42 Walker st
New York
10013
United States
The Opening Gallery is pleased to introduce Hans Weigand in New York with a selection of his most recent works: an insightful painter and graphic artist, he employs ancient media rich in tradition, rendering them into a contemporary context. In that same vein, the exhibition focuses on Hans Weigand as a groundbreaking artist addressing environmental, and sociopolitical issues as well as in advancing or challenging the discourse on aesthetic issues like abstraction, conceptualism and high modernism.
"Falling Waters, Rising Skies" presents Hans Weigand's paintings and woodcuts that bring together the old and the new with groundbreaking and inspiring environmental and post-colonial commentary. The exhibition encompasses contemporary motifs that collide with the imagery of old masters and traditional techniques as the woodcut realized in an essentially unconventional and contemporary fashion. Weigand works in a broad field of activity in the realm of art. His artistic universe is basically defined as interdisciplinary and multimedia-based. His work ranges from digital generated paintings, photography, graphics, sculpture, space installation, video, film to guitar rock. One has the impression of being put into a complex multilayered landscape, where the blurry element holds a central position of Weigand’s iconography.
This multi-genre exhibition presents large-scale paintings that combine elements of printing, painting, and digital art. Above all, though, this exhibition showcases the development and stance of an artist who epitomizes a decisive moment in Austrian post-war art. Following the tradition of Oswald Oberhuber, Weigand adopts the principle of “permanent change in art” and traces and defines his individual, uncompromising path, as reflected in Weigand’s environmental and post colonial concerns.
Hans Weigand was born in 1954 and studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna with Oswald Oberhuber 1978 to 1983. His work can be seen in international solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums; in 2022, the ALBERTINA Vienna dedicated a highly acclaimed special exhibition to the artist.
In the 1990s, Weigand lived in Los Angeles, immersed himself in the surf-punk culture of the American West Coast, and dealt with socio-political issues. In 1999 he realized the installation Life / Boat with Raymond Pettibon and Jason Rhoades at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles. He is a border crosser between fine and applied arts, reacting to phenomena of everyday life, which he takes to absurdity in utopian-looking scenarios. In his work, contemporary motifs collide with images of old masters in traditional techniques such as woodcut. He works with classical printing blocks, coloring with watercolors and ink. It is not an ideal world that he shows, it is war and destruction, the apocalypse. His figure of the surfer, for example, stands for freedom as well as audacity and doom. These daring protagonists from the 2022 series "Falling Surfer" are reminiscent of comic figures and the formal language of pop culture. They try to escape the end of the world. In vain - failure and downfall are recurring themes in Weigand's work. The artist has always lived a cross-disciplinary concept of art - in the 1980s he played guitar in the Viennese artist band PAS PARAVANT and formed the duo AVOI-DANCE with Heimo Zobernig.
Weigand was primarily inspired creatively by the 1970s. The art sphere of the 1970s was epitomized by a desire to evolve and reinforce itself, as a reaction to the many tensions of the previous decade. Weigand was profoundly influenced by pop art and science fiction, as well as psychedelic pop and rock. In line with the individualistic and anarchist self-concept of Vienna’s artistic circles at the time, in his work Weigand reflects upon nostalgia, personal failure, intoxication, and self-alienation. These themes go hand in hand with sociopolitical motifs. In his output, Weigand elaborates upon a utopian yet classical visual vocabulary abounding with contrasts and contradictions. Behind the façade of the American West Coast’s casual lifestyle, he especially deals with such sociopolitical themes as the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, having obtained deep insights into the surf punk culture through his fellow artists. Having widely been quoted in many of Weigand’s works, the character of the surfer exemplarily personifies the idea of ambivalence: it symbolizes freedom and a willingness to take risks, as well as daring and downfall.
More at: https://www.l-art.at/sites/default/files/uploads/kuenstler/biografie_0.pdf
The Opening Gallery is pleased to present Syd Krochmalny's conceptual paintings that venture into themes of authenticity, originality, and replication, by navigating the intricate maze between the genuine and the reproduced. Drawing inspiration from Chinese philosophy and its nuanced take on authenticity, the artist attempts to contrast these insights against the West’s relentless pursuit of immutable truth.
Krochmalny treats paintings as theoretical hypotheses. He paints words, not solely through the alphabets or scripts but by transcribing intangible emotions, abstract concepts, and profound philosophies into tangible color and form. Through a harmonious fusion of the visual and the verbal, he seeks to capture the profound potential of art—its inherent power to act, influence, and tap into the intrinsic essence of existence. Using brushes as my pens, Krochmalny writes with forms, hues, and textures. Each brushstroke becomes a word, a sentence, a story, echoing a symphony of creation, reception, and essence. This dance between the figurativism of the literal and the abstract allows me to construct narratives, rendering intangible thoughts into palpable visual tales.
In "Collectors Buy the Aura," the concept of origin is a comforting myth: the idea that something is singular and irreplaceable, much like ourselves. Yet, we routinely replace our sneakers annually, and society typically utilizes its labor force for a span of 45 years. Artwork, too, adheres to a similar perception. We uphold the aura of art, believing it elevates its worth to immeasurable heights. This aura, rooted in the unique existence of an object at a specific time and place, holds profound allure. While collectors venerate the time-honored aura of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, they are also willing to invest $3,000,000 in a mound of candies attributed to a deceased artist.
But, what determines the value of art? How is it established? While Karl Marx opined that commodities are opaque, Krochmalny views artwork in a similar light. These age-old questions find their answers in the evolving landscape of the art world. During the era of modernism, artists held the power to dictate the value of their work. However, post the ‘bubble effect’ of the art market in the 1980s, the value of artwork began to be shaped by the collective influences of various stakeholders - from curators, collectors, art critics, and museums, to galleries, universities, and auction houses.
Challenging traditional perspectives on the viewer's, collector's and artist’s role within the creative continuum, Krochmalny emphasizes the transcendental nature of art. It’s not just artists that give life to art, but art, with its myriad expressions and interpretations, that breathes life into us, artists.
At its core, this body of work is not just a testament to art’s transformative might, but also a vivid demonstration of how words can be rendered through brushstrokes. The artist aims to engage viewers both aesthetically and intellectually, crafting a journey that stretches beyond the limits of the canvas, resonating in the body, mind, and soul.
"Collectors Buy the Aura," grapples with the multifaceted intricacies of post-capitalist structures and the very essence of value, consumption, and obsolescence. The solo exhibition navigates the symbolic and the literal, weaving together fragments of a rapidly changing world. The deserted expanse of forsaken shopping realms evokes a dance of historical significance, intertwining with shadows of impending uncertainties. This imagery wrestles with the duality of our societal symbols, reflecting t he ongoing tension between insatiable consumerism and its inherent threats.
Venturing deeper into the fabric of commercialism, the chaos of scattered remnants raises questions on the intrinsic value and essence of art. Can art’s core remain untouched when interwoven with commercial transactions, or does it gather richness through the very systems seemingly undermining its sanctity? The interplay of originality and authenticity is another focal point. Through strokes and shades, the artist ponders our society’s relentless chase for the “unique” while exploring the intriguing confusion between the eternal and the ephemeral.
In the echoing silence of once-bustling temples of capitalism, Krochmalny envisions a transformative narrative. These spaces, while relics of past indulgences, hint at possibilities of future reimagination, urging a shift from mere transactional hubs to symbols teeming with deeper narratives. This series of works isn’t just about observation—it’s a provocation. It urges introspection, challenging viewers to dissect, interpret, and perhaps redefine boundaries amidst the ever-converging worlds of commerce and canvas.
About the ARTIST
Syd Krochmalny is a multidisciplinary artist and thinker. He holds multiple roles, including artist, writer, poet, novelist, researcher, musician, curator, musician, gallerist, and professor. No single description or theme can encapsulate his many endeavors, which range from the political to the humorous to musings on the interactions between society and technology, and from which emerge a unique and profound form of social commentary. Following his completion of a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires, where he also obtained Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, he pursued Postdoctoral studies on Latin American Art at Columbia University in New York. Krochmalny’s multimedia work (from performance to video, from photography to painting, from sculpture to installation, from experimental writing to essay, from poetry to literature) has been exhibited around the globe at prestigious institutions such as the Reina Sofia Museum, Harvard University, David Rockefeller Center, the MALBA, the Americas Society, Cultural Center of Memory Haroldo Conti, Remembrance Park, University of Oslo, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, MAC de Niteroi, Pinacoteca San Pablo, The University of Edinburgh, Museum of Contemporary Art in Buenos Aires, Tecnópolis and others. Notably, he is the author of several books, including “Darios del Odio” [Journals of Hate], 2016; “Débil” [Weak], 2017; “Los Sueños: Gino Germani en la revista Idilio con fotomontajes de Grete Stern” [The Dreams: Gino Germani in the magazine ‘Idilio’ with photomontages by Grete Stern] 2018; “El tamaño de mi mundo” [The Size of My World], 2021; and “Ramona: debates en el arte al filo del milenio” [ramona: Debates in the Art on the Edge of the Millennium], 2021. Krochmalny has been an active collaborator in various literary endeavors. He contributed a prologue to “Crypto Currency and Sovereignty” (2022) and other books on gender, sexuality, and cultural studies. His work on Diarios del Odio” (installation, poetry, and performance) has further distinguished his career. This piece, lauded by artists, critics, and historians, includes two essays that are among his most recognized artworks and contributes to the publication of “La Babel del Odio,” a part of the “Cuadernos de Lenguas Vivas” collection housed at the Museo de la Lengua del Libro of the National Library of Argentina. He has also been instrumental in multiple magazine projects, serving as editor of Ramona, co-founder and editor of Jennifer Magazine, and co-founder and editor of the CIA magazine (Center for Artistic Research).
Pedagogic side of this undertaking: “To educate the image-making medium within us, raising it to a stereoscopic and dimensional seeing into the depths of historical shadows.”
From Rudolf Borchardt’s Epilegomena zu Dante, v. 1[Berlin 1923] pp. 56-7
Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project (N 1, 8), 458.
The Opening Gallery is pleased to present Michele Zalopany's critically-acclaimed paintings and drawings that draw from archival photographs that the artist discovered while researching her Hawaiian ancestry and the erased culture of the internationally recognized sovereign nation of Hawai’i.
The country was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great, of the independent island of Hawaiʻi, conquered the independent islands of Oʻahu, Maui, Molokai and Lānaʻi and unified them under one government. In 1810, through diplomatic means, Kauaʻi and Niʻihau joined the Hawaiian Kingdom voluntarily. On November 28, 1843, Hawai’i was an Independent nation and was recognized as such by major powers and had treaties with 90 countries. Two dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua, until after a series of attempts by capitalists to overthrow the Kingdom, they finally succeeded in 1893. In 1897, The Kingdom of Hawai’i, against the overwhelming majority of the Hawaiian people, was forced to become a territory of the United States, until 1959 when it became the 50th state of the USA. This is contested by a Hawaiian movement who consider Hawai’i an occupied country.
