Exporting POP : A Western Fantasy

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1 Exporting POP : A Western Fantasy 2 3 Exporting POP: A Western Fantasy 4 1 Curated by DEAN PROJECT, Mark Dean In association with the Kuwait Art Foundation Limited Kuwait City, Kuwait Exporting POP A Western Fantasy 2 3 As an American child of the 1970s I grew up surrounded by Pop imagery and aware of the in^uence America 9s mainstream popular culture had around the world. It was not until I became an adult and was able to travel globally that I experienced the idea of Pop not as a super]cial Western phenomenon but as a multilingual visual concept that was embraced, re-interpreted and treasured in every corner of the world. Pop today is like an ongoing play that is based on the lives and characters of people from my generation and those who are and will become part of cast during the 21st Century.

When I took the opportunity given to me by the Kuwait Art Foundation to organize an exhibition, I had no doubt in my mind that, considering the current sociopolitical situation between the West and the Middle East, the subject of Pop as a visual unifying concept of our global society was the ideal subject ... more. less.

to be explored. Pop Art is known as the 1960s art movement that incorporated elements of western popular culture and mass media to create "high art. d The word pop is synonymous with explode, burst, and bang 4 all of which demonstrate the impact this work can have. Pop continues to be a strong force in today's art world and forms the framework for this exhibition which re^ects how this artistic phenomenon has evolved from the 1960s to the present. As a whole this exhibition could be de]ned by one of its themes cEmbracing Pop d which addresses contemporary aesthetics that Pop has transformed over time, mixing elements of modernism and popular culture with ideas of contemporary design, craft and street art. This exhibition presents twenty-one contemporary artists working in sculpture, photography, drawing, mixed media and painting in order to realize their personal visions and ideas of the present popular culture. I am honored to have this opportunity working with Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah: I admire his avant-garde vision and innovative spirit. I truly appreciate his complete support and openness for my exploration in this exhibition. I would also like to thank all of the participating artists, Eleanor Heartney for her insightful essay, Louise Dudis for the sophisticated design of the catalogue, Mish Norris, Alia Farid and the staff of the Al-Sabah Gallery. Mark Dean, 2009 Curator 9s Statement 4 5 Eleanor Heartney Andy Warhol died in 1987, but his name and his paintings are still instantly recognizable both inside and outside the art world. Warhol remains the embodiment of Pop art, the ]rst art movement of the postwar era to clearly understand and harness the forces that continue to shape the world today. The rise of mass media, the ascendancy of global markets, the embrace of celebrity worship, and the emergence of pop culture as an international Esperanto are all anticipated and furthered by those deadpan soup cans, giant Mao portraits and gold backed Marilyn Monroes. We are two decades into the post Warhol era, and it is clear that, in many ways, Pop art has become the lingua franca of the global art world. Its in^uence today has spread across the globe as artists from Japan, Russia, China, Latin America and Britain explore our common immersion in materialism, media and the manipulation of desire. Through the exploitation of the ubiquitous objects of consumer culture, popular entertainment, advertising and celebrity, Pop has become the favored tool for artists intent on obliterating any remaining boundaries between high art and popular culture. Their success is evident everywhere. When we accept the merger of art and business, the celebration of great design as art, the mingling of the aesthetic of minimalism and the aesthetic of advertising, or the appearance of comic book heroes, movie stars, or corporate logos into paintings and sculptures, we have surrendered ourselves to the seductions of Pop. But Pop is not merely a universal language. Because the icons on which it draws can be regional as well as global, Pop Exporting POP A Western Fantasy 6 7 has also emerged as a way for artists to deal with local issues and concerns. By passing political ]gures through the ]lter of celebrity worship, artists from formerly or nominally communist countries can reveal connections between commercial and political propaganda. By suggesting an equivalence between the toys favored by the rich and the poor, artists from countries with democratic systems can expose otherwise unmentionable class distinctions. And by holding a society 9s favored symbols, icons and logos up for examination, artists from any country can examine the social values and fantasies that shape their culture. From this perspective, Pop becomes a tool for uncovering the hidden architecture of a society 9s self image. Pop is so much a part of our contemporary culture that it is hard to remember how controversial it once seemed. In the 1960 9s Warhol and other American pop artists challenged the high seriousness of Abstract Expressionism with images taken from the tabloid newspaper, the supermarket, and Saturday morning cartoons. Predictably the gatekeepers of high culture were outraged by art that spoke the language of cthe people d and required no esoteric knowledge or special training. They condemned as kitsch this art that was rooted, not in art historical precedents or the individual artist 9s inner light, but in the experiences of those who watch television, go to movies, go to shopping malls and keep abreast of the lives of their favorite celebrities. They saw Pop as the barbarian at the gate, threatening to bring down the whole edi]ce of high art. In a famous anecdote, abstract expressionist painter Willem DeKooning rebuffed Warhol at a party with this diatribe: cYou 9re a killer of art, you 9re a killer of beauty, and you 9re even a killer of laughter. I can 9t bear your work. d But while the keepers of the ^ame of high art looked with horror at the growing popular and critical acceptance of Pop, Pop artist Claes Oldenburg waved aside their concerns with a sweeping manifesto that said in part, cI am for an art& that does something other than sit on its ** in the museum& I am for an art that embroils itself with the everyday crap and still comes out on top. d Today, of course, Pop hangs