THREE EXHIBITIONS OF CONTEMPORARY ART WILL BE ON VIEW FROM FEBRUARY 2 TO FEBRUARY 23 AT THE CENTER FOR CURATORIAL STUDIES, BARD COLLEGE
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Three exhibitions of contemporary art, eXhibition3, will be on view at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College from Sunday, February 2, to Sunday, February 23. Curated by first-year students in the Center's graduate program, the exhibitions will present works from the Marieluise Hessel Collection, on permanent loan to the Center. An opening reception will be held on Sunday, February 2, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Both the exhibition and the reception are open to the public without charge.
"Why do we save photographs?" is the question posed by the curators of Framing the Real. "We cherish our snapshots of loved ones, newspaper photos of national events, and pictures of spaces we've visited or lived in. Photographs trigger a memory of something or someone that we never want to forget." The exhibition shows the work of artists who question our reliance on photographs as a way to capture the "true" version of an event or a person. Whether a photograph by a young, up-and-coming artist like Nikki S. Lee or a painting by Gerhard Richter, all the works enjoin the viewer to see and to think about the photograph itself and whether it succeeds in portraying reality. The exhibition is curated by Stacey Allan, Claire Barliant, Mary Katherine Matalon, Ryan Rice, and Yasmil Raymond Ventura.
Awakenings
assembles powerful and provocative images that question the nature of purity, innocence, and development. The artists revisit childhood rituals or symbols through many different approaches, at times playful and alluring, at times ambiguous and reflective. The works examine how a child's life is punctuated by a succession of moments of sexual awakening that will reverberate throughout adulthood. The exhibition is curated by Dave Delcambre, Joanna Montoya, Prudence Peiffer, Aubrey Reeves, Pascal Spengemann, and Elizabeth Zechella.Instructure
investigates the notion of the body as a "learning machine." Through the works of Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Valie Export, Mel Bochner, and others, the exhibition explores how physical, architectural, and societal impositions become engrained in human consciousness through the medium of the body, often without the mind being conscious of the process. The exhibition proposes that codes and messages become effective only when they circulate through the body: instructions, expectations, prescriptions, and structures (both spatial and societal) do not need to be imposed, simply experienced. The exhibition is curated by Tairone Bastien, Mayumi Hirano, Caroline Knebelsberger, Steven Matijcio, and Yasmine Nessah.The Center for Curatorial Studieswas founded in 1990 by Marieluise Hessel and Richard Black as a center for the study of late-20th-century art. It offers an innovative, interdisciplinary graduate program in the curating and criticism of contemporary art. In the 10 years since its founding, the graduate program has trained more than 100 professionals, who hold curatorial positions in museums, galleries, and other exhibition spaces around the world. In addition, the Center museum houses the Marieluise Hessel Collection of more than 1,400 paintings, sculptures, works on paper, artists' books, and videotapes, as well as a library of more than 14,000 books, exhibition catalogues, and artist files. The Center museum presents a changing exhibition program focused on innovative curatorial practice in its 9,500-square-foot exhibition space.
Programs at the Center, including the first-year exhibitions, are supported by the Friends of the Center for Curatorial Studies and by the Center’s annual benefit for student scholarships and exhibitions.
The Center for Curatorial Studies Museum is open to the public, without charge, Wednesdays through Sundays from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. For further information, call 845-758-7598, e-mail ccs@bard.edu, or visit the website www.bard.edu/ccs/exhibitions.
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(01.08.03)
[Note to editors - Photographs are available in electronic form by request. Call 845-758-7512 or e-mail for information.]