News from the Studios, May 2012

The artists in our Studio Artist Program are active professionals who contribute to the arts in Atlanta and beyond. Here’s what they're currently up to:

Marc Brotherton's New Paintings solo exhibition continues through May 27 at Causey Contemporary Fine Art, Brooklyn, NY.

Craig Drennen will participate in the panel, Painters in Dialogue, at ACAC Sat, May 19, 11am–12pm. He also has work in the current exhibition, Painters Panting, through Jun 24, at ACAC. 

Nikita Gale has work in As the City Sleeps at Mint Gallery, opening May 12, 7–11pm; and in Under theInfluence: The Art of Power and Persuasion at Kianga Ellis Projects, Brooklyn, NY, opening Wed, May 16, 6­­–9pm.

Seana Reilly has work in Selections from the 7thInternational Drawing Annual at Manifest Gallery and Drawing Center, Cincinnati, OH, April 20–May 18. Reilly has been awarded a residency fellowship at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences, May 15–27.

Michele Schuff has work in WAX at Brooklyn Artists Gym, opening Sat, May 19, 6–9pm, through Jun 4. She is also featured in an online survey: Windsor Whitney Biennial 2012.

Dayna Thacker has work in The Price is Right at the Swan Coach House Gallery through Jun 2.

Marcia Vaitsman, with her group Trans Posicao Franscico, were awarded an exhibition grant of ten thousand dollars from FLAAC, Latin American and African Festival of Art and Culture, in Brasília, Brazil. The exhibition will take place in Jun 2012.

Nancy VanDevender's work is included in the exhibition H(A)UNTED at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute in New York City through May 18. This is co-presented by MOCADA Brooklyn with a reception on May 5, 2–6pm. VanDevender is opening her studio on May 19 at 2pm as part of SEEK ATL, the last visit of their season.

Paul S. Benjamin, Michi Meko, Seana Reilly, Michele Schuff, Dayna Thacker and Nancy VanDevender have all donated work to the Hambidge 2012 Art Auction + Perfomance Gala, May 19, 7–10pm, at the Goat Farm Arts Center. 

Interview with Craig Drennen

Craig Drennen is an artist in the Studio Artist Program at ACAC whose work is featured in our current exhibition, Painters Panting. Since 2008, Drennen has been creating works inspired by Shakespeare’s failed play, Timon of Athens. Each painting utilizes a character as a starting point, striking a balance between representalism (hyper-realism) and abstract expressionism. Drennen’s capacity to skillfully combine numerous distinct images into single works was evident in his recent solo show, Dramatis Personae, at SALTWORKS Gallery.

Anna Nelson-Daniel: The Studio Artist Program is one example of how the Contemporary is able to engage with Atlanta artists. How long have you been participating in the ACAC studio program?

Craig Drennen: I started in September 2010 and that was a real game changer, having access to the studio. I lived in Savannah for a while and I would always drive up to Atlanta, basically to see the shows at the Contemporary, Saltworks, and the High Museum. So when I moved up here and I realized there might be a chance that I could get a studio at the Contemporary that was amazing to me.

AND: What has been your favorite part been about being here?

CD: The community of other artists has been great, just the proximity. My neighbor, Michi, has been great to talk to and hang out with. Before him, Mark Leibert was over there who was also great. The other part is just being so close to the Contemporary’s programming. If I’m in town, I go to all of the lectures and all of the events. It’s always surprising to me. Some of the speakers I’ve known really well and some of them I’ve hardly known at all, but they’ve all been great. So I love it. I usually get my one favorite spot, where I can get up front without blocking people.

AND: One of the goals of the studio artist program is to provide a creative environment that fosters communal support. Do you get feedback on your work from other studio artists? Or do you talk about ideas with them?

CD: People are respectful of privacy, so it’s not that someone would just walk in. I would never do that to anyone else’s studio either. If we’re hanging out and someone says, “Hey, would you mind coming and taking a look at what I’m doing?” Then absolutely and I do that as well. I’ll see somebody, whether it’s Marc Brotherton or Dayna Thacker or Michi or whoever, and say, “Take a look at this, see what you think.”

