Jessica Stockholder | Form

DOWNLOAD VIA ITUNES | SUBSCRIBE VIA RSS

EXCLUSIVE: From her home in New Haven, Connecticut, Jessica Stockholder discusses the strength of form and the difficulty in articulating the meaning behind abstract shapes.

A pioneer of multimedia genre-bending installations, Jessica Stockholder’s site-specific interventions and autonomous floor and wall pieces have been described as “paintings in space.” Her work is energetic, cacophonous, and idiosyncratic, but closer observation reveals formal decisions about color and composition, and a tempering of chaos with control.

Work by Jessica Stockholder is included in the exhibition Embrace! at the Denver Art Museum. The exhibition includes site-specific installtions by 17 artists, spread throughout the museum’s Frederic C. Hamilton Building. Stockholder’s installation, titled Wide Eyes Smeared Here Dear, spans several levels of the Daniel Libeskind-designed building. Embrace! is currently on view at the Denver Art Museum through April 4, 2010.

Jessica Stockholder is featured in the Season 3 (2005) episode Play of the Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century television series on PBS. Watch the full episode online at PBS Video

VIDEO | Producer: Wesley Miller and Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Mead Hunt. Sound: Merce Williams. Editor: Jenny Chiurco and Mary Ann Toman. Artwork Courtesy: Jessica Stockholder.

Art21 “Exclusive” Video, Year 2

What a year it’s been! We’re taking a look back at the 42 Exclusive videos that premiered here on the Art21 Blog, and subsequently on YouTube and iTunes. We hope you’ve enjoyed this new feature for 2009 and, as always, look forward to your comments.

What’s our New Year’s resolution? We’ll be premiering more behind-the-scenes moments with contemporary artists such as Beryl Korot, Shahzia Sikander, Allan McCollum, Julie Mehretu, Cao Fei, Florian Maier-Aichen, and many, many more. Check out what happened in year one.

Jessica Stockholder | Becoming An Artist

Artist Jessica Stockholder recounts her earliest memories of wanting to become an artist while she and her son Charlie paint and draw in the basement of their home in New Haven, Connecticut.

A pioneer of multimedia genre-bending installations, Jessica Stockholder’s site-specific interventions and autonomous floor and wall pieces have been described as “paintings in space.” Her work is energetic, cacophonous, and idiosyncratic, but closer observation reveals formal decisions about color and composition, and a tempering of chaos with control.

Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Mead Hunt. Sound: Merce Williams. Editor: Mary Ann Toman. Artwork Courtesy: Jessica Stockholder. Special Thanks: Charles Pippin Chamberlain.

Weekly Roundup

James Turrell, "House of Light," 2000. © Photo: Kamome. Courtesy Echigo-Tsumari Triennial

• House of Light (2000), a permanent installation in Kawanishi, Japan by Season 1 artist James Turrell, will be open through September 14 as part of the 2009 Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial. The mechanical roof of this popular accommodation facility slides back to reveal the changing light and colors of the sky through a rectangular opening. “In the interior space,” Turrell writes, “one can experience a soft transforming light” by way of “familiar Japanese idioms such as shojii (paper sliding door) and tokonoma (alcove).”

• The Miami gallery O.H.W.O.W. will participate in an exhibition at the Macro Contemporary Art Center in Rome next month by setting up a shop to sell their New York Minute Poster Pack. The bundle includes prints by Barry McGee (Season 1), Aurel Schmidt, Dan Colen, Chris Johanson, Evan Gruzis, Kon Trubkovich, Tauba Auerbach, Ben Jones, JD Samson, and the late Dash Snow. Read more on Slamxhype.

• Juxtapoz Magazine gives a sneak peak at Barry McGee’s installation for the 20th anniversary exhibition at the Armory Center for the Arts. The space, located in Pasadena, Ca., has commissioned 20 contemporary artists that they have worked with in the past, to make new site-specific art works both inside and outside of the Armory.

• Last year, Inhotim Contemporary Art Center in Brazil dedicated an entire gallery to Season 5 artist Doris Salcedo. On September 30, the Center will inaugurate nine new art commissions by Matthew Barney (Season 2), Chris Burden, Doug Aitken, Rivane Neuenschwander and five other artists. Barney’s De Lama Lâmina (2004-09) is situated in a geodesic dome within a eucalyptus forest. Read more about the recent commissions in The Art Newspaper.

• The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States will be on view at the Columbia Museum of Art beginning October 23. This gift to the Museum by the New York collectors includes five works on paper by Season 3 artist Richard Tuttle, which are “considered to be among the seminal works of contemporary American art.”

