Structured Simplicity - The Artists

A bit about the artists.

Mai Braun was born in Berlin and is now based in Frankfurt after formerly residing in New York and Houston, TX. Exhibitions include Recent Object at Feature Inc, Exercises in Resourcefulness at Cuchifritos, NY, curated by Simone Subal, and More Object, her New York solo debut at Brooklyn Fire Proof in 2006. Group exhibitions include Groundwork at David Patton Gallery and Material for the Making at Elizabeth Dee Gallery. Her works have been shown at the Bronx Museum of Art, Kluuvi Galleria, Helsinki and in Texas at institutions such as DiverseWorks, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Arlington Museum of Art. Braun was artist-in-residence at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX in 2005, and has been the recipient of several fellowships and prizes from major institutions such as the Bronx Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX.Mai Braun, Tower-Fragile to Clorox, 2006. Cardboard, tape. Courtesy of hte artist and Feature Inc., New York.

Hilary Harnischfeger was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1972 and now lives and works in New York, NY. She received her MFA from Columbia University. Harnischfeger's solo exhibition at Rachel Uffner Gallery, NY is on display through June 21. Her work was included in The Line of Time, And the Plane of Now, Harris Lieberman and Wallspace Gallery, New York, NY, You Are Here, Ballroom, Marfa, TX, Hunch & Flail, Artists Space, New York, NY and Pertaining to Painting, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX.Hilary, Harnischfeger, Untitled, 2008. Paper, plaster, ink, green calcite and crushed glass. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Elana Herzog works in Brooklyn, lives in New York and has recently exhibited a site-specific installation at the Drawing Center in New York City. Herzog is currently a participant on the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace Residency and at the Workspace Program at Dieu Donné. Other exhibitions include a two-person show Making Traces, with Lieven DeBoeck in 2007 at LMAK Projects, New York, NY, Plaid, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY, W(e)ave, a collaboration with Michael Schumacher, Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut, and Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting, Museum of Art and Design, NY, traveling exhibition. Herzog’s artwork has been reviewed extensively in publications including the New York Times, the New Yorker magazine, Time Out New York, New York Sun and Art in America. Elana Herzog, Plaid, 2007. Polyester Chenille bedspreads, staples in drywall panels, new framing and drywall work, existing masonry. Installation at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn New York.

Fabienne Lasserre was born in Montreal and is now based in Brooklyn, New York. Projects include The Split Wall, a two-person exhibition with Hilary Harnischfeger at South First Gallery, Brooklyn in 2008 and her debut New York solo exhibition, Others, at Virgil de Voldere Gallery, in 2006. Group exhibitions include Welcome to My World, curated by Matthew Day Jackson and Amy Davila, Alexandre Pollazzon Gallery, London, UK, The Line of Time And the Plane of Now, Harris Lieberman Gallery, New York and Possibly Being at Esso Gallery, New York. Lasserre was awarded the Special Editions Residency at the Lower East Side Printshop in 2007 and the Emerging Artists Fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY in 2006. She has recently completed a residency at La Curtiduria, Oaxaca, Mexico.Fabienne Lasserre, Untitled (You Wanted to Know), 2007. Linen mache, acrylic, armature. Photo by Jean Vong.

Amy Yoes is based in Manhattan, New York and is represented by Michael Steinberg Fine Art, New York. Her 2007 solo exhibition there, Rear-View Mirror, was written about by Art in America, Village Voice and The New York Times. A former Pollock-Krasner grant and NYFA fellowship recipient, her sculptural installations have been exhibited in L.I.C., N.Y.C. at Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY; Out of Bounds at Wave Hill, NY; Zip at Artspace, New Haven, CT; Carriage House Project at Islip Art Museum, Islip, NY; and Solitude and Focus, Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT. Recent projects include a private commission that is an interactive sculptural kitchen created in a Manhattan apartment and Street-Level, a site-specific installation at Art in General. Through the Percent for Arts program, she is working on a wall-based sculpture commission for a new high school in the Bronx.Amy Yoes, Modification and Collapse, 2009. Video loop. Image courtesy of the artist.

Felicity Hogan is a British artist and curator based in New York. In her current capacity as Executive Director at Artists Alliance Inc, an artist centered 501 (c) (3) non-profit, she is responsible for overseeing both a residency program and art gallery/project space, Cuchifritos, in Manhattan's Lower East Side.