Current attempts to suppress the true history of enslaved and indigenous people are not new. In the early 19th century settler colonialists weaponized religion, conflated with racial ideology, to ruthlessly destroy every aspect of Hawaiian culture (hula, chants, both of which recorded and transmitted history, surfing, etc) in order to possess and capitalize land that was inhabited for centuries by Native Hawaiian people. Western models of land ‘ownership’ did not exist in Hawai’i. Traditionally, in Hawai’i, ‘Āina (land) was not owned but was held in trust. It was the Akua, or Gods, who had made the ‘Āina, if anyone, it was the Akua who owned the ‘Āina. Moreover, having been born of the Akua, the ‘Āina itself is an Akua, In Native Hawaiian culture, if an Akua cannot be owned, then no one can buy and sell an Akua, Land use functioned as a sophisticated form of organized ‘caretaking’, headed by a Mōi, Chief, and a series of his administrators, Konohiki to the Maka ‘āinana, common people who worked the land. This form of shared land use based on spiritual beliefs and acquired knowledge and respect for the land made certain that all people were taken care of.
The photographs on which these works were based were taken by haoles (white foreigners) for their various intentions. Behind each photographic image is a story that has led me to the nexus of uncovering the darkness and tragedy of the cultural and historical annihilation that affected Pacific Islanders for centuries. This erasure was supplanted with the narrative “false paradise” by colonial capitalists for profit. This false narrative and its constructed ‘culture’ are so deeply and empirically entrenched in the minds and lives of people that the islands now risk existential annihilation. One can follow the struggles of Kanaka Maoli (native Hawaiians) in the ashes of Maui, fighting for control of the 75% of the water-rights that are currently controlled by private companies, and to ‘rebuild’ using indigenous and sustainable ways.
In this process of searching for images, I have a dialogue with them. We ‘talk story.’ They have led me to uncover the buried knowledge in their images and in documents and in my own genealogy, which intuitively leads me to search for more knowledge and images. I am bringing their story and my story to light by unveiling the layers of the historical shadows with the hope that they might provoke questions in the minds of viewers. My ultimate intention is to make a crack in the false narrative about Hawai’i that prevails today, and to contribute to restoring the truth of what really happened to the Kanaka Maoli, Native Hawaiians, and their Āina.
Michele Zalopany is an American Postwar & Contemporary artist who was born in 1955. Michele Zalopany's work is featured in Public Collections including: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, Bayer Inc., Pittsburgh, PA, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE, Eli Broad Foundation, Los Angeles, CA, Carnegie Museum of American Art, Pittsburgh, PA, Chemical Bank, New York, NY, S.I. Newhouse, New York, NY, Yokohama Museum of Modern Art, Yokohama, Japan, Norton Museum, West Palm Beach, FL, UBS Art Collection, Zürich, Switzerland, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, Thomas Ammann, Zürich, Switzerland, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, Minneapolis Institute of Art,, Minneapolis, MN, Nestle Art Collection, Geneva, Switzerland, JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, New York, NY, Matthew Bronfman, New York, NY, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, NY, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, The New York Public Library, New York, NY, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., The Royal College of Art, London, England, Horst-Janssen-Museum, Oldenburg, Germany, The Minnesota Discovery Center: The Museum of the Iron Range, Chisholm, MN. Michele Zalopany' s oeuvre has been featured in The New York Times among other publications. The artist has taught as Adjunct Professor at the School of Visual Arts since 2001 and Harvard University 2007 - 2009.
ERIS ART and the Opening Gallery are pleased to announce a private event celebrating the publication of Edward W. Said's Poetry Collection "Songs of An Eastern Humanist," on Monday, September 25 at 7pm at 42 Walker Street, marking the 20th anniversary of Said's passing.
Poems from the book will be read by Udi Aloni, Simon Critchley, Stathis Gourgouris and Mona Miari
SONGS OF AN EASTERN HUMANIST
by Edward W. Said
Edited and with an Introduction by Timothy Brennan
PUBLISHES 25 SEPTEMBER 2023
“Considering the emphasis in Said’s critical work on space and place and the political importance of geography, it is less surprising to see the luxuriant evocation of a specific topography of dusty roads, grottos, plump figtrees, desert flowers, muddy clods, and the “beckoning hands of lambent hills”. Most revealing of all, perhaps, is the poems’ tendency to see the world through musical form. Musical imagery is everywhere, testifying to how much of Said’s mind in an introspective mood was immersed in the sounds, forms, and fables of Western classical music.”
Timothy Brennan
From the book’s Introduction
Edward Said was renowned for the breadth, erudition, and humanity of his scholarly and political writing. His ground-breaking studies of literature and culture threw a dazzling new light on the ways in which non-Western peoples have been misrepresented over the course of the centuries, and he was among the world’s most prominent voices in denouncing the modern-day injustices of Western foreign policy. This volume collects all his never-before-published poems, offering insight into the personality of the author of Orientalism,The World, the Text and the Critic, and Culture & Imperialism “to a degree hidden in those works themselves”.
The nineteen works collected in Songs of an Eastern Humanist canvass a variety of poetic forms, but they are all shot through with Said’s capacious intellect and passionate sensibility. They are also remarkable achievements of poetic craft. Said’s poetry alternates with unerring judgment between wit and pathos, between sublimely elevated and disarmingly quotidian registers.
His individual lines of verse are exquisitely constructed and richly elusive, while his poems as a whole are at once sweeping in their vision and keenly evocative of sensory experience. Their publication amounts to a major literary event, marking twenty years since the great public intellectual’s passing.
THE OPENING GALLERY
SEPT 2023
Multimedia, immersive, and sound installation.
Sounds of Nathalie Forget. New York 2023.
With thanks to « Les Amis de Magaud » and Alexandra and Charles-Henry Dubail.
Tribute to Patrick Rimoux and Agnieszka Slosarska.
Curated by Sozita Goudouna.
Yann Toma, artist-observer at the UN since 2007, presents an immersive installation at The Opening Gallery. Consisting of a central piece (a Pythia sound sculpture resting on light bulbs) and surrounded by a Wall of Divinatory Hands (MMD cyanotypes) as well as photographs of Radiant Fluxes of ARTEFACTS and immersive videos (OUIJA + Climatic Divinations) , DIVINATIONS is an installation that mixes bodily perceptions and restitutions of captures and “care” carried out in places sometimes steeped in history, in several parts of the world where the artist has been methodically harvesting “zones of polarities” for nearly several decades.
The images present, reflections of an invisible energy amplified by the sound of the Martenot waves of the composer Nathalie Forget, result in their immediacy from an encounter and from the artist's desire to engage the imaginations of her somatic space at the heart of the ENERGY of the world.
This desire is embodied in space by the presence of original publications and a MANIFESTO relating to the formula of ARTISTIC ENERGY (EA). Through the summoned figures and the relationship they establish, a form of affinity is engaged and makes the Visions of the Pythia and the public resonate, all amplified by the benevolent presence of the sound frictions that circulate in the space. For our eyes as observers, the consequences are immediate and similar to fleeting apparitions. The movement appears in us and the images of thoughts emerge from our back and forth in the space between the works which then present themselves to us in a strange way, relying on hybrid forms resulting directly from the circulation of sound and images of radiant fluxes. All sorts of visions therefore arise that call on the energy inscribed in each of us, like what Yann Toma transmits to us from his experience at the UN via ante-divination documents from 2023. This immersive form, the artist exhibits captured moments, amplifies his action in the space of The Opening Gallery by a real gallery of universal and iconic portraits which reflects a shared and internalized vision of time and space of the energies present, sending us back to ourselves and to our deepest intimacy.
The Opening Gallery presents the New York premiere of
Orit Ben Shitrit
:
ECHOES IN MY MOUTH
+
WARD OF THE FERAL HORSES
(EMPAC commission)
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 20, 6-8pm
Exhibition: July 19 - July 29, 2023 (Tue- Sat)
The Opening Gallery, 42 Walker Street, Tribeca, NY
Curated by Maureen Sullivan
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Special Event: Wednesday, July 26, 6:30-7:30pm
“Becoming leaf: queering technologies toward human photosynthesis” talk by Vanina Saracino. Followed by a conversation with Orit Ben Shitrit.
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Short version:
Orit Ben Shitrit: ECHOES IN MY MOUTH +WARD OF THE FERAL HORSES
ECHOES IN MY MOUTH and WARD OF THE FERAL HORSES are moving image speculations about the fragmented Mind. ECHOES depicts humans who struggle to find purpose and motivation in a future society where memories have been rewritten, and conflicts resolved. WARD lays out a cyborg's upheaval. Their broken and fractured mind is ultimately celebrated through imagination, color, music and dance.
Orit Ben Shitrit: ECHOES IN MY MOUTH +WARD OF THE FERAL HORSES
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 20, 6-8pm The Opening Gallery, 42 Walker Street, Tribeca, NY
These works are moving image speculations involving the fragmented Mind. In ECHOES IN MY MOUTH, individuals struggle to find meaning and motivation in a futuristic society where machines have achieved consciousness. Within this world, human memories and traumas have been rewritten and erased, leading to the supposed healing of our current fractured humanity and its conflicts. Bodies in robot-like movement roam from the natural world to a cave, seeking a dose of archived memories. This work references both seed banks and memorial archives, as well as Plato’s Allegory, questioning reality and our ability to create other entities, and the realm of artificial intelligence, beyond our self-referential cognition.
WARD OF THE FERAL HORSES is set in a 19thc. horse stable. It depicts the upheaval of a cyborg who struggles with suppressing his primal urges to conform to societal expectations. Distraught and failing to communicate his pre-Oedipal being, his mind cracks and unleashes an emancipatory carnivalesque dance troupe— Jinns—who emerge from his room’s furnishings.
The recent MEMORY DAYDREAMS, black and white acrylic paintings, are a rumination and an extension of the images from ECHOES IN MY MOUTH. Depicting trans-species combines of humans, plants, animals and machines, they are futuristic in essence, imagined beyond the limits of our human-centric perspective.
The Opening Gallery is pleased to present the Group Exhibition Spectral Senses featuring a selection of works by Stella Ampatzi, Daniel Firman, Nefeli Masia and Eleni Paridi addressing issues of the hauntology and ontology of the senses curated by Dr. Sozita Goudouna.
The group exhibition explores the ways that the impact of new technologies is rearranging the established hierarchy of the senses.
