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What I Like About You / Organized by Julie Torres

Parallel Art Space proudly presents What I Like About You, an exhibition that welcomes artists from around the globe for Bushwick Open Studios 2013, to collaborate with and exhibit the work of local Brooklyn artists, alongside their own.

May 31 – June 30, 2013

http://www.parallelartspace.com

http://curatingcontemporary.com

Visiting Artist --> Brooklyn Artist

Julie Alexander --> Jamie Powell

Karl Bielik --> Henry Samelson

Valerie Brennan --> Rodney Dickson

Brian Cypher --> Michael Voss

Jack Davidson --> Frank Holliday

Brian Edmonds --> Patricia Satterlee

Justine Frischmann --> Clinton King

Erin Lawlor --> Lael Marshall

David T Miller --> Brooke Moyse

Lucy Mink --> Chris Moss

Sean Montgomery --> Yadir Quintana

Melanie Parke --> EJ Hauser

Julia Schwartz --> Sharon Butler

Peter Shear --> Katherine Bradford

Wilma Vissers --> Tatiana Berg

Ian White Williams --> Paul Behnke

Douglas Witmer --> Alex Paik

Pier Wright --> Meg Lipke

Stephen Wright --> Ky Anderson

featuring: Liz Ainslie, Lauren Collings and Saira Mclaren

In advance of the exhibition Parallel Art Space asked Julie a couple of questions:

PAS - How did you get involved working with such an international and nationally spread group of artists?

JT - Through the worldwide web! We all follow some great art blogs-- Studio Critical, Painters' Table, Structure and Imagery, Two Coats of Paint... And it's become really easy to reach out to the artists we discover there, via Facebook and Twitter. So I met everyone in the group that way, and I'll be seeing lots of the artists face-to-face for the first time at Parallel. I can't wait!

PAS - how does this project relate to last years, and other projects you have presented?

JT - I first had the idea to organize a collaborative project with Brooklyn artists for Bushwick Open Studios 2011. So a group of us met every week for 2 months at Hyperallergic HQ, making collaborative drawings and paintings for 'So Happy Together,' an exhibit that Jason Andrew and I curated at Norte Maar. By 2012, I had been in communication with so many exciting artists online and knew that I wanted to incorporate these new relationships. So I invited artists from all over the world to Brooklyn, to collaborate with artists here, and showcase their own work in 'Alltogethernow.' This year brings everything full circle... Artists who visited Brooklyn last year will each showcase one piece from a Brooklyn artist they met alongside one piece of their own work. New participants (who weren't able to make it last year) will each show a Brooklyn artist they've been following online. It's very exciting to expand upon these interconnecting communities...

PAS - What is your drive to take on large projects like this, instead of focusing solely on your own work?

JT - Taking on these intense projects expands my perspective in every way... There's a very real bond that develops when you work this closely with people-- Similar to the marathon painting I've done with Geddes Levenson and Austin Thomas-- And It changes you. It's a lot of work and not always easy, but building these relationships is deeply rewarding-- sometimes even life changing. Last year's show had me on a high for months.

PAS - In what ways do large collaborative projects such as 'What I Like About You' inform and/or influence your own art making practice?

JT - Well it never hurts to surround yourself with inspiring artists...... and LOTS of them. When a big group of wonderful people get together, the energy is palpable and the possibilities seem limitless. I think it makes my own work braver, less timid, and more joyful. It definitely gets me out of my own head. It's exhilarating.

PAS - Do you see purposeful stylistic groupings within the works of the artists you are presenting?

JT - That happened pretty organically... I naturally gravitate toward other painters, specifically those who radiate in a very human, very raw exuberant way. Since those are the artists I follow online, those are the folks I invited. Not everyone I invited could come, but it's a very exciting group. And because they are each selecting a Brooklyn artist to showcase, it will expand further from there.

PAS - This being the second Iteration of working with such an international crew, do you see this project possibly being an annual recurring event? Maybe in different locations?

JT - I would absolutely love to hand the reins over to someone outside the US to host our next event........ There are a few artists who were unable to come to the States this year, so perhaps they could invite us to their neck of the woods! Inga Dalrymple in Sydney?.. Sabine Tress in Cologne?.. The possibilities are endless..........

