objects and engaging human-like figurines in impossible tasks, Liliana Porter sheds light on the human condition. Moreover, the random groupings of objects and figurines in a decontextualized white pictorial space invite the viewer to question their roles and identities, and our own.
As Castro states, “When confronting one of Liliana Porter’s works, the viewer must be ready for a line to come out of its two-dimensional support and continue as a thread onto our three-dimensional home. Although her cultural allusions range from Mickey Mouse and Pinocchio to René Magritte and Elvis Presley, by her own admission, her work deals primarily with issues of time, space, and the limits of representation. The media of her artistic production is manifold —acrylic paint, graphite, sand, yarn, lithography, etching, collage, found objects, plastic or porcelain figurines, photography, video, and even theater. At times, her different media come together as assemblages, or they stay as pristine a tool of communication as they were meant to be.”
Drawing parallels between Porter’s decidedly motley groupings of characters and objects and the “alternative classifications to well-entrenched natural classes” employed by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, Castro notes “what is Borges-like about these motley groupings of Porter figurines is nothing less than the ways we make rigorous sense of the world — i.e., that indeed, that there are different ways to reclassify the world although not every single one ‘works’— ”some groupings being intriguing at best… The representational lie is a constant in Porter’s oeuvre, and scale is part of the fib, but so are the myriad imagined improbable dialogues that she proposes between figurines representing different ontological categories: invented fantasies, imagined realities, accepted fictions, popular beliefs, iconic personalities, etc.”
Liliana Porter’s work is included in many major collections including the Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, USA; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Texas, USA; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, New York, USA; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC, USA; Tate Modern, London, England, UK; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York, USA.
For more information, contact Will Isbell at william@sicardi.com and Mónica Hernández at monica@sicardi.com or call the gallery at 713-529-1313.
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6. Galinsky, FF Alumn, at Jefferson Market Library, Manhattan, May 17
An Encore Performance/Vigorous Reading of Galinsky’s new solo show “Everything In New York Goes BANG!”
EARLY SHOW, Friday May 17th, 2024, 5:30pm door 6pm curtain,Free Admission
Jefferson Market Library, 425 6th Ave. (at 10th St.) NYC
Galinsky’s one-man show, “Everything in New York Goes BANG!,” was staged to a sold out Jefferson Market Library in January of this year, and now returns from a sold out show at the Lee Strasberg Institute in Hollywood, for another one night only performance Friday May 17th
http://www.everythinginnewyorkgoesbang.com
“Galinsky’s ‘BANG!’ is touching, sweet, grungy, and saturated with humor. The word play has a musicality to it that is likened to the beat poets of the 50s and at times, dips into the coolness and complexity of a Charlie Parker bebop jazz piece.” Mark Schoenfeld, Creator of “Brooklyn the Musical”
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7. LAPD, FF Alumns, at Gladys Park, Los Angeles, CA, May 25, and more
Los Angeles Poverty Department Presents
Walk the Talk 2024
Saturday, May 25, noon — 4 pm
LAPD’s parade/ performance celebrates people who live and work in Skid Row.
They rock the community and love the neighborhood.
(Los Angeles, CA) — Put on your high heeled sneakers — make that your walking / dancing shoes — and get ready for Los Angeles Poverty Department’s (LAPD) 2024 “Walk the Talk” parade/performance, celebrating people who love the community and prove it every day. Jubilation is the cadence of the parade, with the Everything With Soul New Orleans style brass band leading the way. Portraits by artist Hayk Makhmuryan will be carried aloft as the parade dances through neighborhood streets from one performance site to the next. Below, are this year’s “Walk the Talk” honorees, whose stories will be told in scenes created and performed by LAPD’s Skid Row resident performers. Walk the Talk is a high energy blast and an exercise in place keeping. This is a celebration of Skid Row as a community, a neighborhood and its profound ideas and initiatives. The honorees are chosen by their peers —the residents of the Skid Row neighborhood. Performance sites are chosen by honorees as THE PLACE that means the most to them and their work.
On Saturday May 25, the performance/parade begins at noon at the Skid Row History Museum & Archive, 250 S. Broadway, in downtown LA, and concludes at Gladys Park, 808 E. 6th Street. A map of the parade route is on LAPD’s website, here.
https://www.lapovertydept.org/projects/walk-the-talk/walk-the-talk-2024/
Clancey Cornell began her engagement in Skid Row as a volunteer at the LAMP arts studio (now the People Concern’s Studio 526) and then with LAPD, where she’s played an important role as the first archivist at the Skid Row History Museum & Archive and in producing the Festival for All Skid Row Artists.