AND: Is that feedback helpful?

CD: Yeah, very helpful. It’s useful for me to externalize my thoughts in that way.

AND: Your show solo exhibition at Saltworks displayed your paintings with a concentration on the character Painter. How did you stumble upon Timon of Athens?

CD: Well my radar is always scanning what is going on and occasionally it will pick up a blip here and there. I remember hearing about the play first, I didn’t see it performed I just remember hearing about it and thinking that’s odd—I’m not an expert, but I knew a little bit about Shakepeare’s plays—and I just kept that in the back of my head for five or six years. It kept growing and becoming more interesting, then I bought a copy of the play and read it. I watched some productions of the play, the BBC productions and saw in at the Shakespeare Tavern.

The play is out there but it’s rarely performed and never performed the way it is written, because that would be impossible, because there are so many weird structural flaws. I had it in my head for about five years before I pulled the trigger and said, “This is what’s next.”

Keeping Up with Artists

Web info continues to reveal what three artists who’ve shown at ACAC in recent years are up to these days:

Poet Eileen Myles (Contemporary Talks series, September 15, 2011) just received a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Daniel Duford who exhibited works from his The Naked Boy project in the Summer of 2008, has an exhibition of his ceramics and drawings at Disjecta in Portland, OR. An article about it is on Artforum.com.

Mira Schor’s multi-paneled painting War Frieze VIII: Area of Denial with Grey Bookends was included in our Sex Drive exhibition in the fall of 2011, and she gave a provocative talk at ACAC on April 17, 2010; listen to it via our Resource Room. She is also included in our new publication The Art Life: On Creativity and Career, discussing her collection of postcards and how they serve to inspire her in the studio. Schor makes works on paper and canvas that are as dedicated to ideas as they are to craft and materiality, and her writing about art and pedagogy is simultaneously critical, humorous, and expansive. Her new exhibition, Voice and Speech, is on view at Marvelli Gallery in New York. In her recent drawings and paintings, she  depicts herself as a blockheaded protagonist with a cursive body, surrounded by various speech and thought bubbles. There is a lively Q&A with her on Artinfo.com.

News From the Studios, Apr 2012

Need a great studio? We are accepting applications for a studio space in our Studio Artist Program, available May 1. Application deadline is 5pm, Mon, Apr 16. Our review panel will consider all submissions and the lucky artist will be notified Apr 20. For details, download the application HERE.  

The artists in our Studio Artist Program are active professionals who contribute to the arts in Atlanta and beyond. Here’s what they're currently up to:

• Paul Stephen Benjamin's works are on view at The Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library through May 30.

• Marc Brotherton has a solo show, New Paintings, at Causey Contemporary in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Apr 20–May 27. Opening reception is Fri, Apr 20, 6–9pm. 

• Craig Drennen has work included in Drawings Related to Performance Works curated by Becky Kinder at 92Y Tribeca, New York; the exhibition runs Apr 5–30 with an opening reception on Thu, Apr 5, 6–8pm. Drennen also has work in Painters Panting at ACAC, opening Apr 13, 7–10pm.

• Nikita Gale will give an artist talk at Georgia State University with Faces of Feminism, Thu, Apr 19, at 6pm (location TBD). She is also curating a show with Faces of Feminism at Whitespec (small gallery that is part of Whitespace), opening Sat, Apr 21, through Apr 28.

• Seana Reilly is participating in the MOGA GA Gala Art Auction 2012, Sat, Apr 21, 5:30–9:30pm.

• We say goodbye to Jenene Nagy this month. She has accepted a position at Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado, serving as the Artistic Director of Painting beginning in May. We wish her well! 

• Dayna Thacker has work in Wide Open, a group show with the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, in Brooklyn, NY, through Apr 7. She will also have work at the Swan Coach House Gallery in The Price is Right, opening Thu, Apr 26, 6–8pm, through Jun 2.