Pages, Pages / devening projects + editions

Chicago, Illinois, USA. April 28 - June 8, 2013

devening projects + editions has an ongoing interest in well conceived, thoughtfully developed and thoroughly arresting works on paper from artists connected to the gallery and those whose projects add a new dimension to the program. Pages, pages is a new exhibition in the off space offering a satisfying combination of material diversity and fresh conceptual strategies to keep the tradition well in place. The exhibition features recent drawings and works on paper from Alain Biltereyst, Britta Bogers, Gerd Borkelmann, Andreas Fischer, Matt Rich, Cary Smith, Jered Sprecher and Alice Tippit.

Alain Biltereyst

Alice Tippit

Andreas Fischer

Britta Bogers

Cary Smith

Gerd Borkelmann

Jered Sprecher

Matt Rich

EMERGENCE / text by Françoise Caille

Une proposition de Erin Lawlor, Katrin Bremermann et Yifat Gat.
Hôtel de Sauroy 58, rue Charlot 75003 - Paris. 13-27 avril 2013.

Alain Biltereyst, Amy Feldman, Andrew Seto, Claire Chesnier, Clem Crosby, Don Voisine, Erin Lawlor, Marine Pagès, Eve Ascheim, Paul Pagk, Fieroza Doorsen, Radu Tuian, Katrin Bremermann, Richard van der Aa, Kevin Monot, Sharon Butler, Michael Voss & Yifat Gat.

EMERGENCE
concept utilisé pour évoquer l’interaction de systèmes simples suffisant en nombre pour faire apparaître un certain niveau de complexité qu’il était difficile d’appréhender par l’analyse de ces systèmes pris séparément. Les territoires de l’abstraction ici présentés relèvent aussi d’une géologie particulière des systèmes. Les artistes, chacun à leur manière, utilisent comme point de départ la ligne et son lacis de convergence, presque topographique, et ainsi tracent, voire balisent, l’étendue de ses champs d’influence. Les sculpteurs, quant à eux, élargissent le principe territorial commun au groupe et fonctionnent presque comme des rhizomes.

Une tension forme-fond

Biltereyst • Voisine • Voss • Feldman

Alain Biltereyst, Don Voisine, Michael Voss et Amy Feldman travaillent le rapport entre le fond et la forme en partant de figures simples qu’ils assemblent pour créer des structures plus complexes. Chacun à leur manière, ils défient la tension qui pourrait les rendre statiques. Biltereyst, le plus proche d’une géométrie stricte, laisse entrevoir les couches inférieures de matière et crée ainsi des vibrations de surface et une texture sensible. Voisine explore aujourd’hui la dynamique des angles afin de modifier les perceptions d’échelle et créer un champ visuel animé. Voss emboîte ou superpose des formes dont les limites imprécises trahissent le geste. Feldman déforme la rectitude et laisse place aux coulures et aux taches. Effets de matière, incision des angles, trouées dans la couleur, contours tremblés, lignes déviées... livrent l’essence d’une écriture vibrante.

Une architecture sensible de la ligne

Doorsen • Gat • Aschheim • Pagk • Tuian

Fieroza Doorsen, Yifat Gat, Eve Ascheim, Paul Pagk et Radu Tuian travaillent
un langage de constructions imprécises. Chez Doorsen et Gat, la ligne et la répétition sont des éléments dominants et construisent des univers subtils et poétiques.
Aschheim, dans ses dessins, peintures
et photogrammes, brise et démultiplie le trait, l’enveloppe de lumière, l’efface, le réduit,
le prolonge, lui insuffle un rythme musical,
le transmue en lignes urbaines ou végétales. De même, Paul Pagk et Radu Tuian,
chacun à leur manière,
tourmentent la ligne et la forme
pour tendre vers un renouvellement
constant de figures et de signes.

Katrin Bremermann

Sharon Butler

Kevin Monot

Le support en jeu

Bremermann • Butler • Monot

Chez Katrin Bremermann, Sharon Butler et Kevin Monot, le support joue un rôle déterminant. Il fait l’objet d’une recherche ludique et fertile chez Bremermann. Il dévoile son envers chez Butler, qui montre les châssis, laisse les bords bruts et les agrafes visibles, et garde l’état froissé d’une toile de lin : l’ensemble produit un sentiment de work in progress, qui se livre dans toute sa dimension sensible et trouve un contrepoint dans une peinture bien ancrée. Les supports de Monot émergent d’une collecte personnelle d’objets qui ont déjà vécu, papiers, cartons, feuilles en tout genre, dont il exploite le grain, la trace, l’accident... Les ruptures, obliques, pans coupés, débordements de Bremermann et l’aspect brut et inachevé de Butler sont souvent compensés par une douceur des formes et des couleurs. Une tendresse identique se produit chez Monot par le recours à l’effacement, le regard sur la tache, la pliure, la rature,
une couleur effacée, tout un répertoire délicat de la fragilité.

