"On the Prairie" at Warphaus Gallery

Press Release

The Warphaus Gallery will be hosting the exhibition, "On the Prairie", from February 6th through February 27th. Originally conceived as an homage to the regional Payne's Prairie in Northern Florida (near Gainesville), the work in this exhibition generally seeks to understand and present ideas about this and other prairies. The exhibition has been curated by Summer Zickefoose, with assistance from Kelly Cobb. Artists in the exhibition include Daniel Blochwitz, Kelly Cobb, Sarah Detweiler, Joe D'Uva, Jamie Kotewa Niess, Rob Millard-Mendez, Nancy Raen-Mendez, Danica Oudeans-Coale, Margaret Ross Tolbert, Merijn Van Der Heijden, Bill van Werden, and Summer Zickefoose, with media ranging from photography, drawing, printmaking, painting, sound, and sculpture. The opening will be held Friday, February 6 from 6 – 8pm, 818 NW 1st Avenue in Gainesville, FL.

My Artist Statement (excerpt):

My work for this show, “On the Prairie: Off the Beaten Map” (2009), see image above, takes it’s cues from my recent bodies of work Heim | Fern | Weh (2004) and mixed messages (2006-07). It assembles image grids from photographs of found texts, poetic allusions, the everyday, and semantic juxtapositions in an effort to add an inquiring political dimension. The prairie is a mythological place in the collective consciousness of the United States, charged to the brim with historical and geopolitical narratives and contestations. Westward conquests across the plains foreshadowed coming eras of expansion, pioneering, militarism, ethnic cleansing, entitlement, mobility, opportunity, exploitation, ecocide, racism, zoning, and standardization. The prairie is, in other words, one of the places where the American Dream and this country’s nightmares are folded into one.

Just a new picture ... a teaser of sorts

Call for Proposals & Visuals (ArtistsMeeting)

As the "Art World" -- as we knew it for the past 15 years -- unravels in the midst of world-wide recessions and economic crises, the question of who/what will survive and how has become prevalent in discussions amongst art critics, art fair attendees, dealers, art students, museum goers, gallery visitors, collectors, curators, and, of course, artists themselves. However, it is also a chance (especially) for the latter to imagine, implement and defend new parameters for art production and circulation. The question is what should these models look like, what direction should they take, and how would they fit into the world at large? The artist group ArtistsMeeting (AM) plans to publish an edited sampling of theories, proposals and opinions, as well as diagrams, graphics and images in hope to jump-start a critical debate. Therefore, we call for image and text contributions from across the current "art world". Please e-mail your responses to: artistsmeeting@yahoo.com. The deadline is January 31st, 2009.

ArtistsMeeting's Triptych Party

The art collective ArtistsMeeting presented an evening of video curiosities: found, outsider and accidental video art, culled from YouTube, and spun into triptychs using You3b.com.

Video triptychs involve three simultaneous video loops projected side by side on the gallery wall. While formally simple, the effect of the looping sequences, overlapping sounds and awkward juxtapositions is uncanny and unsettling. This is due to the slippery dis-harmonization of clip lengths, and the conceptual layering of the elements within the videos.

For this 2nd YouTube video show at Postmasters Gallery, the curators Thomas Hutchison, Maria Joao Salema and James Andrews have selected dozens of examples of original U3B triptychs created by members of Artists Meeting.

Artists Meeting is an New York based artists collective of eclectic backgrounds, since it's official start in 2006, they have had public art projects in Conflux 2008 Art Festival and the Dumbo Arts Festival 2007.

You3b is a tool that allows users to make triptychs out of YouTube videos. An Eyebeam project conceived by Jeff Crouse, produced by Jeff Crouse and Andrew Mahon and designed and coded by Andrew Mahon.