• Marcia Vaitsman will be in residence at Doukan 7002, Chicago, in Apr, offering a workshop of media and art as social practices. Vaitsman’s video Baltic is part of Soltem os Bichos (How Animals Are Represented in Contemporary Art) curated by Hugo Fortes, Apr 13, 8pm, at ATELIÊ 397, São Paulo. Her video, Study of Strange Things, is part of the Contemporary Mandala: New Audiences, New Forms at the Visual Arts Gallery at Emory University, through Apr 15.

Talking About The Art Life

I was just on the phone with artist May Tveit who lives in Kansas City, MO. She was excited to hear that our new publication, The Art Life: On Creativity and Career is now available in our SHOP, and will soon be at museums and bookstores around the United States. May was telling me about upcoming opportunities for her in the coming months, including an exhibition in Brooklyn and a residency in Mongolia. We quickly got into discussing one of our favorite subjects: how artists negotiate their lives, including working for money, keeping a studio practice, honoring family obligations, romance, friendships, travels, etc. How we all keep at it, often simultaneously frustrated and thankful. Most of us find role models to emulate. Many artists over the years have looked to influential teachers for guidance.

I told May that this book came out of my sense that the focus on “professional practices” as taught in art schools and university art departments is only one side of the story. I must admit to having taught classes on this topic and lectured at schools across North America about how artists should approach galleries, what art magazines are good for, the best ways to visit an art fair, and other strategic matters. As an ex-dealer and gallery owner (Horodner Romley Gallery in New York, 1992-1996), as well as an art fair organizer (Affair at the Jupiter Hotel in Portland, OR, 2004-2007), I have a lot invested in clarifying misconceptions and trying to keep artists from being disappointed for the wrong reasons, as well as providing insights about the positive turns in their careers. Thousands of talented individuals get out of art programs every year, hungry for success and saddled with debt. It is not surprising that they have the marketplace on their minds and want to know any “words of wisdom” that will get them ahead.

Less often discussed are the reasons that people want to be artists at all, and how they sustain themselves in the process. I conceived of The Art Life book as a kind of “self-help critical reader,” something that students and various creative people could read straight through or open up for a few nuggets of lived experience by emerging and well known practitioners—painters, filmmakers, designers, musicians, writers, and dealers. What their texts reveal is constant passion, doubt, sense of humor, ambition, and motivation. They exemplify the “I had no choice” aspect of being an artist, cultivating their precise points of view and being committed to staying in the game. In writing the introduction and chapter headings for the book, and compiling its content, I became even more convinced that the sign being held by a man in the famous series of photos by Gillian Wearing says it best: Everything is connected in life. The point is to know it and to understand it. I believe that we are all working out a private insistency, explaining ourselves to ourselves and to others, and that this effort is worthwhile and transformative.

After almost two years of thinking, researching, writing, and editing, our book is finally out. Stacie Lindner and I were happy to attend the College Art Association conference in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, where The Art Life was featured in the Distributed Art Publishers (D.A.P.) booth and seen by countless arts professionals and educators.

To celebrate the publication here in Atlanta, we will gather for a launch event at Octane on the Westside this Friday night, March 23, 7-8:30pm.

We’ll share some projected images and several Atlanta contributors will read some choice entries. I hope you’ll come and pick up a copy. We like the idea of talking about our book at a great coffee shop, where people savor finely crafted drinks, have meetings, work on their laptops, and play their part in creating culture. As critic Peter Schjeldahl says, “Art is very silly and it is very free. The freedom is there to be used. It takes somebody with a lot of ambition and stamina to use it.” This book is meant to help you in that effort.

If you can’t join us on Friday night, you can purchase the book at ACAC or online.  

Stuart

Judy Ledgerwood Studio Visit

On February 12, I visited Judy Ledgerwood’s studio in Chicago. I was there to talk with her about the wall installation she’ll be making for our upcoming Painters Panting exhibition this April. I have followed Judy’s work for years, and once wrote a short blurb about it for Surface Magazine. I felt like I knew Judy because she has appeared in several photographs and videos by her husband, the artist Tony Tasset. I love being in artist’s studios and my conversation with Judy was prompted by her seemingly simple paintings that surrounded us. I say seemingly simple because the more you look at her flower shapes (rendered in rough close-up or as repeated gestural patterns) on brightly colored grounds, the more you notice subtle shifts of color, her robust or delicate handling of paint, and surprising drips that speak to her embrace of process and acceptance of accident. She makes tough, feminist, and sophisticated works, and like many artists in Painters Panting, she resists a “business as usual” approach; always finding new ways to problematize and shift her practice into uncharted places.

