Emerging Contemporaries / CRAFT ACT: Craft and Design Centre, Canberra, Australia

I am excited to present two new works at a group show entitled Emerging Contemporaries at CRAFT ACT which opened yesterday and runs until May 12. 

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION 

A Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre curated exhibition of award winning graduating students and selected national emerging craft practitioners and designer makers that demonstrate exceptional talent in their chosen field. These emerging artists are representative of the next wave of professional artists who are exploring conceptually dynamic and innovative craft and design practice.

Artists: Christine Atkins, Sarah Carlson, David Cummins, Elizabeth Delfs, Callum Matheson, Brendan Murphy, Sarah Murphy, Jenny Papalexandris, Tom Skeehan, Belinda Smith, Graham Stutz, Amy Taylor, James Watt.

I am pleased to be supported by The Janet Holmes à Court Artist Grant for this exhibition. The Janet Holmes à Court Artist Grant is a NAVA initiative, made possible through the generous sponsorship of Janet Holmes à Court and the support of the Visual Arts Board, Australia Council for the Arts.

Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre is supported by the ACT Government; and by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its principal arts funding body, and by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initatve of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.

Exhibition Dates: 6 April – 12 May, 2012. 

Above: One of the works exhibited photographed in the winter sun of my studio!

Opening and Install Photos - DEVILS NIGHT, THE MORNING AFTER

An update from a previous blog about the exhibition DEVILS NIGHT, THE MORNING AFTER by Katherine York, see below are some images form the installation and opening night. And read more about the show HERE!

    

All images courtesy and copyright to 7daysisaweekend. 

Future Fibre - White Box Gallery / Queensland College of the Arts, Griffith University / Australia

Opening last Thursday at White Box Gallery within the Queensland College of Arts, Griffiths University is group show Future Fibre. Curated by Danica Larkin, the exhibition brings together eight Australian artists whose practice engages textiles in their approach to art making and I am pleased to be included in the show. See an excerpt from the Media Release below.

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Student Curator Selects the Best in Contemporary Australian Textile Art for Gold Coast Exhibition.

Queensland College of Art student Danica Larkin has pulled a major coup in curating the Future Fibre exhibition at the Whitebox Gallery. Larkin has managed to secure works from some of Australia’s most exciting contemporary artists working in textiles.

The exhibition features established artists such as Kate Just, Holly Story, Thomas C. Chung and others hailing from Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane. The young curator says, “we often think of textile-based practices like knitting and embroidery as crafts or hobbies but the artists in this exhibition show that there can be a much more thoughtful side to textiles in their work.”

Given the calibre of the artists in the show it is a major achievement for Larkin who is still an undergraduate student. The exhibition launches on Thursday 15th March at 6pm and is open to the public and it runs until 6th April.

Future Fibre:

thomas c. chung / elizabeth delfs / kate just alice lang / demelza sherwood / jessica shipard holly story / lucille martin
Curated by Danica Larkin
Opening night 6:00pm–8:00pm Thursday 15 March
Exhibition runs from 15 March – 6 April

Visit White Box Gallery website. More info here. 

Workshop with American artist John von Bergen - Wedding

Yesterday I participated in a day long workshop with American artist John von Bergen in his Wedding studio. John has been in Berlin for around ten years, having trained at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Organized by the Berlin Collective, the workshop revolved around mold making – a process which is core to the artists’ practice. John went through a series of techniques that he has learnt mostly through trial and error and gave us some insider tips on different materials, suppliers and manufacturers in Germany. John’s work is often site specific and his ability to integrate objects and installations into the architecture of a space is seamless, and often leaves the viewer pondering how it is created and questions the nature of the material. To gain an understanding into how he technically puts his work together was a fascinating insight into his sophisticated art making abilities. Not many artists are so generous to share their material research in such a manner, making it a real privilege to spend time with him in his studio.

For more info about John’s work check out his website as well as a great interview with BERLIN ART LINK with some great photos from his studio. There is also a really great article about a residency John did in Miami last year on Artslant where he talks about the process of getting gun parts from Miami to Berlin in the name of art which you can read here.

"The Anti-Precious Moment"
275 x 120 x 245 cm (108" x 47" x 96")
MDF, polymer-gypsum, plexiglas, flocking, wall paint
2001
Installation at Silverstein Gallery, New York

"Ghost"
22 x 99 x 5 cm (9" x 39" x 2")
polymer-gypsum, wall paint, US cavalry sabre
2007
Collection of the artist

"Chronic # 4"
100 x 382 x 0.2 cm (39" x 150" x .08")
plastic, polymer-gypsum, graphite, rust paint, wall paint
2010
Installation at Kjubh Kunstverein, Cologne

John von Bergen received his BFA Degree with Honors at The School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2003 von Bergen moved to Berlin with an invitation from the Berlin Senate for Culture, Science and Research. Since living in Germany his work has been exhibited in various international museums, galleries, and institutions including Halle 14 in Leipzig, Wilhelm-Hack Museum in Ludwigshafen, The Pera Museum in Istanbul, and Smack Mellon in New York. He has lectured at institutions such as Kunsterverein Melkasten, The School of Visual Arts (New York), and European College of Liberal Arts / ECLA (Berlin). In 2011 an extensive interview with von Bergen was published in BOMB Magazine Online.

