Allison Knowles: Clear Skies All Week

Press Release for a show of Alison Knowles' work:

Alison Knowles Clear Skies All Week February 23–April 3, 2011 James Fuentes LLC 55 Delancey Street New York, NY 10002 info@jamesfuentes.com www.jamesfuentes.com Share this announcement on: Facebook | Delicious | Twitter Alison Knowles at James Fuentes LLC, New York James Fuentes LLC is pleased to announce our forthcoming solo exhibition with Alison Knowles. The exhibition will be comprised of sculptural works made from paper and found materials. These materials represent over forty years of Alison Knowles' life in New York City. The works evince an extreme interest in paper—made of raw flax, cotton and abaca fibers, the paper becomes a sculptural element to house an assortment of found objects and the base material for wall panels. As Knowles said in her acceptance statement for the College Art Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, I collect shoe heels …. I am not hunting usually, just rushing to get somewhere like everybody else, but suddenly, Unexpectedly, akin to a found item, a found time opens up…. The heel I pick up. …quickly, offhandedly …gets stashed in my pocket. There is a chemistry peculiar to the mysterious terrain I find myself in at that time…. I love to surf the street…. At home it gets cleaned, studied, it is drawn in silhouette, perhaps screen-printed with the name of an animal…. You know the worn shoe heels cannot be bought. Not for sale anywhere. Isn't it special to have recognized the energy expended in a shoe heel.[1] Knowles is best known as a founding member of Fluxus and, notably, was the first woman to participate in Fluxus. Knowles studied with Joseph Albers and Richard Lindner and graduated from Pratt University in 1954. Earlier this year, Knowles performed "Identical Lunch" at MoMA, NY. Recent group exhibitions include; Contemporary Art from the Collection, organized by Kathy Halbreich and Christophe Cherix, MoMA, NY, 2011 and The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860 –1989, organized by Alexandra Munroe at the Guggenheim Museum, NY, 2009. In 2010 Knowles was a Frieda L. Miller Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. James Fuentes LLC, founded in 2007, is a contemporary art gallery based in the lower east side of Manhattan, New York City. [1] Originally quoted in Julia Robinson, "The Sculpture of Indeterminacy: Alison Knowles's Bean and Variations," College Art Association Journal, 2004.

The Peak of Chic on Roberto Capucci

I was just reading my sister's blog and was introduced to a designer who I thought would interest you. The post is labeled Roberto Capucci: Art into Fashion and can be found at the link below:

http://www.thepeakofchic.com/

His work is amazingly sculptural and for those of you interested in using the sewing machines in various ways, the images are very inspiring. Enjoy!

Links

Trailer for a film on Samuel Mockbee: http://www.vimeo.com/9182260

Nick Cave's Sound Suits: http://www.vimeo.com/14490514

Mella Jaarsma: www.mellajaarsma.com

Some additional images of quilts from Gee's Bend: http://www.quiltsofgeesbend.com/quilts/index_quilts_exhibitions.shtml

Kathryn Spence at Stephen Wirtz Gallery: http://www.wirtzgallery.com/works/spence/2000/spence_2000_frame.html

Project Item

Here is the object I want to transform. It is a child's easel painted black.  I want to dismantle it and rearrange the pieces.  On the main surface I want to add something that relates to my father's statement "You will starve" when I told him I wanted to grow up and be an artist.  I was thinking little sewn packets of rice and beans.

Assignment #1

Manipulating Objects: Creative Reuse

Assignment #1

The following are meant to serve as inspiration but feel free to come up with your own project.

1. Take an object you are interested in, dismantle it and reconstruct it in another manner. You can add other objects to it, build an armature of a different scale and shape as the original object, and adhere the parts to it. Think about why you have chosen this object and how reconstructing it might give it new meaning.

2. Pick an artwork you are interested in and make a work to be in conversation with that piece. It might be a contemporary take on a sculpture from antiquity or a remake of a contemporary sculpture you find interesting or otherwise. Think about why you are interested in this work and what your piece might add to contemporary artistic dialogue in relation to the original work.

3. Combine photographic imagery within or on a three dimensional form. This could be in the form of collage or it could even be a projection onto an object. Think about the work of Rachel Harrison, Will Rogan, and Christian Marclay.

Use one or more of the following techniques:

Cardboard construction, drilling, sewing, sandblasting, gluing

Artists using cardboard

Links to the work we looked at this past week:

Joshua Short: http: www.joshuashort.com

Ann Weber: www.donnaseagergallery.com/artists/ann_weber/index.htm

Eva Hesse

Laura suggested the Eva Hesse show at the UC Berkeley Art Museum.  This show is very different the large retrospective held several years ago at SFMOMA.  The pieces are like exploratory sketches.  There is also one of her large works hung in a gallery upstairs.  Worth a visit.  And the Berkeley Art Museum is a fantastic, if fragile, structure.