Artpace San Antonio Unveils 11.1 International Artist-in-Residence Projects

03.24.11

San Antonio, TX - Artpace San Antonio is pleased to announce the unveiling of its 11.1 International Artist-in-Residence projects, opening on March 24, 2011. Guest curator Heather Pesanti, Curator at The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, will present new works by E.V. Day (New York, New York), Devon Dikeou (Austin, Texas), and Kelly Richardson (Newcastle, England/Toronto, Canada), which will be on display to the public through May 22, 2011.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
E.V. Day's installation, CatFight, continues her investigation of issues of femininity through the utilization of garments, accessories, and other objects. At Artpace she utilizes two saber-toothed cat skeletons, silver leaf, and monofilament to create a scene that serve as metaphor for a power struggle or "catfight" between formidable women fighting over territory or dominance. Each figure is ivory in color except for silver leaf adorning their teeth and claws, alluding to accessories that might distinguish a female from a male. The snakes, constructed of aluminum, serve as a masculine foil to the felines' feminine association.

Devon Dikeou's Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys continues her ongoing exploration of the complicated relationships among artists, curators, collectors, spectators, and the art that circulates among them. This time the subject is jazz, widely recognized as America's only native art form. In this exhibition, the artist acts as curator, critic, and detective, and asks that the viewer also take on and learn from these roles. Spanning the length of a constructed wood-paneled wall in the gallery are 56 color photographs arranged in haphazard, multi-layered rows. Each 8x10-inch image depicts a metal nameplate against a wood background, each shiny plate engraved with the first and last name of an American jazz musician. The photographs, which range from clear and crisp to fuzzy and out-of-focus, are mounted on blocks of stained wood and set behind Plexiglas. Dikeou has complemented the installation by collaborating with Sonny Simmons to produce a limited edition CD, Sonny Simmons Quintet Performs the Music of Charlie Parker. Containing covers of the jazz icon's songs and an oral history piece in which Simmons comments on the 56 jazz greats included in the exhibition, the album enriches the work's pervasive themes of homage and remembrance.

Kelly Richardson's Artpace exhibition, Leviathan, consists of a high-definition, triple-channel video installation based on the cypress forest of Caddo Lake along the Texas-Louisiana border. She was drawn to the melancholic landscape of Uncertain, Texas, because of its iconic swamp, arguably one of the most foreboding natural settings in the state. The murky water in Richardson's installation pulsates with unnatural, undulating light that is mesmerizing. Her works often feature unpopulated environments filmed on location, which she color grades or digitally "paints" using technologically advanced computer software. Richardson's process is time intensive and requires a large amount of work to render-or generate-an image from a model using computer programs. Each two-minute clip of high-definition video requires nearly 12 hours of processing and output.

ABOUT THE CURATOR
Since 2008, Heather Pesanti has served as Curator at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, where she has organized curatorial projects including Bad Habits (2009); Artists in Depth: Picasso, Braque, Léger, and Delaunay (2011), and, most recently, Surveyor (2011). She is currently organizing a large-scale historical exhibition on the dynamic cultural scene in Buffalo in the 1970s, scheduled for March 2012 at the Albright-Knox, called Wish You Were Here: The Buffalo Avant-Garde in the 1970s. She is also adjunct professor at the University at Buffalo, where she teaches in the Visual Studies Department. Prior to her position in Buffalo, she was the Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she worked on Life on Mars, the 2008 Carnegie International. Pesanti holds masters degrees in cultural anthropology from the University of Oxford, England, and in modern/contemporary art history from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
The 11.1 International Artist-in-Residence program is made possible by the Linda Pace Foundation, the City of San Antonio's Office of Cultural Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts, and Nimoy Foundation. Special thanks to Allison Hays Lane and Neel Lane. Additional support provided by Real Ale Brewery, Max's Wine Dive, and The Monterey.

ABOUT ARTPACE
Artpace is a contemporary art center located in San Antonio, Texas, with residencies, exhibitions, and education programs that nurture the creative expression of emerging and established artists, while actively engaging youth and adult audiences. Renowned for its International Artist-in-Residence program (IAIR), Artpace annually hosts three eight-week residencies, each of which features one Texas artist, one national artist and one international artist, who are all selected by a notable guest curator, and culminates into an (adjective) exhibition. The mission of this program is to provide artists with unparalleled resources that allow them to take time, take provocative wrisks and unveil new ideas. Founder and Director of Prospect New Orleans, Dan Cameron says, "Artpace is really head and shoulders above any other organization of its kind right now." The work created at Artpace goes on to show at some of the world's most distinguished venues, often presenting a pivotal moment in an artist's career. Jeffrey Deitch, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles explains "Projects that began at Artpace that are still exhibited all over the world, Artpace really makes art happen."

Artpace is located downtown at 445 North Main Avenue, between Savings and Martin streets, San Antonio, Texas. Free parking is available at 513 North Flores Street. Artpace is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, 12-5pm, and by appointment. Admission is free.

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org