Tim Hawkinson, "Point", 2009. Eggshells, 10 1/2 x 4 1/4 x 1 in. Photo: G.R. Christmas; © Tim Hawkinson; Courtesy The Pace Gallery, New York.
Avant-garde cinema, organic designs, sculpture theory, animal extinction, and more in today’s roundup:
- Dead or Alive, an exhibition at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), will showcase the work of over 30 artists who transform organic materials that were produced by or once part of living organisms—insects, feathers, shells, bones, silkworm cocoons, plant materials, and fur—into installations and sculptures. Organized by the Museum’s Chief Curator David McFadden, and Curator Lowery Sims with Assistant Curator Elizabeth Edwards Kirrane, Dead or Alive features new site-specific installations and recent work by Tim Hawkinson (Season 2), Jennifer Angus, Nick Cave, Tessa Farmer, Jochem Hendricks, Damien Hirst, Alastair Mackie, Kate MccGwire, Susie MacMurray, Shen Shaomin, and Levi van Veluw among others. A special weeklong visitor preview starting Tuesday, April 20, will allow MAD visitors to observe artists as they create and install site-specific works in the museum galleries. Dead or Alive opens to the public on April 27 and will run through October 24, 2010.
- Tonight at 6:30pm, catch Season 3 artist Josiah McElheny in the panel discussion Expanded, Exploded, Collapsed?. Organized by SculptureCenter and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, panelists will reconsider Rosalind Krauss’ concept of the “expanded field” (published in her now famous essay “Sculpture in the Expanded Field,” October, spring 1979) in light of contemporary art production. Other participants include performance artist and professor William Pope.L; art historian and critic Johanna Burton; and SculptureCenter curator Fionn Meade (moderator). Admission to the New School event is $8.
- Through April 30, Creative Time is screening What is Missing? — a series of four new videos by Maya Lin (Season 2) — on MTV’s outdoor HD screen located in the heart of Times Square. Lin’s piece, her fifth and final memorial, deals with mass extinction precipitated by the degradation of natural habitats. As a participant in Creative Time’s Global Residency Program, Lin traveled to diverse parts of the world to connect with disappearing species. There will be a special, expanded schedule of screenings on April 22 for Earth Day. Get the complete viewing schedule here.
- Season 1 artist Laurie Anderson will perform at Santos House in New York City on April 28. The concert, also featuring the talents of Transgendered Jesus, Tony Conrad, Erik Friedlander, and Text of Light (Alan Licht & Lee Ranaldo), has been organized by the Film-Makers Cooperative, the largest and oldest artist-run collection of avant-garde cinema. Each performance will be paired with a rare screening of an experimental film. Founded in 1961 by a group of artists including Shirley Clarke, Robert Frank, Alfred Leslie and Jonas Mekas, Film-Makers Cooperative continues to restore, archive and distribute more than 5,000 titles. The concert begins at 7pm. Purchase tickets online or at the door.
- The first solo show of work by Jenny Holzer (Season 4) to be presented in Scotland is on view through May 15 at the University of Edinburgh’s Talbot Rice Gallery. Holzer’s 2007 work, Blue Purple Tilt, has transformed the institution’s historic Georgian wing into “a vivid place of reverence.” This LED display combines four previous works and charts Holzer’s development from the early Truisms and Survival series through to the anonymous declarations of her Inflamatory Essays and the personal musings of Laments. The three-floor exhibition is part of Artist Rooms on Tour 2010, a program in which 21 museums and galleries across the UK will present 25 exhibitions from the collection created by curator, collector and Edinburgh University alumnus Anthony d’Offay.
- Beginning April 22, work by Barry McGee (Season 1) will be on view at East London’s BlackRat Press Gallery in the street art exhibition Now’s the Time. Titled after a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting of the same title, works by Basquiat, Keith Haring, Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Banksy, Faile, and Os Gemeos are also included in the show. Via the press release, “What unites these artists is a refusal to play by the rules, to conform to the establishment, to follow the traditional paths set out by the art world…” Now’s The Time closes May 20.