The project draws from the ways our highly mediated world, and technology becomes an important model for the artistic process, while the participating artists explore the implications of the techno-human interface by investigating embodied technology and the technologized body. The auditory, the olfactory and the tactile are similar to the visual crucial sites of embodied knowledge. However, the modernist segmentation of the senses is now giving way to dramatic multi-sensory mixes or transpositions.
The techno-human interface is manifested in Daniel Firman’s installation “2nd hug” whereas a human figure makes an entrance into a door (opening) that consists of an assemblage of worn out objects. The artist reflects upon the logic of assemblage as he is making a statement related to life as to art.
For the artist, offering a second chance as well as a second reading seems a necessary empathetic gesture towards the activation of our senses. Without exception, Firman’s pieces were produced with objects gleaned from the streets of NYC. The sculptures are the reflection of a second acceptance, they seem to be made of intertwining, of fusion, with objects sometimes reduced to their simplest materiality. The pieces have already been exhibited once, thus achieving a second attention, a second look, a second life in a kind of up-cycling.
Biological metaphors often appear in discourses about up-cycling and about the relations of human nature to art. Nefeli Massia’s installation of sculptures intertwines the aesthetic with the biomedical by incorporating real immature cells that are able to make other blood cells that mature and function as needed, namely, stem cells that are used in procedures, such as bone marrow transplants. “Spectral Senses” see biological phenomena and aesthetic practices in a shifting and reciprocal relationship to each other.
Stella Ampatzi’s autonomic networks refer to self-managing or self-organizing networks that can operate and adapt without direct human intervention. In the context of warfare, the use of drones in conjunction with autonomic networks has gained attention and interest in recent years. Autonomic networks can enhance the capabilities of drones by allowing them to communicate, coordinate, and make decisions collectively, leading to improved efficiency and adaptability in warfare scenarios.
By juxtaposing DYSAUTONOMIC vs Autonomic NETWORKS, the artist’s intention is to draw attention to the stark contrast between the funding allocated for dysautonomic diseases and the funding dedicated to the development of autonomic networks in warfare. The purpose is to emphasize the disparity and raise awareness about the discrepancies in financial support between these two areas.
Eleni Paridi is exploring notions of the sensuous as a transcedental form while her new pieces investigate the concept of synasthesia. “Murmures” were originally accompanied by Konstantia Gourzi’s sound composition thus the visual artist has conceived of these works in an expanded context where all the senses converge.
Presently, we notice the ever-closer relationship between the sensuous and the technological. The resulting set of experiences can be called a sensorium, namely, the subject’s way of coordinating all of the body’s perpetual and proprioceptive signals, as well as the changing sensory envelope of the self.
Multiple sensory structures, as well as other modes of perception, the sum of their relations and the ratio of mixture and importance comprise a sensorium. The exhibition pays attention to the otherwise imperceptible hauntings of our senses and of the sensorium.
Intermedia and sensorial artistic practices address the influence of technology on the senses and are often involved in a mediated form of communication (where the viewer is imposed by the work of art), produced, or transmitted not through a direct sensory contact, but by means of an electronic system for the processing of information. The effect of media on our senses (namely the sensorium) is a creation of the physical, biological, social, and cultural environments of the individual organism and its relationships, while being in the world. According to Stanley Cavell, medium (media) is not a given, it is not an a priori; Cavell focused on the communicative and therefore temporal contingency of the word medium, as he wrote, ‘I characterized the task of the modern artist as one of creating not a new instance of his art but a new medium in it.’ In the selected art pieces the sensorial intersects with the intermedial in the ways they construct sentient and experiential aspects of artistic creation and audience reception to challenge our perception of the ontology and hauntology of the artistic medium and of the senses.
Visual Artists Bios
Stella Ampatzi: https://www.stellaampatzi.com
Daniel Firman: http://danielfirman.com
Nefeli Masia: https://nefelimassia.com
Eleni Paridi: https://www.eleniparidi.com
EVENT: July 12th at 6–9PM
Bleedings, Confessions and Other Sacred Stories
Gabriele Tinti & Andres Serrano
Inneschi By Luciano Chessa
The Opening Gallery, Contra Mundum Press, and Eris Press are pleased to announce the event “Bleedings, Confessions and Other Sacred Stories”, an evening with poet Gabriele Tinti presenting his ekphrastic poetry series and books Bleedings (New York: Contra Mundum Press) and Confessions (London: Eris Press), in cooperation with Andres Serrano. The event takes place in conjunction with the live performance “Inneschi” by Luciano Chessa and the group exhibition “Spectral Senses” with participating artists Stella Ampazi, Daniel Firman, Nefeli Masia and Eleni Paridi curated by Sozita Goudouna on Wednesday July 12th at 42 Walker Street, with the participation of Andres Serrano, the actor Vincent Piazza, the publisher Rainer J. Hanshe, and the translator Nicholas Benson.
Tinti will introduce the screening of selected videos of readings by Abel Ferrara, Vincent Piazza, and Andres Serrano of his poems. Serrano and the author will then sign copies of the books.
Bleedings — Incipit Tragoedia is a series of poems Tinti composed in the spring of 2020. The epigraphic collections of the National Roman Museum, the Capitoline Museums, and the National Archæological Museum of Naples, as well as the most recent funerary inscriptions, were a spur for this work that aims to transfigure our fear of death, pain, and suffering. A writing that starts from ruins, crosses cemeteries, and smells wounds, the traces of what has disappeared. It is born of a memory of the ancient and a contempt for the contemporary. Artist cover by Andres Serrano.
Confessions is a highly distinctive artistic collaboration between Gabriele Tinti and Andres Serrano. They have produced a haunting meditation on religion, violence, and physicality. Tinti has produced a sequence of poems that are as remarkable for their lyrical expressiveness as for their forceful compactness.
Often disquieting and always uncompromising in their vision of the human capacity to do harm and be harmed, these poems are Tinti’s most impressive body of work to date. Tinti’s verses accompany a series of images composed by Serrano — one of the most highly regarded artists of our time. Serrano’s works engage provocatively with the visual legacy of the Christian and classical traditions, while also embodying a very particular kind of beauty. Both the poems and the images in this volume are a major achievement in their own right; together they make for an essential collection.
The films of Tinti’s poetry are the video documentation of a reading series inspired by ancient and modern myths, which has involved some of the best-known artists of our time, such as Abel Ferrara, Malcolm McDowell, Stephen Fry, Franco Nero, and major world museums such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the British Museum, the Capitoline Museums, the Ara Pacis Museum, the Colosseum and the National Roman Museum, amongst others.
A Performance / Audiovisual Installation exploiting hearing aids’ micro-feedback, medical devices, brass bells, drums, and a megaphone. Commissioned by MUSICA SANAE and presented by La Digestion. Maschio Angioino Castle, Naples, May 3–4 and in Sokolowsko, Poland, on August 16, 2019.
A composer interested in hearing: now that’s not new: all composers in some ways or others, we surely hope, are interested in hearing. Much less seems to be the composers interested in the loss of hearing, unless it’s their own.
* * *
Reading about deafness, I eventually run into the work of British deaf scholar, author and activist Paddy Ladd, and I thus discovered “deafhood”, a term he coined in 1993 to describe a “positive” acceptance to the condition of deafness and hearing disabilities.
In his 2003 book Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood, he writes: “Deafhood is not seen as a finite state but as a process by which deaf individuals come to actualize their deaf identity, positing that those individuals construct that identity around several differently ordered set of priorities and principles, which are affected by various factors such as nations, era and class being equally important”. As mentioned above, the usual response of deaf or partially deaf people to their condition is to isolate themselves, becoming depressed and paranoid. In stark contrasts with this reaction, Ladd’s positive affirmation made me wish his book was translated into Italian so that my dad could read it.
***
Short biographies:
Gabriele Tinti is an Italian poet. He has worked with the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Roman Museum, the Capitoline Museums, the Archeological Museum in Naples, the Ara Pacis Museums, the Colosseum and the Glyptothek of Munich. His recent publications are Last Words (Milan: Skira Rizzoli, 2016), The Earth Will Come To Laugh and To Feast (New York: Powerhouse Books, 2020), Ruins (London: Eris Press; Milan: Libri Scheiwiller, 2021) and Bleedings (Milan: La Nave di Teseo, 2022; New York: Contra Mundum Press, 2023).
Andres Serrano is an American artist and photographer. Renowned for his ambitious and challenging installations, he has won acclaim for series of photographs including America (“the photographs give such vivid presence to their subjects that it is hard not to feel genuinely moved” — The New York Times) and Torture (“both a call for justice and a compassionate portrayal of the human plight” — The Guardian). The images featured in Confessions have grown out of Serrano’s profound engagement with the work of Michelangelo.
Vincent Piazza is an American film, television and stage actor best known for his roles in the television series Boardwalk Empire, the 2007 film Rocket Science, and as Tommy DeVito in the film adaptation of Jersey Boys.
Abel Ferrara is an American filmmaker, known for the provocative and controversial content in his movies. A long-time independent filmmaker, some of his best-known movies include Ms. 45 (1981), King of New York (1990), Bad Lieutenant (1992), and The Funeral (1996).
Nicholas Benson, the recipient of an NEA Translation Fellowship, holds a PhD in Italian from NYU and an MFA in Writing from Vermont College. He is the translator of Attilio Bertolucci’s Winter Journey (Viaggio d’inverno, 1971; Parlor Press/Free Verse Editions, 2005) and Aldo Palazzeschi’s The Arsonist(L’incendiario, 1910; Otis Books/Seismicity Editions, 2013).
Luciano Chessa is a composer, conductor, audiovisual and performance artist, music historian. Chessa’s compositions include A Heavenly Act, an opera commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, with original video by Kalup Linzy; Piombo, a piece for 2bows cello written for Frances-Marie Uitti, and the opera Cena oltranzista nel castelletto al lago, a work merging experimental theater with reality TV which required from the cast over 55 hours of fasting. Chessa has been commissioned multiple times by the Performa Biennial, and in 2014 he presented three events at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum as part of the exhibition Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe. In 2009, his Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners (OFNI) was hailed by the New York Times as one of the best events of the year.
