ARTPACE SAN ANTONIO PRESENTS
NEW WORKS: 09.2
Artpace San Antonio is pleased to announce New Works: 09.2 on view through September 13, 2009. Guest Curator Kitty Scott, Director of Visual Arts, Walter Philips Gallery, Banff International Curatorial Institute, the Banff Center, Canada, will debut projects by Anne Collier (New York, NY), Charlie Morris (San Antonio, TX), and Silke Otto-Knapp (London, England).
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Anne Collier is a New York-based artist who photographs existing objects—including movie publicity stills, record sleeves, posters, magazines, and self help manuals—in staged tableaux that she considers to be a form of photographic still-life. Collier’s forensic approach exposes the private lives of public images through the perspective of their former use. For her Artpace project, Collier created a durational slide projection piece in which eighteen slides from the original promotional trailer of the 1978 film Eyes of Laura Mars are projected at regular intervals and the complete cycle lasts several minutes. In the stark space—an empty gallery except for one dominating projected image—the distance between the image and viewer, (redoubled by the imagery of the woman with a camera), falls under scrutiny. This distance, assisted by varying degrees of physical space, personal relevance, and elapsed time, creates a stunningly conceptual yet strangely visceral tension of voyeur versus witness.
Distance is also an exploratory theme for San Antonio artist Charlie Morris, who creates politically-charged multi-media artworks that investigate how technological objects, military tactics, and architectural spaces impact the lives of individuals. A monochromatic pallet unites atypical arrangements of common objects to create what Morris calls the “abstract distance” necessary for us to observe and contemplate the undeniable impression, positive or negative, these objects have on our society through our past and present interactions with them. At Artpace, Morris installed a triangulation of artworks consisting of an altered book by the Marquis de Sade, a pallet of stacked plaster casts of military hats, and a photo/video wall showing Poison Hemlock growing in various environments, (one resembling a window box). Belying each is an inquiry into the meaning of personal autonomy in a censorious world: the struggle for individual voice in both consumerist and militaristic rank and file, and the flirtation with rebellion that ensues.
German-born artist Silke Otto-Knapp‘s installation at Artpace presents a series of fourteen monochromatic prints chronicling the contours of choreographed movements. As the viewer progresses from one work to the next in the sequential display, they observe the closing proximity of a shape and its shadow, simultaneously anchored in and isolated from one another. Through the painstaking process of layering and dissolving gouache and watercolor on canvas, Otto-Knapp infuses her paintings and drawings of dreamlike landscapes with iridescent, yet eerie hues. When this technique of textured washes combines with inspirations including theater sets and botanical gardens, the result is an ethereal stage where the physical form can briefly, completely coexist with its unconscious influences.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
Kitty Scott assumed her current position as the Director of Visual Arts at the Banff Centre in 2007. She has curated numerous exhibitions including Paul Chan: 7 Lights, Serpentine Gallery, London, England (2007); Runa Islam: Conditional Probability, Serpentine Gallery (2006); Art Metropole: The Top 100, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2006); and Daniel Richter: Pink Flag, White Horse, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada, traveled to the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada, and the National Gallery of Canada (2004-05), co-curated with Wayne Baerwaldt and Scott Watson.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
New Works: 09.2 is made possible by Linda Pace Foundation; the City of San Antonio’s Office of Cultural Affairs; National Endowment for the Arts, which believes a great nation deserves great art; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Nimoy Foundation; and Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy, with additional support from The Cultural Collaborative, Texas Commission on the Arts, and British Council.
About Artpace
Artpace San Antonio serves as a laboratory for the creation and advancement of international contemporary art. Artpace believes that art is a dynamic social force that inspires individuals and defines cultures. Our residencies, exhibitions, and education programs nurture the creative expression of emerging and established artists, while actively engaging youth and adult audiences.
Artpace is located downtown at 445 North Main Avenue, between Savings and Martin streets, San Antonio, Texas. Free parking is available at 513 North Flores Street. Artpace is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, 12-5 PM, and by appointment. Admission is free.
© 2009 Artpace San Antonio