Friday, September 9, 2016

Guerrilla Girls On Tour at Form/Space Atelier Winter 2016-17



Exhibit Title: Guerrilla Girls On Tour 2016-17

Exhibit Duration: October 14, 2016 - February 8, 2017

Vernissage: October 14, 6PM
GUERRILLA GIRLS ON TOUR AT 
FORM/SPACE ATELIER IS SPONSORED BY POSTER GIANT !

Form/Space Atelier celebrates their second Guerrilla Girls exhibition (2013 being the first), and the 14th edition of a Feminist Eclat, an annual exhibit that has included art objects from the office of Gloria Steinem, a separate exhibition of the artwork of Joanna Salska, Steinem's portraitist and a paintings exhibit by feminist and former Playboy Playmate Juliette Frette.

In 1985, a group of women artists founded the Guerrilla Girls. They assumed the names of dead women artists and wore gorilla masks in public, concealing their identities and focusing on the issues rather than their personalities. Between 1985 and 2000, close to 100 women, working collectively and anonymously, produced posters, billboards, public actions, books and other projects to make feminism funny and fashionable. This exhibit was organized by Guerilla Girls On Tour, one of three entities affiliated with Guerilla Girls.

Guerrilla Girls On Tour, Inc., is a touring theatre collective founded by three former members of the Guerrilla Girls. GGOT develops original plays, performances and workshops, street theatre actions and residency programs that dramatize women’s history and address the lack of opportunities for women and artists of color in the performing arts.

EXTRA!
Ashley Primer of University of Washington interview:

I'm a student at University of Washington Tacoma. I'm doing a project on the Guerrilla Girl's. Part of the project involves interviewing a living artist. Since the Guerrilla Girls work anonymously, my teacher recommended interviewing a third party about them. Since they are currently on exhibit at your gallery, I thought this might be a good place to start. Is there anyone who would be interested in doing a short interview about them with me, either by email or by phone? Any help is appreciated.
Best Wishes,

Ashley Primer

Ashley: What goes into planning an exhibit like this?

Paul: This is a very complex answer, so I will just give you 
some outline headings we iterate at Form/Space Atelier, by no means comprehensive:

Contractual plan, inventory, images, didactic 
composition, exhibition systems, shipping, lighting/power, 
press, archiving and sales structure, if applicable.

Ashley: Are special accommodations needed for working with anonymous artists?

Paul: Confidentiality is maintained equal to that of other 
professional pacts, lawyer-client or patient-qualified medical 
professional, for example.

Ashley: What made you want you want to work with the Guerrilla Girls?

Paul: I had heard of GG from the first actions in NYC in 1985, also 
viewed them interviewed early in their process.  It is exceedingly rare for
activist groups to survive, much less thrive as GG have, for these
many years.  I felt the GG message had never lost authenticity, on 
the contrary, conditions had really never significantly improved for 
women artists.  So GG still had validity in their message, though they had
been hammering away for decades.  I also saw an organic marriage
between GG and a 14-year long exhibition program in my gallery
Form/Space Atelier called "Feminist Eclat", an annual exhibit that has
included art objects from the office of Gloria Steinem, a separate
exhibition of the artwork of Joanna Salska, Steinem's portraitist, and
a paintings exhibit by feminist and former Playboy Playmate Juliette
Frette.  I also found working with GG rewarding from a professional
standpoint, the personnel are organized, prompt with communications,
easy to do business with.  Which is also rare, artists tend to be
unprofessional.  But not GG.

Ashley: What impact do you think activist art has on the overall industry?

Paul: There are two worlds of achievement within the art cosmos.  
Without considering other activist art groups, because I have no connection
with others, I think GG has achieved respectable critical success.
And for reasons that are obvious, GG represents a credible threat to
the commercial interests of the other art world.  As long as
capitalism exerts influence on the means of art production, collectors
have the power to shape the consumerist model of the commercial art
world.  And collectors are obeisant to the language of patriarchy.  GG
will, I believe, continue the cause until change occurs, and the art
worlds are equal for all.

Friday, July 8, 2016

Into Internal Landscapes, Dreamscapes: Works on Paper by Helene Le Chatelier + Uten Mahamid

Form/Space Atelier Program,
Summer 2016

Helene LeChatelier


Uten Mahamid

Form/Space Atelier Program Summer 2016

Exhibition Title: Into Internal Landscapes, Dreamscapes

Exhibition Duration: July 25-October 12

Vernissage: July 25, 2016

Free Shuttle During Seattle Art Fair Ticketholders Upon Request: Fair to 98 Clay St. : 206-349-2509


Premise-

Hélène Le Chatelier and Uten Mahamid portray our inner geographies,
the landscapes we walk along when we sink in our inner world. Beyond
the visible surface, appear hidden continents, lands, unknown
stretches of water, skies and cloudy formations we may or may not be
aware of. Shaped by the passage of time and events in our lives, these Internal Landscapes reveal our inner feelings, fragilities and
strengths, dark and bright sides of us, as well as how we have been
going through our existence.


