Curators' Notebook
Curator's Notebook is a ongoing collection of links, events, artists, and cultural refuse the SculptureCenter staff has recently found of interest.
Apr 2, 2010
Ursula von Rydingsvard and David Smith
Ursula von Rydingsvard, Droga, 2009. David Smith, Installation view, 2010
Images via www.galerielelong.com and www.gagosian.com
Ursula von Rydingsvard: Erratus
March 18 - May 1, 2010
Galerie Lelong
David Smith
February 26 - April 10, 2010
Gagosian Gallery
On the Chelsea front, I recommend Ursula von Rydingsvard: Erratus at Galerie Lelong. Suggesting geologic, domestic, and organic forms, these works are monumental but far from static. They are simultaneously formidable and vulnerable. Nota bene: Von Rydingsvard will be the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the SculptureCenter opening in January, 2011.
Also, be sure to see David Smith at Gagosian Gallery. The five works on view are all from the early sixties and suggest connections between architecture, landscape and human form. This small but focused show not only reminds us why Smith is so influential but also how a few well chosen works can make a very engaging and complex show.
-MC
Mar 26, 2010
John Bock and Charlene von Heyl
John Bock, Untitled (dance lecture), 2010 - performance detail. Charlene von Heyl, Woman #2, 2009
Images via www.antonkerngallery.com and www.petzel.com
John Bock
Feb 27 - Apr 3, 2010
Anton Kern Gallery
Charlene von Heyl
March 18 - May 1, 2010
Friedrich Petzel
When next in Chelsea, check out two significant solo shows currently on view. Following a memorable opening night live performance, Untitled (dance lecture), John Bock's most recent solo exhibition at Anton Kern features hard and soft, noisome and mesmerizing, debased and charmed. It closes April 3rd. Charlene von Heyl unveils a new painting series at Friedrich Petzel (through May 1st) that intensifies, ruptures, and ultimately extends the dialogue with her recent works on paper, including her unforgettable 2008 book project Sabotage. A side-note of interest is von Heyl's isolation of a salient fragment of text by George Didi-Huberman in the description of her show, a noteworthy acknowledgement of one of our most important critical voices.
- FM
Mar 4, 2010
Amazement Park: Stan, Sara and Johannes VanDerBeek
Johannes VanDerBeek, Documentation of Body/Building, 2007. Sanded magazine pages.
Image via http://tang.skidmore.edu/
Amazement Park: Stan, Sara and Johannes VanDerBeek
June 6, 2009 - April 25, 2010
The Tang Museum at Skidmore College - Saratoga Springs, NY
Amazement Park is a yearlong exhibition that combines work by the influential filmmaker and artist Stan VanDerBeek (1927-1984) with work by his daughter Sara VanDerBeek (b. 1976) and son Johannes VanDerBeek (b. 1982). This long overdue institutional exploration of Stan VanDerBeek's work builds upon and extends an impressive exhibition of Stan VanDerBeek's films, collages, and installation works, that was organized by Sara and Johannes VanDerBeek at Guild & Greyshkul just prior to the artist-run gallery closing its doors in December 2008. Organized by the Tang's Curator Ian Berry, the exhibition takes its inspiration from a recombinant exhibition space envisioned by Stan VanDerBeek wherein an exhibition might be collaboratively remade and revised. In this case, the exhibition has shifted every month to include selections from each artist's work, including newly commissioned works by both Sara and Johannes VanDerBeek, formidable artists in their own right. Innovative in spirit, the exhibition is a highly successful example in experimental exhibition making. Amazement Park is on view until the end of April, and well worth the scenic drive up I-87.
- FM
Feb 23, 2010
9 Screens at MoMA
Alejandro Cesarco, Turning Some Pages, 2010. Digital video (color, silent, 13 min.)
Image via www.moma.org
9 Screens
February 3 - May 18, 2010
The Museum of Modern Art
If you normally skip the lines at MoMA and head straight for the members' desk to pick up your admissions tickets, you run the risk of missing one of MoMA's most experimental exhibitions in recent memory. MoMA invited artist Nicolas Guagnini to critique the workings of MoMA from an artist's perspective. the result is a series of 5 videos shown on the screens behind the ticket counter in the lobby. The New York-based artists and collectives in the exhibition are Fia Backström, Alejandro Cesarco, Bernadette Corporation, John Pilson, and Union Gaucha Productions (which Guagnini cofounded). Each video is screened continuously for three weeks and because the work is in the lobby, you need not buy an entrance ticket to see them!
-MC