• Pierre Huyghe (Season 4) is included in the exhibition and performance series Høvikodden Live 09 in Oslo, Norway. The annual Henie Onstad Art Centre event takes the interplay between different forms of art as its focus; this year’s curators investigate the voice as medium and metaphor. Concerts and other programs will take place in the galleries alongside static works of art.

• If you missed the Madison Square Park installation Flooded Chambers Maid by Jessica Stockholder (Season 3), you can see images and listen to the artist discuss the piece in a New York Times video.

Jessica Stockholder | “Vortex in the Play of Theater with Real Passion: In Memory of Kay Stockholder

DOWNLOAD VIA ITUNES | SUBSCRIBE VIA RSS

EXCLUSIVE: At her home in New Haven, Jessica Stockholder discusses the inspiration for “Vortex in the Play of Theater with Real Passion: In Memory of Kay Stockholder” (2000) at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen in Switzerland. A temporary site-specific installation, the materials for the project include Duplo, work site construction containers, and elements from a theatrical stage.

A pioneer of multimedia genre-bending installations, Jessica Stockholder’s site-specific interventions and autonomous floor and wall pieces have been described as “paintings in space.” Her work is energetic, cacophonous, and idiosyncratic, but closer observation reveals formal decisions about color and composition, and a tempering of chaos with control.

Jessica Stockholder is featured in the Season 3 (2005) episode Play of the Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century television series on PBS.

VIDEO | Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Mead Hunt. Sound: Merce Williams. Editor: Jenny Chiurco. Artwork Courtesy: Jessica Stockholder

Reflections on the Art21 Educators Institute

Benjamin Morales working at Cheim and Read's "The Female Gaze"

I’m sure everyone has had moments of blissful exhaustion- those times when you pushed yourself over a certain period, gotten to the end and said, “That was outstanding…. and I’m completely fried.”

That pretty much sums up our pilot institute for Art21 Educators.

After five days of working, thinking, walking, seeing, talking, planning, debating, sharing, listening, investigating and creating, we said farewell, for now, to the 15 teachers who joined us from across the country. Jessica Hamlin, Marc Mayer and myself, along with our superhero-intern, Joy Lai, looked at each other and let out a nervous and very satisfied laugh after everyone had left the sixth floor classroom at NYU yesterday afternoon. What a week!

The institute started with Oliver Herring greeting participants in one of the small auditoriums at NYU and immediately getting everyone to perform one of his famous TASK projects. There were no formal introductions, no go-around-the-circle-and-introduce-your-partner silliness. Participants got to know each other, in more ways than one, by participating with Oliver to create a massive art work that filled the stage and the first few rows of the auditorium. Then we introduced ourselves.

After a working lunch and previewing some of the season 5 video, participants then introduced themselves using a Pecha Kucha format- 10 slides, 10 seconds each. The intros were simple, to the point, visually exciting, and never included the line, “I was a lonely child…..” Everyone participated, including Jessica, Marc and myself.

The final part of day one included an introduction to some of the unit planning participants would be doing, and a look into how big questions and themes can drive units of instruction. Afterward, we were delighted to have Susan Sollins, Executive Director at Art21, host a reception at her loft in Manhattan. The day ended much like the week ended- we were all tired and had smiles touching the backs of our heads.

Day two started with a workshop on using the Art21 Educator Guides and working with big ideas. We shared strategies for using film in the classroom and making the viewing of film active vs. passive. At lunch, we were treated to a live webinar with Olivia Gude who arranged a two-hour presentation and discussion from her home in Chicago. This wasn’t just food for thought, it was a five course meal. Later that day, we had a chance to look at student work samples in small groups and connect some of what Olivia discussed with what participants were sharing in our second day.

Friday began with a Media Literacy workshop that introduced participants to different ways they can bring video and online resources into the classroom. As the morning ended we packed up our stuff and headed to Oliver Herring’s studio in Brooklyn for a studio visit before seeing a few gallery exhibits in Chelsea in the late afternoon. The day ended at Half King, a favorite spot in Chelsea for relaxing after gallery-hopping.

Participants had the chance to enjoy New York City over the weekend, since our institute was scheduled from Wednesday through Tuesday, and visited a variety of museums and galleries as they prepared units of study for presentation on Tuesday. Many came back with wonderful stories about artists and art works they discovered. Many also had a chance to discover New York City in ways they wouldn’t have if the institute was scheduled in a Monday through Friday format.

The entire day was spent at the Museum of Modern Art on Monday. Everyone spent some extra time preparing their units as well as being introduced to strategies for working with students in museum and gallery settings. Lisa Mazzola, one of the many excellent educators on staff at the museum, helped make our visit both enjoyable and productive, and later that evening everyone got together with other Art21 staff members for supper in the East Village as we headed into our final day.