I was happy to receive this email comment from her after returning to Atlanta:

I admire the fact that you really look at the work, and that seeing it seems to be independent of anything you may have heard about it.  I think some curators only look with their ears, which would account for so many exhibitions with all the usual suspects. I am very excited to have an opportunity to show with artists who are new to me.  And I was very flattered at the way you responded to the paintings 'in first person'.  I think you are one of the few curators who is confident in their 'eye' and you really know how to look at paintings and for that I am grateful.

I can’t wait for viewers to be immersed in the room that Judy will create here.

Stuart

News from the Studios, Mar 2012

The artists in our Studio ArtistProgram are active professionals who contribute to the arts in Atlanta and beyond. Here’s what they're currently up to:

Jonathan Bouknight is in residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida until Mar 11.

Nikita Gale has work in The Future is Behind Us, a group photography show at the Atlanta Preservation Center. Opening reception is Wed, Mar 14, 7­–9pm, and the show runs until Mar 31. She also has work in the LaGrange Biennial at the Lamar Dodd Art Center in LaGrange, GA, and in 100,000 Cubicle Hours here at ACAC, which was recently reviewed on BURNAWAY.org. Gale is featured in Oxford American's recent "Visual South" issue, highlighted as one of the “100 Under 100: The New Superstars of Southern Art.” 

Jenene Nagy is in a group show, Rear View Mirror, curated by Jennie Lamensdorf, and in REAR VIEW MIRROR, a pop-up exhibition at Space B Gallery in New York, Mar 7–9. Reception is Thu, Mar 8, 6–8pm.

Seana Reilly has work in The Goods: Selections from the Artists Studio, at Spruill Gallery, through Mar 10.

Dayna Thacker has work in a group show, Wide Open, with the Brooklyn Waterfront Arts Coalition, in New York. Opening reception is Sun, Mar 18, 12–5pm.

Marcia Vaitsman's video, Study of Strange Things, is part of the Contemporary Mandala: New Audiences, New Forms at the Visual Arts Gallery at Emory University through Apr 15. On Mar 15, The Elephant Cage will be screened, followed by a chat with the artist Aissa Deebi, at Doukan 7002 in Chicago. Vaitsman will be part of the discussion about the Atlanta Art Now book, Noplaceness: Art in a Post-Urban Landscape, at Paço das Artes, São Paulo, on Mar 21.

Aaron Levy Lecture

I always take a tremendous amount of pleasure when we bring artists, critics, curators, historians, and dealers to talk about their work. It is often the case that I’ve seen them speak before and so I know what Atlanta audiences are in for. I smile to myself in the knowledge that during their talk many people’s brains will be buzzing and by the end of the event it is crystal clear why I brought these visiting lecturers to the Center. Sometimes I only know the person by reputation and have either seen their work, read their writing, or perused documentation of their curatorial projects.

This past summer I took part in two curatorial conferences and Aaron Levy was at both of them. One was in Philadelphia, where Aaron is the Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Slought Foundation. I was so impressed by the comments that he made in various discussion groups and during a tour of the Slought facility, that I knew immediately that I wanted him to come to Atlanta. I had a hidden agenda in this, wanting Chris Appleton and Alex West at WonderRoot to get to know Aaron, so they could be aware of each other’s endeavors and act as mentors or sounding boards in the future. I like playing matchmaker in this way, and felt similarly satisfied when we brought Nato Thompson from Creative Time to discuss his ambitious work with public art in New York, and gave him a chance to meet Louis Corrigan (as Louis was coming to more clarity about how Flux Projects would develop).

Aaron’s talk at ACAC on February 18^th was called “Resisting the Future-less City,” and it examined the ways that institutions and audiences relate to each other (or don’t). He brought together ideas from literature, architecture, and the economic and socio-political realities of cities. He incorporated facts about Eastern State Penitentiary and Charles Dickens, and made several inspiring comments about the need for maximum flexibility, constant criticality and utter honesty when collaborating with others.

