Artpace San Antonio Unveils 10.1 International Artist-In-Residence Projects

SAN ANTONIO, March 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Artpace San Antonio is pleased to announce the unveiling of Artpace's International Artist-in-Residence 10.1 projects, opening March 18, 2010. Guest curator Helen Molesworth, Chief Curator of The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, will present new projects by Buster Graybill (Huntsville, TX), Klara Liden (Berlin, Germany), and Ulrike Muller (New York, New York).

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Texas artist Buster Graybill is drawn to how the affects of urbanization and development have altered the appearance and character of rural America. He utilizes his sculptures, videos, photography, and installations as vehicles for exploring and reconnecting with the landscape. In Tush Hog Graybill conceived a fictional narrative in which his group of Minimalist sculptures that double as wild hog feeders are endowed with animal characteristics. He imagines that his works, released into uncultivated terrain without curators and conservators to care for them, quickly evolved and developed their sturdy, diamond-plated armor and more muscular stature. Designed and assembled at Artpace, these "feral" apparatus spent weeks under 24-hour surveillance at a ranch one hour south of San Antonio near Pearsall before returning to the gallery for exhibition. The pieces are accompanied by photographs and video footage captured with motion-activated infrared cameras, commonly used among hunters tracking game. The documentation shows a variety of wildlife interacting with the corn-dispensing artworks.

Berlin-based Swedish artist Klara Liden questions the functions of private and public space through installations and video performances utilizing scavenged materials and pre-existing urban structures. Through economical and invasive means, the artist transforms urban detritus such as found cardboard, police barricades, and carpet remnants into bunker-like structures that retain a semblance of solidity yet convey a feeling of melancholy and gloom. Liden's Corps de Ballet is comprised of a series of performative videos and sculptures that create an awareness of directed movement, whether it is within a space or through the motion of the body. The four videos—projected on two walls of her upstairs gallery and displayed on a monitor beneath the first floor staircase—show the artist performing a variety of subtle and dramatic actions inside and outside of the studio. Accompanying the looped shorts is an unfurled roll of black tar paper that gracefully swoops down from the ceiling, creating a stage-like area in the center of the room. A grouping of five body-scaled cubic sculptures—also made of tar paper—is suspended vertically from the ceiling with sisal rope. A soundtrack featuring a rhythmic piano composition by Askar Brickman unites the work. The only illumination in the gallery is provided by three projectors and the natural light filtered through a bank of windows.

Ulrike Muller is an Austria-born, New York-based artist whose practice encompasses both art making and community organizing. Her work, which can be seen as an extension of feminist movements from the 1970s onward, utilizes text, performance, publishing, as well as drawing and painting to create spaces of excitement and humor. The artist's use of narrative, language, and abstraction functions to break down traditional binary systems, creating new options by addressing contemporary  feminist and genderqueer concerns. For her Fever 103 exhibition at Artpace, Muller developed a series of paintings in baked enamel on steel that reference the sign-like qualities of her previous abstract drawings. Muller, who considers herself an uneasy object maker, became interested in the enameling process several years ago because of the proximity of the method to vintage sign production. It also presented her with a solution to technical issues she encountered while drawing on paper, specifically the material's vulnerability and lack of rigidity. Enamel provided the appropriate balance of delicate textural appearance with firm support that she was seeking.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Helen Molesworth assumed her current position as Chief Curator at ICA Boston in February of this year. Prior to this appointment, Molesworth held the position of Department head, Modern and Contemporary Art, and Maisie K. and James R. Houghton Curator, Contemporary Art, Harvard University Art Museums since 2007. From 2002 to 2007 she was the Chief Curator of Exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts.  She has curated numerous exhibitions, including Twice Untitled and Other Pictures (looking back), Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2006); Part Object Part Sculpture, Wexner Center for the Arts (2005); Work Ethic, Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland (2003-4); and Bodyspace, Baltimore Museum of Art (2001). She has written for publications such as Artforum, Art Journal, Frieze, and October, and served as a co-founding editor of Documents. Molesworth has served as a senior critic at the Yale School of Art, and has held teaching positions at Bard Center for Curatorial Studies; SUNY Old Westbury; and the Cooper Union School of Art.  

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

The 10.1 International Artist-in-Residence program is made possible by the Linda Pace Foundation; the City of San Antonio's Office of Cultural Affairs; National Endowment for the Arts; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.; and Nimoy Foundation. Special thanks to Best Buy.

About Artpace

Artpace San Antonio serves as an international laboratory for the creation and advancement of contemporary art. Artpace believes that art is a dynamic social force that inspires individuals and defines cultures. Our residencies, exhibitions, and education programs nurture the creative expression of emerging and established artists, while actively engaging youth and adult audiences.

Artpace is located downtown at 445 North Main Avenue, between Savings and Martin streets, San Antonio, Texas. Free parking is available at 513 North Flores Street. Artpace is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, 12-5 PM, and by appointment. Admission is free.

SOURCE Artpace San Antonio