Tuesday began with a tutorial on filming in the classroom with our Art21 Production Coordinator, Larissa Nikola-Lisa, since part of our work with the teachers over the next year will include participants shooting video and documenting their teaching. We also had the chance to introduce other online resources and ways we will communicate about our work before being joined by Art21 artist Jessica Stockholder at lunch, who shared images of her sculpture  and thoughts on being both an artist and an educator at Yale University.

The final part of our last day included all participants sharing their units of study in small groups and getting critical feedback. It was thrilling to see the teachers share how their thinking and planning had taken shape over the week. It was even more thrilling to see them give each other constructive criticism that truly made the units even better.

Now, before I go, let me just say one thing…. This group was not normal. They worked well together, laughed a lot and helped one another consistently. We are very lucky to be working with them. There wasn’t a single person in the group who spent the week explaining why they can’t do certain things in their school or district. There wasn’t a single person in the group who spent the week monopolizing the conversation and preventing others from sharing their expertise, and again, we all know this isn’t normal. There are always personalities who fit these descriptions when you get a group of teachers together, and we are so fortunate to have a team of educators in our pilot year that are flexible, creative, respectful of one another, and excited to work on this project.

We’re excited, too. And the smile is still touching the back of my head.

Weekly Roundup

William Kentridge, Drawing for "II Sole 24 Ore (World Walking)", 2007; Collection of Doris and Donald Fisher; � 2008 ; photo: courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery, New York.

• Maybe reviving the art market can take a page from Herb and Dorothy Vogel. Herb & Dorothy is a documentary playing now, that recounts the inspiring tale of how a postal clerk and librarian, with their modest salaries, amassed one of the most important Minimalist and contemporary art collections in the world. The Vogels have been going strong since the 1960s, and director Megumi Sasaki tells their story largely through the artists they collected, including wonderful anecdotes from Chuck Close, Linda Benglis, Robert and Sylvia Mangold, and Richard Tuttle (Season 3).

• William Kentridge: Five Themes opened over the weekend at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The exhibit features a comprehensive survey of the Season 5 artist’s films, drawings, books, prints, sculptures, and stage designs. The show runs through September 7.

• In tandem with the artist’s mid-career retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum, Yinka Shonibare MBE (Season 5) has created Party Time: Re-imagine America in honor of the Newark Museum’s centennial. In the opulent, mahogany-paneled dining room of the Ballantine House, the Season 5 artist stages an imagined scene of a late nineteenth century dinner party, comprising eight headless figures dressed in period costume who have cast away their Victorian etiquette in favor of indulgence and debauchery. Through January 3.

• The Serpentine Gallery is currently exhibiting Jeff Koons‘ (Season 5 Fantasy Episode) Popeye Series, featuring a number of inflatable toy sculptures and paintings that draw on images from American childhood and consumer culture. The works incorporate some of Koons� signature ideas and motifs, including flippy combinations of everyday objects, cartoons, art-historical references and children�s playthings. The show runs through September 13.

• Jessica Stockholder speaks tonight at Skidmore College, where the Season 3 artist is a visiting professor in the Summer Studio Art Program. It’s at 6pm and free. For more information, go here.

Playing with Contemporary Art

Jessica Stockholder, "Red Tube + Two", 2005

Season 3 artist Jessica Stockholder states, “What kids do with play is a kind of learning and thinking. It is a kind of learning and thinking that doesn’t have a predetermined end. I think I am involved in that.” Stockholder has spent a career exploring how disparate materials go together. After viewing the segment on Stockholder, the first graders in my art class got to explore their own unique sensibilities and create a sculpture based on intuitive thinking.

Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute of Play, defines play as “a thing of beauty best appreciated by experiencing it.” This is what makes watching first graders explore the work and ideas of Jessica Stockholder so enjoyable. Just by setting out various materials (rubber bands, pipe-cleaners, tape, popsicle sticks, paperclips, straws), students can cheerfully and expressively create works while exploring the creative process. This type of innovation and creativity is what artists and art educators have been involved with for a long time It’s also the type of thinking that everyone from Daniel Pink to Apple to the Partnership for 21st Century Thinking Skills is talking about.

In a reflective class discussion upon completion of the sculptures, we examined what makes creating these works of art different from other ways of making sculpture. Most students responded to having fun while making the sculptures (6 and 7 year-olds tend to respond like this to most projects). Some responded excitedly about how they could easily take their sculpture apart and make something different. One student even pointed out how her sculpture included sound and motion. The idea of Play allows students to make artwork without the pressure of making Art.

Nate Morgan is an art teacher at the Hillside School in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, and also serves on the Art21 National Education Advisory Council.

Weekly Roundup

Josiah McElheny, "Chromatic Modernism (Blue, Red, Yellow)," 2008. Courtesy Donald Young Gallery.