Kayo Anderson. From Detroit, Kayo is a former Skid Row resident and dedicated to the well-being of all Black and oppressed people using music and the arts as a medium for individual and community wellness and growth. Currently, he is the minister of music and artistic development with The Row Church Without Walls and Creating Justice LA.
Lorinda Hawkins Smith transitioned from being homeless in Skid Row to housed and completed an MBA from the University of Phoenix. She’s an actor, singer, video maker, author, playwright, and advocate against domestic violence. Currently Lorinda has leading roles with the Open Mic at the Skid Row History Museum and was the MC of the Festival for All Skid Row Artists.
“Mama” Linda Leigh is an artist who creates rituals and ceremonies integrating song, the written word and visual art for healing and consciousness raising. She has been involved with Street Symphony, Urban Voices Project, Studio 526, Skid Row Coffee, LA CAN Food and Wellness Committee, Skid Row Community Refresh Spot and the Skid Row Action Plan.
Adelene Bertha grew up in Skid Row, and was part of the United Coalition East Prevention Project (UCEPP) youth program. Currently she is a Senior Peer Support Specialist with LA’s Downtown Women’s Center and Co-chair of the LA City Skid Row Park Advisory Board.
“Downtown” Gary Brown is a musician and painter, active for 20+ years in Skid Row. In 2023 his work was showcased at The Grove L.A and is currently at The Wende Museum. He doesn’t toot his own horn — well, he does amazing toots on his saxophone (and jingles those piano keys) but he’s very humble and quiet about his talent.
Sieglinde von Deffner is L.A. County Skid Row coordinator for the Department of Health Services. Sieglinde has helped lots of folks get off the streets and get services. She is always keeping an eye out for the most vulnerable people that she has sheltered.
Sir Oliver brings the community together in the spirit of Bob Marley, but more so in the spirit of knitting the community and arts together in the most grassroots approach. He has produced numerous Bob Marley Day, and Jamaican Independence Day festivals in Skid Row. Oliver is responsible for the City of LA’s recognition of Bob Marley Day.
Biennially, since 2012, LAPD has produced “Walk the Talk,” celebrating Skid Row community builders, chosen by a vote of Skid Row community members.
Performance- and interview videos of all Walk the Talk honorees generated throughout the project’s 12-year history are available online on the Skid Row History Museum & Archive’s dedicated website.
https://app.reduct.video/lapd/walk-the-talk
Additional materials are accessible in the Museum’s archive, which is open to the public Tuesday and Thursday: 10am-6pm, Friday from 12-5pm and by appointment, skidrowarchive@lapovertydept.org Visit https://www.lapovertydept.org/ for more information.
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Thank you to our supporters
“Walk the Talk” 2024 project activities are made possible with support from California Arts Council and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and LA County Department of Arts and Culture as part of Creative Recovery LA funded by the American Rescue Plan. LAPD programs are supported by The Ahmanson Foundation; Annenberg Foundation; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, California Humanities, The Kindle Project; Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; and Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. LAPD is a member of Los Angeles Visual Arts Coalition (LAVA) and Skid Row Arts Alliance.
About Los Angeles Poverty Department
Los Angeles Poverty Department is a multi-disciplinary arts organization that produces and presents artworks and events that instantiate the existence of the Skid Row community—affirming its assets, advocating for its rights, and supporting its aspirations. LAPD projects interweave theatrical performances, exhibitions, publications, public conversations, and cultural events. Programs are developed, produced, and performed collaboratively with Skid Row community members. Founded in 1985 by John Malpede, LAPD was the first performance group in the nation made up principally of homeless people, and the first arts program of any kind for homeless people in Los Angeles.
Skid Row History Museum & Archive Information
Since 2015, LAPD has operated the Skid Row History Museum & Archive in downtown Los Angeles. In addition to being a primary venue for the presentation of LAPD artworks, the Museum partners with Skid Row organizations and individuals to provide free space for their civic and cultural activities. Our community archive documents the 50+ year history of activism and agency in Skid Row. Located at 250 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, 90012, the Museum is open to the public Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 2-5 pm and by appointment, info@lapovertydept.org. Visit https://www.lapovertydept.org/ for more information. All are welcome. Admission is free.