alongside Abstract Expressionism at all the most prestigious museums, evidence that time softens even the most radical gestures. But as it has aged, Pop has also evolved. In the early days, its subjects 4Warhol 9s Campbell soup, Lichtenstein 9s comics, Oldenberg 9s screws and wrenches and Rosenquist 9s billboards, were the unmistakable stuff of what was then called middlebrow culture. In that now distant postwar era, Pop was heralded by its supporters as the art of democracy. Today, in the hands of artists like Jeff Koons, Tom Sachs and Takashi Murakami, it has also climbed up the social ladder, colonizing as well the products of upscale producers like Hermès, Prada, and Louis Vuitton. In part a re^ection of the burgeoning international market for contemporary art, works by these and other contemporary pop artists reveal the close link between the marketing of art and luxury goods, and the way that signature styles are the art world 9s equivalent of fashion branding. At the same time, however, contemporary pop art remains close to its more lowbrow origins, and artists frequently ]nd themselves operating within both worlds, mingling high and low, and shifting effortlessly from graf]ti and B-movies to haute couture and independent art ]lms. Pop today has also gone global and its impact in different countries may vary widely depending on the nature of the collision of popular imagery and local traditions. The ^uidity of contemporary Pop is clear when we consider its status in places like Russia and China. Initially Pop was identi]ed with capitalism and seen as a celebration of commodity culture. But in the waning days of the former Soviet Union, Pop provided cunof]cial artists d with a way to undermine the Soviet propaganda machine. Known as Sots Art (the name was coined in 1972 by the artist team Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid as a play on the Russian words for Soviet and Pop), work in this vein made a connection between western modes of commercial branding and the Soviet cult of personality that kept Communist leaders in power. Sots Artists regarded the cheerful workers and heroic leaders depicted in Soviet Socialist Realism close kin to Madison Avenue 9s equally unrealistic images of a happy consuming public. Working in the Sots mode, cunof]cial d Russian artists produced works that wittily made this point. Thus, for instance, in 1982, Komar and Melamid produced The Origin of Socialist Realism , in which a beautiful muse cozies up to a stalwart Stalin, both painted in the heroic socialist style. For It 9s the Real Thing (1982) Alexander Kosolapov incorporated an image of Lenin into a replication of the iconic Coca Cola ad, suggesting that the founder of Soviet communism endorsed cthe real thing." In a clear homage to Warhol, Leonid Sokov created Marilyn and Stalin ( 1989) which depicts Stalin and Marilyn Monroe in a clinch against a gold leaf backdrop. Such works equated capitalism and communism and suggested that both systems maintained their hold over the masses by manipulating the population 9s dreams and desires. In the post Soviet era, this spirit lives on in the works of younger Russian artists like the Blue Nose group who have created replicas of constructivist compositions from arrangements of salami and bread and the collective AES + F who produce elaborate digital images of an apocalypse populated by real life fashion models whom they have employed for this purpose. In the early 90s, a Chinese Art movement variously titled Political Pop and Cynical Realism made similar use of the techniques of western advertising to spoof the pieties of their own Communist regime. In part a response to the attempt of the post Tiananmen Chinese government 9s attempt to quell dissent by encouraging entrepreneurship and consumerism, these works walked the tightrope between outright criticism and acquiescence. Works of Political Pop took aim at the venality of the new middle class, the merging of consumer and political icons and the soullessness of a society based on the hierarchy of wealth. Icons of this movement include Wang Guangyi 9s Great Castigation Series: Coca Cola (1993), in which the stalwart worker heroes of Cultural Revolution propaganda ]nd themselves promoting Coca Cola, and Liu Wei 9s New Generations (1992) in which a pair of strangely misshapen toddlers loll before a giant portrait of Mao. Today, in a booming Chinese art market, Mao continues to operate for many Chinese artists as Marilyn Monroe did for Warhol as the ultimate superstar. Ironically, given the ostensibly anti-capitalist bent of much of this work, Soviet Sots Art and Chinese Political Pop were among these countries 9 most commercially successful movements. Pop has also taken a distinctively local ^avor in Japan, where artist/entrepreneur/curator Taskashi Murakami has self consciously fashioned himself along the model of Andy Warhol. Murakami 9s homage to the master includes his creation of an atelier which, as was Warhol 9s, is dubbed the cFactory, d his output of slick graphic paintings and in^atable sculptures of cartoonish pandas, mushrooms, and ^owers, his creation of a Japanized version of Mickey Mouse, and his blurring of art and commerce through a collaboration with Louis Vuitton. Murakami also sees himself as the leader of an art movement he has dubbed Super^at, whose adherents create works in many media that draw on such emblems of Japanese popular culture as anime, Hello Kitty, Pokeman, toy 8 9 robots and action ]gures. Their work, like Murakami 9s, melds the Japanese aesthetic of cuteness (known as kawaii) with darker undercurrents. Murakami has argued that these peculiarly winsome nightmares have their origins in the contradictions of Japanese history, including the horrifying memory of the nuclear con^agrations at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the humiliation of military defeat, the subsequent forced renunciation of aggression and militant nationalism (this latter is ensconced in the Japanese constitution,) and more recently the long gray economic aftermath that has followed the meltdown of Japan 9s economic miracle. These horrors are recycled and tamed through art works that on the surface seem ingratiating and childlike. Pop has also continued to evolve in the United States and England, the two countries where the movement ]rst found acceptance. Probably the best known successor to Warhol in America is Jeff Koons, who plays hard and fast with various signi]ers of class in ways that make it unclear who, exactly is the butt of his joke. His work has