Graham (left) inside "Public Space/Two Audiences" (1976)

Dan Graham and his retrospective got robbed of the “Artist of the Year” and “Solo Show of the Year” awards at last night’s First Annual Art Awards, a glitzy and somewhat tongue-in-cheek affair at the Guggenheim in New York. Here in Minneapolis, however, Graham delighted everyone at yesterday’s media preview for Dan Graham: Beyond, offering chatty, humorous insights into work from four decades and referencing everything from Dean Martin to the paper-dress moment in the ’60s to the “cliché arcadia of the suburbs, where normal people live.”

He “may be the most influential American artist you’ve never heard of ,” as Gregory J. Scott put it in the Star Tribune.

In The Daily Planet, Jay Gabler noted how, during the preview tour, curators Bennett Simpson and Chrissie Iles “kept finding themselves enthusiastically interrupted by the artist, who clarified a point here, shared a story there, and kept emphasizing that whatever place he’s earned in the international contemporary art world (and he’s surely earned a place; Beyond is the cover story of the current Artforum), most of his work was meant to be funny.”

Even Fox9 News weighed in with a video preview of the galleries, noting in a feature on last night’s Student Open House how Graham “taps into youth culture and a rock and roll sensibility to create art, architecture and public spaces.”

The show is getting a final spit-and-polish and will be on view to the public tomorrow – and don’t miss the 2pm conversation with Graham, Iles, and Simpson, featuring an “opening set” by post-punk duo Japanther.

The Art Awards' version of Oscar (photo by Thomas Mueller)

The Art Awards, presented in association with White Columns , New York’s oldest alternative art space, were conceived by artist Rob Pruitt, known for employing glitz and sensational staged events (like a cocaine buffet back in 1998) that amount to critical yet cheeky send-ups of the art world. In fact, probably the only way this could take place would be as a Pruitt production — anything more outwardly earnest would be regarded as entirely unseemly by the very people being fêted.

Aiding host Pruitt as emcees are the Delusional Downtown Divas, “three young women hungry for art world stardom but comically unaware of how to reach their goal of stylish domination,” who make videos about their exploits. Presenters include Sofia Coppola, Mary-Kate Olsen, and probably some other art-affiliated celebrities that will bring on the paparazzi (or at least the big-time party photogs).

In the group show category, The Quick and the Dead is up against three shows from New York museums (we will assume this nomination is not mere geographic tokenism): The New Museum’s After Nature; The Pictures Generation: 1974-1984, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center. (It should be mentioned that the last was organized by and first presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.)

Other nominations of note: for artist of the year, Dan Graham, whose retrospective, Dan Graham: Beyond, opens at the Walker on October 31 — and was itself nominated for the Art Awards’ solo show of the year; another solo-show nomination is Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton,” which the Walker presented last winter and spring.

Left to right: Mylinh Trieu Nguyen (Los Angeles); Andria Hickey (St. John's, Newfoundland);Dan Byers (Newton, Massachusetts); Noa Segal (Haifa, Israel) Photo: Gene Pittman

This is a longer version of the interviews with visual arts fellows Dan Byers and Andria Hickey, from a story in the July/August issue of Walker magazine. Design fellow Noa Segal has posted her interview and Mylinh Trieu’s over on the design blog.

For nearly three decades, the Walker has been recruiting recent graduates and junior professionals to work as fellows in its design and visual arts departments. As full-time, full-fledged staff, fellows experience the entire scope of graphic design and curatorial work in a museum, while bringing with them fresh energy and new ideas. A number of Walker fellows have also gone on to prominent positions at museums and design firms around the world. As their time here draws to a close, the 2008-2009 group talks about what brought them here, what they’ve experienced, and what’s in store as they move on.

= Daniel Byers =

I got into this line of work because … after some time as a studio art major in college (mostly painting, some textiles stuff), I realized I wasn’t the sort to of person who could be by himself in the studio for hours on end – people, and collaborative work are very important to me. Working with artists and Ian Berry, the curator at Skidmore’s Tang Museum, provided a model for being engaged with artists and artwork – as well as writing – in a collaborative, experimental environment. In a way, I was also attracted to a line of work where taste, aesthetics, theory, history, craft and the sense of sustaining public culture all connected.

My first impressions of the Walker came from …

I’ve known about the Walker since I was an undergraduate at the Tang Museum, and admired the publications (from the magazine to the beautiful catalogs) that came across my desk. It always seemed a sort of beacon of — to use an abused word — maverick integrity, creativity, and commitment to artists. Since working at the Fabric Workshop and Museum I’d always hoped that I’d end up at the Walker one day.

While working here, I contributed … to catalogs for two Walker-organized exhibitions: The Quick and the Dead and the forthcoming Abstract Resistance (opening in February 2010). Equally import were the many, many meetings and discussions with fellow visual arts staff and staff from other departments, which more often than not allowed real discourse — and a good amount of humor.