Contact: Pamela Miller, pamela@lapovertydept.org
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8. Alexander Hahn, FF Alumn, at Kunst(Zeug)Haus, Rapperswil, Switzerland, thru April 6, 2025 and more
My Garden, group show, April 28 2024 – April 06 2025
Please visit: https://kunstzeughaus.ch/unser-programm/agenda/agenda/eventdetail/333/101/ausstellung-mein-garten
Alte Fabrik, Rapperswil/Switzerland: Page #2, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, group show, April 17 – June 16, 2024
Please visit: https://www.alte-fabrik.ch/we-the-parasites-page-2/
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9. Jay Critchley, FF Alumn, at Skoke Gallery, South Boston, MA and online, May 23
Greetings,
You are invited! to my exhibition, Democracy of the Land: Patriotism, with the opening reception Thursday, May 23 from 6:00-8:00 pm at SKOKE Gallery, 840 Summer Street, South Boston, MA.
The show runs from May 13 – June 28, 2024
Looking forward to seeing you there.
Be well, Jay
SPOKE presents
Jay Critchley’s solo exhibition, Democracy of the Land: Patriotism
May 13 through June 28, 2024
Reception: Thursday, May 23rd 6-8pm
Hybrid Panel Discussion (Zoom & in-person): May 23rd 6:30pm
Please visit www.spokeart.org to register to attend the Panel Discussion via online/Zoom
Gallery and connected events are free and open to the public
Gallery Hours by Appointment (Please email at least two days in advance- info@spokeart.org)
Spoke’s Gallery is proud to present Jay Critchley’s first solo exhibition in Boston. Jay is a longtime Provincetown multidisciplinary and performance artist, writer and activist. His show at SPOKE entitled, Democracy of the Land: Patriotism, takes a deep dive into his singular, penetrating work with his historic exploration of the roots of American identity and the occupied landscape and its mythology.
Spoke, in-conjunction with the exhibition, is hosting a hybrid panel discussion (Zoom & in-person), Democracy of the Land, on May 23rd at 6:30pm. The panelists are artists Jay Critchley (Bio below), L’Merchie Frazier, James Ari Montford and Robert Peters. The panel will be moderated by curator Kathleen Bitetti.
The artist’s project critiques poet Robert Frost’s unabashedly Colonialist poem, The Gift Outright: “The land was ours before we were the land’s.”
The centerpiece of the exhibition is a 10’h x 15’w wall-size American flag, tarred and feathered, lit with white light “stars,” referencing patriotism to embrace and nurture the Land for our mutual survival.
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10. James Casebere, FF Alumn, at T Space Archive Gallery, Rhinebeck, NY, July 20-Oct. 13
James Casebere
James Casebere’s work has always been about architecture, and from the start, he has built models to photograph. In the late ’80s, and early ‘90’s, Casebere built larger sculptural installations, but only recently has felt compelled to design new structures — first, specifically for photographs, but secondly, to imagine these new structures built in real space.
For this exhibition, Casebere will present a new series of large-scale wooden geometric sculptures titled Battle Beetle, whose processes reference architectural model-making. Casebere wanted to engage notions of synthetic nature in a way related to what is being referred to as bio-design — mimicking forms in nature — self-generating forms that suggest organic growth, even if geometric in this case.
The impulse behind the sculpture was, for Casebere, partly about real life experience instead of on screen, and the materiality, space, and use of light — crafting an analog experience that engages all the senses in a social context, similar to his Pavillion for 2 or 3 in Chatham, NY. Battle Beetle and its offspring, were created for an indoor gallery or domestic space related to, but not participatory and public like the pavilion. The use of burnt bamboo as a material was an embrace of traditional methods of wood preservation and sustainable wood products.
Casebere elected to use a material that was not so cold, constructing it out of planar surfaces, similar to model making. He decided to burn bamboo plywood, using the Japanese method known as Su Shugi Ban because of its soft and nontoxic qualities and associations. The burning preserves the wood, and while on one hand, suggests something destructive, it creates something warm, soft, and organic versus toxic, shiny or cold. Casebere embraces a vernacular tradition while using sustainable materials.
In the process, Casebere refers both to the past and the future: making associations with the warm and familiar, the traditional, as well as the future and its scary potential. The term Battle Beetle refers to the Spongy Beetles that attack the oaks and other trees around his residence, and perhaps the Japanese Beetle, another invasive bug decimating our forests.