taken many forms. He has has fashioned a marble bust of himself and his wife in the mode of aristocratic sculptures displayed in the Palace of Versailles, has built a forty-three-foot-high dog-shaped topiary covered in seventy thousand seasonal ^owers and has hired master ceramicists from Italy to recreate large, exquisitely crafted versions of small ceramic dollar-store tchotchkes. With all these works, Koons blurs the distinction between high and low taste, suggesting that the real difference between the working and middle classes who buy mass-produced kitsch and the wealthy art world cognoscenti who collect his work is not taste, but the amount of money they are prepared to spend to out]t and decorate their homes. In Britain, a savvy exploitation of class differences also underlies the work of the Young British Artists (also known as the YBAs) a group of artists who emerged in the late 1980s in London. Artists like Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas and the Chapman brothers displayed an anarchic, anti-establishment ethos that was read as a reaction by young working-class artists to the diminishing sense of opportunity that marked Britain 9s Thatcher era. Using pop culture imagery, they took on nearly every bourgeois taboo. Over time, ironically, this voice of youth became the establishment, and Damien Hirst, the erstwhile leader and most notorious member of this clan, became a symbol of the art market 9s high water mark in 2007 when he sold a diamond covered skull for $100 million dollars. A more truly equalitarian approach to art is found in the emergence of street art. Graf]ti art is perhaps the ultimate expression of Pop 9s leveled hierarchies. Here, an activity generally considered destructive and anti-social is appreciated and exploited for its artistic merits. Graf]ti was born on the streets of cities like New York and Los Angeles, but its most talented practitioners graduated to galleries and museums. One of the most in^uential purveyors of graf]ti art was Keith Haring, who throughout the 1980s used the blank, black-papered advertising boards scattered throughout the New York subway system as ccanvases. d Using white chalk he drew cheerful cartoon images of people, dogs, and other creatures, based in part on the sunny characters of Walt Disney, and in part on a darker vision of mushroom clouds, skeletons and crawling babies. Haring died of AIDs in 1990, but his legacy lives on in the work of other, often less sung artists, who use the city walls and streets as their gallery. Exporting Pop reveals the further spread of the Pop aesthetic, bringing together a new generation of artists who are natives of such diverse places as Venezuela, Holland, Columbia, Mexico, Peru, Canada, Panama, Puerto Rico and the United States. The artists here work in media that range from paintings, computer graphics, and photography, to installations and sculptures that employ such elements as wood, ceramic, plexi, neon, glass, aluminum and found objects. The sources of inspiration here are many, including advertising, maps, corporate logos, video games, fashion spreads, movie posters and fast food. Drawing on images and objects located in the surrounding world, the artists in Exporting Pop spin off from many different aspects of Pop. Some, like Dan Levenson exploit the graphic punch of Pop, while others like Dulce Pinzon ]nd inspiration in cartoon characters and popular super heroes. Yet others, like Jesse Small, play high against low by creating luxury goods like chandeliers out of industrial materials or, like Phillip Maberry reposition functional ceramic vessels as high art. Cecilia Jurado explores the way that fashion mandates our sense of beauty. Reinaldo Sanguino spoofs our desire for royalty. Jason Dunda suggests the blending of humans and the natural world. Other themes here include the construction of gender, mass consumption, hip hop, violence, the melding of nature and technology, hybrid identity and visual pollution. What unites all these works is their adherence to the Pop reworking of emblems and materials of popular culture. Why has Pop remained relevant to artists across so many different generations and geographical locations? The answer may lie in the way it takes the stuff of ordinary life and makes us see differently. That which is ubiquitous is also often invisible. Yet, in the end, the food we eat, the cars we drive, the entertainments we enjoy and the products we use tell us more about ourselves than all our exalted ideas about truth and beauty. Pop refuses to let us get away with anything. And as a result, it keeps us honest by reminding us who we are. In his Manifesto on Pop art, Claes Oldenburg said it best: cI am for an art that takes its form from the lines of life itself, that twists and extends and accumulates and spits and drips, and is heavy and coarse and blunt and sweet and stupid as life itself. d Pop is powerful, because, in the end, Pop is us. Eleanor Heartney, 2009 10 11 Rachel Beach 12 Timothy Berg and Rebekah Myers 14 Sandra Bermudez 16 Karlos Cárcamo 18 Chad Curtis 20 Jason Dunda 22 Miky Fábrega 24 Léopold L. Foulem 26 Cecilia Jurado 28 LazerHappy 30 Dan Levenson 32 Phillip Maberry 34 Dulce Pinzón 36 Milton Rosa-Ortiz 38 Reinaldo Sanguino 40 Philip Simmons 42 Jesse Small 44 Andréa Stanislav 46 Greg Stewart 48 Keer Tanchak 50 Barbara Weissberger 52 Artists 12 13 Rachel Beach . Canadian-born New York City artist Rachel Beach creates lyrical painting/sculpture hybrids that destabilize our visual perception, questioning how we see and what we believe. Imagined perspectives and off-kilter spatial relationships merge with the familiar languages of ornamental detailing and modern abstraction in Beach 9s meticulously hand-crafted wood veneer and oil painted objects. Reviews of Beach 9s work have appeared in cThe Brooklyn Rail d, cNew City Chicago d, cFlavorPill d and most recently, cArt in America d which noted that her works cplayfully investigate the gray areas between ^atness and volume, illusion and reality. d Beach studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax Canada, and received a Masters degree from Yale University, CT. She was the recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts grant, an Ontario Arts Council grant and was a 2007 Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant Nominee. She has exhibited widely throughout the U.S. and Canada, including: Flip, Like the Spice, Brooklyn NY (2008); The Panorama Project, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, NYC (2008); DEAN PROJECT, LIC NY (2008); SCOPE art fairs NYC and Miami FL (2008); Six of One, Eastern Edge, St. John 9s NL (2007); Chicken & Egg, HQ, Brooklyn NY (2007); The Space Between, Mixed Greens, NYC (2005); Free Form, Center Gallery Fordham University, NYC (2004); Wallpapers, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax NS (2001); and The Wight Biennial, New Wight Gallery, UCLA, Los Angeles CA (2001). Her 2008 solo shows include History Repeating , Bespoke Gallery, NYC; Rabbit Hole , Kasia Kay Gallery, Chicago IL; and Tower , Anna Leonowens, Halifax NS. Beach is currently preparing for solo exhibitions in Brooklyn, NY and Toronto, ON. Evergreen , 2006, mahogany, cherry, oak and pine veneers, enamel, mixed mediums,12 x 38 x 2.5 inches Medallions: The Fold, The Rogue, The Cigar, The Mermaid , 2007-2008, anigrie, birch, teak & walnut veneers, oil paint, mixed mediums, 18 x 18 x 1.375 3 2.375 inches 14 15 Timothy Berg and Rebekah Myers are a multimedia studio art collaborative based in Claremont, California. Berg and Myers create sculpture and installations that employ humor and metaphor to simultaneously disarm the viewer and challenge them to address humankind 9s propensity for making things disappear. Although seemingly lighthearted and fun, their work wryly comments on our culture 9s insatiable appetite and the consequences of over consuming. Berg and Myers received their Bachelor of Fine Art degrees from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2000. Berg received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2003. Myers continued her studies in graphic design at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, CA. Berg is an Assistant Professor at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where Myers practices freelance graphic design. Berg and Myers most recent exhibition was entitled All Good Things& and took place at Dean Project Gallery in Long Island City, NY. In 2008 they participated in a number of exhibitions including Confrontational Ceramics , White Plains, NY and Les Enfantes Rouge , New Orleans, LA. Upcoming group exhibitions include The Margins , Phoenix, AZ and Af]nity, Seoul, South Korea, as well as a solo exhibition in Gothenburg, Sweden. tip of the iceberg (precious cubes) , 2008, ceramic, wood, urethane paint, 44 x 14 x 17 inches (each). Edition 1/1 between a rock... , 2008 ceramic, wood, urethane paint, 59 x 48 x 20 inches (each). Edition 1/1 16 17 Sandra Bermudez , multimedia artist, lives and works in New York City. Bermudez 9s work, based on self- portraiture and advertising, delves in gender issues with a focus on identity, representation and construction of the female gender. She creates playful and seductive works that reference contemporary design and publicity. Bermudez studied at Instituto Marangoni, Milan and received Masters degrees from both Columbia University, NYC and New York University, NYC. Bermudez has been selected for residencies in Chateau La Napoule Art Foundation, Cannes; Vermont Studio Center; Artists in the Marketplace, Bronx Museum of Arts; Blue Mountain Center, NY; and Skopelos Art Foundation, Greece. She has exhibited her work in solo and group shows internationally, including: Next , Hans Meyer, Dusseldorf (2008); Imagina , Museo de Arte moderno, Medellin (2008); We are your future , Moscow Biennial (2007); 20 Years In , International Center of Photography (2006); All that you can see , Art Basel-Design District, Miami (2005); Not Only Performance , Museo del Barrio, New York (2004); The Sublime Metaphor , Oxford Museum, Oxford (2003); Rencontres Internacionales , Podewil Center for Contemporary Arts, Berlin (2003); Public Responsibility , Art Museum of the Americas, Washington (2003); Freewaves , Iturralde Gallery, Los Angeles (2002); and Socket Saliva , Videotage, Hong Kong, China (2002). In early 2009, she was nominated and accepted to the prestigious Artist Pension Trust, Mexico City. She is currently preparing for a solo exhibit in Chicago. Love , 2009, aluminum, 25 x 32 x 2 inches. Edition 1/3 Chanel Branch , 2006, archival die-cut print, 40 x 60 inches. Edition 2/3 18 19 Karlos Cárcamo , multimedia artist, lives and works in Beacon, New York. Cárcamo 9s multi-discipline approach incorporates the use of high and low cultural references as a means to comment on various issues relating to urban culture. The wealth, in^uence, and violence, associated with the rise of Hip Hop culture to pop media status are often topics of his work. Straddling the line between art and life, Cárcamo 9s work also address a broad spectrum of formal issues that engage contemporary art discourse. Cárcamo studied at the School of Visual Arts, and Hunter College, New York, where he received his Masters degree in 2000. Cárcamo has been selected for residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Artists in the Marketplace, Bronx Museum of the Arts. He has exhibited his work in solo and group shows internationally, including: MC Ultra , Triton Gallery LLC, Nicosia, Cyprus (2008); From the Ground Up , Apex Art, New York (2008); Karlos Cárcamo , PS 122 Gallery, New York (2008); Beauty is in the Street , Rutgers University Museum, New Jersey (2007); A Jamaica Queens Thing , Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, New York (2007); Body Double , Lesnica Castle, Wroclaw, Poland (2006); 1 x 1 , Jersey City Museum, New Jersey (2006); Bermuda Triangle , Ambrosino Gallery, Miami, Florida (2005); Open House, Artists working in Brooklyn , Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York (2004); After Matisse/Picasso , PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2003); Special Projects , Queens Museum of Art, New York (2003); Painting as Paradox , Artist Space, New York (2002); S-Files , El Museo del Barrio, New York (2002) In 2005 his work was presented as set design for a performance by the Merce Cunningham dance company at the Joyce Theater in New York. Recently, he was awarded a Special Editions Residency at the Lower Eastside Printshop to work on a new series of prints and is preparing for exhibitions at the Center for Book Arts, New York and the Museo de Arte de El Salvador (MARTE), San Salvador, El Salvador. Cut Out #4 , (2 Pac), 2008, altered poster, mirror, black frame, 38 x 24 inches. Edition 3/3 Rap Fanatic , 2008, cut out magazine cover, mirror, gold frame, 17 x 14 inches. Edition 1/1 20 21 Chad Curtis is an artist and technologist living and working in Philadelphia. Curtis 9s work, drawing inspiration from from both digital technology and homebrew DIY makers, examines the effects of high technology