Artipedia - Arts News

The Aldrich Contemporary
Art Museum

Top: Elizabeth Peyton, Self-portrait, 1999. Courtesy of the artist and Gavin Brown’s enterprise; Bottom: Serge Spitzer, Still Life (installation view, The Aldrich), 2008. Courtesy sergespitzerstudio.

Exhibition Reception at The Aldrich
Sunday, June 22, 2008; 3 to 5 pm
Round-Trip Transportation from NYC Available
http://www.aldrichart.org/evite.html

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
258 Main Street
Ridgefield, CT 06877
http://www.aldrichart.org

ELIZABETH PEYTON AND SERGE SPITZER AT THE ALDRICH

FIRST PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION
Elizabeth Peyton: Portrait of an Artist
Larry Aldrich Award Exhibition
June 22 to November 16, 2008

On June 22, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum will mount the first exhibition of Elizabeth Peyton’s photographs. Known for her intimate paintings of both friends and celebrities, she has offered few opportunities to view her photographic work. Photography is a significant part of Peyton’s practice, as a tool for gathering imagery for her paintings and drawings, but also as an end in itself. The exhibition will include approximately fifty portraits—including two standout self-portraits—that she has taken of friends and colleagues in the creative arena between 1994 and 2008.

The Larry Aldrich Award honors an American artist whose work has had a significant impact on contemporary visual culture during recent years. Past recipients include: Kara Walker, 2005; Catherine Opie, 2004; David Hammons, 2003; Fred Wilson, 2002; Mark Dion, 2001; Doug Aitken, 2000; Janine Antoni, 1999; Ann Hamilton, 1998; Charles Ray, 1997; Robert Gober, 1996; Bruce Nauman, 1995; Cindy Sherman, 1994; and Elizabeth Murray, 1993.

MAJOR OUTDOOR SCULPTURE INSTALLATION
Serge Spitzer: Still Life
April 29 to July 13, 2008

A consistent thread in Serge Spitzer’s 35-year career as an artist has been the concept of “hiding things in plain sight.” Spitzer’s major new installation at The Aldrich, Still Life, continues this concern via the deceptively simple gesture of placing tens of thousands of custom-made tennis balls in a grid over the Museum’s two-acre sculpture garden. The balls are printed with a military-inspired, pixilated camouflage pattern that closely matches the color of the Museum’s lawn. Traditionally a still life is a composition of inanimate objects. The tennis balls in Spitzer’s Still Life, however, animate both space and meaning as circumstances cause them to move inexorably through the world like a virus, claiming their role (in the words of the artist) as “reality models.” Although simple in plan and execution, Spitzer’s project has subtle social and political overtones. Inferences can be drawn about “taking over” a fraction of Connecticut’s genteel lan
dscape with objects that imply both leisure, play, and military occupation, while the project’s material component has been manufactured overseas, adding to the United States’s huge trade imbalance.

ALSO ON VIEW:

Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture; Halsey Burgund: ROUND; Gary Panter: Daydream Trap; and Ester Partegàs: The Invisible

Aldrich exhibitions are made possible with the support of the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Aldrich is proud to be a WNYC Cultural Arts Partner. Additional support for Painting the Glass House is provided by a generous grant from the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism. Funding for ROUND provided, in part, by the LEF Foundation’s Contemporary Work Fund and Nokia. Elizabeth Peyton’s exhibition has been made possible, in part, by a generous grant from The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. Serge Spitzer’s exhibition has been generously underwritten by Jody and Peter Robbins, and Ellen and Jerome Stern.

The Aldrich is one of the few non-collecting contemporary art museums in the United States. Founded on Ridgefield’s historic Main Street in 1964, the Museum enjoys the curatorial independence of an alternative space while maintaining the registrarial and art-handling standards of a national institution. Exhibitions feature work by emerging and mid-career artists, and education programs help adults and children to connect to today’s world through contemporary art. The Museum is located at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT 06877. All exhibitions and programs are handicapped accessible. Regular Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 12:00 noon to 5:00 pm. For more information call 203.438.4519.

Contact: Pamela Ruggio
Phone: 203.438.4519
Email: pruggio@aldrichart.org
Press Room: http://www.aldrichart.org/news/press.php

daadgalerie

Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (Film-Still), 2005
Courtesy: Douglas Gordon / Philippe Parreno /
Anna Lena Films / Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

Douglas Gordon and
Philippe Parreno

Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
16 June - 9 August 2008

Opening:
15 June 2008, 5 - 9pm

On the occasion of the European Football Championship, taking place in Switzerland and Austria, the daadgalerie will show an unusual piece of filmic art. On April 23 2005, Douglas Gordon, who was a guest in the artists-in-Berlin program in 1998, and Philippe Parreno recorded the football game Villareal vs. Real Madrid. With seventeen cameras they captured every step of the great French football player Zinedine Zidane, from the kick-off to the final whistle. From the edge of the pitch, the lenses shadowed every move of the player, instead of the movements of the ball. This resulted in a portrait, which both directors Gordon and Parreno subtitled: A 21st Century Portrait.