There will be a concurrent exhibition of Casebere’s new photography on view at Sean Kelly Gallery in NYC from June 27 — August 1, 2024.
T Space Archive Gallery, 60 Round Lake Road, Rhinebeck NY 12572, Sundays 11am-5 pm plus Extended hours and special programming for Upstate Art Weekend: July 20-21.
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11. Norm Magnusson, FF Alumn, in front of the
Whitney Museum of American Art, Manhattan
FF alumn Norm Magnusson places permanent guerilla protest AR(t) in front of Whitney Museum
Using the latest Augmented Reality (AR) software, artist Norm Magnusson has expanded his renowned “On This Site Stood” series with installations on college campuses all over the U.S. and, most recently, in front of the Whitney Museum of American Art, where he is protesting any and all involvement by the museum or its sponsors and board members in the machinery of war and oppression.
If you’re at the Whitney and want to experience this intervention, click here:
https://scvngr.app/09HVGmz6nJb
For an example of Magnusson’s AR(t) that you can view in your own space:
https://scvngr.app/kUceqN9PnJb
For more details about this project and Magnusson, visit:
https://apointedstick.blogspot.com
Or track him down on ig: @NormMagnusson
He doesn’t say when, or if, the AR(t) will come down.
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12. M. Lamar, FF Alumn, at Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, June 15
Then in mid-June, 2018 SFCF and collective Queer Trash present the next evolution of their Symposium series 6/15 https://issueprojectroom.org/event/queer-trash-symposium-2nd-david-grollman-m-lamar-and-qiujiang-levi-lu
Featuring experimental artists 2nd, David Grollman, M. Lamar, and Qiujiang Levi Lu. Exploring improvised sound interpolated with dialogue, the artists will variously debate, elevate and discard questions of queerness, aesthetics, and community/communities within the arts, within a performance format developed over the preceding week by the participating artists and Queer Trash founders Michael Foster & Richard Kamerman. IssueProjectRoom.org
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13. Todd Ayoung, FF Alumn, now online at LaborArtReview.net
Hello all,
Sorry about the last email I sent out about the journal.
The first LAR site had technical and naming issues.
It is now called Labor Art Review.
Check it out. I have a piece in it:
Very best and have a wonderful summer,
Todd Ayoung
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14. Jeff McMahon, Bob Holman, FF Alumns, now online at AnthemToUs.org
Jeff McMahon, FF alum, lyrics chosen as 1 of 8 finalists for the Anthem To US competition. The ultimate 3 finalists will be announced on May 20th. A major pleasure of this process was getting to work with Bob Holman as our workshop leader! more details here: https://anthemtous.org/
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15. R Sikoryak, FF Alumn, at The Society of Illustrators, Manhattan, May 22
Carousel on Wednesday, May 22 at The Society of Illustrators in NYC
The long-running live comics series returns to the Society with six exciting guest cartoonists!
Featuring presentations of graphic novels and comics as performed and read by the artists:
Juliette Collet
Emily Flake
Hyesu Lee
Jonah Newman
Daisy Ruiz
Bishakh Som
Hosted by: R. Sikoryak
The event will be followed by a book signing.
Wednesday, May 22 at 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Society of Illustrators, 128 East 63rd Street, New York, NY 10065
$15 general, $10 members, $7 seniors/students
Tickets and details:
https://societyillustrators.org/event/carousel-comics-performances/
Artist bios:
Juliette Collet is the creator of the comics series Blah Blah Blah and is part of the exhibit “Made In New York” at the Society of Illustrators.
www.instagram.com/juliettecollet/
Emily Flake is a cartoonist, writer, illustrator and performer living in Brooklyn, NY. Her work appears regularly in the New Yorker, the Nib, McSweeney’s, and many other publications. She is the author of “Joke in a Box: How to Write and Draw Jokes.” She is also the founder of St. Nell’s Humor Writing Residency, a residency for women and NB people working in humor-related fields. You can find her at www.emilyflake.com and www.stnells.com.