on the relationship between human beings and the natural environment. Despite the negative connotations often associated with this relationship, Curtis 9s work remains playfully optimistic invoking the alluring possibilities of bright and glossy colors, ^awless polished Plexiglas and curvaceous, tactilely inviting forms. Curtis holds a MFA from Alfred University and has exhibited internationally including: Margins: A Nontraditional Approach to Clay , The Icehouse, Phoenix, AZ (2009); Archaeology of Wonder, Real Art Ways , Hartford, CT (2008); Primary , Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University, Grand Rapids, MI (2008); Scope Hamptons, East Hampton, NY (2007); CIRCA Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2007); One Part Clay: Ceramic Avant-garde & Mixed Media , Garth Clark Gallery, Long Island City, NY (2006); Scope Miami, Miami Beach, FL (2006); and SOFA New York, New York, NY (2005). Additionally, his work has been included in such publications as: cCeramics Art and Perception d, Neue Keramik, Seramik Turkiye, and the recent books cBreaking the Mould: New Approaches to Ceramics and Tangible: High Touch Visuals. d Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia. Golden Eagle (Audubon Series: Birds of Prey), 2009, marker on painted panel, 24 x 36 inches, Edition 1/3 Red Buck Deer , 2008, glazed ceramic, acrylic, latex paint, wood, milled foam, mixed media, 22 x 19 x 52 inches 22 23 Jason Dunda is a Canadian painter who lives and works in Chicago. Dunda 9s work whimsically depicts a strange and wonderful world in which we are foolishly powerless against our natural surroundings. With an economical, graphic stroke and a limited but sophisticated colour palette, he distills landscape into playful near- abstractions of gorgeous failure and polite futility. Dunda received a BFA from York University in Toronto in 1995, and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001. Dunda 9s recent solo and group exhibitions include: No substantial advantage to mankind , Kasia Kay Art Projects, Chicago (2009); Sensible , Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art, Toronto (2008); Introduction: Future Dialogues , Dean Project, New York (2008); O Pathetic Fallacy , Green Lantern, Chicago (2007); A Little Present for Friends and Friendly People: In the Form of a Miscellaneous Discourse by a Poor Illiterate Mechanic , Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art, Toronto (2006); Experiment 400/5 , Gallery 400, Chicago; Here and Back , James Baird Gallery, St. John 9s (2004); Splat Boom Pow! The InMuence of Comics in Contemporary Art , Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus; Henie-Onstad Art Centre, Oslo, Norway (2003). His work is represented in the collections of Todd Oldham, the Agnes Etherington Art Centre and the Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto. Curatorial projects include Modest Contemporary Art Projects from 2000 to 2004, and The Alliance of Pentaphilic Curators from 2005. The Tower , 2007, gouache on paper, 10 x 15 inches The Landscape, 2009, gouache on paper, 14 x 22 inches 24 25 Miky Fábrega lives and works in Panama City, Panamá. Fabrega 9s work deals mainly with the subject of human identity and the search and loss of it. Focused on the new social dynamics that web based social networks have created, he takes images of real people looking for his or her places in this media saturated times and then takes them out of context and into his own world of splashing color and evolving forms thus creating new life for his subjects. Fabrega studied Photography, Cinema, Media and Social marketing in Panama, The Neatherlands, Mexico and most recently in Central Saint Martins in London. Fabrega has exhibited his work in solo and group shows internationally, including: Are Friends Electric? (2007) and Nothing But Mowers (2005) at Mateo Sariel Gallery in Panama; The Panamanian Biennal (2005); The Cuenca Biennal of Ecuador (2006); The Valencia Biennal of Venezuela (2007); The Central American Biennal in San Salvador (2007); The Central American Emerging Artist Trienal in M.A.D.C. Costa Rica (2007); and in art fairs such as Scope Miami, Hamptons and New York City. Fabrega won the top honors at the Emerging Artist Trienal in M.A.D.C. Costa Rica (2007), and has been nominated two years in a row for the Cisneros (CIFOS) grant. He is currently working on solo shows in Panamá, Puerto Rico and New York Lusha Ivanov loves joy division , 2009, acrylic on canvas, 19 x 15 inches kim Yung is feelin sexy , 2009, acrylic on canvas, 19 x 15 inches 26 27 Léopold L. Foulem . Internationally known, Léopold L. Foulem is a Canadian ceramicist living and working in Montréal. He obtained a MFA from Indiana State University in 1988. He has thirty-nine solo exhibitions and over two hundred and forty group shows to his credit. His ceramics have been presented in sixty-four exhibitions in thirty-seven museums on four continents. His objects are in nineteen museum collections on three continents, namely those of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in Québec City, Québec, Canada, to name a few. He received the Jean A. Chalmers National Crafts Award in 1999 and the Saidye Bronfman Award for Excellence in Crafts in 2001. He is an acknowledged scholar on the ceramics of Pablo Picasso. He co-curated the international exhibition cPicasso et la céramique d (Picasso and Ceramics) in 2004. Goblet with Tank , 2007, ceramic and found objects, 10.625 x 6 x 3.25 inches Goblet with Mickey Stem , 2007, ceramic and found objects, 11 x 6.25 x 5 inches 28 29 Cecilia Jurado is a visual artist who has developed a body of work about the notion of beauty. From her early projects, she focused on the power of image as a representation of beauty. She was born in Lima, Perú, where she studied Fine Arts at Ponti]cia Universidad Católica del Perú and Professional Photography at Instituto Antonio Gaudí. Her work has been showcased in group exhibitions in the U.S., Germany, Switzerland and Peru. Her solo exhibitions include: Madame Frankie Stein , Point of View Gallery, New York (2007); Oral Cute , Galeria Lucia de la Puente, Lima (2007); Oral Cute , Galerie Port Autonome 4 Basia Embiricos and an outdoor exhibition in Rue de Jardins St Paul, Le Marais, both in Paris (2006); Welcome to my Dollhouse a site speci]c project built in Tribeca, New York (2006); Oral Cute , Gallaria Punt, Samedan-St Moritz (2005); Máquina de Carne (Flesh Machine), itinerant project at San Marcos Museum, Center of Photography, Peruvian North-American Cultural