Rainer J. Hanshe is a writer and the founder of Contra Mundum Press and Hyperion: On the Future of Aesthetics. He is the author of two novels, The Acolytes (2010) and The Abdication (2012), and the editor of Richard Foreman’s Plays with Films (2013) and Wordsworth’s Fragments (2014). He is also the author of the hybrid book Shattering the Muses (2016), a collaboration with Italian artist Federico Gori, and Beyond Sense (forthcoming 2024), a vatic exploration of the aphasiac disintegration of Hölderlin, Baudelaire, Nietzsche, and Artaud. His translations include Charles Baudelaire’s My Heart Laid Bare (2017; 2020), Belgium Stripped Bare (2019), and Paris Spleen (2021), as well as longer and shorter works by other authors. Work of his has appeared in Caesura, Sinn und Form, ChrisMarker.org, Asymptote, Black Sun Lit’s Vestiges, and elsewhere. His translations of Évelyne Grossman’s The Creativity of the Crisis and Léon-Paul Fargue’s High Solitude are due out later this year, as is his own book, Closing Melodies, a phantomatic encounter between Nietzsche and Van Gogh. Hanshe’s new work in progress is called Dionysos Speed.
The Opening Gallery was launched as an initiative that supports contemporary art and international artists beyond the confines of the art market, while it fosters cultural engagement and exchanges between the US and the globe. This alternative art ecosystem attempts to go beyond prevalent gallery models and to showcase global underrepresented artists, performances and live events, and the work of women artists and artists of color. Proceeds support neurodiversity, charitable causes, and the non-profit Luv Michael, which is committed to enriching the lives of autistic adults.
The Opening Gallery and ERIS ART are pleased to announce Between Worlds, a new body of work by Sophus that will be open to the public from June 14th to 27th.
Automatic renderings of the artist’s emotions, these works sit at the border of still-life portraiture and figurative abstraction. They mine transitional moments from Sophus’s life in extraordinary depictions of visceral blossoms. Channelling moments, persons, and emotions, the intertwining roots and bristle-like vegetation depicted in these paintings disperse wild, sprawling charcoal and red-pigmented lines that, exuding both serenity and madness, seem to flesh out our primordial past through an ethereal and oracular aura. A focal point throughout the last seven years of
his practice, Sophus’s botanic and dendritic motifs emphasize the interconnectedness woven into the very patchwork of life. They are inspired by the beauty, the pain, and the sublime nature that make up everyday moments. Stretching outside the canvas, such patterns find a surface on the body that creates them, allowing us to find recurring motifs on Sophus’s figure as much as in his paintings. Sophus is intentionally delicate in his depictions and intensely attentive at every step of his creation. His works are woven with organic, sometimes impermanent, materials that, plucked from the world that surrounds him, are retrieved from the encounters and moments that have marked him. Through a process of intuitive making, the layers of his works are seasoned with naturally loaded materials. They are first hand-stitched with cotton and linen, and then saturated with tea, coffee, and charcoal thistle-like sketches, which, when accompanied by text fragments that oscillate between hopeful platitudes and words of empowerment, snatch everyday wisdom as a final touch to Sophus’s canvas.
Sophus is a Danish artist based in Berlin. He studied at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna and has since lived in Mexico and Nepal. His works have featured in numerous international shows over the last decade and more, always meeting with considera- ble acclaim. They also form part of notable art collec- tions. Between Worlds is his first solo show in the US.
The Opening Gallery was launched as an initiative that supports contemporary art and international artists be- yond the confines of the art market, while it fosters cul- tural engagement and exchanges between the US and the globe. This alternative art ecosystem attempts to go beyond prevalent gallery models and to showcase global underrep- resented artists, and the work of women artists and artists of color. 50% of the proceeds support neurodiversity and charitable causes, and 25% of the proceeds are donated to the non-profit Luv Michael, which is committed to enrich- ing the lives of autistic adults.
ERIS ART is the art branch of independent publisher ERIS PRESS, based in London and New York. The press publish- es art, literature, and nonfiction, with a particular emphasis on politics and philosophy. Recent and forthcoming titles include Maurice Saatchi’s memoir Do Not Resuscitate: The Life and Afterlife of Maurice Saatchi, Andreas Philippopou- los-Mihalopoulos’s short story collection Book of Water, Walter Benn Michaels and Adolph Reed, Jr.’s No Politics but Class Politics, Kenneth Goldsmith’s I Declare a Permanent State of Happiness, and Thomas Schlesser’s biography of the artist Anna-Eva Bergman, Luminous Lives.
Press Contact: Angus Ledingham | angus@eris.press
The Opening Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Lydia Venieri and curated by Sozita Goudouna, Ph.D. Opening Thursday, June 8th at 42 Walker Street, this will be the artist’s showing of her Thirteenth Month project.
Following the opening, The Opening Gallery will host The Celebration of the Thirteen Moons on Tuesday, June 13th, from 6 to 8 PM.
In her new project Lydia Venieri asks the question:
What happened to the Thirteenth Month?
At the core of "THE THIRTEENTH MONTH" lies the revelation of the hidden thirteenth month—a month sacrificed and shared among its twelve brothers. With thirteen moons in a year, the artist invites us to ponder the significance of this hidden realm, where the absent God, Dionysus, resides even beyond the Twelve Gods. Dionysus, the twin god- man, takes on various forms such as Orpheus, Zagreas, Christ, Krishna, and Prometheus, representing the eternal cycle of transformation and rebirth.
Persephone of the Annunciation
Drawing inspiration from the mystical realm of time and spirituality, Lydia Venieri's artworks transcend conventional boundaries and immerse viewers in a world where introspection and contemplation intertwine. Within her intricate pieces, Venieri masterfully weaves narratives that challenge perceptions and evoke deep emotions.
Lydia Venieri (born in Athens, Greece) lives and works in New York City. She studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and won the Academie Francaise de Paris MedalforSculpturein2000.Her work has been shown in manysolo and group exhibitions at prestigious venues worldwide including the Centre George Pompidou in Paris, Circulo de Bellas Artes Madrid, Cultural Centre of Stockholm, Gallery AsbaekCopenhagen, Manifesta Rotterdam, the National Gallery of Greece, the Ancien Musee Archeologique Municipalite de Thessalonique, the Centre for Contemporary Art in Dordrecht, Netherlands and the Athens Olympics, Palais de Tokyo.
The Opening Gallery was launched as an initiative that supports contemporary art and international artists be- yond the confines of the art market, while it fosters cul- tural engagement and exchanges between the US and the globe. This alternative art ecosystem attempts to go beyond prevalent gallery models and to showcase global underrep-resented artists, and the work of women artists and artists of color. 50% of the proceeds support neurodiversity and charitable causes, and 25% of the proceeds are donated to the non-profit Luv Michael, which is committed to enrich-ing the lives of autistic adults.
The Procession
Opening reception: Thursday, June 8th, 6–8pm
The Celebration of the Thirteen Moons: Tuesday, June 13th, 6–8pm
Press Contact: Adam Brown openinggallery@gmail.com
the concept
FUNERAL PARTY
An event laboratory focusing on design and climate change Death: /deTH/
The action or fact of dying or being killed; The permanent ending of biological functions, the end of the life of a person or organism; A process of regeneration.
Climate change is inextricably connected with the concept of death as more and more places become uninhabitable, and a lot of species are threatened with extinction. Due to the carbon-intensive infrastructure of human’s activity on the planet, landscapes are under constant transformations; glaciers are melting, oceans are rising, fertile lands are turned into deserts, food systems and species interactions are disrupted. Survival is under threat and the exploitative human’s behavior towards nature accelerates hunger, violence, mass migration, and produces inequalities and diseases.
The planet faces countless, unstoppable losses of species, ecosystems, and landscapes. A loss always contains stress, sadness, and fear of the unknown after the separation but it is also a dynamic point, a crossing, to discover something new, to resurrect. People with the technology they create, can control all aspects of life. They seek to fight decay and death and they manage the production of life, yet they seem incapable of abandoning their extractive, consumerist habits and reconnect with the soil. Life starts and ends from the soil. Society today tends to neglect this vital connection and avoid death as a marginal procedure while hoping for immortality. However, death as a reminder of our fragility gives us the chance to practice life at its finest.
In many funeral rituals, traditional practices include mourning the deceased, celebrating their life and offering compression and support. They are opportunities for self- reflection and critical approach towards the values that people live. In the wake of the world’s ecological destruction, how can we reimagine the human we want to preserve in the future to recreate the world?
Funeral Party is a series of curated events, conversations over art, tea or dinner that bring together people from the arts, architecture, science and policy to explore environmental degradation through the lens of materiality and decomposition, reuse and recycle, extractivism, climate disasters, environmental justice, digital remains and afterlife. In each party people from different disciplines are invited to have a conversation around a wider audience, testing the possibilities of imagination that gatherings of people in an artistic setting provide.
The first Funeral Party: Regenerative Bodies will be held at The Opening Gallery in the form of a dinner party and will explore the power of the bodies to resist climate change. Food, as a connector of people and culture will be prepared by the team.
The conversations will be audio recorded to create a collection of memories and thoughts, a guidebook for a more resilient and caring way of living.
curators:Eva Lavranou
Eva Lavranou is an architect and curator. She holds a Master in Design Studies: Art, Design and the Public Domain at Harvard Graduate School of Design (2022) with Distinction. She has previously studied architecture at the University of Thessaly (2018) and at the Politecnico di Milano (2014-15). Her work focuses on design research, curation, activism, and public space interventions that promote social change with a particular interest in the body’s agency in the era of ecological, political, and technological unrest.
While at Harvard she was the teaching assistant for many interdisciplinary design classes, curatorial assistant for the Department of Exhibitions and curator at the GSD Kirkland Gallery. She participated also in the Venice Biennale 2021. Her thesis, “Bodies of Earth: Abduction-Death-Grief- Rebirth” (2022), explores the body’s agency in establishing a partnership with Earth in the era of climate destruction by recognizing human kinship with plants, animals, and machines and establishing an ethics of eco-responsibility.
Last year she joined the Ambasz Institute at the Architecture and Design Department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York where she organizes exhibitions, events and publications and researches the history of ecological design.
Sofia Sofianou
Sofia Sofianou is an architect from Athens (Greece) holding a graduate degree from Harvard Graduate School of De- sign, Master in Architecture II (2021) and University of Patras, Greece (2018).
She is currently working as a designer at Gensler in Boston (since 2021). Having worked in Copenhagen at Bjarke Ingels Group, and in architectural offices in Athens, she partici- pated in international competitions and projects mainly in Greece, Denmark, and USA. She was involved in workshops around Greece and Europe, as well as in the exhibition of the Greek Pavilion of the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016.
Her research interest focuses on investigating the need for urban structures that explore self-sufficiency in glob- al cities. Her research thesis, “The Entelecheia of Urban Form” (2018), analyzes ways of managing population densities and infrastructural networks in cities that function in multiple scales simultaneously.