Jonah Newman is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist and editor. He is the debut author-illustrator of Out Of Left Field, one of Publishers Weekly’s top 10 most anticipated young adult graphic novels for Spring 2024.
www.instagram.com/jonahnewmancomics/
Daisy Ruiz is the IGNATZ 2023 winner for outstanding comic, “Gordita: Built Like This”. Ruiz uses comics to tell stories of nuanced moments of her upbringing. Ruiz exhibited “Gordita” for her first solo show at Casita Maria. Ruiz exhibited her second show in collaboration with the students at Girls Club, “Chibi Paper Dolls: Friends & Fam”. Her comics have been exhibited at Latinx Project NYU And has received numerous grants including the BRIO & The Enfoco Media Arts Fund. She’s been featured on Telemundo, Bronxnet.TV, and the Mott Haven News. www.instagram.com/draizys
Hyesu Lee is an illustrator, cartoonist, and muralist originally from South Korea and now living and working in Brooklyn. “My art is driven by a curiosity about how people connect. Growing up, I never knew how best to communicate with those around me. But drawing people—observing and learning about them—is my way of connecting. Art, after all, has no language barrier. I believe that anything warm and cheerful is contagious.” www.instagram.com/heyheysu/
Bishakh Som is an Indian-American trans femme visual artist, author, and ex-architect. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, MoMA.org, The Boston Review, and many queer and not necessarily queer comix anthologies. Her graphic novel Apsara Engine (The Feminist Press) is the winner of a 2020 L.A. Times Book Prize for Best Graphic Novel and a 2020 Lambda Literary Award winner for Best LGBTQ Comics. Her graphic memoir Spellbound (Street Noise Books) was also a 2021 Lambda Literary Award finalist.
www.bishakh.com
Cartoonist R. Sikoryak is the author of the graphic novel Constitution Illustrated, and he drew the comic books that appear in Tom Hanks’ novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece. He’s hosted Carousel since 1997.
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16. m Burgess, FF Alumn, at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Manhattan, thru July 19
I Heard a Fly Buzz
May 8—July 19, 2024
Opening May 8, 6-8 pm
m Burgess, Thomas Pihl, Howard Smith
Curated by Deric Carner
EFA Studios presents I Heard a Fly Buzz, an exhibition featuring three EFA Member Artists who conceive of abstraction in distinct ways. The experience of viewing abstraction can lead you to a formal analysis or questioning of the artist’s biography and technique. Or incredulity that the artist has forsaken any sensible imagery. Here I invite you to pause and reflect on your own being, as you stand before works that are each finite and exact, and do not demand interpretation—though plenty are offered. What the works ask is quiet attention and an openness to letting go. Listen to the fly which buzzes with life, short that it may be.
Howard Smith, who has been a member of the Studio Program since 2000, makes paintings that explore brush strokes and grid structures. His practice connects to abstract expressionism in its foundation as an embodied practice of applying paint as a trace of the artist’s action. His paintings are developed in grouping or families of works, which are continued over many years, delving into variations of color, shape, and stroke. His paintings slowly unfold for the viewer, inviting us to examine the movement and energy of each painting in relation to the group and the walls that hold them. Smith is minimal in his approach to painting, focusing on continual mark-making across surfaces and time.
Thomas Pihl is a Norwegian-born artist who has been in New York City since 1994 when he came for graduate school. He is known for his minimalist color field paintings with lush glowing edges and light-filled centers. Equally intriguing are his drawings that explore form and presence in a looser manner. His paintings are often dramatic and seductive, but trouble viewers with their emphatic denial of representational subject matter. The smooth frosted surface belies their elaborate handmade production. They could be “about light and opacity” however, like Howard Smith’s paintings, they are most impactful when the viewer confronts existential questions like: Who am I, standing in front of this formation pointing only to itself? Or, can I let go of my material needs and ego and exist within this painting?
Coming from a conceptual installation and photographic background, m Burgess uses small format painting as a way to circumvent language and as a means of letting go into direct experience. The works on paper are not made with a result in mind nor are they expected to be interpreted in a strictly visual or verbal manner. These abstractions are teeming with indexical content and materials linked to the artist’s awareness while painting. Listening to birds and trees and rivers as they work is as important to them as the sounds made by the human voice. Rather than rejecting content, the paintings absorb a surfeit of references and connections to the living world. The viewer is left to buzz over territories that lack a fixed orientation or legend.
In sharp contrast, a set of vertically stacked white letterforms spells out a message to be read from the ground upwards: EARTH AS WITNESS. Sprouting from the letter “W” and read horizontally are the words, “WET LIGHT.” By providing the illusion of a direct statement, Burgess relies upon ambiguities of interpretation to draw upon the abstract qualities of language.
