Meulensteen is pleased to present Young Curators, New Ideas IV, a group exhibition of twelve curators organized by Mr. and Mrs. Amani Olu opening the evening of Thursday, June 7, 2012 from 6PM – 9PM with music by Derrick Adams and DJ Imposter at the gallery located at 511 West 22nd Street. The exhibition continues through August 24, 2012 and will include a series of programs and special events.
Curators: Rachel Cook, Jenny Jaskey, Robin Juan, Larry Ossei-Mensah, Tiernan Morgan, Stephanie Roach, Legacy Russell, Ariella Wolens, Jordana Zeldin, Calder Zwicky, Susi Kenna & Tali Wertheimer and Court Square
Artists: Sterling Allen, Ben Alper, Pan Aterson, Amy Beecher, A.K. Burns, Darren Coffield, Jillian Conrad, Adam Curtis, Teresa Henriquez, Peter Hobbs, Brookhart Jonquil, Jen Kennedy, Jerry Kearns, Ryan Lauderdale, Liz Linden, C.J. Matherne, Hugo McCloud, Matt Nichols, Miranda Pissarides, Josh Reames, Prem Sahib, Judith Shimer, Kasper Sonne, Adam Parker Smith, Jeni Spota, Jeffrey Vallance, Julia Weist and Erik Blinderman & Lisa Rave
Covering 7,000 square feet of space over two floors, the fourth edition of Young Curators, New Ideas is the most ambitious to date with twelve exhibitions showcasing works from 29 artists. While each curatorial approach takes a unique position, there is a pointed interest in experimenting with the group exhibition format, re-imagining established mediums, objects, materials and concepts, as well as investigating contemporary issues and how they are resolved (if at all) in an art context.
Rachel Cook presents Not-Not-Not Image-Objects to explore how the photograph can act as a flattened object and a phenomenological spatial intervention. Jenny Jaskey presents a film that deals with dislocations of time and place in the built environment. Tiernan Morgan’s exhibition focuses on the visualization of American Power, and Robin Juan illustrates the change in mark making in our current generation of painters.
Larry Ossei-Mensah’s Beautiful Refuse: Materiality investigates the use of unconventional materials and processes derived from an international sample of urban and industrial developments. Stephanie Roach, in Losing My Religion, surveys two artists and mines their respective references to art historical iconography and pop culture and their expression of the intersection between the holy and secular. In ERRATUM,Legacy Russell asks artists to display work in juxtaposition to an existing text, as a means of providing a “correction” in a larger narrative as posed by such cultural documents. Ariella Wolens’ Interpretations of the Frame and Gesture considers reductive processes and negative space in a post-modern display of painting and sculpture.
In All the Boys and Girls, Jordana Zeldin brings together two artists who have transformed personal documents and discarded family artifacts into new objects that invite us to reflect upon the irrevocability of time passed, its losses, and memories. The artists in Calder Zwicky’s Sigils create sexual talismans using everyday objects—blurring the lines between the spiritual, the profane, the sexual and the social. The Artist Is Not Present by Susi Kenna and Tali Wertheimer consists of sculptures and installations that present unexpected experiences, distortions of senses and peformative directives to re-examine what falls under the purview of contemporary performance art. In The Arrow that Quits the Bow, Court Square (Lisa Williams, Ceren Erdem and Jaime Schwartz) presents pilot press…, a DIY mobile publishing house run collaboratively by Jen Kennedy and Liz Linden that is dedicated to an ongoing investigation of what ‘feminism’ means in contemporary society. Visitors to the exhibition are encouraged to publish their own writings, thereby activating the press and joining in the conversation.
Accompanying the exhibition is a full-color catalog with contributions by Amani Olu and Jamie Sterns.
Amani Olu (b. 1980) is an independent curator, writer, essayist and co-founder and executive director of Humble Arts Foundation, a New York based 501c3 committed to supporting and promoting new art photography. In addition to his work as a non-profit arts director, he also organizes the annual Young Curators, New Ideas exhibition. He lives and works in New York and is a proud member of New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA).
