MASTER’S DEGREE CANDIDATES AT BARD COLLEGE’S CENTER FOR CURATORIAL STUDIES PRESENTS 11 EXHIBITIONS THIS SPRING

Three sets of exhibitions are on view at the CCS Museum in March, April, and May ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS) presents 11 exhibitions this spring, curated by second-year students in its graduate program in curatorial studies and contemporary art. The exhibitions are the culmination of the students’ work for the master’s degree. The Museum is open Wednesdays through Sundays, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., on the Bard College campus. All the exhibitions and related programs are free and open to the public. Free transportation to and from New York City for the exhibition openings—March 12, April 9, and May 7—is available via a chartered bus, reservations are necessary. The first of the series of exhibitions opens on Sunday, March 12, and will be on view through Sunday, March 26. (The opening reception at the CCS Museum is from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 12.) SELLOUT, curated by Will T. Heath, offers a selection of artist-made commodities that employ commercial strategies of sales, distribution, merchandising, and advertising; Art for our sake!, curated by Sarah Bachelier, features recent work that reenacts moments of social and political protest in the United States; Making the band, curated by Geir Haraldseth, consists of video and other documents from performances by Black Leotard Front and My Barbarian that straddle the line between art and music; and Tales of Places, curated by Zeljka Himbele, comprises current works that explore concepts of place and our intimate relationships with our surroundings. The second in the series of exhibitions will be on view from Sunday, April 9, through Sunday, April 23. (The opening reception at the CCS Museum is from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 9.) Welcome to the limelight, curated by Natalie Woyzbun, includes works by Jessica Craig-Martin, Instant Coffee, Christian Jankowski, David Kramer, Liisa Lounila, and Tony Matelli that invite the viewer into spaces of entertainment and leisure; You don’t live here anymore, curated by Montserrat Albores Gleason, features works in which ideas of dwelling and building transform the site of art and its methods of construction; Uninvited, curated by Kerryn Greenberg, consists of works that involve marginalized communities in the production of their art, revealing uncomfortable social realities and challenging the limits of artistic practice; and In Other Words, curated by Mariangela Méndez Prencke, focuses on bilingual works that use collage and other visual devices to translate themselves into a foreign context. The third and final series of exhibitions will be on view from Sunday, May 7, through Sunday, May 21. (The opening reception at the CCS Museum is from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 7.) IAMNOWHERE, curated by Erica Hope Fisher, explores mediated worlds whose subjects find themselves caught between enlightenment and failure, reality and illusion; Draw a straight line and follow it, curated by Anna Gray, presents new works by seven artists responding to instruction-based art from the 1960s and 1970s; and Hot Topic, curated by Amy Mackie, examines how feminist strategies inform recent works by Ginger Brooks Takahashi, Nicole Eisenman, Wynne Greenwood, K8 Hardy, LTTR, Ulrike Müller, Ridykeulous, Emily Roysdon, A. L. Steiner with Chicks on Speed, and Tracy + the Plastics. The graduate program at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College is the preeminent program of its kind in the United States, dedicated to training curators and critics of contemporary art. The curriculum is specifically designed to deepen students’ understanding of the intellectual and practical tasks of curating exhibitions of contemporary art, particularly in the complex social and cultural situations of present-day urban arts institutions. With state-of-the-art galleries, an extensive library and curatorial archive, and access to the remarkable Marieluise Hessel collection of more than 1,700 works, the students at the CCS have a unique opportunity to gain both an intellectual grounding and actual experience within a museum. Limited free seating is available on a chartered bus that leaves from SoHo in New York City for each exhibition opening. The bus returns to New York City after the opening. Reservations must be made in advance by calling the Center at 845-758-7598. Bus transportation is provided through the generosity of Audrey Irmas. These exhibitions were made possible with support from the Rebecca and Martin Eisenberg Student Exhibition Fund, the Friends of the Center for Curatorial Studies, and the Center’s annual benefit for student scholarships and exhibitions. Additional support for the spring exhibitions has been provided by the Monique Beudert Fund. For further information, call the Center for Curatorial Studies at 845-758-7598, e-mail ccs@bard.edu, or visit www.bard.edu/ccs. # 2006 Thesis Exhibitions Series One Center for Curatorial Studies Museum at Bard College March 12 through March 26 SELLOUT Curator: William T. Heath Using the art world insult “sellout” as a point of provocation, SELLOUT demands the reexamination of the often reactionary response to artistic investigations of commodities and commerce. Ultimately, every artwork is for sale, regardless of its resistance to commodification; however the works of Takashi Murakami, Conrad Bakker, Chrissy Conant, and Shepard Fairey critically negotiate the boundaries that separate fine art and consumer culture. Curator Heath advances the term “artist-made commodity” for the works of these artists in order to emphasize the marketing and sales themselves as significant artistic content. Through its investigation of these artists, the exhibition pinpoints the act of commodification as its organizing theme of the exhibition. SELLOUT highlights the system of distribution that each artist employs to disseminate his or her work—bringing the systems of distribution into the actual exhibition, and inviting viewers to not only interact with each artist’s work, but also to become agents for furthering the work. Uninterested in rearticulating another stale lament of the commercialization of fine art, SELLOUT is illuminated by works that investigate commercial systems, such as sales, distribution, marketing, merchandising, and advertising. The exhibition actually becomes a means to perform these systems through the sale of the works. Related Programs: March 20, Monday, through March 24, Friday Artist Lecture Conrad Bakker. Date, time, and location to be announced on the exhibition website. Web Project In conjunction with the exhibition, School of Visual Arts senior PostMichael McKeeism will launch Transactionism: State of the Art Transaction—a New York City project that tracks the value of his artistic celebrity over the course of his career through commissioned portraits of himself and his patrons. Appointments with the artist will be available through the website: www.postmichaelmckeeism.com. Art for our sake! Curator: Sarah Bachelier Art for our sake! addresses and questions current heated political issues within the United States. Recent works by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Andrea Bowers, Aleksandra Mir, and Josephine Meckseper are united to investigate topical concerns such as war and abortion and to emphasize the historical importance of political protest within the United States. The works included in Art for our sake! join traditions surrounding the political movement and counterculture revolution of the 1960s with current methods of design and consumer language to express concerns of political demonstration. Curator: Sarah Bachelier Making the band Curator: Geir Haraldseth Video documentation, costumes, and scripts from My Barbarian’s Gods of Canada, a celebration of all things great about Canada, and material from a performance by Black Leotard Front will present the practice of two groups that engage art, music, and theater. The two bands are performance art collectives that not only perform at museums and galleries, but also release albums on commercial record labels. Tales of Places Curator: Zeljka Himbele The exhibition Tales of Places links together particular works by Karina Aguilera Skvirsky, Chantal Akerman, Janine Antoni, Dunja Sablic, Anri Sala, Berni Searle, and Sandra Sterle. Through various mediums (videos, installations, new media, etc.) the artists reflect on intimate places and the possibility of situating oneself in a particular one. They engage a variety of autobiographical narratives, stories told in the first person, metaphorical language, poetic atmosphere, and symbolic imagery. # # # (2/24/06)

This event was last updated on 11-01-2006

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