Emily Dickinson’s poem I heard a Fly buzz – when I died, referenced in the show’s title, is about the weightiness of death contrasted by the flighty transcendence of a fly buzzing about a deathbed. Tears and the practical matters of inheritance are interrupted by the seemingly pesky fly, the buzz perhaps an irritating final experience. Or the fly is a reminder of the joyous, senseless energy that confounds our existence.
For all inquiries, please contact Deric Carner at deric@efanyc.org.
The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA) is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit public charity. Through its three core programs, EFA Studios, EFA Project Space, and EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, EFA is dedicated to providing artists across all disciplines with space, tools and a cooperative forum for the development of individual practice. EFA is a catalyst for cultural growth, stimulating new interactions between artists, creative communities, and the public. Our mission is maximized by fostering diversity in all its aspects.
Here is a link to some of m Burgess’ work:
https://www.studios-efanyc.org/m-burgess
Thank you.
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17. Peter Downsbrough, FF Alumn, at Labor Neunzehn, Berlin, Germany, opening May 16, and more
at KAMERA SERIES | fourth edition | N° 9
PETER DOWNSBROUGH | Berlin, 16-21 May 24
Giuliana Prucca — AVARIE | Salon Berlin, 12 May 24
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© Peter Downsbrough, A Place to Be, 26:46 min, b/w, sound, u-matic, 1977 — courtesy of argos centre for audiovisual arts
AVARIE in collaboration with LABOR NEUNZEHN is very pleased to invite you to the fourth edition and ninth appointment of
KAMERA SERIES | experimental films and printed matter
a screening program and exhibition of moving images, video art works and artists’ books in a former GDR building in Berlin, focusing on critical exchanges about contemporary image making.
KAMERA SERIES | N° 9
PETER DOWNSBROUGH
17 — 21 May 2024, 2 — 6 pm (Sunday closed)
Exhibition opening and launch of KAMERA CAHIER N° 9
Thursday, 16 May 2024, from 6 pm
LABOR NEUNZEHN
Kiefholzstr. 19/20
12435 BERLIN
2nd backyard | 4th floor | room 11/12
Free entry
Program kamera-n°9
Updates FB event | @avarie.publishing | @laborneunzehn
#kameraseries #kameracahiers
© Peter Downsbrough, Now With in Three Parts, 6:05 min, color, sound, u-matic, 1983 — courtesy of argos centre for audiovisual arts
Peter Downsbrough (New Jersey, US, 1940) lives and works in Brussels (Belgium). Associated with major international art movements such as minimal art, conceptual art, and visual poetry, his work spans across various mediums including sculpture, wall pieces and room pieces, books, work on paper, photography, film, and video. The work, which has affinities with architecture and typography, explores the traditional use of space and language, while criticizing power structures, e.g. urbanism, that influence social interactions and shape the landscape. Using mostly black and white and a reduced visual vocabulary such as words, lines, and geometric figures, his artistic process offers a reflection on the notions of position, framing, displacement, and interstitial spaces.
Peter Downsbrough is represented by Angels, Barcelona; Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston; Thomas Zander, Cologne. His films are distributed by Argos Centre for audiovisual arts, Brussels. Since 1972, he has been exhibiting regularly in the United States and Europe.
For a selection of his works, exhibitions and publications
http://krakowwitkingallery.com
© Archivio Tipografico, Turin 2024
KAMERA CAHIERS are special edition issues, accompanying
KAMERA SERIES | experimental films and printed matter.
Independent artists’ booklets to collect, curated and designed by Giuliana Prucca and Valentina Besegher Scotti, they compile a missing image or an unreleased second of a film, expanded to 24 pages, and perfomed writings coming from texts, scripts, books, notes. They contain a small piece directly removed from the exhibition.
Published in 75 numbered copies by AVARIE and Labor Neunzehn, cahiers’ covers are printed in letterpress by Archivio Tipografico with lead typeface Magister designed by Aldo Novarese in 1966.
Available on AVARIE website or by contacting us at
info@avarie-publishing.com | info@kamera-series.com
Launch price for KAMERA CAHIER N° 9 [until the end of the show]
Special offers subscribing to this year 2 issues
Please note that issues 1 through 8 from previous years’ series are sold out. Feel free to contact us if you would like assistance finding an available issue or if you’re interested in subscribing for 2 issues this year.
KAMERA is a series curated by
AVARIE | a Paris-Berlin based independent publisher, specializing in contemporary art books and exploring the relationship between texts and images, body and space.
avariepublishing.cargo.site
Labor Neunzehn | an artist-run project engaged in a cross-disciplinary discourse on time-based-art that involves expanded cinema, modern music, publishing, and critical reflection in media art.