It is a well-documented fact that Zidane retired from his professional football career two years ago, after the World Cup football final in Berlin’s Olympic stadium. This final became infamous for the clout he administered a member of the opposing Italian side. Douglas Gordon was present in the stadium and an eyewitness of the game. Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait has never been shown in Germany and will, on this occasion be shown until 9 August in the daadgalerie. This presentation also marks the welcome return of Douglas Gordon to Berlin, who ten years after his DAAD-residency returns to live here to produce new films.

Douglas Gordon was the recipient of the 1996 Turner Prize, the 1997 Venice Biennial’s Premio 2000 award, and the 1998 Hugo Boss Prize awarded by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. His work has been the subject of numerous museum exhibitions, including those organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2001); the Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (2006); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2006); the Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Trento, Italy (2006); and the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (2006). The artist lives and works in Glasgow and Berlin.

On June 12, Douglas Gordon will appear as a special guest on the EURO2008 public viewing podium of the 11Freunde.

For further information and visual material, please contact us at:

artpress – Ute Weingarten
Phone: +49 (0)30 2196 1843
Fax: +49 (0)30 2196 1847
Cell : +49 (0)176 222 1561
artpress@uteweingarten.de

daadgalerie
Zimmerstr. 90-91
10117 Berlin
Opening Hours: Daily 11am - 6pm, closed Sundays

Iniva (Institute of
International Visual Arts)

Oscar Muñoz
Mirror Image
13 June - 27 July 2008

Curated by:
Sebastian Lopez with Melanie Keen

Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts)
Rivington Place
London EC2A 3BA
United Kingdom
http://www.iniva.org

Iniva presents Mirror Image, the first solo exhibition in the UK by Oscar Muñoz, a leading artist on Colombia’s dynamic art scene.

Themes of memory and human loss permeate Oscar Muñoz’s work to compelling and seductive effect and are made apparent through his mode of production. Often using the light-sensitive tendencies of photography and the moving image, his work is imbued with a transcendental quality. Central to Muñoz’s work is the impermanence of the image, creating apt metaphors for the human condition, time and memory. Muñoz says: My work insists […] in documenting an immemorial scenario: the ‘logic of everyday thinking’ that stems from the impossibility of retaining and fixing images permanently.

Born in Popayan and now living in Cali, Colombia, Muñoz’s work challenges the viewer to rethink the meaning of the photographic image. Photography forms the basis of much of his moving image work, but he also employs more traditional techniques like drawing, and materials like charcoal to realise
his works.

Whilst Muñoz’s work subtly alludes to the impact of the war in Colombia – a country immersed in political and social turmoil for over 50 years – his themes have a universal appeal. Muñoz reinforces this: My work today arises from my interest in understanding how a society comes to accept war – or rather, a dark and corrupted succession of wars over more than 50 years and which have not yet ended - as part of the routine of living, where both the past and the present are plagued with daily violent events which are persistently repeated.

The exhibition comprises six of Muñoz’s most telling works from the past ten years. In Proyecto para un memorial (Project for a Memorial) (2005), one of the larger pieces in the exhibition (a five-screen projection), Muñoz draws on a hot pavement in Cali, copying photographs from newspaper obituaries. He draws portraits using water and as one nears completion, the earlier images evaporate - and he begins again.

In Aliento (1996-2002), mirrored discs are mounted on a wall. The glossy surface invites the viewer to look deeper. Breathing on the glass reveals faces – from photographs in Colombian newspapers - which disappear as the mist diminishes.

Also featured are recent installation works. These include facsimiles of the front pages of two leading newspapers in Colombia (El Pais and El Tiempo) where the artist has burned images and text onto the surface of the paper. Gradually, over successive pages, the image fades.

Eclipse employs camera obscura to startling effect by reflecting the street life of Shoreditch into the gallery space. What initially appear to be luminous static images is in fact live activity on
Rivington Street.

Muñoz’s works are represented in significant collections such as Tate Modern, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, Bogota; Museum of Modern Art ‘La Tertulia’, Cali, Colombia.

Mirror Image is realised with support from Arts Council England.

Public Programme

• Saturday, 14 June, 4-6pm: In Conversation: Oscar Muñoz and Sebastian Lopez, Director, Iniva.
• Thursday 19 June, 7-9pm: Video work by Colombian artists who have exhibited at Lugar a Dudas, artist-run space established in Cali by Muñoz.
• Thursday 3 July, 7-8pm: Gallery Talk: Sebastian Lopez
• Saturday 12 July, 2-3pm: Gallery Talk: Melanie Keen
• Thursdays 10, 17, 24 July, 7-9pm: A programme of films selected by Oscar Muñoz that have influenced his artistic practice such as the work of filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.

Advance booking essential: +44 (0)20 7749 1240

Listings
Oscar Muñoz: Mirror Image
13 June - 27 July 2008
Rivington Place, London, UK, EC2A 3BA
Open: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 11am-6pm
Late Thursdays: 11am-9pm (Last admission 8.30pm) Saturday: 12noon-6pm
Sunday, Monday: Closed (exception: Sunday 27 July, 12noon - 6pm)
Tube: Old Street & Liverpool Street

Rivington Place: +44 (0) 20 7749 1240, info@rivingtonplace.org , http://www.rivingtonplace.org