Other high (and low) points … Quick and the Dead catalog writing and crazy work before its deadline (this was a simultaneous high and low point!); discussions with curator Yasmil Raymond about Abstract Resistance; karaoke with selected Walker curators (they know how they are) at the Art of This benefit; laughing at lunch with the visual arts department.

I love what I do because … I get to work with interesting people, I get to research and write, I get to talk about art, and most important, I participate in the creation of public culture. Curating, is, at its core, enabling artworks — culture — to enter the public discourse, in a public space. I’m committed to the relevance of art exhibitions the same way I’m committed to the survival of newspapers, public space in cities, public radio, small businesses as community meeting places, music venues — anything that allows people to meet around information, opinion, and expressions of culture. We need these spaces more than ever, and sadly they are withering as private culture and personalized content dominate our sense of how to engage with the world.

A Twin Cities image that will remain with me is … walking to work in January: two dead squirrels on the sidewalk, frozen from the cold, separated by a few blocks. Good thing I had a heavy coat.

After leaving the Walker … I will be working as an assistant curator of contemporary art at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh–a position I would not have gotten without my experience at the Walker.

An exhibition I have in mind … involves Charles Burchfield and a few artists from younger generations. Burchfield’s work is hard to place and its incredible otherworldliness has interesting analogs with artists working through the 60s to today.

= Andria Hickey =

Before coming to the Walker . . . my experiences working with artists really centered around my involvement with artist-run centers in Newfoundland and Montreal as a programmer and board member. In Canada these centers form an extensive part of the national contemporary art scene. I’d followed the Walker for a long time, mostly by way of the Web site and catalogues, and I had always admired how it maintained an artist-centric mission. When I received a travel grant from my school (Concordia University in Montreal) to do some research for my master’s thesis on Kara Walker, I jumped at the opportunity and soon discovered the fellowship program–it seemed like a dream job. One thing led to another, and two years later, here I am. It’s been an incredible opportunity to work with and for some of the most exciting artists of our time.

I wanted to come to the Walker because . . . Besides getting to work with some of my dream artists and on dream exhibitions, joining the curatorial team is a very rigorous experience that has challenged me to think outside the box, push myself and my ideas harder. Just observing ways that different curators work is an incredible experience, and as a fellow I really became part of a family at the Walker. I’m not sure if the chemistry comes from the level of dedication, creativity, and brains in the building, or from the extreme cold–winter in Minneapolis is colder than Canada!

Some of my high points . . . hanging the Richard Prince show with Philippe Vergne; burying a skeleton and working out the “spatial voodoo” of The Quick and the Dead with Peter Eleey; trying to fly a homemade hot air balloon at 5 am in rural Minnesota with Tomás Saraceno, Yasmil Raymond, Alberto Pessavento, and James Flaten, followed by a “traditional” Perkins breakfast.

Look for stories and blog posts coming up about some of these works and other pieces destined to become part of our collection. For now, here are links to a few previous articles about acquisitions: an overview about “Composing the Contemporary Collection”; Phillippe Vergne’s pithy and piquant take on a recently acquired piece by Richard Prince (in conjunction with his retrospective here last summer), and a piece on Joann Verburg, whose survey traveled here last winter, and whose photos are mentioned by Green.

In the righ-hand image, with Saraceno’s assistant, Knut, you can see the solar-powered “nucleus” suspended within the balloon.

We’re sweetening the deal this time. If you take the survey, you can enter your name into the pool and we’ll select one person to win a 1GB iPod Shuffle.

Take the survey.

Photo by bluetsunami.

work in progress...

assembling line...

Museo aero solar is a solar-powered air balloon made from hundreds of reused plastic bags, with new sections being added each time it is reassembled in different cities. After traveling to Milano, Sharjah, Medellin, Lyon, Rapperswil, Tirana, Ein Hawd, Museo aero solar is now in Minneapolis until October 12. Participate by bringing old plastic bags to our temporary studio located at 1250 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, from Monday, October 6 through Thursday, October 9 from 10 am – 5 pm.

]]> http://blogs.walkerart.org/visualarts/2008/10/04/meet-museo-aero-solar-free-first-saturday/feed/ 0 http://blogs.walkerart.org/visualarts/2008/09/26/bag-left-museo-aero-solar/ http://blogs.walkerart.org/visualarts/2008/09/26/bag-left-museo-aero-solar/#comments Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:03:13 +0000 Yasmil Raymond Ventura http://blogs.walkerart.org/visualarts/2008/09/26/no-bag-left-behind-museo-aero-solar/ Last year around this time, Toms Saraceno visited the Twin Cities to install his sculpture Flying Garden/Air-Port-City/32SW in the group exhibition Brave New Worlds. During his stay in Minneapolis we talked about some of his interests-a huge range that includes the work of R. Buckminster Fuller, the 50^th anniversary of the Sputnik launch by the Soviets, and his fascination, in general, with the sky.