Marine Pagès

Richard van der Aa

Claire Chesnier

Les champs de la structure
Chesnier • Van der Aa • Pagès

Jean-Michel Alberola dit des œuvres de Claire Chesnier : « Ce n’est pas un travail d’alchimiste, mais de maçon ou de moine. Le reste lui appartient. » Précisément, son travail est tendu entre des formes massives et angulaires, où même la courbe est architecturale, et un subtil travail à l’encre où s’opère ce qu’elle nomme un « revoilement ». Liées aussi à l’architecture, les sculptures de Richard van der Aa et de Marine Pagès sont distinctes. Le premier recourt à un minimalisme de la forme. La seconde crée des ossatures abstraites et complexes, de soutien, d’emboîtement ou d’empilement. Ses dessins peuvent être perçus comme des illustrations ou des sortes de plans qui interrogent la notion de territoire.

Erin Lawlor

Andrew Seto

Clem Crosby

La peinture comme territoire

Lawlor • Crosby • Seto

L’idée de territoire est évoquée par Erin Lawlor. Son travail au sol d’une matière très diluée
« pose la peinture dans une position de territoire et non de fenêtre. Un territoire qu’on s’approprie [...] qui se laboure et s’élabore à la fois1. »
Le travail de ces trois artistes
porte en commun la trace de l’instrument, l’épaisseur du trait, une gestuelle contrôlée source de tension et la construction d’un espace court induit par la couleur.
Nous sommes dans « la capture de l’animé »,
qui se fige à un instant donné, mais reste éminemment vivant.
1. Erin Lawlor, Anima, Espace Mezcla, Rouen, sept-nov 2012.
Cette exposition propose d’explorer
quelques lignes, en filigrane, de l’abstraction actuelle dans sa liberté renouvelée,
où ce qui émerge du processus de création,
en peinture, en dessin comme en sculpture, relève de l’anticipation autant que de la mémoire.

Contact presse : Françoise Caille / francoisecaille@wanadoo.fr
Contact rendez-vous : Katrin Bremermann : 06 15 59 13 74

http://emergencesystem.blogspot.fr

conversation with Sharon Butler *

YG: looking at the work, two elements jump first, the structured images and the way you treat the canvases. do you consider them as two parallel layers of information, or are they both part of a bigger idea?

SB: Whether the canvas is carefully stretched over handmade stretchers and obsessively primed, rumpled and tacked to the wall, or bought pre-made, the support (or lack thereof) is integral to each piece.

Brightly Colored Separates 2, 2010, oil on canvas, 30" x 40"

Back in 2010, after years of making my own supports or choosing pre-made materials for conceptual reasons, I made a series of 30 x 40 inch paintings on standard, pre-stretched canvas that took the object out of the equation.

Yellow and silver HVAC (Stencil), 2013

pigment, silica binder, staples, stretchers, on canvas, 18 x 14 inches.

Left with only the image, I realized how important the tension between support and surface was for me, so I returned to stretching the canvases myself. I started thinking more consciously about the process of building, and that led to a new series of paintings featuring unstretched and ill-fitting canvas with staples on the front. I still use cheap pre-stretched canvases on occasion-- I imagine them as paintings I might find in a thrift shop or at a flea market.

google image

In terms of imagery, I’m generally interested in my surroundings. The geometric shapes in recent work reference the odd rooftop structures and makeshift architecture in Bushwick where I had a studio last year.

Ralston Crawford (American, 1906-1978), Turbine Shafts, Coulee Dam #2, 1971, oil on canvas, 20 x 30 inches, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO

I am like the Precisionists, a group of American painters in the early 20th-century who painted the industrial landscape, but the optimism inspired by industrialization and modern progress back in the day is long gone.

Stacked Vent, 2013.
pigment, binder, staples, stretchers and linen tarp. 18 x 12 inches

YG: yes, its about 'the tension between support and surface'. so the third element would be your choice of colors. they appear to be soft but their not actually. more nuanced monochromes than full colors. would you like to comment on your use of color?

SB: I make my paint by combining pigments with a silca binder, which enables me to make very thin but highly pigmented colors. The palette, which I think of as dirty pastel, references the worn out colors of the buildings, streets and walls in Bushwick.

* Sharon Butler work will be featured in 'EMERGENCE ' in Paris.