Founded in 1985, Robert Mann Gallery was the first fine art photography and photo-based arts gallery to move to the Chelsea area and remains one of the preeminent in the world. Through a diverse roster that highlights both a prominent group of contemporary photographic artists including Julie Blackmon and Murray Fredericks and an outstanding collection of twentieth century masters like Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, and Aaron Siskind, our program interrogates the role of photographic medium\u2014to capture or invent, purify or distort, and transgress its own purported limits to take on new identities\u2014and celebrates its unique history.
sue spaid contemporary art museum 14
Talking to Sue Spaid about Ecovention Europe: Art to Transform Ecologies, 1957-2017 at De Domijnen in Sittard. Presenting the work and research of 40 artists, including Agnes Denes, Joseph Beuys, Marjetica Potrč and Nils Norman, it is the biggest museum show on ecological art in The Netherlands in many years.
Sue Spaid: Until I started to dig around, I had always dated ecoventions to Joseph Beuys' 1962 Elbe River Action. By chance (surfing the Internet), I learned of two Willem Sandberg exhibitions Natuur en Kunst (1957) and Van Natuur tot Kunst (1960). I recently went to the Stedelijk's digital archives and literally copied those exhibitions' entire archives onto a thumb drive...they are priceless, as are the related photographs. I don't have enough space to exhibit my entire cache, but I have chosen several key elements, such as photos of the first exhibition, a letter from Sandberg to herman de vries requesting two collages for his 1957 exhibition, and correspondence with Dubuffet and artists' statements in Dutch about their relationship to nature. Of course, these early exhibitions are a long way from land art, let alone ecoventions, yet the museum's requesting the public to regard nature on par with art is a seminal move....Before 1957 nature was dirty and left outside...suddenly it's presented indoors and has "value" like art. Both exhibitions' images are remarkable, even mind-boggling by today's standards. The letters indicate that he too had a lot of community support...and people really seemed to appreciate his approach. He went out of his way to secure Germaine Richier's sculpture, which he described as the "pearl" of his second exhibition. If viewers are expecting historical works in my show, they will be very disappointed. It is the history that is historical, while most works are quite new.
Domeniek Ruyters Even while Agnes Denes is starring at the documenta 14, ecological art still has difficulty reaching the center stage. With all respect to the efforts of De Domijnen in Sittard and its longstanding commitment to the ecological case, it is not the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam while the subjects ask for a lot of attention to make a change. It seems that after land art and arte povera's take on ecology, ecological art has difficulty reaching these bigger museums. Why do museums have difficulty in embracing this kind of art, maybe with the exception of Olafur Eliasson who is not a hardcore ecological artist of course? Is it too specific? Too scientific maybe?
Sue Spaid: I think you are asking three questions, one is art historical (museum curators), one that is pragmatic (commissioning living art for indoors or out), and one that is philosophical. Sandberg's two shows anticipated three Biennale di Venezia exhibitions: Art and Environment, Participation and Cultural Structures (1976), From Nature to Art. From Art to Nature, Nature and Anti-Nature(1978) and Art and Science (1986), and then the topic dropped...The biennale has done more to promote living art than any other institution, perhaps because it takes place in a garden.
I think the first problem is primarily art historical. Most museum curators study to become art historians, and then go to work for a museum. Their foremost familiarity concerns their museum's collection and whatever research they conducted while at university. So long as universities don't have faculty members specialized in land art, art history grads won't be encouraged to specialize in or research eco-art. And if they tell their advisers that they plan to get a museum job, their advisers will definitely not encourage eco-art!!! How can you get a museum job with that focus??? better to do Surrealism or Pop Art... I do know several art historians working in this field (land art/eco-art), but they work as academics, not curators. Several independent curators specialize in this field (not myself, even if it seems like my specialty).
Pragmatically speaking, this kind of art is a nightmare for institutions. They prefer the kind that comes in a box, comes out of a box and then gets returned in a box a few months later. If the artists decide to exhibit something living, the museums are responsible for keeping it alive! If it is living, it might generate insects, dust, vapor, etc. Then there is the issue of commissioning ecoventions, which is another thorny issue, since it demands artists working with politicians, scientists, community members, etc., not to mention securing permits to place the work.