That’s when I learned about his project that brings together all of these interests. Museo aero solar is a flying museum’ powered by solar energy and made from huge quantities of used plastic bags that are taped together to create a massive balloon. Saraceno embarked on this project in 2006, during his visit to Isola Center for the Art in Milan (Italy), and the balloon keeps expanding – both in its scale (it is now the size of a basketball court) but also in the nature of its collection’ as it travels to different cities.

In the past two years, Saraceno and his friend, the Italian writer Alberto Pesavento (who he met at Isola Center) have taken their flying museo to Sharjah (United Arab Emirates), Medelln (Colombia), Lyon (France), Rapperswil (Switzerland), Tirana (Albania) and most recently Ein Hawd (Israel).

Now the Walker is hosting Museo aero solar’s first visit to the U.S., from October 1-12, and I want to invite you to join us in this collective effort. Tell your friends and participate by bringing your collection of plastic bags–any size and color–to the Walker Art Center on Saturday, October 4 from 10 am to 3 pm and add your section to the Museo aero solar.

If you can’t help on October 4, you can participate by donating old plastic bags in advance at drop-off bins stationed all around town: the Minneapolis College of Art and Design – 2501 Stevens Avenue, Minneapolis, the Green Institute – 2801 21^st First Avenue South, Minneapolis, Rondo Community Outreach Library – 461 N. Dale Street Saint Paul, and Amazon Bookstore, 4755 Chicago Ave. South, Minneapolis.

You can also participate in a series of open studio conversations that Saraceno and Pesavento will be having with students from the Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics (AEM) Department at the University of Minnesota and MCAD, please visit http://air.walkerart.org/index.wac or call 612.375.7550 for location and hours.

Image captions:

1. Launch of Museo aero solar in Medellin, Colombia, 2007

2. Building Museo aero solar at Isola Art Center, Milan, 2006. Photo courtesy the artist

3. Museo aero solar in Rapperswil, Switzerland, 2008. Photo courtesy the artist

Philippe Vergne is a brilliant curator and that rare combination of sparkling intellect, humor, and grace. He has an infectious love of art and an incredible, innate gift for working with artists–understanding them, connecting with their creative process, and communicating that to audiences in fresh, sensitive, and unexpected ways. He absolutely believes that a contemporary art center can and must keep the artist at the core of its thinking, a vision that has gone far in shaping our department, our exhibitions, our collection, our institution, and has had significant impact on artists themselves. He also fiercely believes that a museum is a place where artists and their audiences share, around works of art, their uncertainties and dreams and has strove to make and protect an environment at the Walker where, on scales large and small, everyone could experiment.

Philippe excels at the basic, but difficult, art of installation, and organized some of the most essential Walker exhibitions of the last decade. The highlights include: Let’s Entertain: Life’s Guilty Pleasures (2000), How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in a Global Age (2003), Shadowlands: An Exhibition as a Film (2005), House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective (2005), Cameron Jamie (2006), and Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love (2007). If there is a trademark to his exhibitions, it is that they consistently invite us to see the familiar in a new light, and make the unknown positively beguiling. In his tenure here, he has been able to keep sight of both the Walker’s edge and its rich history; its reputation as a veritable petri dish for young artists, filmmakers, and performers; and its extraordinary collection, which has at its core a mandate to form relationships with artists for life. He immeasurably enriched the Walker’s collection by bringing important young and emerging as well as established and historical artists’ works, from around the world.

His aspirations, however, were always broader than whatever single project or acquisition he worked on, because they involved those of the larger institution. The ambitions of his staff became his own. He embodied so many aspects of the work we do, and the values that underscore that work. In the trust he bestowed upon his colleagues, the respect he accords his audiences, the faith he places in artists, and the vigor of his curiosity, he set a simple and powerful example. All of this he did with a remarkable degree of modesty, an incisive wit, and a spirit of generosity.

Philippe has been the perfect mentor, colleague, and friend for all of us over the past years. He encouraged us to take greater and greater creative risks and keep “ gambling” to build upon the Walker’s legacy of risk-taking and experimentation. At the same time, we have relished his ingenious and adventurous mind, hilariously quirky and unashamedly egalitarian view of the world. It is obvious that we are “ not dancing” (as he often says) about his departure, nor can we express our appreciation by making him a knight. The French government already did so in 2004 when it honored him with the medal of the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. What he will forever have from us is our respect, admiration, gratitude, and love.

Photo: Philippe Vergne with Judy Dayton, long-time Walker supporter

The full survey is below, in this post, but if you have problems you can visit our dedicated survey page. If you’re reading this in an RSS reader or browser without javascript support, our survey should work, as it does not require javascript.