Press Release: Artpace San Antonio Unveils New Works: 07.1:
On View March 8 ?y 13, 2007
03.08.07
For Immediate Release: March 6, 2007
Media Contact: Celina Emery
t 210 212 4900 x323
f 210 212 4990
cemery@artpace.org
www.artpace.org
San Antonio, TX rtpace San Antonio is pleased to announce New Works: 07.1, on view March 8 through May 13, 2007. The exhibition presents new projects by resident artists Glenn Kaino (Los Angeles, California), Robert Pruitt (Houston, Texas), and Katja Strunz (Berlin, Germany). Selected by Debra Singer, Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Kitchen (New York, New York), these three artists seek in their own ways to remix and replay perception and experience through video, photographs, prints, drawings, sculpture, and installation.
About the Artists
Glenn Kaino?Artpace exhibition centers on Quarter Mile (2007), a three-channel video installation that distorts the rhythm of three elite professionals whose renown is a function of their ability to perform at a distinctive speed: jazz musician Olu Dara, driver Kenji Yamanaka, and Olympian Sinjin Smith. Each is presented on a separate flat screen traveling a quarter of a mile; however, at any given moment two are accelerated or slowed to match the tempo of the third. The effect is that each performer transcends the past, arriving at the finish line only to begin again. The film?constant stretching, compressing, and replaying challenges the seemingly fixed nature of time and exemplifies the discrepancy between expectation and actuality.
Houston-based Robert Pruitt?residency project consists of sculpture, drawings, prints, and, for the first time, photographs, that expose and oppose the over-simplification of black culture. Drawing inspiration from sources as disparate as Norman Rockwell and the Black Panthers, Pruitt explores black identity by remixing stereotypes to reflect a richer reality. One sculptural piece, Ujamaa (a Swahili word meaning self-actualization through the collective), is created from plastic figurines of basketball players grouped together to make an East African Makonde-style totem. The figurines are stacked upon each other to structure a column that stands more than four feet tall as a result of the group?effort.
Katja Strunz's emotive steel sculptures depart from the rigidity of their minimalist geometry to explore the development of memory and the cyclic nature of history. In her Artpace installation, Strunz develops a visual landscape through a series of angular sculptures of varying sizes and shapes clustered in the center of the gallery and hanging on the walls. Individually, the sculptures integrate positive and negative space to highlight the intimate relationship between the object and its environs. As a whole, the works offer a visual representation or chronology, suggesting both its rhythmic progression and ephemeral nature.
About the Curator
Since her 2004 appointment as Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Kitchen, Debra Singer organized the first New York exhibition of Walid Raad/The Atlas Group. Previously, Singer served as a Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY since 1997. While there she curated solo exhibitions with Helen Mirra, Paul Pfeiffer, Paul Sietsema, and Sarah Sze, and the sound and performance components of the 2002 Whitney Biennial. She was also a co-organizer of the 2004 Whitney Biennial. Her writings have been included in Artforum, as well as other publications.
Related Events
Opening Reception and Artists?ialogue
Thursday, March 8, 6:00-8:30 PM
Celebrate the completion of new installations by Glenn Kaino, Robert Pruitt, and Katja Strunz. Exhibition preview begins at 6pm, followed by the Artists?ialogue from 6:30-7:30pm moderated by guest curator Debra Singer. A public Opening Reception will take place 7:30-8:30pm.
Brown Bag Lunch
Wednesday, April 11, 12:00-1:00 PM
Join curator Kate Green for a guided tour of New Works 07.1 followed by a brown bag lunch (provided by Sip) and group discussion. Call Artpace for menu and reservations.
Exhibition Information
The New Works: 07.1 exhibitions will be on view at Artpace through May 13, 2007.
New Works: 07.1 is made possible by The National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art; City of San Antonio, Office of Cultural Affairs; The Brown Foundation, Inc.; Nimoy Foundation; and Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy; with additional support from the Texas Commission on the Arts.
About Artpace
Artpace San Antonio serves as a laboratory for the creation and advancement of international contemporary art. Artpace believes that art is a dynamic social force that inspires individuals and defines cultures. Our residencies, exhibitions, and education programs nurture the creative expression of emerging and established artists, while actively engaging youth and adult audiences.
© 2007 Artpace San Antonio
445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org
© 2007 Artpace San Antonio