Shoplifter/ Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir
The Callas / Lakis & Aris Ionas
Misha Milovanovich
Tula Plumi
Leah Singer
PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OPENING: Tuesday May 16 • 6 – 8pm
LIVE PERFORMANCE BY THE CALLAS AND THE CALLASETTES:
Dance by Daphne Kyriakidou with Irene Zografou and Dionisia Bosmi presenting their hand woven wearable tapestries
Exhibition run dates: May 16 - June 12, 2023 • 12 – 6pm
Curation & main text: Sozita Goudouna, PhD
The Opening Gallery is pleased to present the Group Exhibition Chromocommons featuring Fathom a selection of new works by Shoplifter/Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir and works by the artist collective The Callas, Misha Milovanovich, Leah Singer and Tula Plumi curated by Sozita Goudouna.
The exhibition coincides with the release of a unique publication by Leah Singer and a signed limited edition, as well as a series of numbered prints. The history of art is inseparable from the history of color and this history is a also. shared history. Chromocommons presents and puts on display sculptures, two-dimensional pieces, and live acts that explore the ways colors can be commons that enable us to create and live differently.
Visual perception is one of the most important mediums for our acquisition of knowledge and for our experience of our environment, of the physical world including our own bodies and others, while color is one of the most dominant components of our perception. Nevertheless, the physical world and the world of objects do not contain color and aren’t colored as we experience them. Color isn’t a physical property of objects; thus, our blood is not red, the sea isn’t blue, the trees aren’t green.
By definition, color suggests and implies connectivity and commonality since it exists only through connectivity.As Maurice Merleau- Ponty states ‘Claudel has a phrase saying that a certain blue of the sea is so blue that only blood would be more red. The color is yet a variant in another dimension of variation, that of its relations with the surroundings: this red is what it is only by connecting up from its place with other reds about it, with which it forms a constellation, or with other colors it dominates or that dominate it, that it attracts or that attract it, that it repels or that repel it. In short, it is a certain node in the woof of the simultaneous and the successive. It is a concretion of visibility, it is not an atom.’[1]
The color appearance of an object can be changed by changing the color of light that shines on it and the color of visible light depends on its wavelength. White light is composed of all of the colors of the rainbow, because it contains all wavelengths, and it is described as polychromatic light. Color glows with the light of the radiant sun and creates a relentless spectacle of sheer visibility, of an intense luminosity that can even be blinding. Drawing from our different perceptions of color, color vision deficiency and even “achromatopsia” (total color blindness), the participating artists trace common interpretations of the notion of color as sensation, visual and sensorial experience, psychological property of visual experiences, mental property, representation, construction of the brain, but most importantly the formulation of commons through color perception.
[1] [Originally from The Visible and the Invisible, pp. 130-55 in the 1968 translation. This version from Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Basic Writings, ed. Thomas Baldwin, Routledge (2004).]
Synthetic and natural hair has become the signature art material of the Icelandic artist Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir, also known as Shoplifter. Each strand of hair is a drawing, the gestures of lines on a paper that have come to life existing as sculpture and colorful suspended three-dimensional paintings made with fibers. The fibers are tamed and transformed from their original intent into various artwork from braided and tufted wall work to her large-scale installations and small, microscopic curiosities mixed with other materials like handblown organically shaped glass capsules entrapping the fibers in her most recent series of work Phantoms. The Fathoms seem to sprout and grow of their own accord from the gallery ceiling, a floating forest. The hair is divided between the human-made and natural and within this installation that dichotomy seems to have completely dissolved. This world of Fathoms feels both universal and microscopic, you could be walking through nebulae or through synapses within your own mind. “Fathom” in English means to grasp or be able to dream or imagine something and is an old unit for measuring, from one palm of your hand the other. That same word, Faðmur in Icelandic, means to embrace or hug. The artist’s inspiration lies deep within her fascination with fibers, the texture, and colors that the artist selects, entangles and tames. The results a wild and brilliant chromatic ecstasy that makes you feel comforted, joyous, and embraced on a multi-sensory level. The colors penetrate the retina and trigger the neurons in the brain that automatically start producing oxytocin, the body's feel-good hormones, and together with its alluring and familiar texture we can be affected by the maximalism of her creativity.
Artist Bio:
Shoplifter / Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir is one of Iceland’s leading contemporary artists, based in New York. Working with both synthetic and natural hair, her sculptures, wall murals and site-specific installations explore themes of vanity, self-image, fashion, beauty and popular myth. For Shoplifter hair is the ultimate thread that grows from our body. Hair is an original, creative fiber, a way for people to distinguish themselves as individuals, and often an art form. Humor plays a large role in her life and work, sometimes subtly, but at other times taking over. Shoplifter represented Iceland at the Venice Biennale in 2019 and her installation Chromo Sapiens opened at the Icelandic Pavilion in May 2019 in Venice, Italy. The installation later traveled to Iceland opening at the Reykjavik Art Museum in January 2020. Other recent work includes solo exhibitions at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in Stockholm, Sweden (2020), The Savannah Collage of Art and Design in Georgia (2020), Kiasma, the Finnish National Gallery (2019), the National Gallery of Iceland (2017), the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (2017) and the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art in Australia (2016). Notable projects and awards include her large window installation created in collaboration with art collective assume vivid astro focus (avaf) for MoMA, Museum of Modern Art in New York (2008), The Nordic Award in Textiles and The Prince Eugen Medal for artistic achievement from the King and Royal Crown of Sweden (2011).
At "Chromocommons," The Callas / Lakis & Aris Ionas, present a new and older body of hand embroidered tapestries. The pieces are designed by Lakis & Aris and crafted by their mother Ioanna and their aunt Anastasia, who are mostly based and work at The Callas farm (a DIY lab / studio / festival space / warehouse among olive and orange trees) in Thermissia, Peloponnese. Their influences ranging from Thomas Pynchon's helter skelter structures to Cycladic architecture, and from the No Wave scene to Rebetiko DIY recordings alluding to a freak-out blend of Mediteranean Psychladic collective creativity. During the opening night the open collective will present a new series of hand woven wearable tapestries and a live gig/performance by The Callas featuring The Callasettes. Embroiderism Now!
Artist Bio: The Callas / Lakis & Aris Ionas
The Callas is the tip of an open art collective that produces artworks, films and music initiated by the brothers Lakis & Aris Ionas. Selected art shows and collaborations include: Onassis Stegi (Athens, 2022), New Museum (NYC) - DESTE foundation (Athens) / Benaki Museum, Documenta 14, Palais de Tokyo (Paris), The Opening Gallery (New York), Family Business (NY), Athens Biennial (Athens), Andreas Melas Projects (Athens), State Of Concept (Athens), The Breeder (Athens), Kustera Projects (New York), Atopos CVC (Athens), Yinka Shonibare Space (London) among others. The collective has collaborated with Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) and Jim Sclavunos (Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds) on music albums and live performances. In 2013 The Callas produced the film “LUSTLANDS” (HAOS film) that premiered at the 7th Athens Avant-Garde Film Festival. Their feature film "The Great Eastern” premiered at Onassis foundation – Stegi and Documenta 14."The Great Eastern," shot at DESTE’s foundation project space - Slaughterhouse in Hydra, premiered at Onassis foundation – Stegi and was screened at Documenta 14. Their recent film "SICK" was selected and premiered at Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Live performances include: Liverpool Psychedelic Festival (Liverpool), The Great Escape Festival (Brighton), Reeperbhan Festival (Hamburg), Indietracks Festival (Derby), Indigenes Festival (Nantes, France), Scala (London), The Lexington (London), Sala Apolo (Barcelona) and with the Thurston Moore band, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Ty Segall, Television Personalities, Ian F. Svenonius and Grinderman. “Velvet Room” was established by The Callas in 2005 as one of the most active D.I.Y. cultural spaces/collectives in the center of Athens. The open collective curated some of the most seminal artzines in Athens (Velvet magazine, LUST magazine). They have also curated 5 bus tours/events throughout Greece with bands, artists, and filmmakers (Velvet Bus 2008 - 2011). According to OCULA Art and Stephanie Bailey "So many things have shaped the landscape of contemporary art in Greece since the 2000s, from the Athens Biennale's agitprop and Dakis Joannou's DESTE Foundation's summertime slaughterhouse shows on Hydra, to Gregory Markopoulos' unfolding magnum opus in Arcadia, Eniaios. Then there's The Callas." in https://ocula.com/magazine/features/the-callas-drop-lsd-in-athens/At "Chromocommons," The Callas / Lakis & Aris Ionas, present a new and older body of hand embroidered tapestries. The pieces are designed by Lakis & Aris and crafted by their mother Ioanna and their aunt Anastasia, who are mostly based and work at The Callas farm (a DIY lab / studio / festival space / warehouse among olive and orange trees) in Thermissia, Peloponnese. Their influences ranging from Thomas Pynchon's helter skelter structures to Cycladic architecture, and from the No Wave scene to Rebetiko DIY recordings alluding to a freak-out blend of Mediteranean Psychladic collective creativity. During the opening night the open collective will present a new series of hand woven wearable tapestries and a live gig/performance by The Callas featuring The Callasettes. Embroiderism Now!
Artist Bio: The Callas / Lakis & Aris Ionas
The Callas is the tip of an open art collective that produces artworks, films and music initiated by the brothers Lakis & Aris Ionas. Selected art shows and collaborations include: Onassis Stegi (Athens, 2022), New Museum (NYC) - DESTE foundation (Athens) / Benaki Museum, Documenta 14, Palais de Tokyo (Paris), The Opening Gallery (New York), Family Business (NY), Athens Biennial (Athens), Andreas Melas Projects (Athens), State Of Concept (Athens), The Breeder (Athens), Kustera Projects (New York), Atopos CVC (Athens), Yinka Shonibare Space (London) among others. The collective has collaborated with Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) and Jim Sclavunos (Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds) on music albums and live performances. In 2013 The Callas produced the film “LUSTLANDS” (HAOS film) that premiered at the 7th Athens Avant-Garde Film Festival. Their feature film "The Great Eastern” premiered at Onassis foundation – Stegi and Documenta 14."The Great Eastern," shot at DESTE’s foundation project space - Slaughterhouse in Hydra, premiered at Onassis foundation – Stegi and was screened at Documenta 14. Their recent film "SICK" was selected and premiered at Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Live performances include: Liverpool Psychedelic Festival (Liverpool), The Great Escape Festival (Brighton), Reeperbhan Festival (Hamburg), Indietracks Festival (Derby), Indigenes Festival (Nantes, France), Scala (London), The Lexington (London), Sala Apolo (Barcelona) and with the Thurston Moore band, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Ty Segall, Television Personalities, Ian F. Svenonius and Grinderman. “Velvet Room” was established by The Callas in 2005 as one of the most active D.I.Y. cultural spaces/collectives in the center of Athens. The open collective curated some of the most seminal artzines in Athens (Velvet magazine, LUST magazine). They have also curated 5 bus tours/events throughout Greece with bands, artists, and filmmakers (Velvet Bus 2008 - 2011). According to OCULA Art and Stephanie Bailey "So many things have shaped the landscape of contemporary art in Greece since the 2000s, from the Athens Biennale's agitprop and Dakis Joannou's DESTE Foundation's summertime slaughterhouse shows on Hydra, to Gregory Markopoulos' unfolding magnum opus in Arcadia, Eniaios. Then there's The Callas." in https://ocula.com/magazine/features/the-callas-drop-lsd-in-athens/Misha Milovanovich’s new work for the Opening Gallery comprise of a one-of-a-kind sculpture. The sculpture is a fusion of fragmented cubism, biomorphic surrealism, and dynamic visual humor, and infused with shamanic force, which pays homage to the natural world. "The artist's latest work, crafted from Finnish Baltic Birch plywood and shellack, is a playful exploration of historical references that reimagines their antecedents, unleashing new prospects for the interpretation and significance of abstract forms in space." These Noir sculptures often embody organic contours and textures, evocative of natural shapes such as animals and plants. In addition to these influences, Misha's work draws inspiration from Japanese aesthetics and design principles, exemplified through simplicity, asymmetry, and the use of negative space and use of angle in joints. The new sculptures possess a unique quality of reflection, almost as if they were shadows cast by a hidden light source. This aspect of the sculptures adds an extra layer of depth and intrigue to their already captivating design, drawing the viewer's attention and encouraging a closer examination of the pieces. The interplay of light and shadow on the organic forms of the sculptures creates a dynamic visual experience that is sure to leave a lasting impression on anyone who sees them.