I’m still thinking about things he said, wondering about ways to be more playful, experimental, and rigorous in everything I/we do.

Stuart

Best of Day Job Questions: Week 5

Thank you to all who participated in week five of our day job questions. Congratulations to Bruce Perry Johnson…you are our winner! See below for all submissions. 

What’s your dream job and why? 

Facebook comment reviewer-Bruce Perry Johnson 

My dream job is my current job!!! :D I'm very fortunate to work as a Digital Compositor for a new Animated Series called "Unsupervised" which is on FX every Thursday at 10:30pm. I not only work in a building filled to the brim with some of the most creative people in Atlanta, I also work with some of the friendliest, funniest and caring folks. We're all nerds, but we're family. I am very happy! :D -Lieze Truter 

To work in marketing in an art museum! -Simona Spagnoli 

Pretty sure I’m living the dream right now:) -Emily Kirksey Amy 

Dreamy job: curating contemporary performance art -Malina Rodriguez 

Like this young woman, most days I am not sure I know what it is. So exasperating! I don't know if I can put words in her 'thought bubble', but it looks like Lichtenstein probably did. Seriously: a working musician. -Hillary Felker 

Landing a Social Media Gig with the Atlanta Hawks or Dream because I love Social Media & am a basketball fanatic! -Karen Rogers-Robinson 

Photography, because I love it. Can't explain it. LOL -James Hough 

Providing arts programs to youth in conflict affected regions of Africa. Because I see it as the missing link in sustainable post conflict development. -Ashley Beckett 

Vogue photographer. -Debra Hill Frieden 

My dream job is to become a creative director of my own design firm. I found it in college that I like leaderships positions and helping people solve their design problems. -Monaco Jones

News from the Studios, Feb 2012

The artists in our Studio Artist Program are active professionals who contribute to the arts in Atlanta and beyond. Here’s what they're currently up to:

Jonathan Bouknight will be a resident at the Atlantic Center for the Arts from Feb 20 to Mar 11.

Craig Drennen has work in a group exhibition, From the Mezzanine, at Ramapo College in New Jersey. It is curated by Jennifer Dudley of Ad Hoc Vox and is based around the legacy of Bas Jan Ader. Drennen gives an artist talk on Feb 17. He also has a solo show, [Dramatis Personae], at SALTWORKS through Mar 3.

Nikita Gale has work in The Goods fundraiser show at Spruill Gallery, opening Feb 9, and in the LaGrange National Biennial at LaGrange Art Museum, which opens Feb 10.

Seana Reilly currently has work in Architects as Artists at Swan Coach House Gallery through Feb 25; in Drawing Discourse – 3rd Annual Contemporary Drawing Exhibition at UNC-Asheville's S. Tucker Cooke Gallery through Feb 3; in Out of the Gray at the Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center in Cincinnati, OH through Feb 24; and in Work in White at CherryLion Studios in Atlanta through Feb 17.

Jenene Nagy is in Utopian/Dystopian, a group show at 101 California Street, in San Francisco, CA, curated by Kerri Hurtado. The exhibition runs Feb 27–Apr 21.

Marcia Vaitsman's video, Study of Strange Things, is part of the Contemporary Mandala: New Audiences, New Forms at the Visual Arts Gallery at Emory University Jan 21–Apr 15, with the opening reception on Feb 9. Her video, Whiteness of an Exotic Place, is in Work in White at CherryLion Studios through Feb 17.

Nikita Gale, Michael David Murphy, Seana Reilly, Michele Schuff, Dayna Thacker, and Marcia Vaitsman have all contributed work to the ART PAPERS 13th Annual Art Auction taking place at Mason Murer Fine Art. The Collector’s Preview is on Fri, Feb 10, and the Auction is on Sat, Feb 11.

Craig Drennen, Nikita Gale, Michael David Murphy, and Dayna Thacker are participating in the BURNAWAY Art Crush Fundraiser taking place at 7 Stages, on Sat, Feb 25.