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EXIT HISTORY:
La Tradicion: Performing Painting
3/22/1997 - 4/26/1997
Curator(s): Papo Colo and Jeanette Ingberman
Artists: Lisa Beck, Susanna Coffey, Papo Colo, David Humphrey,
Sam Gordon, Christopher Knowles, Sean Mellyn, Yigal Ozeri, Joyce
Pensato, David Scher, Nicole Eisenman, Ave Gerber
Exhibition: La Tradicíon: Performing Painting was an exhibition
that explored the theatricality of painting and the poetry of constructing
a metaphysical object. Ten painters transferred their studios to
Exit Art for five weeks. Each artist, while engaged with his/her
own work, simultaneously contributed to a larger, collective creation
- a living, working, interactive installation exploring the artists’ behavior
and creative processes.
Each artist transformed an area of Exit Art into his/her studio
and spent the gallery hours painting. The exhibition brought
the usually private and sacred realm of the studio to view, providing
the public with the unique opportunity to watch painters in action
- surrounded by their media, influences, and inspirations - and
to see their work unfold. In addition to work in progress, La
Tradicíon
included an exhibition of finished paintings by each of the artists.
The exhibition thus involved multiple layers of contemplation
- the painters of their work, the painters of one another, the
public
of the painters and vice versa. It became a study of the performance
of painting, with a portrait of the painter emerging as aspects
of behavior, information about predilections, methods of working,
etc. revealed a living work in progress.
In The Eye Of The Tiger: A Survey of Contemporary Korean Artists
5/28/1997 - 7/5/1997
Curator(s): Yu Yeon Kim
Artists: Yook, Tae Jin, Hong, Sung Min, Lim, Young Sun, Yoon,
Dong Chun, Lee, Seung Teak, Kim, Young Jin, Lim, Choong Sup, Jo,
Sook Jin, Kim, Myoung Hye, Park, Hwa Young
Exhibition: As the inaugural exhibition of Exit Art’s new
yearly international program involving artists and curators from
around the world, In the Eye of the Tiger presented the work of
ten contemporary Korean artists exploring the quest for personal,
spiritual, and social identity within a traditional culture, but
an increasingly global and commercial society.
In the present decade, Korean artists have been quick to embrace
new technologies of communication and the culture of mass media.
The explosive mass-cultural feed of the new information age brings
a new kind of awareness and demands a reassessment of national
and personal identity. Much of recent Korean art explores the problems
of displacement and social alienation, and confronts the cultural
stereotypes and preconceptions of “Orientalism.”
The
work often juxtaposes new technologies against traditional Korean
iconography in order to explore the complex nature of this contemporary,
increasingly global identity.
Collective Action
7/18/1997 - 9/30/1997
Curator(s): Joseph Backstein and Elena Elagina
Artists: Andrei Monastyrsky, Nikita Alexeev, Georgii Kizevalter,
Nikolai Panitkov, Igor Makarevich, Elena Elagina, Sergei Romashko,
Sabine Haensge
Exhibition: Collective Action featured over fifty poster sized
black and white photographs, wall texts, and a video program documenting
works by the influential Russian performance group, Collective
Actions. Under the leadership of theoretician Andrei Monastyrsky,
Collective Actions has been an important influence in the development
of contemporary conceptual and performance art in the Soviet Union.
Formed in 1976, the Collective Actions’ work was vital to
the development of Conceptualism as one of the most influential
movements in Soviet art. As stated by curator Joseph Backstein, “The
Collective Actions group was influenced by the work of Joseph Beuys
and John Cage, the peculiarity of Soviet performance lies in its
attempt to demonstrate the conditional mood of the perception as
such and the evolution of various stereotypes of human behavior
against the background of official ideology. This ideology aimed
at monopolizing the very right to interpret all manifestations
of the Real including its reflections in art. Collective Actions
insists on multiple interpretations.”
All of Collective Actions’ performances took place outdoors,
primarily in the country, and endure in the form of black and white
photographs, video, and commentaries written by the viewers documenting
their impressions of the performances. Linking performance with
ritual, the Collective Actions performances were spiritual acts
aimed to create an atmosphere of unanimity among the participants
and to serve as a vehicle for directing consciousness outside the
boundaries of intellect. The photo images in the exhibition documented
representative scenes of various performances from 1976 to 1990,
recreating the atmosphere, spirit, and significance of the performative
actions of the Collective Actions group.
Publication: Catalogue includes an interview between Andrei Monastyrsky
and Victor Tupitsyn, essays by Victor Tupitsyn, and the curator,
Joseph Backstein, as well as a list of the group’s actions.
Public Notice: Art and Activist Posters 1951-1997
10/4/1997 - 11/30/1997
Curator(s): Papo Colo, Jeanette Ingberman, and Cesar Trasobares
Exhibition: Public Notice was an exhibition examining innovative
poster design in art and culture from the post-War years to the
present. Considering the poster form as a strategy to communicate
information, Public Notice highlighted the intersection of graphic
design, the fine arts, and political activism. This exhibition
included materials created by artists and graphic designers to
be posted in the street and mailed as invitations announcing art
exhibitions and expressing views on social causes and issues.
Posters embody an urgency in method to get the message out forcefully,
and a directness in design, to have an immediate impact. The posters
included represented a broad spectrum of graphic approaches, from
spray-paint and stencil to sophisticated computer techniques. Through
the presentation of these often ephemeral materials, Public Notice
called attention to a rich history of poster design.
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