Artist Bio:
Misha Milovanovich
Misha Milovanovic is a Belgrade-born artist based in London. She works across several mediums, from sculpture to painting and digital art. Characterized by vivid color, optical movement and energetic visual cadences, Misha's visual work fuses a diverse repertoire of images and forms. Misha's work is often a symphonic abstraction. Her colorful, densely layered works are held in a state of tension between order and chaos, rational structure and spontaneity. She combines depth and surface relief, orchestrating bold contrasts of form, texture, and space in her pictures. An intimate color palette of bodily fluids - red, pink, white, black, yellow, and brown - animate the writhing forms and the refracted memories of cartoonish cultural production. A cultural polymath, the artist is constantly engaged in observing society and it’s distortions of desire, lust and attitudes to the body. Traditional techniques have been studied and absorbed and although her work is partly conceptual, it's execution always reflects these hard-won technical abilities.
In 1915 the Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin wrote a groundbreaking paper on form perception and introduced the study of figure/ground relationships. Rubin’s widely known black and white profile and vase illustration, used in the study, tricks the viewer into a back and forth of seeing either two profiles facing each other, or the shape of a vase formed in the center. Rubin discovered that in ambiguous drawings like this, the figure always dominates over ground and its what we see first. Willem De Kooning, although a pioneer of abstract expressionism, did not forsake the figure in his work and was criticized in his time for depicting women as harsh and unflattering. He said, “Beauty becomes petulant to me. I like the grotesque. It’s more joyous.” The Ruby Drawings are a mash up of silhouettes cut from rubylith — a masking film resistant to UV light used in the printing process to isolate parts of a photograph. The rubyliths were byproducts of newspaper production and were collected when I worked as a photographic archivist at the New York Daily News. The cut silhouettes have been scanned and used in groups to build enigmatic forms. The introduction of intersecting color further distorts the figure to ground connection. The amassed library of rubylith images has served in many of my projects including my copy newspapers—all graphic silhouettes with no text—produced at small printing presses across the country. As much as there is a formality to these works, a concern with form and color, figure and ground and a suggestion of the figurative inside the abstract, they were done quickly without too much deliberation to maintain a sense of play and spontaneity.
Artist Bio: Leah Singer
Leah Singer’s ever-evolving body of work includes film, sculpture, photography, printmaking, book publishing, product design, illustration, and jewelry. Her experiments with 16mm film provided her with a signature style that further evolved through her use of modified projectors during live musical performances. An interest in the silhouette grew from a self-published newspaper she made called copy. The paper was critically acclaimed; it is in the artist book collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. A limited collection of tote bags under the copy label sold at: Colette (Paris), A.P.C. (Paris, New York, Tokyo), Printed Matter (New York), and The New Museum Bookstore (New York). The newspapers popularity led to invitations from Nike to work on a New York City Runner’s Map followed by other projects such as the holiday visuals for a department store in Tokyo, the windows of Barneys New York’s flagship store, and t-shirt graphics for the Beijing Olympics. Her artwork has shown worldwide at such institutions as: Magasin3, Stockholm; Centre Pompidou, Paris; MACBA, Barcelona; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. She lives in New York City with her husband and frequent collaborator Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) and their two sons.
Tula Plumi’s Light in January and Light in March are made of thin bamboo sticks glued together, creating surfaces that are painted with different colors and forms. A light is attached to each piece, creating a play on shadows and references to visual phenomena such as eclipses. The titles refer to W. Faulkner's novel Light in August.
Artist Bio: Tula Plumi was born in 1980 in Heraklion, Crete and currently lives and works in Berlin. She has studied at Athens School of Fine Arts. Recent shows include: Overturned at Art Geneve, Weavings at Museum Benaki 2019 Athens, Bed Manners at Kunstpunkt, Berlin 2019; Jelato for all, Jelato gallery, Mallorca 2019, A Museum – A History of 100 Years – Museum of Modern Greek Culture, Athens 2018. Her work has been shown at Musee national d’art modern Centre Pompidou, Emst National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin; Kunsthalle Athena, Athens Biennale 3.
The Opening Gallery was launched as an initiative that supports contemporary art and international artists beyond the confines of the art market, while it fosters cultural engagement and exchanges between the US and the globe. This alternative art ecosystem attempts to go beyond prevalent gallery models and to showcase global underrepresented artists, and the work of women artists and artists of color. Proceeds support neurodiversity and charitable causes, and are donated to the non-profit Luv Michael, which is committed to enriching the lives of autistic adults.
Press Contact: Adam Brown adamdb95@gmail.com
.The Opening Gallery and ERIS ART are pleased to announce an exhibition of new work by Andres Serrano. Opening Saturday, April 22 at 42 Walker Street, this will be the artist’s first significant foray into painting. The exhibition celebrates the release of Confessions: a highly distinctive artistic collaboration between Serrano and the acclaimed poet Gabriele Tinti.
Serrano is one of the world’s most renowned artists. His new works mark a departure from the medium with which he is most closely associated, while also exemplifying the imagination and critical intelligence that he has always brought to bear upon it. They originated as oil pastel drawings that Serrano made over black and white photographs of sculptures by Michelangelo, in a process that he likens to automatic writing: “The resulting images are different from the pictures that inspired them,” he writes, “but I hope the spirit of Michelangelo is there.”
Serrano’s Confessions images amount to a formidable engagement not only with an artistic predecessor, but also, like so much of his work, with Christian iconography. Embodying a very particular kind of beauty, they lend a new emotional force to ostensibly familiar artistic depictions of religious narratives.
Serrano’s collaboration with Gabriele Tinti has led to a haunting meditation on religion, violence, and physicality. Tinti, author of the Montale Prize-winning collection Ruins, has produced a sequence of poems that are as remarkable for their lyrical expressiveness as for their forceful compactness. Often disquieting and always uncompromising in their vision of the human capacity to do harm and be harmed, these poems are Tinti’s most impressive body of work to date.
A deluxe, signed, numbered special edition will be available for sale at the exhibition, and the launch event will feature a reading of selected poems from Confessions by the actor Vincent Piazza (Boardwalk Empire, Jersey Boys).
Andres Serrano is an American artist. Renowned for his ambitious and challenging installations, he has won acclaim for series of photographs including America (“the photographs give such vivid presence to their sub- jects that it is hard not to feel genuinely moved”—The New York Times) and Torture (“both a call for justice and a compassionate portrayal of the human plight”— The Guardian).
Gabriele Tinti is an Italian poet and writer. He has worked with the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropoli- tan Museum of Art, and the British Museum (among many other institutions), and his poems have been performed by actors including Abel Ferrara, Malcolm McDowell, Robert Davi, Marton Csokas, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Fry, James Cosmo, Michael Imperioli, Franco Nero, Burt Young, Michele Placido, Alessandro Haber, Jamie McShane and Joe Mantegna. In 2018 his ekphras- tic poetry project Ruins was awarded the Premio Mon- tale with a ceremony at the Museo Nazionale Romano in Palazzo Altemps.
The Opening Gallery was launched as an initiative that supports contemporary art and international artists beyond the confines of the art market, while it fosters cultural engagement and exchanges between the US and the globe. This alternative art ecosystem attempts to go beyond prevalent gallery models and to showcase global underrep- resented artists, and the work of women artists and artists of color. 50% of the proceeds support neurodiversity and charitable causes, and 25% of the proceeds are donated to the non-profit Luv Michael, which is committed to enrich- ing the lives of autistic adults.
ERIS ART is the art branch of independent publisher ERIS PRESS, based in London and New York. The press publish- es art, literature, and nonfiction, with a particular emphasis on politics and philosophy. Recent and forthcoming titles include Maurice Saatchi’s memoir Do Not Resuscitate: The Life and Afterlife of Maurice Saatchi, Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos’s short story collection Book of Water, Walter Benn Michaels and Adolph Reed, Jr.’s No Politics but Class Politics, Kenneth Goldsmith’s I Declare a Permanent State of Happiness, and Thomas Schlesser’s biography of the artist Anna-Eva Bergman, Luminous Lives.
ANCIENT FUTURES - A Contemporary Visual Art Exhibition by NEW YORK ARAB FESTIVAL (NYAF) at the Opening Gallery
April 10-21, Opening Reception Monday, April 10, 6-8pm
New York, NY, April 7, 2022 – New York Arab Festival (NYAF), in partnership with The Opening Gallery, presents “Ancient Futures" an exhibition of painting, digital, performance and video art by Ahaad Alamoudy, Obaid Al Safi, Mariam Sadik, and Manar Abdelmaaboud, curated by Adham Hafez, taking place at The Opening Gallery on 42 Walker Street in TriBeCa from April 10-21, 2023. The exhibition is powered by Wizara, and is supported by the non-profit organisation Greece in USA.
The opening reception is Monday, April 10 from 6-8pm. Talks and events are scheduled throughout the exhibition’s run (April 10-21).
The exhibition explores tradition, mythology, and recurring symbolism, as it looks at icons and narratives in today’s changing Arab world. Saudi Arabian artist Ahaad Alamoudy’s videos utilize underground pop-Saudi songs as scaffolding to build contemporary artworks that look at consumerism and investigate economic and aesthetic change across a shifting class system.