KAMERA is kindly supported by Dezentrale Kulturarbeit Berlin-Treptow.
giuliana prucca | AVARIE and SNATURAMENTI artist talk | berlin
Delighted to have been invited by curators Vanina Saracino and Helene Romakin to present our artistic and publishing practice at the Salon they host in Schöneberg, Berlin on Sunday, May 12, 2024 from 6 to 9 pm.
Founded in 2012 in Paris, AVARIE is an independent publishing house that sees books as a space for research and creation in close collaboration with artists and graphic designers, at the outskirts of commercial production. Its publications were exhibited internationally and selected for the Author’s Book Award at Rencontres d’Arles, Prix Bob Calle du Livre d’artiste (Paris), Oggetto Libro (Milan), and were honored with the SMC Award by Printed Matter (NY/LA) in 2020.
On May 12, Giuliana’s presentation will focus on her latest project, Snaturamenti | a workbook by Flatform on displacement, co-published with Light Cone. This book is the most mature example of the concept underpinning Giuliana’s publishing practice: shifting from one medium to another in order to question the status of the image, disrupting the representational system, and challenging the conventional form of the book, transforming it into a place for experimentation.
Flatform is a Milan-Berlin based collective artist that creates time-based works, film events, and installations, most of which revolve around landscape and biopolitics. Their work A Place to Come (7’21”, 2011) will be screened during the event.
Please contact us, if you would like more information and to participate in the event, thank you!
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18. Elizabeth Murray, FF Alumn, at Gladstone 64, Manhattan, thru June 12
“Letter To Elizabeth”
Elizabeth Murray
Drawings (1974-2006): Curated by Kathy Halbreich April 30 — June 12, 2024
Opening Reception: April 30, 5pm – 7pm
Gladstone64
130 E 64 St NYC
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19. Agnes Denes, FF Alumn, at The Menil Collection, Houston, TX, thru Aug. 25 and more
Agnes Denes
Abstraction After Modernism: Recent Acquisitions
The Menil Collection, Houston
Through August 25, 2024
Artistes et paysans. Battre la campagne
Les Abattoirs, Musée — Frac Occitanie
Toulouse, France
through August 25, 2024
RE/SISTERS
FOMU Foto Museum, Antwerp
Through August 18, 2024
Agnes Denes. Exercises in Eco-Logic
Lunds konsthall, Lund, Sweden
June 1 — August 25, 2024
Extreme Tension: Art between
Politics and Society 1945–2000
Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
through September 28, 2025
How is Life? — Designing For Our Earth
Toto Museum, Kitkyushu, Japan
through October 3, 2024
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20. Helene Aylon, FF Alumn, at FOMU Foto Museum, Antwerp, Belgium, thru Aug. 18 and more
Helene Aylon
RE/SISTERS
FOMU Foto Museum, Antwerp
March 29 — August 18, 2024
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21. Greg Sholette, FF Alumn, launches online Labor Art Review
Labor Art Review
Introducing a new project about Art, Imagination, and Left Labor Politics
LAR asks that you seriously consider the beauty, as well as the necessity, of artists once again addressing the affirmative political power of organized labor, which is now so visibly on the rise in the United States and elsewhere. The contributions found in LAR come from a remarkable array of artists, theorists, art historians and imaginative laborers. In different ways they seek to confront the paralysis of the unpresent that uncanny directionlessness whereby each day appears to be a copy of the previous one, as well as the same all days still to come. Sometimes the subject matter is about labor represented through art, at other times it is artistic labor taken as its own subject. Labor Art Review sits squarely and unabashedly within a pro-labor Left cultural framework, one whose genealogy understands that imaginative labor and organized labor must urgently take steps towards regenerating the ties between them.
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22. Ana Mendieta, Andy Warhol, FF Alumns, now online at NYTimes.com
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/12/arts/design/will-auctions-revive-art-market.html?smid=url-share
Thank you.
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For subscriptions, un-subscriptions, queries and comments, please email mail@franklinfurnace.org
Join Franklin Furnace today:
https://franklinfurnace.org/membership-2023-24/
After email versions are sent, Goings On announcements are posted online at
https://franklinfurnace.org/goings-on/goingson
Goings On is compiled weekly by J-Lynn Rose Torres, FF Intern, Spring 2024
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