FORM 990, PART III, LINE 4A |
ARTISTS SPACE'S EXPLICIT HISTORICAL MISSION IS TO BE A PLATFORM FOR ARTISTS - BOTH EMERGING AND ESTABLISHED - AND TO ACTIVELY ENGAGE THEM IN OUR PROGRAMS AS AUDIENCE MEMBERS AND AS PARTICIPANTS. DURING FISCAL YEAR 2018, WE WELCOMED NEARLY 8,000 VISITORS, SUPPORTED MORE THAN 100 ARTISTS, PERFORMERS, FILMMAKERS, WRITERS, MUSICIANS, CURATORS, ART HISTORIANS, AND CULTURAL THEORISTS, AND PROVIDED ART EDUCATION TO OVER 120 AT-RISK MIDDLE SCHOOL YOUTH. ARTISTS SPACE EXHIBITIONS UNHOLDING (NOVEMBER 19 - JANUARY 21, 2017) ARTISTS OF INDIGENOUS HERITAGE HAVE, FOR MANY DECADES IN NEW YORK CITY, DEVELOPED PRACTICES IN SELF-INITIATED CONTEXTS WHILE ENDEAVORING TO EXTEND THE REACH AND VISIBILITY OF THEIR WORK TO BROADER PUBLICS. THE EXHIBITION "UNHOLDING" EXTENDED A LEGACY FIRST INTRODUCED AT ARTISTS SPACE IN THE 1987 EXHIBITION "WE THE PEOPLE". LIKE THE PRIOR EXHIBITION, CURATED BY CRITIC AND WRITER JEAN FISHER AND ARTIST JIMMIE DURHAM, "UNHOLDING" SCRUTINIZED THE HEGEMONIC WHITE AMERICAN GAZE THROUGH RAISING CONCERNS AROUND INCLUSION, FRAMING, CONTAINMENT, AND VIEWERSHIP, AND NOTABLY BROUGHT THIS WORK INTO DIALOGUE WITH INSTITUTIONAL AND ACADEMIC CONTEXTS. "UNHOLDING" INCLUDED 18 ARTWORKS BY FIVE ARTISTS WHO FIRST EXHIBITED AT ARTISTS SPACE IN "WE THE PEOPLE" (PENA BONITA, G. PETER JEMISON, ALAN MICHELSON, JOLENE RICKARD, AND KAY WALKINGSTICK) AND THREE CONTEMPORARY NATIVE ARTISTS OF A YOUNGER GENERATION (ADAM KHALIL, ZACK KHALIL, AND JACKSON POLYS). THIS SELECTION OF WORKS IN THIS EXHIBITION BALANCED COMPLEX ARTICULATIONS OF IDENTITY WHILE TROUBLING THE PRESUMED SOVEREIGNTY OF THE POSTMODERN EXHIBITION SPACE, UTILIZING SERIAL FORMS AND ENGAGING WITH THE DUPLICITY OF COMMERCIAL IMAGE-MAKING TO LINK THE PRESENT-DAY EFFECTS OF LATE CAPITALISM WITH ITS VIOLENT COLONIAL PAST. THE EXHIBITION WAS ONE OF THREE EXHIBITIONS DEDICATED TO NATIVE CONTEMPORARY ART THAT WAS ON VIEW SIMULTANEOUSLY IN NEW YORK CITY, AND WAS ACCOMPANIED BY A FULL SCHEDULE OF DISCUSSIONS, READINGS, PERFORMANCES, AND SCREENINGS, AS WELL AS A PRINT PUBLICATION THAT INCLUDED COMMISSIONED TEXTS BY CANDICE HOPKINS AND CHRISTOPHER GREEN ALONGSIDE A REPRINT OF AN ESSAY BY JEAN FISHER. COOP FUND, AMALLE DUBLON & CONSTANTINA ZAVITSANOS, DEVIN KENNY, JOHN NEFF (FEBRUARY 11 - MARCH 31, 2018) THIS GROUP SHOW WITH COOP FUND, AMALLE DUBLON & CONSTANTINA ZAVITSANOS, DEVIN KENNY, AND JOHN NEFF FOLLOWED A SERIES OF CONVERSATIONS AND WORKSHOPS HELD BETWEEN THE STAFF OF ARTISTS SPACE AND THE FIVE EXHIBITING ARTISTS IN EARLY 2017, AT