Simple, Obscure and Obtuse and Portal Excursion from Michael Smith
What: Book signing and screening When: February 18, 2007
3:00 – 5:00 pm Where: Artbook @ P.S.1 &
LeRosier Cafe
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101
www.ps1.org Who: D.A.P. Inc./ CAVS at MIT/ Regency Arts Press Ltd.
Performance, video, and installation artist Michael Smith presents Drawings: Simple, Obscure and Obtuse, his first artists book focused on works on paper, now available from Regency Arts Press, Ltd. ; and Portal Excursion, 2006, his latest short video, produced with the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT.
Drawings: Simple, Obscure and Obtuse chronicles a lifetime of drawings by Smith and gives a keyhole view into his production and process. It is a project overflowing with manic energy and stream-of-consciousness connections including sketches, notations, diagrams, storyboards, and even childhood drawings. Most of the material has been culled from private notebooks and other sources that have never before been exhibited or published.
Portal Excursion, 2006, 8 min, is Smiths latest video to star the hapless Mike, his alter ego, whose high hopes and dubious achievements have complicated the story of the white American male since the late 1970s. In Portal, “Mikes” lonely lifelong project of knowledge acquisition is renewed when, at middle age, he discovers OpenCourseWare, MITs free and open educational resource for self-learners around the world. The soundtrack was composed by Red Krayola co-founder Mayo Thompson.
Michael Smith has shown his work extensively around the US, Canada and Europe at a variety of venues including museums, galleries, universities, festivals, night clubs, on television and in the streets. He is currently working on the exhibition Mike’s World: Michael Smith & Joshua White (and other collaborators), which will open at the Blanton Museum at the University of Texas, Austin in August 2007, and travel domestically.
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Regency Arts Press Ltd. is dedicated to publishing artists books and book-based curatorial projects with American contemporary artists and curators. A primary goal of Regency is to foster experimentation and innovation outside of the concerns and constraints of the contemporary art marketplace.
regencyartspress.org/index.html
The Center for Advanced Visual Studies is a fellowship program that commissions and produces new artworks and art-based projects in the context of MIT. The Center facilitates exchange between contemporary artists and MITs faculty, students, and staff through public programs, support for long-term art projects, and student residencies.
artbook @ P.S.1 is the most vibrant source for cutting-edge contemporary art books on the East Coast. Re-fitted as of November 2006, the store now offers an even greater selection of contemporary art titles, including P.S.1 exhibition-related publications (and other P.S.1 products), books relating to current New York shows, a large stock of monographs, theory, photography, multimedia titles, limited editions, journals, and many out-of-print titles. New publications arrive every week, reflecting current trends in the international art world. artbook @ P.S.1 presents book signings and readings by artists, curators, and critics. artbook@ps1.org.
