Upcoming Exhibitions
Glenn Ligon, Self-Portrait at Eleven Years Old,
cotton base sheet with stenciled pulp painting
Material Assumptions: Paper as Dialogue
june 15 - August 11, 2012
friday, june 15
OPENING RECEPTION: 4:00–7:00 p.m.
ROUNDTABLE:
Group Effort: Hand Papermaking, Collaboration, and Contemporary Art
6:30–8:00 p.m.
Curated by Jessica Cochran, with Elizabeth Isakson-Dado, Hannah King, and C.J. Mace
This exhibition is about the discursive ways that artists approach paper
as a medium, technology, and tool. Hand papermaking is a process that
begins with the raw material of pulp and ends in sculpture, mixed media,
and installation. To that end, this exhibition asks us to consider the
utility of paper at the site of interdisciplinary contemporary arts and
crafts. Elevating the primary role of handmade paper as a conceptual and
formal “supporting partner” in contemporary art itself, Material
Assumptions points to the versatility, nuance and subtlety of handmade
paper as medium.
For the exhibition, we have asked contemporary artists to create new
work using abaca and cotton paper handmade at the Center for Book and
Paper Arts by graduate students. In doing so, we are prompting a
conversation concerning not only the paper itself, but each artists' own
creative processes and studio practices: does a new material complicate
the artist’s way of making, thinking or working? The resulting works
will exemplify broader tendencies in that artist’s oeuvre, as each
project will be crafted out of handmade paper produced specifically for the
artist. A second part of the exhibition features works created by artists
in-residence at Dieu Donné, a New York-based non-profit artist workspace
dedicated to the creation, promotion and preservation of contemporary
art in the hand papermaking process. As handmade paper is not a primary
material for most artists in the exhibition, their residency afforded
them an opportunity to see how handmade paper could work for them in
important ways.
To us “handmadeness” points not to a certain aesthetic or visual trope,
but to realms of possibility; for example, subtle combinations of
texture and color or a deceptively weightless surface—all in service of
conceptual gesture and complex, meaningful expression. In other words,
the works on view don’t have to tell us explicitly they’re handmade,
because we’re already hooked. As such, Material Assumptions calls into
question our expectations of handmade paper in terms of its aesthetic
and raison d’être, dynamically affirming its relevance as an
interdisciplinary and contemporary artistic mode of activity.
Visit the curatorial and production blog.
Jessica Stockholder, A Violet Haze. (Pigmented abaca, pulp painting, collage)
Works from Dieu Donné by
Jessica Stockholder
Glenn Ligon
Richard Tuttle
Chuck Close
Polly
Apfelbaum
Sonya Blesofsky
Mel Bochner
Ian Cooper
William Kentridge
Beth Campbell
Nina Bovasso
Newly commissioned works by
Dan Devening
Deborah Boardman
Ian Schneller
Annica Cuppetelli & Christobal Mendoza
Matthew Schlian
Kate McQuillen
Niall McClelland
Anna Tsantir
Daniel Luedtke
Zoe Nelson
Julie Schenkelberg
Susan Goethel-Campbell
Postcard Art Competition & Exhibition 2012
August 1–24, 2012
Organized by the Curt Teich Postcard Archives at the Lake County Discovery Museum, this biennial juried exhibition celebrates the postcard as art and as visual document. Click here for more information about PACE 2012.
DRUCKWORKS: 40 Years of Books and Projects by Johanna Drucker
September 6–December 7, 2012
JOHANNA DRUCKER
Johanna Drucker printed her first letterpress book in 1972 and has been active as an writer, typographic poet, and scholar-critic ever since. While widely known for her contributions to contemporary art theory and history, she is also a prolific creative artist with more than four dozen artist's books to her credit. Her writings have helped shape the field of artists' books, visual poetics, and digital aesthetics in dialogue with the arts and critical issues. This comprehensive retrospective exhibits her books, graphic art, and visual projects. A catalogue accompanies the exhibit that includes commentary and essays by a wide range of well-known critics including Jerome McGann, Marjorie Perloff, Susan Bee, Emily McVarish, Brad Freeman, Kyle Schlesinger, Craig Dworkin, and others.
About Johanna Drucker
Johanna Drucker is the Breslauer Professor of Bibliographical Studies in the Department of Information Studies at UCLA. She is internationally known for her work in the history of graphic design, typography, experimental poetry, fine art, and digital humanities. In addition, she has a reputation as a book artist, and her limited edition works are in special collections and libraries worldwide. Her most recent titles include SpecLab: Digital Aesthetics and Speculative Computing (Chicago, 2009), and Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide (Pearson, 2008). She is currently working on a database memoire, ALL, the online Museum of Writing in collaboration with University College London and King's College, and a letterpress project titled Stochastic Poetics.
Spotlight Exhibition: Afterimage
September 6 - December 7, 2012
Curated by Thea Liberty Nichols and Dahlia Tulett-Gross
Afterimage focuses on contemporary artists that are of a generation after Imagism, and also—in ways both visual and ideological—have moved through and beyond it. Expanding upon the network of a small group of artists exhibiting in Afterimage at The DePaul Art Museum to include artistic duos or informal groups, the show at the Center for Book and Paper Arts will emphasize the role of collaboration in contemporary art practice. Works on view include artist's books, animations, prints and drawings.
Lilli Carré, Like a Lantern
(excerpt), 2012. Digital Video, looping animation created using the
methods of cut-out replacement animation and pressure printing on a
Vandercook proof press.
The Spotlight Series is dedicated to the co-location of exhibitions of artists’ books, ephemera, handmade paper and other media in partnership with exhibitions and events happening at cultural spaces throughout Chicago.
