POWHIDA
Marlborough Chelsea / July 27-August 12, 2011The directors of Marlborough Chelsea are pleased to announce POWHIDA, a site-specific project bythe eponymous artist opening Wednesday, July 27th. The exhibition will be on view through August12th.Utilizing the entire ground floor gallery, POWHIDA is the artist’s most ambitious installation to date.In keeping with his oeuvre, Powhida has taken his relationship with the art world as the very subjectof the exhibition, employing numerous historical departure points and creating a vast conceptualspectrum reflected in the diversity of the artist’s approaches to making art. These references span fromthe 19th-century French Romantic painters Delacroix and Gericault to participatory performance thatde-materializes the object.Like the artist himself, POWHIDA explores an array of contemporary socio-political and culturalissues germane to the artist’s role in society. In the vein of Arthur Dove’s The Critic, 1925, and AdReinhardt’s sardonic How to Look at Modern Art in America, 1946, POWHIDA unabashedly turns amirror on the idiosyncratic machinations of the industry, allowing an established international artist tolook at his role from the inside out.The artist’s reverence for Duchamp and Warhol is central to understanding POWHIDA as aninstallation of non-traditional art objects throughout the gallery; these objects signify a contextualshift from the merely functional to the purposely artistic. To signal this shift, the artist himself willbe physically present in the gallery operating as an autonomous artwork to further engage the viewer,building on the exhaustive performances pioneered by Vito Acconci, Stuart Brisely, and MarinaAbramovic.The artist and objects themselves are the very means with which POWHIDA will coalesce into adivergent, yet coterminous installation immersing the viewer in a manner similar to Oldenburg’s TheStore, 1961-62, the experiential amalgamations of Jason Rhoades, and more recently, Black Acid Co-Op,the functional meth lab created by Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe installed at Deitch Projects, NewYork in 2009. While these installations required significant material alterations, POWHIDA strips theGallery to its essence, laying it bare.In the artist’s words, “The gallery is a world unto itself, a social space with a highly codified set ofrelationships having the formal beauty of a ballet. I will transform it, literally, choreographing eachmovement, each gesture with every interaction. No two viewers will have a similar experience in thegallery if I can help it. They may never see an art gallery the same way again.”POWHIDA is generously supported by Flavorpill, The Mondrian Soho and Pernod-Absinthe. A fullyillustrated digital catalogue will be available at the time of the exhibition.Marlborough Chelsea / International Public Art Ltd., 545 West 25th St, New York, NY 10001 t. 212.463.8634 f. 212.463.9658 chelsea@marlboroughgallery.com
My contribution to Colorific: We Make An Art Rainbow opening Friday July 15th at Postmasters Gallery from 6 - 8 pm. Image: Legal Shit, 18” x 24”, Graphite and watercolor on panel, 2011. Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery.
Jonathan Rider, 2011, Bit, Paper, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, wood, 1.25 x 1.5 x .25 inches ****microwave,eight June 30 - September 3, 2011 Opening Reception: Thursday, June 30 from 6-8pm “No pretext, no effect, no message: microwave identifies an international group of artists who deliberately reduce their movements and expressive media. These artists imperceptibly move their fingertips to create works of precision and minimal displacement in a quasi-monochromatic context: syntheses and syntactics that recall the reductionism of genetic maps or binary codes. But this intimacy doesn’t require mouse or keyboard, it is a dialogue of fingertips: art positively digital. The works stand on the borderline between drawing, knitting and writing. A meticulous discipline of the close-up at the antipodes of the instantaneous and the remote control.” (microwave, one, catalogue, 123 Watts, 1999) Since 1999, the (almost) annual edition of microwave has been an opportunity to confirm the emergence of a new attitude. Microwave identifies an international host of artists who commit to the obscene activity of paying attention. With intense focus, patience and precision, the artists in microwave document the relentless propagation of delicacy as a subversive activity. The works in microwave touch upon the fragile nature of communication, exchange, and currency. Josée Bienvenu gallery is pleased to present microwave, eight- an exhibition of works by international artists who set up various processes of fragmentation and erosion of information. Close attention is given to execution, a concentration on the production process itself. Clement Bagot Steven Bindernagel Ajit Chauhan Gustavo Diaz Curtis Mann Justin McAllister Julianne Swartz Todd Norsten William Powhida [caption id=“attachment_1494” align=“aligncenter” width=“690” caption=“Hope, Graphite and watercolor on paper, 11” x 14”, 2011. Courtesy of the artist”]
[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_1495” align=“aligncenter” width=“678” caption=“Less, Graphite and watercolor on paper, 11” x 14”, 2011. Courtesy of the artist.”]
[/caption] Jonathan Rider Rebecca Salter Mathias Schmied Lauren Seiden Jill Sylvia Ana Tiscornia Daniel Zeller
It’s my pleasure to announce two new things. First, I am now represented by Postmasters Gallery run by the excellent Magda Sawon, Tamas Banovich, and their assistant Paulina Bebecka. I’m currently working on my first solo show with them this October. I look forward to working with them in New York having long admired their challenging program. Second, I’m pleased to present my first letterpress print, The 1%, a philosophy of the super wealthy. The print grew out of a request by artist Michelle Vaughan to produce something for her husband Felix Salmon’s birthday. Something relatively small turned into a rather ambitious typesetting project that Michelle executed at The Arm letterpress in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Michelle took on a major challenge in typesetting and printing the work. It was a pleasure to work with her on the print, and Felix now has #1. Alright, enough self-promotion, having been shamed by Peter Plagens for using my blog to promote my work, I’m going to make a news section for this stuff. Self-promotion is a shitty job but somebody had to do it for the last 9 months… Image:_ A Philosophy of the 1%_, Letterpress on paper, ed. of 25, 2011. Courtesy of Postmasters Gallery
Ellie Ga and Jenny Vogel will be performing this Saturday evening at 8pm at Storefront Gallery as part of the exhibition, Dunkle Wolke. Ellie will be giving her performative lecture, Catalogue of the Lost (and other revelations), which has only be performed once before in New York at St. Mark’s Church. Jenny Vogel will also be performing her piece, Invitation to a Duel. Drawing from the archive of her grandfather’s tape recordings Jenny Vogel creates a DIY opera that weaves together her family’s history and fiction to tell a story of tragedy and loss. Both artists employ narrative as a departure point for further exploration of the territories established in their work in the show. The performances will begin at 8pm and each run about 20 minutes. Seating will be very limited, so please arrive early or RSVP with me at powhida@gmail.com. The exhibition was also recently reviewed on Arnet by Emily Nathan.