History-


Meeting during their residency program at Thaillywood Contemporary
Artist Residency, French artist Hélène Le Chatelier and Thai artist
Uten Manahmid interrogate their inner world and the idea of carrying a personal internal landscape.
        Both protean artists (writers and painters), but coming from
different backgrounds and cultures, both using ink technique but in a very different way, and with no prior conversation regarding their
intention, they met coincidentally and converged to an intimate
meeting point in their work, giving the impression of viewing two
sides of a same coin. One side is feminine, the other is masculine.
One is softer, the other more tormented. One process uses natural
products, the other uses chemicals. But the result is amazingly close, questioning ourselves about proximity, cultures, differences,
ressemblances, and what slips from us with or without control. The
concept of the “Other” and our relatioship with this “Other” is
consequently in question: what does make us close, intimate or not ?
Are we sure that the ones we feel so close, for so many evident
cultural or social aspects, is really the ones we are close to ?
        Without going further, we see how many concepts these questions carry
within themselves regarding transcultural notions, offering a wide
field to explore, inviting us to rethink our relationship with our
environment and people surronding us, considering them with a fairly
new eye.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

"House Of Lies" Paintings By Johan Wahlstrom

House of Lies

Paintings by Johan Wahlstrom

First Thursday reception April 7, 6-8PM

Exhibition Duration:  April 7-July 3, 2016

Organized by Lara Pan who wrote the following synopsis and biography:

    Johan Wahlstom is one of today’s brightest artists who is making a conscious effort to describe the social political landscape of our contemporary world. The work is relevant on many levels. His use of political iconography and brash painting style brings to the fore a raw juxtaposition of issues facing everyday life. The use of corporate media’s images and information gathered from various news outlets are the underpinnings of his compositions. A narrative emerges that is a time capsule of our society today. A sharp critique of fascism and authoritarianism is a reoccurring theme throughout. In his current series, “House of Lies” Wahlstrom depicts a world full of deception, ignorance and chaos.  In some of his monochromatic paintings streaks of black tears connect distorted faces, creating a chorus of potentially suffering voices in a singular composition.
The titles of the work may be ironic at times but the painting’s narratives strike a true emotional chord with the politically engaged viewer.

Biography


Johan Wahlstrom was born in 1959 in Stockholm, Sweden, and is a fifth-generation artist on his mother’s side. Though art was in his blood, his first creative direction was rock and roll, where he had a successful and long career as a keyboardist and singer, touring with Ian Hunter, Graham Parker, Mick Ronson and many Scandinavian artists. After 18 years, the rock and roll life caught up with him. Wahlstrom moved to a small village in France where he did nothing but paint for seven years, part of that time under the tutelage of Swedish artist, Lennart Nystrom. Wahlstrom’s dark narrative paintings of heads and torsos in acrylic and ink are inspired by cryptic, often ironic social critiques that he collects on scraps of paper in his studio in Malaga, Spain, where he now lives. Wahlstrom’s graphic, neoexpressionist style is inspired by Jean DuBuffet, Paul Klee and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Since 1999, Wahlstrom’s work has been displayed in galleries across Europe and the US, and was a highlighted artist .

Sunday, January 3, 2016


Tiffany Rodman Croquer At Form/Space Atelier

Exhibition Title: "Winner, Winner"

Exhibition Duration: Jan 2-Mar 8, 2016

"Winner, Winner" is sculpture by Paris-based Tiffany Rodman Croquer
that explores the
intersection between art and craft, contemporary issues and symbolism.

Artist statement, Tiffany Rodman Croquer:
The intention of my artwork is to demonstrably
emphasize the intersection of fine art and
craft.  Taking a useful object (associated with
craftic themes) and embellishing it with a fine
art process of oil painting, the combined
approach creates a fine art piece out of a
once-useful (craftic) object.  An anachronistic
icon of the bygone materials creates a
thought-provoking subterfuge where easy answers
to complex world problems vex our awareness.  By
using a specific contemporary subject matter in
the composition of the embellishment, further
points of interpretation are possible.  However,
the treatment of the motif in a
visually-stimulating, low-brow or
circus-influenced style renders the potentially
controversial content benign.  I am trying to
artistically de-fuse a public anxious from the
turmoil of modern times, and invite stressed news
consumers to 'run away with the circus'."-TRC

website:
http://bit.ly/tiffanyrodmancroquer