Institute, Cultural Center of Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima (2002 32001); I.D. Project; Identity Copies , Artist in residence exhibition at Galerie Stadpark, Krems, Austria (2001); and 8.8.00 Galeria El Ojo Ajeno, Center of Photography, Lima (2000). Articles about her work have been published in cVOGUE Magazine, d cNYArts Magazine, d cRevista Luna Cornea, d cDiari Avui, d Barcelona, cRevista Etiqueta Negra, d cArteAlDia Magazine, d among others. Cecilia 9s ]rst book cMadame Frankie Stein d was released on April 2007 by Onestar Press, Paris. Cecilia Jurado lives in New York and is currently showing at Queens International 4 , The Queens Museum Biennial in New York. Oral Cute #3 , 2005, C-print, 40 x 30 inches. Edition of 4 Oral Cute #1 , 2005, C-print, 40 x 30 inches. Edition of 4 30 31 LazerHappy Studios is an open ended curatorial project led by artists Adrian Tone and Gerard Kilgallon. With an eye for well-produced work and an emphasis on collaboration they create energetic paintings, sculptures and installations. While studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, Kilgallon and Tone began an ongoing series of public performances and installations based on a shared interest in advertising and branding. Venues have included Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2006); SCOPE Art Fair, Miami (2007); SoHo, New York City (2008 3 present); LazerHappy artists have exhibited in solo and group exhibitions including: RoCoCoPoP , Dean Project and Crossing Art Gallery, Queens (2009); SCOPE, Dean Project, Miami (2008); Konichiwa , GEISAI 11 Art Fair, Tokyo (2008); The Intern , Packer-Schopf Gallery, Chicago (2006); Just Like Dat , LazerHappy Studios, Chicago (2005); The Spring Break Show , The Butcher Shop, Chicago (2004); and AEON , Hanger 18, Los Angeles (2003). LazerHappy has been featured in publications such as "ArtForum," "Artinfo," "YDN Design Guide," and the "Chicago Reader." Gerard Kilgallon, Even In The Winter There Are Pretty Clouds , 2008, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 24 x 3 inches Adrian Tone, Chi Ca Go! , 2006, acrylic on canvas, 84 x 84 x 4 inches 32 33 Dan Levenson is a 1994 graduate of Oberlin College and a 1997 MFA graduate of London 9s Royal College of Art. Since moving to Brooklyn he has been a practicing artist who has exhibited widely and whose occasional public interventions have gained press attention around the world. Solo shows have included White Columns, Visningsrommet USF in Bergen, Norway, sixtyseven gallery in Brooklyn, and an upcoming project at Incident Report in Hudson, NY. Group exhibitions have included Columbia University, The Bronx River Art Center, Jason Rulnick Fine Art, Jack the Pelican Gallery, Bellwether and Momenta Art as well as exhibitions in Australia, San Francisco, and elsewhere. He has received many professional accolades including a 2007 grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and ]scal sponsorship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2008 he was awarded a residency, exhibition and travel grant from the USF Verftet in Bergen Norway, and he participated in the Triangle Artists 9 Workshop in Brooklyn. He has been a resident at Yaddo several times. In 2003 he was awarded a one year studio residency at P.S. 122, and in 2004 was granted a studio at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. Leocarillo , 2008, acrylic on panel, 18 x 24 inches Interamnia , 2008, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 48 inches 34 35 Phillip Maberry , ceramic sculptor and installation artist, is currently living and working in the Hi-Desert of Southern California. For more than twenty ]ve years Maberry and collaborator Scott Walker have created one of a kind ceramic sculpture and installations. Utilizing color and design, articulated in the artists characteristic playful manner, the work is infused with an optimistic spirit. The work has been shown on a regular basis at the Garth Clark Galley N.Y.C and currently at Dean Project Long Island City, N.Y. Early installations include: Whitney Biennial, 1983 , Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC; Pittsburgh Center For the Arts (1983), Pittsburgh PA; ICA Gallery; Graduate School of Fine Arts (1987), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Notable museum collections include: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA., Newark Museum, Newark NJ, Victoria and Albert Museum, London England, and the Museum of Art and Design, NYC, NY Pool Toy, 2009, original ceramic, 32 x 28 x 18 inches Pool Toy , 2009, original ceramic, 28 x 24 x 20 inches 36 37 Dulce Pinzón is a Mexican photographer working on a series of satirical, documentary style photographs featuring or- dinary men and women in their work environment in New York. They are immigrants donning superhero garb with the objective of raising questions of our de]nition of heroism after 911 and our ignorance of the workforce that fuels our ever-consuming economy. A text is incorporated with each image with the name of the worker, country of origin and how much money they send to their communities with the purpose of highlighting the human nature of the individuals in the photographs. Her work has been exhibited in Casa América, Madrid Spain (2009); National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago (2008); Inter-American Development Bank, Washington DC. (2008); The Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey (2007); The Center for Photography at Woodstock, New York (2007); The Central Library of Brooklyn, New York (2007); S-Lles, El Museo del Barrio, New York (2007); Queens Museum of Art, New York (2006); Museum of the City of New York (2006); The International Center of Photography, New York (2003). Her work has been published and collected internationally. In 2001 her photos were used for the cover of a publication of Howard Zinn 9s book cA People 9s History of the United States. d In 2002 Dulce won the prestigious Jovenes Creadores grant in Mexico for her work. In 2006 she won an Honori]c Mention in the Santa Fe Project Competition and she won the 12th edition of the Mexican Biennial of El Centro de La Imagen. Dulce was a 2006 Fellow in Photography from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a 2007 Program Artist in the Market Place for the Bronx Museum. She is currently a Ford Foundation grantee and lives in Brooklyn New York. 2004, C-print on sintra, 20 x 24 inches. Edition of 8 Ernesto Mendez is Robin from Mexico City works as a gigolo in Times Square New York he sends 200 dollars a week 2007, C-print on sintra, 20 x 24 inches. Edition of 8 Bernabe Mendez is Spiderman from the State of Guerrero works as a professional window cleaner in New York he sends 500 dollars a month 38 39 Milton Rosa-Ortiz . Puerto Rico-born artist Milton Rosa- Ortiz practiced as a professional architect for nearly a decade before steering off in the direction of sculpture. Since then he has exhibited in New York, Aspen, New Orleans, Miami, Paris and San Juan. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. His work explores issues of the sacred and the profane through three-dimensional allegories juxtaposing contemporary socio-political issues. For the L-factor show at Exit Art, NYC, he presented La Aparicion de la Fama , a scupture based on Jennifer Lopez 9s green Versace dress made of fragments of bottles hand-picked from the streets of the Bronx. Most recently, he did Disbelief , a site-speci]c installation at the Brooklyn Academy of Music where plaster casts of human bodies were suspended from the ceiling as if they were swiming in an imaginary lake. Genesis 3:11 (Forbidden Fruit) , 2006, faceted glassv beads, glass pearls, acrylic beads, seed beads, monofilament, 9 x 17 inches Genesis 3:24 (Flaming Sword) , 2006, 50 cal bullet casings, glass beads, seed beads, jewelry wire, support structure, 21 x 4 x 60 inches 40 41 Reinaldo Sanguino was born in Caracas, Venezuela (1973). He graduated in 1993 from the School of Visual Arts Cristobal Rojas in Caracas, in the concentration program of ceramics. After graduating he relocated to New York City from where he currently works and lives. He has exhibited in both one-person and group shows throughout the United States and Latin America. Sanguino is the recipient of national and international grants- award and has participated in artist in residency programs throughout the United States. He is a 2007 nominee for the prestigious Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award and is one of the artists participating in The (S) Files , the El Museo Del Barrio 5th edition 2007-2008 Biennale in New York City. His work is included in numerous major private collections as well as the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; MINT Museum, Charlotte NC; and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis MN. cReinaldo Sanguino's sculptural works resemble the accoutrements of European royalty 4 and by visual extension, the abundant Miss Universe crowns garnered by light-skinned Venezuelan contestants 4 and speak to the narrow contours of national identities in multiracial and class-tired societies. Precious materials and stones that traditionally adorn these objects give way to black ceramic that can allude to the national treasure of Venezuelan oil and marginalized non-white populations. d E. Carmen Ramos My Paraiso series, Streicker, 2009, original ceramic, paper, plexiglas and mixed media, 20 x 20 x 59 inches My Paraiso series, Al-Sabah, 2007, original ceramic, cardboard, plexiglas, 18 x 18 x 20 inches 42 43 Philip Simmons is a sculptor who lives and works in New York City. Simmons uses political, social and religious symbols to capture the complexity of cultural debate in contemporary society. His sculptures often have binary natures: human/animal, literal/mythical, symbolic/speci]c, hero/villian, or comic/tragic. The works are deployed as signs, to be interpreted by the viewer. Simmons received his Master degree from the Fachhochschule Hannover, Germany, and his BA degree from The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Phildelphia. He spent one year in the studio of Professor David Evison at the Universität der Künste, Berlin. Simmons was selected for an artist residency at NES in Skagaströnd, Iceland, and has received grants from the NES Artist Foundation in Iceland, and the Danish Arts Council. The DAC award is for collaborative projects in Brooklyn, NY and Copenhagen, Denmark together with artist colleagues from Denmark and Germany. He has exhibited work internationally, including solo shows at Room for Contemporary Sculpture, Berlin (2001 and 2004); and Front Room Gallery in Brooklyn, NY (2006 and 2007). Recent group shows include Artgate Gallery, New York City (2009); Satori Gallery, New York City (2008); Front Room Gallery, Brooklyn (2008); INSITE, Governors Island, New York (2008); Dean Project, New York City (2008); Like the Spice Gallery, Brooklyn (2008); Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn (2008); Supermarket, Stockholm (2008); Fountain, Miami Design District (2007); Front Room Gallery, Brooklyn (2006); Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn (2006); Room for Contemporary Sculpture, Berlin (2006); Jack the Pelican Presents, Brooklyn (2005); and Gigantic Art Space, New York City (2004). Cowboy , 2009, vinyl, plastic resin, 50 x 40 x 6.5 inches Mosque , 2009, metal, plastic resin, 29 x 60 x 4.5 inches 44 45 Jesse Small , multimedia sculptor, lives and works in Hong Kong, with active studios in Jingdezhen, Shenzhen, and Kansas City. Shifting his studio practice between cultures is essential to investigating global phenomenon, such as the chaotic migration of ornament along ancient trade routes and the lasting effect this has had on cultural iconography. Small 9s primary concern is the condition of free will in a built up, decorative environment, and the illusion of choice this creates. His work resembles traditional decorative standards, including chandeliers, folding screens, grand mirrors, porcelain ]gurines and lanterns Small has been awarded many public art projects, including a health center on Staten Island, a corporate park in Des Moines, a war memorial on Fort Riley, Kansas, and a multi- highrise development enclosure in Shenzhen, China. In 2008 Small recieved a Gold Award for Art in Architecture for a project in Kansas City. Small has been selected for residency at the Experimental Sculpture Factory, China in 2005-2006. He has exhibited in group and solo shows internationally, including: eForm , Today Art Museum, Beijing (2008); Not Only You , First Art Bank, Shenzhen (2006); World Histories , Des Moines Art Center (2008); NewTypes , BOKA-Powell, Kansas City (2007); and Shi Tou , Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York (2007). Small is currently working on a solo show for Nancy Hoffman Gallery, several group shows and public art projects. Ghost Forest Crunch, 2008, galvanized steel, porcelain, plastic, 16 x 20 x 32 feet, (installation dimensions are variable) Ghost Confuser Family 2 , 2009, porcelain and low