DEVILS NIGHT, THE MORNING AFTER by Katherine York / SAVE THE DATE

I have been working with photographer Katherine York to mount her first solo show in Berlin! A one night only event open to the public will be held at a pop-up gallery space in a private location in Prenzlauer Berg. Save the date for the opening!

DEVILS NIGHT, THE MORNING AFTER by Katherine York
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 22, 2012 from 7 – 10 pm 
Exhibition period: March 22 – 25, 2012, appt only 
WINS Gallery, Wins Strasse 62, Prenzl'berg 

KATHERINE YORK will present a photographic series of her hometown Detroit, Michigan in her first solo show - DEVIL’S NIGHT, THE MORNING AFTER. Devils Night is the informal title given to October 30th, the night before Halloween, now remembered by the vandalism and arson seen in Detroit from the 1970s to the 1990s.

Devils Night dates from as early as the 1940's, where youths would engage in a night of criminal behavior, usually of acts of almost exclusively petty vandalism. However, in the early 1970s, the vandalism escalated to arson as political turmoil, job losses, rioting and an increase in violence, causing a mass population exodus. In the past 50 years the population has halved. Property owners, unable to sell in the city's rapidly declining housing market would use Devils Night as an opportunity to burn down their homes, collect the insurance money, and claim that an arsonist was at fault. From the 70s until the mid 90s arson and vandalism became more prolific in Detroit's inner-city every year.

The destruction reached a peak in the mid 80s, with between 500 and 800 fires being lit in the three days before Halloween.

During the summer and winter of 2010/2011, York spent time photographing the burnt and abandoned houses in the disappearing suburbs of Detroit. The series documents a city in decay and the ruin of its human inhabitants with traces of the people who still live in the area.

KATHERINEYORK (b. 1976, Detroit) a self-taught photographer based in Berlin, York

was first introduced to the medium by her grandfather. Leaving Detroit at 19 to

California, York worked primarily in architecture and design. York’s childhood in Detroit, juxtaposed with her early passion for architecture, is evident through the sprawling desolate city, suburban and industrial landscapes of her photography. Fascinated by neglect, post industrial and post communist landscapes, York documents the transition of social spaces after the fall of a dictatorship, thriving industry or over developed past. In doing so, she questions: how these transitions have failed or succeeded, what blossoms in these exhausted landscapes and how the spaces become reconfigured or imagined. York’s images often leave the audience with a sensation of viewing a site where an event has occurred, but what remains is unsettling unknown.

WINS GALLERY

The exhibition will be a one night only event open to the public at a pop-up gallery space in Winsstrasse, Prenzlauer Berg, after which it will be open by appointment only until March 25.  

BERLIN ART LINK - First Year Anniversary Party at Babettes

I have started working with an arts consultancy business called BERLIN ART LINK (BAL) and last night was their first year anniversary party hosted at art industry bar Babettes. BAL was founded by Monica Salazar and Anna Russ and describes itself as “The city's go-to platform for viewing the best of emerging contemporary art in Berlin and abroad”. Australian video artist Devon Elise Atkins produced an original video installation utilizing the unique glass architecture of Babette and Andy No Andy from Theives Like Us DJ’d. It was a great night!

BERLIN ART LINK is a Berlin-based online platform for contemporary art which highlights the best of the contemporary art scene in Berlin and abroad. With a focus on documented studio visits, the site also includes insightful interviews, articles, selected weekly event listings and a blog. Updated daily by a distinguished international roster of photographers, artists, critics, curators, BERLIN ART LINK diligently extracts and presents the most exciting facets of the city’s dynamic art scene. With an expansive network throughout North America, Europe and the Middle East and extensive knowledge of these regional art markets, BERLIN ART LINK realizes art events, projects and media content through connecting individuals, corporations and non-profit organizations with a network of international art professionals and creative resources

ART CONNECT BERLIN Networking Breakfast

This morning I went to a networking breakfast organized by ART CONNECT BERLIN http://artconnectberlin.com hosted at the NODE Centre for Curatorial Studies http://www.nodecenter.org in Kreuzberg. As the title suggests, you eat breakfast whilst chatting and meeting new people, after which time there is a presentation by artists, curators, writers or whoever wants to share information about their creative practice or upcoming project. The presenters today were Australian curator George Ironside whom spoke about her experience in curating and working within street art in Berlin and Melbourne, including the development of her artist agency IronartTOURS http://ironsideart.de. The second presenter was Finnish artist Saana Inari who showed a video work and spoke about some upcoming projects. Saana’s work was particularly beautiful; she uses animals as a metaphor for transformation and combines animation with video and performance. Check out her work on her website www.saana-inari.net

Und.....Berlin Schnee!