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The Kantor Gallery in association
with the Columbia University School of the Arts Visual Arts M.F.A.
Program is pleased to present…
KANTOR GALLERY CHELSEA 10TH AVENUE WINDOW
259 10TH Avenue, New York, NY 10001
Past Perfect
Curated by Francesca DiMattio
Tuesday, December 14 - January 28, 2005
Installation Images
Past Perfect
is a poster exhibition curated by
Francesca DiMattio of nine current female Columbia University School
of the Arts M.F.A. students in the window space of Kantor Gallery in
Chelsea. Artists Julieta Aranda, Sara Greenberger, Anya Keilar,
Tamar Halpern, Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Patricia Treib, Eileen
Quinlan, Fay Ray, and Paula Wilson have produced a series of posters
announcing fictitious exhibitions in art spaces or magazines that no
longer exist.
Each artist
placed her work within her ideal viewing space, allowing for
collaborations and exhibitions that could happen in other times.
Alison Elizabeth Taylor imagines a fantasy collaboration between
herself and the late artist David Wojnarowisz (1954-1992).
Wojnarowisz sometimes collaborated with others, writing stories
other artists would draw. He also participated in shows at Fashion
Moda, an independent space in the South Bronx that closed in 1993.
Fay Ray’s poster also represents a longing for the past,
specifically, as she imagines, for a time in the late ’60’s when
Playboy magazine brought sexuality and humor together. Ray
altered an old Playboy cover to include an interview with the
artist Fay Ray (herself). Sara Greenberger created a large poster
announcing a performance by her at famed New York restaurant/bar
Max’s Kansas City at a time near its end when The Troggs were in
residence there.
Some of the
advertised exhibitions are completely fictional while others are
specific to a real time and place. Anya Kielar imagines a fictional
other self, an Eastern European traveler and artist with an
exhibition in Poland in 1978. Eileen Quinlan’s poster, on the other
hand, refers to an actual past. Her poster announces a two-person
show of her work with Cheney Thompson at Canada Gallery in lower
Manhattan that opened three days before September 11, 2001. “The
opening was a happy one,” Eileen says, “But the show was little
seen.” She watched news footage of people running in a cloud of
dust right past the gallery door.
The press
posters range in size, medium, and design. Paula Wilson’s nine
small scale silkscreen and photo-litho posters function more as
fliers announcing a fictional arts gathering at Helen Brown’s
informal hair salon in Harlem. Wilson places herself in 1927 during
the Harlem Renaissance with author Zora Neale Hurston and musician
Claude McKay. The poster is “sponsored” by Madam C.J. Walker’s
Wonderful Hair Grower, a popular hair relaxer at the time. Patricia
Treib’s grand large-scale painted gouache on paper poster announces
an exhibition of her paintings in the 1964 World’s Fair and loosely
refers to the style of World Fair posters. Julieta Aranda’s poster,
which imagines an exhibition at Long Island City’s Oil and Steel
Gallery, layers oil and steel growth statistics during the years the
gallery was open over an image of her work.
Past Perfect
was a collaboration among the artists from its conception to
installation. Each poster, however, reflects the conceptual and
aesthetic vision of each artist. Three of the participants who have
ties to Chicago—Sara Greenberger, Patricia Treib, and
Paula Wilson—inserted reproductions of their work on a cover of the
now defunct Chicago-based art magazine New Art Examiner.
Past Perfect also includes its own press poster within the show.
The Columbia
University School of the Arts is one of the country’s premiere arts
institutions offering M.F.A. degrees in four divisions: film,
theatre, writing, and visual arts. The School’s two-year visual
arts program is taught by internationally celebrated artists and
allows students to pursue M.F.A. degrees in a variety of media. |