Sue Spaid: No, I don't think Ecovention Europe will change the museum world, but I do hope that it gives younger artists in this field a greater confidence to continue related practices knowing that they are not alone. Most of these artists had no way to connect with their peers working in other countries, especially since this kind of work is rarely exhibited. My first book was online for free in its entirety for 15 years and was widely read, downloaded and translated into many languages. That led to change... several artists in this show were inspired to do what they do because of the artworks I described there...I can only hope that this effect continues to snowball.
This exhibition may rather convince museums that this kind of art is just too difficult to exhibit. Like most of Smithson's works, the real stuff is outdoors, and often far away, though we do have several nearby demonstration ecoventions. Some artists are great at producing nonsites, while others just go for documentation. With the first show, we didn't allow documentation, but with this show I had to give in to documentation. That said, the terrific news is that we just learned that we received Bank Giro Lotterij funding, so all fall, artists will be coming to Sittard to work directly with the people to implement ecoventions in schools, backyards, courtyards, etc...
G.H. Hovagimyan is an absurdist, a strategist, a serial collaborator, and nothing short of a cultural icon in the world of contemporary art, particularly as it relates to how artists have adopted the digital technological tools of our times, adapting them in his work for critique of art, popular culture, and social engagement.
In 1989, Baltimore curator George Ciscle founded The Contemporary in order to foster meaningful exchanges between artists, institutions, and diverse audiences. This nomadic institution quickly developed a reputation for delivering unexpected, challenging, and inspiring encounters with contemporary art by notable artists such as Willie Cole, Alison Saar, and Fred Wilson.
In 1999, The Contemporary rebranded as The Contemporary Museum and moved to 100 W. Centre Street, one block from the Walters Art Museum in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of downtown Baltimore. It organized exhibitions and related programming in that location for nearly ten years and worked with artists such as Dawoud Bey, Chris Burden, Dara Birnbaum, Louise Bourgeois, Futurefarmers, Ellen Gallagher, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Isaac Julien, Christian Marclay, and Soledad Salamé. In 2011, the museum moved out of the W. Centre Street space and returned to the process of facilitating projects in neighboring institutions and buildings.
Today, The Contemporary expand's the idea of a museum into an incubator of inclusive spaces and operates as a generative resource for our city. The Contemporary brings museum caliber artists to Baltimore to develop responsive and risk taking site-specific projects. We offer resources, grant opportunities, and an artist retreat for local artists to develop their practice, and we produce educational programs for a broad public,ranging from middle schoolers to adults.
Sarva Girdhar, M.D. is a board certified surgeon, in practice since 1977, specializing in general surgery, wound care, and veins. His office and practice are located in Westminster, MD. Born and raised in India, Sarva completed his medical studies at the University of Gauhati and the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research before immigrating to the United States in 1971. From 1971-1977, Sarva completed medical residences and fellowships in Baltimore, Dallas, St. Louis as well as Altoona, PA. Sarva is very interested in contemporary art, specifically installation and site-specific works. He is an avid contemporary art collector focusing predominately on Indian and South Asian artists. He lives in Pikesville with his wife Veena.
It includes the commission and production of a collaborative composition by jazz musician Dana Hall; writer/actor/director Cheryl Lynn Bruce; and artist Kerry James Marshall in response to the Richard Wright novel, Native Son. The performances are surrounded by a one-day symposium featuring scholars in historical and contemporary context. The development, curatorial work, and production of the symposium is the primary immediate outcome of my research. This too, was impacted by the pandemic. Originally scheduled for January 15, 2022, at the Logan Center for the Arts, the symposium had to be moved due to the Omicron surge. It is now scheduled for October 7-8, 2022. I am thrilled that an SAIC student team from Management Studio created a remarkable sound installation as an element of the project. More information can be found here: 2ff7e9595c
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