temperature decals, small ghost 7 x 3 x 3 inches, large ghost 20 x 11 x 11 inches 46 47 The Vanishing Points , 2008, mixed media, 30 x 50 x 8 feet Andréa Stanislav is a multimedia artist whose body of work includes sculpture, constructions, sound, multichannel video, and installation. She lives and works in Minneapolis and New York City. Dreamscapes, landscapes, and the language of ]lm and pop culture are informants in her multimedia installations and sculptures that attempt to undermine creality d and reinterpret histories. She empowers the viewer/participant to shape their own narrative and to contemplate their participation in the ideas and systems that the work suggests and questions. Andréa 9s recent exhibitions include: Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast; The Fieldgate Gallery, London; Jonathan Shorr Gallery, New York; Packer Schopf, Chicago; The Chambers Art Hotel, Minneapolis; and The Weisman Museum of Art, Minneapolis. Recently, her solo exhibition, River to InLnity 4 the Vanishing Points , was on view at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Upcoming solo exhibitions for 2009-2010 include: Andréa Stanislav 4 Fogtîogarburn , Thisisnotashop Gallery, Dublin, Ireland; Andréa Stanislav 4 Crash and Burn , Jonathan Shorr Gallery, New York, NY; Andréa Stanislav , Franklin Art Works, Minneapolis, MN; Andréa Stanislav , Packer Schopf Gallery, Chicago, IL; and Andréa Stanislav , Burnet Art Gallery, Chambers, the Art Hotel, Minneapolis, MN. She is currently working on two additional Dubai projects 4 Holiday Inn Dubai 4 a six channel HD video and sculptural installation and is a Collaborative Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study presenting a Dubai Symposium there with Bill Foley, Pulitzer Prize winning photographer. The Vanishing Points , 2008, mixed media, 30 x 50 x 8 feet 48 49 Greg Stewart , multimedia artist, lives and works in Virginia. Stewart 9s work is based on provisional architecture and portable geography. He constructs complex structures and absurd situations that offer imaginary solutions to questions of migration and survival. Stewart employs a formal strategy of layering and intersecting imagery to shape a world of new possibility and fantasy. Stewart has exhibited his work nationally, including Point of Departure , Dean Project, NY (2007); Garth Clark Gallery, NY (2006); Synthetic Experiments , Jane Hartsook Gallery, NY (2008); Trace Extender , Firehouse, VT (2006); Trace Connector , Mercer Gallery, NY (2006); Drought Sympathy , University of Georgia, GA (2008); and Tools For An Upright Animal , Bridgewater, VA (2009). Greg has participated in several collaborative projects, including Sans Terre, The Interventionists , Mass MOCA (2004); The Public Table (3 sites) , New Haven, CT, Bellow 9s Falls, VT, and Cambridge, MA (2006), with artist collective SPURSE. Stewart 9s current collaborative efforts include projects titled Flexible Geography and East Coast Sculpture Exchange. He is also preparing for a solo exhibition at Dean Project in May, 2009. Stewart received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Ohio University, Athens, OH. Wandering Homestead, 2009, mixed media on mylar, 24 x 36 inches. Edition 1/1 Itinerant Homestead , 2009, mixed media on mylar, 24 x 36 inches. Edition 1/1 50 51 Wild Child , 2008, oil on aluminum, 20 x 28 inches Keer Tanchak , painter, was born in Vancouver, Canada and now lives and works in Chicago. Tanchak derives imagery for her paintings on aluminum from 18th century Rococo sources; namely, the French painters Watteau and Fragonard. She writes: cThe 18th century fascination for decadence and romance, and the political implications of these obsessions, remains a relevant, ongoing cultural narrative. d Tanchak received a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Notable awards include a 2009 Illinois Arts Council Grant, the Purchase Prize from the South Bend Regional Museum of Art in Indiana, and the Brucebo Scholarship from the Canadian Scandinavian foundation. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including: Pleasure Paintings , Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst (2009); Introduction: Future Dialogues , DEAN PROJECT, Long Island City (2008); New Work from Five Canadian Painters , Third Avenue Gallery, Vancouver (2008); Sampling , Bjornson Kajiwara Gallery, Vancouver (2007); Lifted Pictures , Navta Schulz Gallery, Chicago (2007) ; and The Idea of ReMection , galerie sandra goldie, Montreal (2007) . Tanchak 9s work is featured in cFragonard, Regards Croisés, d a book co-authored by Dimitri Salmon (Musee du Louvre) and Jean-Pierre Cuzin. She is also included in a recent survey of Canadian painting titled Carte Blanche Vol.2- Painting . Tanchak 9s work is in collections at the South Bend Regional Museum of Arts in Indiana, the Hyatt Fisherman 9s Wharf in San Francisco, The Visby Konstmuseet in Visby, Sweden, and most recently in the private collection of the chairman of Sotheby 9s North and South America Eve Reid & Warren Weitman. Dishing , 2008, oil on aluminum, 12x12 inches 52 53 #978 , 2007, watercolor on paper, 25 x 25 inches Photo: Tom Warren Photo: Tom Warren #996 , 2007, watercolor on paper, 25 x 25 inches Barbara Weissberger works in collage, watercolor, and wall drawing/ installation. These works explore the continuum between nature and culture 4 mass consumption and sustainability 4 through imagery that includes meat, body builders, trucks, cars, heaps of tires, fungus, ^ora, sky and a growing collection of vivid imagery. Her work has been exhibited in New York at PS1, White Columns, Dean Project, Capsule Gallery, the DUMBO Art Center, and Schroeder Romero; the Mattress Factory Museum, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and Artist Image Resource in Pittsburgh; Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY (catalogue); ADA Gallery, Richmond, VA; and the Holter Museum, Helena, MT. Her work was included in the Pittsburgh Biennial, 2008 (catalogue) and toured throughout the US with the traveling exhibition Figures of Thinking (catalogue). She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2007. She was interviewed for cMeatpaper d magazine, Winter 2007 Issue. Residency fellowships include VCCA (Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellow and Vera I. Heinz Fellow); the MacDowell Colony; Yaddo (Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Fellow); and Montana Artists Refuge. She divides her time between New York and Pittsburgh.

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