Prior to the above, Ms. Hogan acquired extensive experience as Founder & Director of Flat (2000 – 2003) an experimental space in a Manhattan apartment, through freelance contracts at art fairs in New York, Madrid, Miami and London, as well as non-profit arts organizations in New York City e.g. the Lower East Side Printshop as Outreach Director (2007-08) and CUE Art Foundation (2007/2008). Among her numerous extra-curricular activities, Ms. Hogan has been a visiting Guest Critic to ISCP, Art Omi and Location One, a panelist at Dumbo Arts Center in 2007/8 and at Dieu Donne Papermill. She has served on selection panels at Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Lower East Side Printshop and Gallery Korea, Korean Cultural Service NY and is a member of the Curatorial Advisory Board at Bronx River Arts Center and on the Advisory Board of Culture Push.

Since early 2009, Ms. Hogan has also been working as Development & Curatorial Associate for the Tuning Exhibition, "The 21st Century, The Feminine Century, and The Century of Diversity and Hope," , curated by Heng-Gil Han, at the Incheon Women Artists' Biennale in Korea in August 2009. As an independent curator, Ms. Hogan’s projects include guest curator at Free Store, NY, organized by Double A Projects and catalog essayist for the final exhibition by Juana Valdes, Workspace Resident at Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Jamaica, Queens, in June 2009. Her essay for the artist monograph “Talk to the Hand,” on Hermelinde Hergenhahn (translated into German) was published by the Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral, Germany in 2008.

UPCOMING EXHIBITION - Structured Simplicity

Structured Simplicity
Curated by Felicity Hogan

Exhibition Dates: June 20 - August 9, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 20, 6-9 PM
Curator and Artists' talk: Thursday, July 9, 7-8 PM


Structured Simplicity will present a group of artists, Mai Braun, Hilary Harnischfeger, Elana Herzog, Fabienne Lasserre, and Amy Yoes, who work in sculpture and site-specific installation. From a formalist and abstract perspective, the exhibition will investigate aspects of simplicity, taking purification as a point of departure i.e. making things simpler through structure, be they confined or chaotic. In bringing this group together, the curator, Felicity Hogan, seeks to explore varying manifestations of this concept and how structures are formed and conveyed through diversity of approach and use of materials.

The exhibition debuts new site-specific works by Mai Braun, Elana Herzog and Amy Yoes as well as previously unseen new works by Fabienne Lasserre and Hilary Harnischfeger. Fabienne Lasserre’s humorously crafted and sensual sculptures, striking a bold intelligent balance between the logical and illogical, are positioned alongside Mai Braun's mischievously formed shredded NY Times-mâché piece: Your Emotions Make You a Monster. Mai Braun’s stacked cardboard boxes parallel and echo Amy Yoes' mechanical hard-edged installation. Hilary Harnischfeger’s deftly sliced and angular sculptures complement Elana Herzog’s de-constructed garments and bed linens, patched aggressively with compulsively tacked staples. Additional connections will be reinforced through proximity. An influence of rudimentary materials is common to all artists with processes that revel in tension and release. In the art of Amy Yoes, Hilary Harnischfeger and Mai Braun, the subtle use of planes and angles form associations that display contrasting use of a comparable visual language. Manipulation and the distortion of architectural form further connect works by Amy Yoes and Elana Herzog.

Structured Simplicity was developed in response to the distinctive architecture and characteristics of the DAC gallery. While sculpture and installation are the primary focus, the exhibition also includes bas-reliefs by Hilary Harnischfeger and works on paper by Mai Braun as well as a new video by Amy Yoes created especially for Structured Simplicity.

SURVIVOR PICTURES

The pictures from Survivor, DAC's annual artist workshop, are now up on Flickr. The workshop was a success bringing over 200 artists from New York City together to particiapte in a weekend of art immersion. Throughout the weekend artists were provided with useful skills to help them advance their careers in the art of New York City.


Check out all the pictures from Survivor HERE!

FRESH INFO!

The long-awaited schedule for DAC's 2009 Artist's Opportunity Workshop is online now. Take a look at our website for detailed information on this year's programs and speakers.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

A free public program made possible by the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the Dedalus Foundation

Dumbo Art Center’s annual workshop is a free total immersion weekend for emerging visual artists at the threshold of a professional career or new to New York City. The workshop aims to empower artists with information, practical know-how and encouragement in order to advance their careers in the complex and competitive art of New York City.

Highlights include: Speaking From Experience, where a panel of mid-career artists relay their personal experience of navigating the New York art jungle; Doctor Sessions are one-on-one portfolio reviews by curators, museum professionals and critics, Making a Statement with Sarah Schmerler on how to translate visual thoughts into words; GYST (Getting Your Shit Together); Perfect Presentation on presenting the optimal portfolio, Copyright /Copywrong on intellectual property in the digital age, and Public Speaking to hone your skills in talking live about your work.