Saudi Arabian Obaid Al Safi uses artificial intelligence and code to reinterpret ancient Arabian poems. Through a complex process that shuttles back and forth between art and technology, he turns visuals into sound and turns sound into an elusive and fleeting moving image.
Egyptian American painter and performance artist Mariam Sadik takes the female Arab body as a terrain of investigation. She looks at the impact of dating apps on marriage and love in what she describes as the marriage market as she grapples with her self-image as a careful social construct.
Manar Abdelmaaboud, a New York Egyptian visual artist, working out of Brooklyn, uses painting, drawing, and collage to address issues of power, control, liberty, and agency. Her painterly interventions disrupt and mock the norms and normality of dominant socio-political systems, push or challenge their rigid absurd boundaries, and represent their influence on and intervention in every aspect of private domestic life.
An unconventional survey of artistic positions and change in the Arabic-speaking region and its diaspora, this exhibition invites us to journey, question, doubt and laugh through the work of four incredible artists.
About New York Arab Festival (NYAF)
New York Arab Festival (NYAF) was established in 2022 to celebrate Arab American Heritage Month, and to fight the erasure of Arab and Arab American identities from New York City, a place that Arabs have called home for over three centuries. NYAF is a multidisciplinary festival of art, culture, design, food, philosophy, and intersecting industries. It programs artists from the entire Arabic-speaking region, the Arab diaspora, and Arab American artists, particularly artists working and living in New York City. Founded by Arab, American and Arab American artists, curators and cultural producers Adham Hafez, Adam Kucharski, Cindy Sibilsky, Marwa Seoudi and partners.
The second annual New York Arab Festival (NYAF) 2023 Edition takes place in venues across NYC from April 7 through early May to honor and celebrate Arab American Heritage Month, which coincides with Ramadan this year. New York Arab Festival (NYAF) is programming multiple live in-person events in partnership with several pioneering institutions across NYC, the USA, and internationally.
About The Opening Gallery
The Opening Gallery (42 Walker Street, Manhattan) was launched as an initiative that supports contemporary art and international artists beyond the confines of the art market while it fosters cultural engagement and exchanges between the US and the globe. This alternative art ecosystem attempts to go beyond prevalent gallery models and to showcase globally underrepresented artists and the work of women artists and artists of color. In addition, 50% of the proceeds support neurodiversity and charitable causes, and 25% of the proceeds are donated to the non-profit Luv Michael, which is committed to enriching the lives of autistic adults.
OPENING: Tuesday March 7 • 6 - 8pm PERFORMANCE: LIVE MUSIC BY JOHN ZORN
Exhibition run dates: March 8 - April 5, 2023 • 6 - 8pm
The Opening Gallery and ERIS ART are pleased to present Kenneth Goldsmith’s critically-acclaimed I Declare a Permanent State of Happiness. The exhibition coincides with the release a beautifully produced second edition of the book, and a signed limited edition, as well as a series of numbered prints.
I Declare a Permanent State of Happiness is a re- markable engagement with one of the most impor- tant philosophical works of the twentieth century, Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.
Written as a series of numbered propositions, Witt- genstein’s treatise is an ambitious attempt to elu- cidate the relationship of language to logic and to reality. Goldsmith’s response to the text is a testament to the highly distinctive artistic vision that characterizes all of his work. Inspired by the Tractatus but also boldly inventive, Goldsmith’s images reveal the breadth and depth not just of Wittgenstein’s genius, but also of the intervening artist’s creative fervor.
Collages, drawings, sketches, handwritten com- ments, blacked-out and blanched text, shopping receipts and scans-within-scans – these are some of the techniques that appear in this body of work. The exhibition will put on display the most dazzling of the original artworks reproduced in Goldsmith’s book. Innovatively presented in the Opening Gal- lery’s stunning exhibition space, this is a unique opportunity to witness an extraordinary form of creative and intellectual dialogue. The exhibition is curated by Sozita Goudouna and Alex Stavrakas.
Original works, as well as the second edition of I Declare a Permanent State of Happiness will be available for sale, together with copies of a deluxe limited edition of the same book, and prints.
Kenneth Goldsmith lives and works in New York City. He teaches writing at the University of Penn- sylvania. In 1996, he founded UbuWeb (http://ubu. com), the largest site for the free distribution of avant-garde materials, and in 2013 he was named as the inaugural Poet Laureate of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In addition to I Declare a Permanent State of Happiness, his books include Wasting Time on the Internet and Duchamp Is My Lawyer: The Polemics, Pragmatics, and Poetics of UbuWeb, the latter of which was awarded the 2020 Prix François Morellet.
The Opening Gallery was launched as an initiative that supports contemporary art and international artists beyond the confines of the art market, while it fosters cultural engagement and exchanges between the US and the globe. This alternative art ecosystem attempts to go beyond prevalent gallery models and to showcase global underrepresented artists, and the work of women artists and artists of color. 50% of the proceeds support neurodiversity and charitable causes, and 25% of the proceeds are donated to the non-profit Luv Michael, which is committed to en- riching the lives of autistic adults.
Goldsmith’s recent artistic works are among the most powerful and provocative to have appeared in the last few years. HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails was displayed in conjunction with the Ven- ice Biennale at the Despar Teatro Italia in 2019. It turned the seemingly banal act of printing out the former presidential candidate’s leaked emails into a widely discussed installation that was as notable for its conceptual brilliance as for its underlying political statement. Goldsmith’s ongoing project Retyping a Library was displayed at the Lofoten International Art Festival in 2022.
ERIS ART is the art branch of independent publish- er ERIS PRESS based in London and New York. The press publishes art, literature, and nonfiction, with a particular emphasis on politics and philosophy. Re- cent and forthcoming titles include Maurice Saatchi’s memoir Do Not Resuscitate: The Life and Afterlife of Maurice Saatchi, Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopou- los’s short story collection Book of Water, Walter Benn Michaels and Adolph Reed, Jr.’s No Politics but Class Politics, Gabriele Tinti and Andres Serrano’s Confessions, and Thomas Schlesser’s biography of the Norwegian artist Anna-Eva Bergman.
Press Contact: Angus Ledingham, angus@eris.press
On Saturday March 4th 2023 the Opening Gallery will present ATYPICAL:: FURTIVE SPEECH ACTS, a day of performances and poetry readings to celebrate the closing of the gallery's current exhibition ATYPICAL.
There will be a performance by Elaine Angelopoulos from 4-5pm.Then at 6:30 there will be a poetry reading with Brittany Adames, Bahaar Ahsan, Christina Chalmers, Rachel Stuart, Leda Koutsodaskalou and Jackie Abhulimen. This event is co Curated by Sozita Goudouna, Terrence Arjoon, and Adam Brown.
Bahaar Ahsan is a poet from the Bay Area living in New York City. She is the author of Gay Girl Hyacinth (Eyelet 2021).
Brittany Adames is a Dominican-American writer. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and featured in Half Mystic, Palette Poetry, Vagabond City, Rust+Moth, and elsewhere. She is an MFA candidate in poetry at Brooklyn College.
Christina Chalmers is a poet, translator, and researcher, and her new book Subterflect is forthcoming from Distance No Object Press. Other chapbooks include Truant of the Stintless Sun (1080), and willingness (materials).
Elaine Angelopoulos lives and works in New York City. She is an artist with an interdisciplinary approach that bridges her studio practice with audience participation, with select installations and performances. Her work has been exhibited in New York, the United States, and in Europe. Angelopoulos received a Franklin Furnace Fund/Jerome Fellowship in 2014/15. Recently, she performed for POPc, an organization that fosters dialogue about philosophy.
Jackie Abhulimen is a writer, scholar and activist from Athens, Greece and currently living in New York City. Her activism in dismantling the inequities that shape the migrant experience in Europe has been featured in the New York Times, Aljazeera, NPR to name a few, and in local Greek press. She has given speeches in the Greek Parliament, served on the Greek National Council Against Racism and Intolerance, and presented in conferences across Europe. She now works in cultural programming, writes on diasporic culture and practice and is currently working on her first manuscript of poems.
Leda Koutsodaskalou is an actor based in Athens and New York. She just graduated from Tisch School of the Arts with an MA in Performance Studies. Among others, she has collaborated with The National Theater of Greece, the National Theater of Northern Greece, The Athens and Epidaurus Festival and Stegi Onassis Cultural Center. Her last film credit is Midnight Skin by Manolis Mavris that is going to premier in May.
Rachel Stuart is a poet living in Brooklyn. She writes on a typewriter.
The Opening Gallery
42 Walker St.
New York City
Opening date: Tuesday, December 13, at 6 – 8PM
Dates: December 13, 2022 – February 7, 2023
Participating Artists: Coleman Collins, Constance DeJong, Jimmie Durham, Charles Gaines, Leslie Hewitt, Agnieszka Kurant, Olu Oguibe, Jimmy Raskin, Martha Rosler, Allen Ruppersberg, Chrysanne Stathacos, Carol Szymanski and others.