A TIME WHEN ARTISTS SPACE WAS WITHOUT AN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. CALLED AUTHORIZATION SESSIONS, THIS INTERNAL WORK WAS DRIVEN BY THE STAFF'S DESIRE TO INTERROGATE THE INSTITUTION'S ORGANIZATIONAL ARRANGEMENTS, AND TO RE-ORIENT AND INVENT ANEW ITS PRACTICES. WHILE SOME OF THE ARTISTS INDEX THEIR RESPECTIVE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THESE CONVERSATIONS, THIS EXHIBITION WAS ORGANIZED AS A SECOND, DISTINCT PHASE OF WORK. MANY OF THE EXHIBITION'S WORKS BEHAVED AS MODELS: IN THE SENSE OF MATERIAL PROPOSITIONS THAT LITERALIZE THE MECHANISM THAT THEY ILLUSTRATE, AND AS METAPHORICAL OR RHETORICAL EXAMPLES OF HOW ART CAN BREAK BEYOND NORMATIVE DYNAMICS OF AUTHOR AND INTERPRETER, AND OF ARTIST AND VIEWER. THE FOUR NEWLY-COMMISSIONED ART WORKS AND SIX EXISTING ARTWORKS ON VIEW DESTABILIZED CONVENTIONAL APPROACHES TO EDUCATION, ECONOMICS, AND THE LABOR OF ART-MAKING, COLLAPSING RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION AND THE CONDITIONS OF PRESENTATION. A SERIES OF PUBLIC PROGRAMS AND WORKSHOPS PROVIDES AN IMPORTANT COMPONENT TO THE EXHIBITION. THE ARTISTS IN THIS EXHIBITION COLLAPSE RELATIONS OF PRODUCTION AND CONDITIONS OF PRESENTATION, SURFACING THE STRUCTURES THAT FRAME THEIR WORK. EMMA HEDDITCH JOINED WITH LYDIA OKRENT AND ELSA BROWN TO ESTABLISH COOP FUND, USING FUNDS FROM THIS EXHIBITION TO INITIATE A COOPERATIVE FUNDING PLATFORM FOR ARTISTS. JOHN NEFF EXHIBITED A NEW VIDEO, IN PART CO-PRODUCED WITH ARTISTS SPACE STAFF THROUGH A PROCESS OF INQUIRY-BASED LEARNING AND SCENES FROM NEFF'S DAILY LIFE. DISTILLING THEIR ONGOING STUDY INTO FORMS OF CARE AND DEPENDENCY, AMALLE DUBLON & CONSTANTINA ZAVITSANOS STAGED A DEMONSTRATION OF A QUANTUM ERASER EXPERIMENT IN THE GALLERY SPACE ALONGSIDE VIDEO AND AUDIO WORKS. DEVIN KENNY UTILIZED ARTISTS SPACE AS THE SITE FOR A DEDICATED COMPUTER THAT MINES CRYPTOCURRENCY TO BE DONATED TO BAIL FUNDS, AND EXHIBITED WORKS THAT PROBE SOCIAL AND MATERIAL NETWORKS IN RELATION TO BLACKNESS, THE PRISON-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, AND IDENTITY FORMATION. MIYOKO ITO HEART OF HEARTS (APRIL 7 - MAY 6, 2018) HEART OF HEARTS COMPRISED A SELECTION OF ENIGMATIC ABSTRACT PAINTINGS BY MIYOKO ITO (1918-1983), WHOSE WORK HAS REMAINED LARGELY UNEXAMINED AND OVERLOOKED OUTSIDE OF CHICAGO. NOT INTENDED AS A DECISIVE SURVEY, THE SELECTION MOSTLY SPANNED THE 1970S UNTIL THE END OF THE ARTIST'S LIFE, AND HIGHLIGHTED ITO'S SEARCHING EXPLORATION OF SELF-PORTRAITURE AND PLACE. MIYOKO ITO WAS BORN IN BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, TO JAPANESE PARENTS IN 1918. AS A YOUNG GIRL, SHE SPENT SEVERAL YEARS WITH HER MOTHER AND SISTER IN JAPAN, WHERE SHE FIRST EXPERIMENTED WITH CALLIGRAPHY AND PAINTING. ITO FOLLOWED HER FATHER IN ATTENDING THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, WHERE SHE STUDIED WATERCOLOR UNDER JOHN HALEY, ERLE LORAN, AND WORTH RYDER. MONTHS BEFORE HER GRADUATION IN 1942, ITO WAS SENT TO TANFORAN, AN INTERNMENT CAMP SOUTH OF SAN FRANCISCO. RELEASED YEARS BEFORE HER NEW HUSBAND, SHE BRIEFLY MATRICULATED AT SMITH COLLEGE BEFORE TRANSFERRING TO THE SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, WHERE SHE RECEIVED A SCHOLARSHIP BUT NEVER GRADUATED. ALTHOUGH HER EFFORTS WERE HIGHLY SUSCEPTIBLE TO REGIONALIZATION, ITO PARTICIPATED IN THE 1975 WHITNEY BIENNIAL AND WAS HONORED WITH A RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION AT THE RENAISSANCE SOCIETY IN 1980. SHE WAS REPRESENTED BY PHYLLIS KIND GALLERY IN CHICAGO AND NEW YORK FROM THE LATE 1960S THROUGH HER DEATH IN 1983. RECENT EXHIBITIONS INCLUDE SOLO PRESENTATIONS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY ART MUSEUM AND PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE, 2017; ADAM BAUMGOLD GALLERY, NEW YORK, 2006 AND 2014; VENEKLASEN/WERNER, BERLIN, 2012; AND NO VACANCIES, A GROUP PRESENTATION AT MARIANNE BOESKY GALLERY, NEW YORK, 2015. CURATED BY JORDAN STEIN IN COLLABORATION WITH ARTISTS SPACE, HEART OF HEARTS FOLLOWED MIYOKO ITO / MATRIX 267 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY ART MUSEUM AND PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE. JACK SMITH: ART CRUST OF SPIRITUAL OASIS (JUNE 22 - SEPTEMBER 16, 2018) WITH HIS SHADOW LOOMING OVER THE DEVELOPMENT OF AVANT-GARDE FILM, PERFORMANCE, PHOTOGRAPHY, AND CRITICAL DISCOURSE IN NEW YORK BETWEEN THE 1960S AND 1980S, JACK SMITH NONETHELESS REMAINS AN OUTLIER AMONG THE MANY ARTISTIC CONTEXTS WITHIN WHICH HE PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE. SMITH'S VIRTUOSIC OUTPUT IS REVERED FOR ITS CAUSTIC HUMOR, SELF-INVENTION, AND DEBASEMENT OF INSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY, WHICH INTENSIFIED THROUGHOUT HIS EVER-EVOLVING WORK. YET, SINCE HIS DEATH FROM AIDS-RELATED PNEUMONIA IN 1989, HIS ARTISTIC LEGACY HAS PROVEN TO BE SIMILARLY INCALCITRANT AND RESISTANT TO CLEAN-CUT NARRATIVIZATION. IN HISTORY, AS IN LIFE, SMITH'S COMPREHENSIVE OUEVRE EXISTS IN RENEGADE DEFIANCE OF THE CAPITALIST IMPERATIVES OF COMMODIFICATION AND CONTAINMENT. SMITH'S