Coordinated by Special Projects Manager, Shinnie Kim.

In addition to free admission, all attendees receive free information packages. NO PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED.

Check www.dumboartscenter.org for schedule and updates!

ECSTATIC TRUTH

Thank you to all of you who came to the gallery last Saturday and to support DAC :)

UPCOMING EXHIBITION - ECSTATIC TRUTH - ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Jannicke Låker (born in 1968 in Drammen, Norway, lives and works in Berlin). Solo exhibitions have been presented by the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, (2006) and the Stenersen Museum in Oslo, Norway (2003). Group exhibitions include Staring into Space at the House of Contemporary Art in Hungary (2006), Baltic Raw in Hamburg (2005), Swedish Hearts at the Moderna Museet Stockholm, Sweden (2004), and The American Effect at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2003).

You can see some Jannicke Laker work here.

Julika Rudelius (born in 1968 in Cologne, Germany) currently lives and works in Amsterdam and New York City). Solo exhibitions have been presented by the Grazer Kunstverein in Graz, Austria (2006) and the Stedelijk Museum Bureau in Amsterdam, NL (2004). Group exhibitions include Global Feminisms at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York (2007); the Gwangju Biennale in Korea (2006); The Youth of Today at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, DE (2006), and Populism (2005), which traveled to institutions in Vilnius, Oslo, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt.

You can see some Julika Rudelius work here.

Ruba Katrib is the Assistant Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami. Katrib holds an MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and recent curatorial projects include Dark Continents and The Possibility of an Island, both at MOCA.

UPCOMING EXHIBITION - ECSTATIC TRUTH

ECSTATIC TRUTH
A two-artist exhibition with Jannicke Låker & Julika Rudelius
Curated by Ruba Katrib

Exhibition: March 7 - April 26, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 7, 2009, 6-9 PM
Curator and Artists' Talk: Saturday, March 7, 5PM (moved from Sunday, March 8, 7PM)
Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Sunday, 12-6 PM

“Ecstatic truth” is a term used by the German director Werner Herzog to describe a filmmaking technique that favors emotional accuracy over detail-oriented accuracy in a documentary context. To achieve a sense of “ecstatic truth,” a filmmaker, instead of attempting to portray characters or events in an objective or factual way, fabricates a situation that plays with the emotional intensity of the subjects and reaches a level osincerity that the facts alone could not achieve. In Herzog’s manifesto, the Minnesota Declaration: Truth and Fact in Documentary Cinema written in 1999, point five states:

“There are deeper strata of truth in cinema, and there is such a thing as poetic, ecstatic truth. It is mysterious and elusive, and can be reached only through fabrication and imagination and stylization.”

Following Herzog’s thoughts on attaining a “deeper strata” of truth in cinema, the exhibition Ecstatic Truth brings together two European artists; Jannicke Låker and Julika Rudelius, who share affinities in their attempts at reaching an emotional accuracy through their selected subjects and the techniques they use.

The exhibition presents "Running Woman" (2006), by Jannicke Låker and the premiere of "Adrift" (2007), by Julika Rudelius.* Both Låker and Rudelius are concerned with how production and reception is constructed, the boundaries between fiction and truth as well as the differentiations between acting and non-acting. A central question being: is art a realm in which human truths can unfold or is does its designation to the realm of representation pose an inherent contradiction?

Embedded in a tradition of documentary approaches, a central construction to the works in the exhibition is the utilization of the “crisis structure.” The crisis structure can be described as a fabricated situation in which subjects are filmed or recorded participating in a certain activity in which they become completely absorbed. The “crisis structure” has its roots in cinéma vérité and can be witnessed today in the proliferation of reality TV shows and aggressive documentaries. The intended effect of the “crisis structure” is that the subjects become so involved in an activity that they forget the presence of the camera and can then begin to act naturally, allowing for revelation of truth about their behavior and character.

The works included in Ecstatic Truth employ similar techniques and are linked to a tradition of filmmaking that endeavors to achieve a sense of truth or reality. Låker and Rudelius are committed to revealing emotional vulnerability through the means they find necessary.

*Filmed at the Dumbo Arts Center in 2007.

The exhibition, Ecstatic Truth, was made possible in part by the Office for Contemporary Art Norway.

DAC would also like to thank Magic Hat Brewery and Yelp for their in kind support.