• The Art of Caring: A Look at Life through Photography opened this past weekend at the New Orleans Museum of Art.  The show is comprised of over 200 photographs covering seven thematic components: Children and Family, Love, Wellness, Disaster, Caregiving and Healing, Aging, and Remembering. Among the many artists are Tina Barney, Nan Goldin, Chester Higgins, Nicholas Nixon, and  Season 1’s Sally Mann and William Wegman.

• Also opening this past weekend at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona is Time as Matter. The presentation of new acquisitions from the MACBA Collection covers the last fifty years in the history of art through installations, paintings, sculptures, photographs, collages, models, books, etc.  The show focuses on notions of time and life and play, and includes work from Franz Kline, Dieter Roth, Lawrence Weiner, Joan Jonas, Nancy Spero (Season 4), and more.

• The summer group show season is starting a little early this year.  At the Donald Young Gallery in Chicago is a selection of work from ten artists represented by the gallery including Rodney Graham, Josiah McElheny, Bruce Nauman, and Martin Puryear. Through August 15.

• As part of Le French May Arts Festival, an exhibition entitled A Passion for Creation at the Hong Kong Museum of Art cuils together a selection of large scale works from the Fondation Louis Vuitton pour la Creation. The show reflects on “an urban and energetic culture, leading to fictional landscapes, somewhere between dream and adventure.” Exhibiting artists include Jean-Michel Basquiat, Paul Chan, Cao-Fei, Pierre Huyghe (Season 4), Christian Marclay and others.

• Season 4 artist Judy Pfaff’s solo exhibition Constructed Paper is on view now at the Carl Solway Gallery in Cincinatti.

• An exhibition of selected photographs by Mike Kelley (Season 3) produced for Patrick Painter Editions is on view through July 11 at the Los Angeles space. The collection includes the series Timeless/Authorless, The Poetry of Form, and Photo Show Portrays the Familiar 1-26.

• The Big Sad, Barry McGee’s exhibition with Clare Rojas, just closed at the Riverside Art Museum.  But here is an interview from the exhibition with McGee (Season 1) on Current TV.

• At Triple Candie in Harlem is Selections from the Museo de Reproducciones Fotograficas. The quirky collection comprises 1,200 high-quality photographic reproductions cut from books on the visual arts, crafts, design, and architecture. Among other traits, the reproductions’ cataloguing records are incomplete and based exclusively on the objects’ original credit lines. The collection includes works by Laylah Ali (Season 3), Chris Ofili, Richard Prince, Mark Rothko, Richard Serra (Season 1), Lisa Yuskavage, and others. Through June 7.

• Jessica Stockholder’s solo exhibition Swiss Cheese Field is currently on view at Senior and Shopmaker. The show includes new monoprint constructions that coincide with both Flooded Chambers Maid, the Season 3 artist’s first major outdoor installation in the U.S. presented by Madison Square Park, and Sail Cloth Tears, a concurrent solo exhibition of new sculpture at Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery.

Weekly Roundup

Jessica Stockholder, "Flooded Chambers Maid", 2009. Courtesy of the Madison Square Park Conservancy. Photo: Jeffrey Sandgrund and Sam Rauch.

• Jessica Stockholder (Season 3) has completed her first outdoor installation in the United States. Flooded Chambers Maid is a site-specific multimedia installation on and around the Oval Lawn at Madison Square Park in New York City. The piece will remain in the park through August 15.
  
• Stockholder’s second solo exhibition with Mitchell-Innes & Nash is on view at the gallery’s Chelsea location through June 13.

• Kara Walker (Season 2) will be at the University of Chicago on May 13 as part of the university’s ArtSpeak series. The artist will reflect on her work in a presentation and dialogue with Professor Amy Dru Stanley, who focuses on capitalism, slavery and emancipation, and the historical experience of moral problems.
• Nine new works by Tim Hawkinson (Season 2) are on view at PaceWildenstein through July 25. Included in the exhibition is Sherpa (2008), a life-sized single cylinder two-stroke engine motorcycle constructed out of eight varieties of feathers.

• Artists Alfredo Jarr (Season 4), Yto Barrada, Cláudia Cristóvão, Georgia Papageorge, and Berni Searle are included in the exhibition Continental Rifts: Contemporary Time-Based Works from Africa at UCLA’s Fowler Museum. Read the Los Angeles Times Culture Monster review.

• New York Times art critic Holland Cotter reviews the environmental sculpture Storm King Wavehill by Maya Lin (Season 2). For this project, Lin transformed an 11-acre gravel pit at Storm King Art Center into a grassy vista of ocean-like waves. This is the largest site-specific earthwork she has created to date.

• The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has just opened their new Rooftop Sculpture Garden, with works by Kiki Smith, Louise Bourgeois (both Season 2), and other renowned artists.