VISION IS ONE THAT CONSEQUENTLY IMBUES ART INTO LIFE, TO THE POINT OF RENDERING ASSUMED DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN THE TWO AS ABSURD AND ELITIST. ART CRUST OF SPIRITUAL OASIS MARKED THE FIRST TIME THAT MANY OF SMITH'S PERFORMANCES-COMPOSED AND CHRONICLED IN DRAWINGS, SCRIPTS, FILM FRAGMENTS, "BOILED LOBSTER COLOR SLIDESHOWS," AUDIO RECORDINGS, AND COSTUMES-WERE ARTICULATED. INCLUDING MORE THAN 141 WORKS AND OCCUPYING BOTH FLOORS OF 55 WALKER STREET, ART CRUST OF SPIRITUAL OASIS WAS THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE GATHERING OF SMITH'S WORK SINCE THE 1997 EXHIBITION AT MOMA PS1 AND FOCUSED PARTICULARLY ON THE PERIOD MARKED BY THE ARTIST'S EVICTION FROM HIS LEGENDARY SOHO LOFT, THE PLASTER FOUNDATION OF ATLANTIS IN 1971 AND, CONSEQUENTLY, BY A MOVEMENT TOWARDS PERFORMANCES STAGED IN AD-HOC THEATER SPACES, CLUBS, AND NOTABLY IN THE LITERAL OUTSIDE OF A MORPHING URBAN ENVIRONMENT, AS THE ARTIST FOUND HIMSELF AT THE MARGINS OF A PROFESSIONALIZING ART WORLD, WITH THE CITY OF NEW YORK TRANSFORMED BY A BULLISH REAL ESTATE MARKET. ARTISTS SPACE PUBLIC PROGRAMS DEDICATED TO THE EXCHANGE OF IDEAS AND CRITICAL REFLECTION ON CONTEMPORARY CULTURE, ARTISTS SPACE PUBLIC PROGRAMS FUNCTION AS A FORUM FOR DISCUSSION AND DEBATE WHERE THE ROLE OF CONTEMPORARY ART IS ACTIVELY CONTEXTUALIZED AND MADE LEGIBLE AS PART OF SOCIETY AS A WHOLE. OVER THE PAST YEAR THIS TAKEN SHAPE THROUGH A COMBINATION OF PUBLIC PROGRAMS, SMALLER-SCALE MEETINGS AND SEMINARS BY LOCAL GROUPS AS WELL AS PARTNERSHIPS WITH LIKE-MINDED ORGANIZATIONS, AS WELL AS A SECONDARY EXHIBITION SITE. |
FORM 990, PART III, LINE 4A |
OTHER NOTABLE EVENTS FROM THE YEAR INCLUDE: A BOOK LAUNCH AND SCREENINGS OF RARELY-SEEN FILMS OF THE RECORDED PERFORMANCES STAGED BY FRENCH-BORN SCULPTURE AND TEXT-BASED ARTIST GUY DE COINTET; A CONVERSATION AND BOOK LAUNCH WITH PAINTER MARTIN BECK, CURATOR, ART HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR JAMES VOORHIES, AND ARCHITECT KELLER EASTERLING; 7 NEWLY COMMISSIONED PERFORMANCES INCLUDING THE IMMERSIVE MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE "INQUIRY & INVESTIGATION" WITH MUSICIAN LOLINA AND COSTUME DESIGNER JOHANNA ULFSAK; A NEWLY COMMISSIONED PERFORMANCE TITLED "WHAT ARE OUR QUESTIONS?" WITH WRITER AND PERFORMER JUSTIN ALLEN, ARTIST TROIZEL CARR, AND MULTIMEDIA ARTIST BLEUE LIVERPOOL; A FORUM ON THE WORK OF POET AND ARTIST DAVID ANTIN WITH ELEANOR ANTIN, CHARLES, BERNSTEIN, JULIEN BISMUTH, AND ELLEN ZWEIG; SCREENINGS AND PERFORMANCES WITH