Curated by Warren Neidich and Sozita Goudouna
WET CONCEPTUALISM aims to establish a category of conceptual art called Wet Conceptual Art. As there was no category of Wet Conceptual Art at the time of conceptual art’s invention, the works that would be understood here to fulfill its requirements were either included in the canon of Dry Conceptual Art, as a default gesture, or left out completely. Dry Conceptual Art is that form of conceptual art that we are most familiar with, as it was elucidated in Lucy Lippard’s and John Chandler’s essay The Dematerialization of Art. Wet Conceptual Art has different sources than traditional Dry Conceptual Art. While Dry Conceptual Art emerged from the ready-mades of Marcel Duchamp such as the Bicycle Wheel of 1913-1916, or the proto-minimalist paintings of Kasmir Malevich such as Black Square, 1913 as well as the Lettrism movement of Isidore Isou, Wet Conceptual Art emerged from the collective works of Francis Picabia (especially his work The Caodylic Eye,1921) the soft sculptures of Meret Oppenheim—especially Fur Covered Tea Cup, Saucer and Spoon, 1936—Situationism’s emphasis upon mapping and the time based, comedic and sometimes graphic works of Fluxus Art. Whereas Sol Lewitt, especially his early work, Joseph Kosuth and Lawrence Weiner were the strongest advocates of Dry Conceptualism at its inception, artists like Adrian Piper, Yoko Ono, Martha Rosler, Bas Jan Ader and the curator Seth Seigelaub were the secret trail blazers of Wet Conceptualism. Both Wet and Dry Conceptualism were born in the heyday of the 1960’s counterculture as a response to the revolutionary spirit of the time. For several reasons, which this exhibition will attempt to clarify, Wet Conceptualism was subsumed by Dry conceptualism and would have to await until now for the right entanglement of certain social, political, economic and technological relations to make its voice known. Wet Conceptual Art is not so much about the immaterial object as it is about precarious and immaterial labor characteristic of the cybernetically inflected information and knowledge economies and as result performance and the poetic are emphasized. Both Dry and Wet Conceptual Art stressed the importance of indexicality above and beyond representation, but their modes of presentation differed since Dry Conceptualism was usually presented as black letters on a white background while Wet conceptualism was polychromic. Both forms considered consumer society’s misuse of language as a call to arms. However, Wet conceptualism went one step further in understanding language’s innate complicity with patriarchy, racism, and sexism. While Dry conceptualism was Eurocentric and patriarchal, Wet Conceptualism stresses a global, post-humanist outlook. Dry conceptual art was withdrawn, restrained and cold while Wet Conceptualism is engaged, hot, and vital. Dry conceptualism stressed an economy of means as a reductivist attitude which was connected to Minimalism while wet conceptualism engaged with a more maximalist and anarchic approach to everyday life. Instead of following the edicts of German Idealism, Wet conceptualism found its precedents in materialism. In most instances, Dry conceptualism abhorred what it referred to as “stupid painting” because of its retinality: the assumption, based on many statements of Marcel Duchamp’s that painting was absorbed with the sensual rather than the rational which pertained to the grey matter of the brain. Wet conceptualism embraces the wet painterly surface as a space to investigate the conceptual basis of emotions, feelings and affect which have become important in the new economy of emoji’s and Big Data. In other words, Wet conceptualism is a new methodology of artistic hermeneutics or interpretation conceived for its time. Dry conceptualism is about a binary dichotomous viewpoint, and stresses gestalt psychology while wet conceptualism is more non-binary and engaged with perception in action or what are called affordances. Finally Wet Conceptual Art is linked to the concept of wetware used to describe neural based computational systems because they are full of salt water whereas dry or crunchy are terms used to describe artificial intelligence run by digital computers.
For more information concerning Wet Conceptualism please go to http://wetconceptual.art/
The Opening Gallery was launched in the summer of 2022 as an initiative that supports contemporary art and international artists beyond the confines of the art market, while it fosters cultural engagement and exchanges between the US and the globe. This alternative art ecosystem attempts to go beyond prevalent gallery models and to showcase global underrepresented artists, and the work of women artists and artists of color. The gallery is managed by an independent non-profit contemporary art organization and it is located at 42 Walker st in Tribeca. Exhibitions include visual and performing arts, music events, with public programs spanning a wide range of topics also focusing on mental health. The Opening Gallery has monthly public programming and educational activities. Admission is free. *50% of the proceeds support neurodiversity, charitable causes, and 25% of the proceeds are donated to the non-profit Luv Michael which is committed to enriching the lives of autistic adults.
Charles Gaines | Agnieszka Kurant | Warren Neidich
Friday the 27th of January at 6:30
Screening and discussion of Miguel Abreu’s 1991 short film,which captured Jimmy Raskin on the eve of his new role as the ‘Documentarian of The Poetic Impulse.’ Abandoning art making as he knew of it, in this film Raskin contemplates his new role as “lecturer / performer,” which would define his expressive career for years to come.
Jimmy Raskin’s work is included in the galleries current exhibition, Wet Conceptualism Curated by Warren Neidich and Sozita Goudouna. For more information on Wet Conceptualism please go to http://wetconceptual.art/
Jimmy Raskin (b. 1970, Los Angeles) lives and works in New York. A graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, Raskin has exhibited his work internationally and staged “lecture-performances” in institutions, art galleries and other non-traditional gathering places since the mid-1990s, notably at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Thread Waxing Space, Foundation 2021, Greene-Naftali, Cooper Union, Miguel Abreu Gallery, SculptureCenter, as well as at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, Real Art Ways, Hartford, The Swiss Institute, Paris, and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin.
Syd Krochmalny and Carlos Huffmann in discussion.
Moderated by Sozita Goudouna and Warren Neidich
Saturday, February 4th, 2023, 2 pm
Opening Gallery
42 Walker Street
New York City, New York
Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin 1950s-1980s took place at the Queens Museum in 1999 curated by Queens Museum Director of Exhibitions Jane Farver, the artist Luis Camnitzer and Rachel Weiss Professor at the New School. It contained over 200 works by artists all over the world with the purpose to understand conceptual art in its broader context. As it states on the Queens Museum website, the show was meant to “question the hegemony of the object over ideas in art, critique the way art is institutionalized both in museums and in modern economies, and find a new role for art and the artist in society by involving art in social and political protest.” Wet conceptualism shares many of these concerns but recontextualizes them in the context of cognitive capitalism in which the brain and mind are the new factories of the 20th century and the importance of immaterial labor subsumes the importance of the dematerialized object. Today we are overwhelmed and suffocated by immateriality and a material rebuttal is necessary as a form of dissensus. Our generalized intelligence has been reconfigured in our world of deep learning neural networks, robotics and wet ware. Wet conceptualisms interest in ecologies of knowledge is the starting point to engage with Global Conceptualism through the experience of our two guest artists from the global South in an attempt to relinquish the aporias of Dry Conceptual art.
Carlos Huffmann is an artist and director of the Art Department of the Torcuato Di Tella University. He served as the main professor of the Work Analysis Seminar within the Artists Program during 2017, 2021, and 2022, and regularly teaches classes both in the Artists Program and in undergraduate courses at Torcuato Di Tella University. He graduated with a Bachelor of Business Economics from UTDT (2001) and the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)-Master of Fine Arts, School of Art (2005). He was the editor of the art section of the online magazine Otra Parte Semanal. He regularly publishes texts about art in various media, such as Otra Parte, the Radar supplement of Página 12, artists’ books, and various blogs, among others. In 2020, the first monographic book on his work was published: Strange Ruler for a Heart. His main individual exhibitions are “Compostasmas” (2022, Ruth Benzacar Gallery, Buenos Aires), “Hito de Frontera” (2019, Art Week, BA), “Recursiva” (2018, Constitución Gallery, BA), among others.
Dr. Syd Krochmalny is an artist, curator, writer, researcher, musician, and Professor of Arts, Literature and Social Sciences. His multimedia work has been exhibited at the Reina Sofia Museum, Harvard University, David Rockefeller Center, the Malba, the Americas Society, Cultural Center of Memory Haroldo Conti, Remembrance Park, University of Oslo, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, MAC de Niteroi, Pinacoteca San Pablo, The University of Edinburgh, Museum of Contemporary Art in Buenos Aires, and the Guggenheim, among others. Syd has published Diarios del Odio (Journals of Hate, 2016), Débil (Weak, 2017), Los Sueños (The Dreams, 2018), El Tamaño de mi mundo (The Size of My World, 2021), Ramona, debates en el arte al filo del Milenio (Ramona, Debates in the Art on the Edge of the Millennium, 2021), and he wrote a prologue for Crypto Currency and Sovereignty (2022), among others. Syd was a part of several magazine projects, including editor of the magazine and subsequent book, ramona, co-founder and editor of the magazine, Jennifer, and co-founder and editor of the CIA magazine for the Center for Artistic Research (CIA), an Artist Program and a Masters Program on Latin American Art in Buenos Aires where Syd Krochmalny was Professor, the Pedagogical Director, and International Relations. Syd was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Columbia University. Syd is the Director of Barro in New York
Warren Neidich is an artist, theorist and curator who works between New York City and Berlin. He is founder and director of the Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art which will concern Apparatus, Apparatus, Apparatus in collaboration with the Brooklyn Rail. His work,The Statisticon Neon, is on view in the exhibition Singing in Unison curated by Phong Bui and From the Society of the Spectacle to the Consciousness Industry at the Taipei Digital Arts Festival, Taipei, Taiwan. Neidich’s An Activist Neuroaesthetic Reader was just published by Archive Press, Berlin.
October 4th - November 27, 2022
Opening Tuesday October 4th, 6-8PM
The Opening Gallery
42 Walker Street, New York
Opening Gallery is pleased to announce Collective Brain, a group exhibition of works by Alina Bliumis, Jeff Bliumis, Veronique Bourgoin, Alexandros Georgiou, Mat Chivers, Raúl Cordero, Yioula Hadjigeorgiou, Steven C. Harvey, Peggy Kliafa, Artemis Kotioni, Jessica Mitrani, Paula Meninato, Eleni Mylonas, Margarita Myrogianni, Warren Neidich, Alexander Polzin, Dan Reisner, Juli Susin, Dimitris Tragkas, Adonis Volanakis, Hans Weigand, Vasilis Zarifopoulos curated by Dr. Sozita Goudouna. Installed across the first floor of 42 Walker St, Collective Brain attempts to challenge our perception of mental processes with an arrangement of corporeally provoking art pieces, connecting artists who work in divergent media and are convening from diverse localities.
Contemplating the notion of the mind as a mechanism – a brain system responsible for spatial memory and navigation – Collective Brain offers different viewpoints about the brain and its million neurons by centering neurodiversity as the fundamental concept about how we can understand the physical and biological origins of human emotion in the brain, as well as the conception, exhibition, and reception of the artworks. A section of the exhibition also attempts to comprehend and challenge perceptions about the operations of the non-human brain.
The revolutionary field of optogenetics allows us to decipher the brain's inner workings using light, however, we still seem to know little about the human mind and certain theorists argue that it is much too complicated to be controlled, while brain and electrostimulation experiments of the 60s and 70s were often unable to clarify which parts of the brain are stimulated by stimoceivers or electro-magnetic radiation.
Further to the notion of mind control, current scientific research attempts to illuminate the biological nature of our inner worlds and our “projections” namely the ways aspects of the self are experienced by the individual as residing outside the self (Deisseroth K.). Drawing from Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the founder of modern neuroscience, and his claim that “knowledge of the physicochemical basis of memory, feelings, and reason would make humans the true masters of creation, that their most transcendental accomplishment would be the conquering of their own brain,” the exhibition attempts to trace the visualization of the brain's inner circuitry with a deep empathy for mental illness.
Cajal ventured into science as both an artist and a pathologist, while he became the first person to see a neuron. The scientist visualized the inner workings of the mind with thousands of stunning pen-and-ink diagrams and his exquisite, meticulous drawings of neurons in the brain and spinal cord proved that every neuron in the brain is separate and that neurons communicate across synapses.
There is an on-going parallel between the ‘visualization of the brain’ in the scientific and in the artistic domains and a fascination with the visualization of the neurons, but how can this visualization help us understand the invisible synapses of the collective brain and especially the ways human societies can resist mind control with actual free will.
© The Opening Gallery