News

The Clay Studio has some bittersweet news this week, with the departure of Curator of Artistic Programs Garth Johnson promising the end of one era and the beginning of another. Johnson is decamping to the Arizona State University Art Museum’s prestigious Ceramic Research Center, where he’s the new Curator of Ceramics. Johnson’s tally of achievements at the Clay Studio includes jurying the Clay Studio National, presenting their 40th Anniversary exhibition, re-imagining the Guerilla Mug Assault, assessing the permanent collection, recruiting two young Resident Artists and booking Guest Artists from five continents. Best of luck to Garth in his new capacity, and, for those interested, the studio’s posted search details for the Curator of Artistic Programs.

This week, the spotlight’s on our own Maeve! As part of Tyler School of Art’s Art History Practice Talks, she’s presenting “The Extant Body in Kiki Smith’s Home and Still: Physicality Made Manifest” tomorrow at noon in Tyler B083. Her co-presenter is Will Schwaller with “Mary Miss and Film: Introducing Narrative to Land Art.”

Following one of the biggest trends for art museums these days, La Salle University Art Museum just had a huge coup with a grant from Institute of Museum and Library Services to make its collection available over the Internet. Congratulations LaSalle and all the IMLS recipients, some of whom – PAFA, the Mercer Museum, the Mutter Museum – are familiar faces, and many new to us!

FJORD Space’s Sketches From California, a cool show that many of us loved, included a workshop that was videotaped and is going to be played at the show’s closing next Saturday. This new video work, entitled Sketch Club! was made by seven artists; five local artists and two Californian artists from the exhibition. Matt Savitsky and Frankie Martin helmed and edited the production and edited later. Gallery hours are Saturday September 27 from 12-4PM, or by appointment.

Opportunities

The September 29 deadline for the Meyer Family Award for Contemporary Art’s call for proposals is approaching, with an offer that includes $1000, a solo show, and the award itself. Presented by Main Line Art Center in conjunction with the Betsy Meyer Memorial Exhibition, the competition welcomes adult fine artists, who are not full time students, living in the Mid-Atlantic Region and working in all mediums. Chosen artists are notified in December 2014, with the exhibition in March/April 2015. Approximately three artists are awarded annually.  The 2014 recipients of the Meyer Family Award for Contemporary Art were Nic Coviello, Tim Portlock, and Jennie Thwing.

Since we don’t often do RFPs that fall solely on the criticism side, here’s one worth considering in that area. A new round of annual International Awards for Art Criticism are open to candidates from anywhere in the world, writing in Chinese or English about any contemporary art exhibition held between January 1 and September 30 2014. The first prize consists of a cash award of 50,000 RMB (6,000 Euros) and a fully funded two-week residency in Shanghai or London, in spring 2015. The two second prizes—one each, for an essay in Chinese and in English— consist of a fully-funded travel bursary for a two-week residency in Shanghai or London around the same time. There is no age limit, and the awards, organized by the Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum and the Royal College of Art, London, are basically open to all. To apply, submit no more than 2,000 words or 1,500 Chinese characters, along with a maximum of three images cleared for publication. Entries must be submitted as a single PDF file no greater than 4MB, and the entire email should not be more than 5MB. Copyright of all texts must be assigned to the IAAC, regardless of whether or not they have been previously published. All entries will initially be sorted and shortlisted by the organizers and academic partners in China and the UK, then translated into Chinese (for English-language submissions) or English (for Chinese-language submissions). The final adjudication, in English, takes place at a bi-lingual panel on November 22 in Shanghai, and announced to the media immediately afterwards. Up to 30 entries from the final shortlist, including the award-winning entries, are published in the original languages and in translation, both in hard copy and online. Award winners are then invited to take part in a public presentation, discussion and evaluation of the event in Shanghai in spring 2015.

 Submissions should be addressed to the following:

Chinese-language: Shanghai 21st Century Minsheng Art Museum, 1929 Shibo, Dadao, 200120, Shanghai. T +86 21 61875821; IAAC@21msms.com.

English-language: School of Fine Art, Royal College of Art, 20 Howie Street, London, SW11 4AS. T +44 (0) 20 7590 4423; IAAC@rca.ac.uk.

Artist News

Jason Stoneking caught our collective eye this month with news of his Cairo Dish Painting Initiative. This is a collaborative art project begun by Stoneking to help beautify the Cairo skyline, no small task in one of the most heavily built-up cities in the world. A cooperation with the Artellewa Art Space, site of Stoneking’s 2014 artist residency, the Initiative started painting the numerous dirty brown satellite dishes of the Ard-El-Lewa neighborhood in vivid day-glo colors. We hope, as do they, that this idea is well-received and takes off across Cairo!

Diane Burko’s newest exhibit, the latest installment of her Investigations of the Environment, is about to open at LewAllen Galleries in Santa Fe, NM. Running from September 26, 2014 – November 2, 2014, it includes more of the jaw-dropping vistas we’ve come to know and love from Burko.

2 from Fleisher/Ollman – Jenniver Levonian’s Rebellious Bird is going to be featured in Strange Bedfellows at VisArts in Rockville, MD from October 17 – November 23, 2014, while Tristin Lowe’s infamous ten-foot-tall inflatable pink elephant, Dumbo, was in residence at Milk Studios during Made Fashion Week.  As part of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation’s new initiative to promote awareness about the killing of African Elephants for ivory, that one picked up some great press in the New York TImes and Vanity Fair’s VF Daily.

In case you missed it….

Evan saw what some current Vox exhibitors captured from photographic technique.

Seoul holds some mathematical mysteries for Katie in her review of Matrix: Mathematics_Heart of Gold and the Abyss. 

Michael took a trip into Area 51-esque territory with Ben Furgal’s Describe the Phenomenon at Space 1026.