INDIGENOUS FILMMAKERS ADAM KHALIL, ZACK KHALIL, JACKSON POLYS, ACTOR JIM FLETCHER, AND PERFORMANCE ARTIST KITE; A BOOK LAUNCH AND DISCUSSION OF ART HISTORIAN ISABELLE GRAW'S BOOK "THE LOVE OF PAINTING" WITH THE AUTHOR, ART HISTORIAN AND PROFESSOR DAVID JOSELIT, AND THE PAINTER AVERY SINGER; AND A NEW ITERATION OF THE ARTISTS SPACE DIALOGUES, FEATURING A CONVERSATION BETWEEN FORMER ARTFORUM EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MICHELLE KUO AND ART HISTORIAN HUEY COPELAND. THE VENUE WAS ALSO MADE AVAILABLE FOR MEETINGS AND A PERFORMANCE SERIES BY ARTIST-INITIATED LOCAL GROUPS INCLUDING THE READING GROUP "NO-TOTAL", AS WELL AS WORKING ARTISTS AND THE GREATER ECONOMY (W.A.G.E.). EXPANDED ART IDEAS: IN 2018 EXPANDED ART IDEAS BROUGHT 6 PRACTICING, AWARD-WINNING ARTISTS TO 3 NYC PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PROVIDING ART EDUCATION TO AT-RISK YOUTH IN 6TH, 7TH AND 8TH GRADES. AT PS140 ON THE LES, EAI ADMINISTERED 178 CLASSES TOTALING 276 TEACHING HOURS TO 114 STUDENTS. AT MS324 IN WASHINGTON HEIGHTS EAI ADMINISTERED 34 CLASSES TOTALING 71 TEACHING HOURS TO 36 STUDENTS. 101 OF THESE SESSIONS WERE TAUGHT IN PORTFOLIO DEVELOPMENT, WHICH FOCUSES ON BUILDING STUDENTS' PORTFOLIOS AND ASSISTING WITH APPLICATIONS TO SPECIALIZED ART HIGH SCHOOLS AT PS140 AND MS324; 60 SOUND & MEDIA ART SESSIONS WITH 21 SPECIAL NEEDS STUDENTS IN GRADES 6-8; 20 ARTS AND LITERACY SESSIONS WITH ALL 60 GRADE 8 STUDENTS AND 10 SESSIONS OF THE PHOTO CLUB RESIDENCY AT PS140; THE 1-WEEK INTENSIVE THREADS OF HISTORY OF 6 SESSIONS SERVING 26 GRADE 7 STUDENTS AT MS 324, THIS YEAR FOCUSED ON SUSTAINABLE CULTURE: ART AND RECYCLING; AND 12 3-HOUR PHOTO CLUB SESSIONS WITH HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AT OUR NEW PARTNER, CITY-AS-SCHOOL IN GREENWICH VILLAGE. IN 2018, SOUND & MEDIA ART STUDENTS HOSTED A COMMUNITY LISTENING EVENT WHERE FRIENDS AND FAMILY CAME TOGETHER TO EXPLORE THE SOUNDS OF THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD. PORTFOLIO STUDENTS VISITED THE ARTISTS SPACE EXHIBITION MIYOKO ITO: HEART OF HEARTS WITH CURATOR JAMIE STEVENS; WE BROUGHT ARTISTS ADJUA GREAVES AND NIA NOTTAGE TO VISIT POETRY STUDENTS AT PS 140; AND MS 324 STUDENTS VISITED WORD-UP COMMUNITY BOOKSTORE TO SEE THE EXHIBITION STILL LIVES. THE YEAR ENDED WITH OUR ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF STUDENT WORK YOUNG ARTISTS PERFORM WITH WAS ATTENDED BY MORE THAN 300. 5 STUDENTS RECEIVED SCHOLASTIC AWARDS, AND 4 STUDENTS WERE PLACED INTO COMPETITIVE INTO ARTS HIGH SCHOOLS. |