People’s Biennial

People’s Biennial

Independent Curators International (ICI)

September 25, 2010

People’s Biennial
Curated by Jens Hoffmann and Harrell Fletcher

Organized by Independent Curators International (ICI)

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People’s Biennial opened September 10, 2010 at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, Oregon, and will travel to four other locations through 2012.

ARTISTS: CALEB BELDEN, MARY BORDEAUX, LAURA DEUTCH, ALLY DROZD (with Judge Evans and Portland Community Court), JORGE FIGUEROA, GARY FREITAS, SYLVIA GRAY (and the Elsewhere Collaborative), JIM GROSBACH, NICOLE HARVIEUX, WARREN HATCH, JAKE HERMAN, MAIZA HIXSON, DAVID HOELZINGER, HOWARD KLEGER, ELLEN LESPERANCE, CYMANTHIA DIAZ LIAKOS, JONATHAN LINDSAY, RAYMOND MARIANI, ALAN MASSEY, JENNIFER MCCORMICK, JIM MCMILLAN, BEATRICE MOORE AND THE MUTANT PIÑATA SHOW (with piñatas by Mike Maas, Ana Forner, Chris Clark, Tom Cooper, and Koryn Woodward), DENNIS NEWELL, BOB NEWLAND, JOSEPH PEREZ, BERNIE PETERSON, BRUCE PRICE, DAVID ROSENAK, JJ ROSS, ANDREW SGARLET, ROBERT SMITH-SHABAZZ, RUDY SPEERSCHNEIDER, ANDREA SWEET, JAMES WALLNER, PRESLEY H. WARD, PAUL WILSON

People’s Biennial is a project conceived by the artist Harrell Fletcher and the exhibition-maker Jens Hoffmann in 2009. Organized by Independent Curators International (ICI), People’s Biennial is an exhibition that examines the work of artists who operate outside the sanctioned mainstream art world. As such it recognizes a wide array of artistic expression present in many communities across the United States. Working in cities that are not considered the primary art capitals, the 36 artists in this exhibition present significant contemporary work ranging from documentary photographs of military life in the heartland, to video works focusing on the biological activity in urban ecosystems, and complex, minute marble-like sculptures carved out of soap bars. In covering even the little-known, the overlooked, the marginalized, and the excluded, the exhibition represents a real snapshot of creative practice in America today.

People’s Biennial also proposes an alternative to the standard contemporary art biennial, which mostly focuses on art from a few select cities (New York, Los Angeles, occasionally Chicago, Miami or San Francisco). It questions the often exclusionary and insular process of selecting art that has at times turned the spaces where art is exhibited into privileged havens seemingly detached from the realities of everyday life.

The exhibition is the result of a year of research into the creative communities of five American cities: Portland, Oregon; Rapid City, South Dakota; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Haverford, Pennsylvania. In each place, the curators collaborated with an art institution and participated in a series of public events and open-calls, meeting hundreds of artists, which led to the selection of the works on view. PICA is the first tour stop for the exhibition, which will be hosted by each of the collaborating institutions.

A publication will come out in 2011 documenting the exhibition and curatorial process.

Exhibition Itinerary

Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
Portland, Oregon
September 10, 2010 – October 17, 2010

Dahl Arts Center
Rapid City, South Dakota
January 14, 2011 – March 27, 2011

Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
July 8, 2011 – September 18, 2011

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
Scottsdale, Arizona
October 15, 2011 – January 15, 2012

Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College
Haverford, Pennsylvania
January 27, 2012 – March 2, 2012

People’s Biennial is a traveling exhibition organized by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York. Guest curators for the exhibition are Harrell Fletcher and Jens Hoffmann. The exhibition, tour, and catalogue are made possible in part by a grant from The Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, and The Cowles Charitable Trust; the ICI Board of Trustees; and ICI Benefactors Barbara and John Robinson.

Press inquiries:
Michelle Jubin, ICI Communications Manager: jubin@ici-exhibitions.org or 212.254.8200 x27

Independent Curators International (ICI)

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September 25, 2010

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