Artpace San Antonio Unveils 11.2 International Artist-in-Residence Projects

07.14.11

San Antonio, TX - Artpace San Antonio is pleased to announce the unveiling of its 11.2 International Artist-in-Residence projects, opening on July 14, 2011. Guest curator Chus Martínez, dOCUMENTA (13) Agent, Member of the Core Group, and Head of Department, as well as Associate Curator, Museu d’Art Contemporani Barcelona (MACBA), Spain, will present new works by Andrea Büttner (Frankfurt, Germany), Kurt Mueller (Houston, Texas), and Adrian Williams (Portland, Oregon), which will be on display to the public through September 11, 2011.

about the artists
Andrea Büttner’s Three New Works flows in the vein of conceptual art, integrating various materials that infer certain values when referencing psychoanalysis. Working with photography, sculpture, sound recordings, and found objects, she invites participation from the audience to generate ideas and themes. The gallery contains a series of seemingly dissonant objects. An uncut brown diamond rests on the seat of a white, plastic Monobloc chair, commonly found in many homes. A color photograph depicts an automated teller machine (ATM) with earth-colored material smeared on its keypad. Displayed on the floor near the chair is an issue of The New York Times newspaper, opened to a photograph of an African woman holding an uncut white diamond against her forehead. Completing the exhibition are two mound-shaped, unfired clay fountains gently oozing water, coupled with a recording of ambient sound made at a Quaker meeting.

Based in London, England, and Frankfurt, Germany, Büttner holds a PhD from the Royal College of Art, London. She is the winner of the 2010 Max Mara Prize for Women, as well as the 2009 Maria Sibylla Merian Prize. Her most recent solo exhibitions are The Poverty of Riches at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, England (April 2011), and Our Colours are the Colours of the Market Place, Hollybush Gardens at Art Statements, Art 42 Basel, Switzerland (June 2011). Recent group exhibitions include Há sempre um copo de mar para um homem navegar (There is always a cup of sea to sail in), 29th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2010), and Unto This Last, Raven Row, London (2010).

Kurt Mueller’s Living Still consists of five works: Cenotaph, a jukebox that plays a selection of moments of silence clipped from history ranging from John Lennon’s death to contemporary silent protests; Man in Black (after Sonya Vasquez), two projection screens simultaneously displaying the left and right ears of Johnny Cash wax sculptures; Plaza, a portable parquet dance floor standing perpendicular to the ground; The Toe of Toribio Losoya (after William Easley), a photo documenting an artist-initiated intervention to create a legend of the “Unsung hero of the Alamo”; and Shot, a single-channel video montage tracking visitors to Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, the site of President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination. By blurring what distinguishes memorial from entertainment, Mueller strives to capture the universal desire to commemorate, while seducing the audience to engage with a sometimes overlooked or forgotten aspect of history.

Mueller is a critic, curator, and artist. He earned an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine in 2008. From 2008-2010, he was a critical studies resident at The Core Program, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. He is the Art Editor of Gulf Coast and the former Interim Editor of Art Lies. He has written extensively about contemporary art throughout the state of Texas and beyond, authoring criticism for ArtAsiaPacific, Art Papers, Flash Art, Frieze, and artforum.com. Mueller has curated exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Inman Gallery, Houston; and the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin. He has exhibited artwork at the Austin Museum of Art (2010); Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston (2009); and Arthouse at the Jones Center, Austin (2008).

Adrian Williams’s half-hour audioplay, MEDIAN DOGS, is an exploration of decisions made for personal gain versus public interest. The performance utilizes the tensions created between music and dialogue to reinforce the fictionalized conflict of total privatization of education in the United States. Collaborations with local community members, musicians, and actors in creating the narrative and music construct an environment in which the distinctions between performer and spectator are blurred. Composer Theodor Köhler, with whom Williams has collaborated on previous performances and film soundtracks, wrote the music that is the basis for the audioplay’s score. While the composition has been rehearsed, the live piece is not static, but rather reflects the current moments in which it is being performed. The two percussionists use a variety of materials to create a soundscape that allows for individualized projections of setting and action within the collective audience. Adjacent to the table and chairs in the gallery are two facing pianos, one in tune and the other a quarter-tone below. Inconsistencies in the independent voice are revealed when paired with the tuned piano, mimicking the fallibility of an isolated individual’s actions for the good of the community.

Williams was born in Portland, Oregon, and received her MFA in 2006 from Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. She has had several solo exhibitions, including Art 41 Basel, Switzerland (2010); Art Production Fund LAB, New York (2009), and Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Germany (2007). Recent group exhibitions include Terminal Convention, Cork, Ireland (2011); New Frankfurt Internationals, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main and Frankfurter Kunstverein, (2010); Facing our Demons, Milliken Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden (2010); and The Malady of Writing, Museu d’Art Contemporani Barcelona, Spain (2010).

about the curator
From 2005 to 2008, Chus Martínez was Director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein in Germany; and served as a curator and art critic at Sala Rekalde in Bilbao, Spain, from 2002 to 2005. She became Chief Curator of MACBA in 2008, organizing such exhibitions as The Malady of Writing and I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore. She also curated Deimantas Narkevičius - The Unanimous Life, which was adapted for the Kunsthalle Bern by Philippe Pirotte. Martínez serves on the editorial board for The Exhibitionist, a curator magazine, and spoke alongside Jens Hoffmann, Tara McDowell, and Adriano Pedrosa at the launch of the first issue in February 2010.

about the exhibition
The 11.2 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 Mike Chesser and Ann Daughety. Additional support provided by Real Ale Brewery 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 (IAIR) program, 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 exhibition. The mission of this program is to provide artists with unparalleled resources that allow them to take time, seize provocative risks, 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