999 - Studio Program Exhibition

On February 7, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center presents the first installment of 1999: Studio Program Exhibition, providing access to the current fields of interest and experimentation of an outstanding group of emerging artists. On May 20th, 1999 the exhibition will continue with long-term artists’ projects at the Clocktower Gallery in Manhattan.

1999 is the twenty-third annual exhibition of P.S.1’s internationally renowned studio program that provides free studio workspace to promising national and international artists. Presented as an artists’ showcase, 1999 features a wide range of artistic sensibilities and diverse media, with works by: Allora & Calzadilla (United States), Céleste Boursier-Mougenot (France), Shane Cullen (Republic of Ireland), Xiomara De Oliver (United States), Bruna Esposito (Italy), Jose Gabriel Fernandez (Venezuela), Ciara Finnegan (Northern Ireland), Peter Friedl (Austria), Howard Goldkrand (United States), John Kelly (United States), Kristin Lucas (United States), Olaf Nicolai (Germany), Deborah Ostrow (Australia), Tere Recarens (Spain), Yoshiko Shimada (Japan), Yan-kei So (Hong Kong), Lane Twitchell (United States) and Jeanne van Heeswijk (The Netherlands).

Performances, a vital component of 1999, will take place at the February 7 opening and on weekends throughout the exhibition. Scheduled for February 7 is Kristin Lucas’ SIMULCAST, in which the artist, wearing a portable satellite dish, wanders through the museum, shaping the ambient and competing energies at play at P.S.1 to improve reception and communication possibilities. Allora & Calzadilla will present an ongoing work titled Soft and Close by Me, in collaboration with P.S.1’s security staff, including Hilda Alameda, Maritza Avilez, Jude Kelsey, Hector Pagán, Albert Perez, Rafael Perez, Albert Román, and Antorious Thorington. This “sculpture” exists as a description of a place with which the security staff had a familiar relationship and close associations that they share with museum visitors. Future performances will include work by counter-tenor John Kelly channeling Joni Mitchell and work by Deborah Ostrow.

Several pieces employing more traditional media are Shane Cullen’s paintings of British security documents currently in use in Northern Ireland, translated into German and written on canvas in high Gothic script; Xiomara De Oliver’s large panels with dry transfer and stenciled text chronicling her negotiation of beauty standards in personal relationships; and Venezuelan artist Jose Gabriel Fernandez’s sensuous sculptural meditations on the matador: a series of costumes draped over chairs and hung on the wall in expressive postures. Providing a dramatic contrast to these works are Lane Twitchell’s paper cut-out experiments in pop symbolism.

In the first floor galleries, audiences will have the opportunity to visit two subtle sound installations: Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s sonorous structure made of harpsichord strings and wire hangers, operated by finches; and Howard Goldkrand’s Product 662a, a bright yellow-and-black abstract space including rubber beads and motion detectors, which trigger sound in a remote location. In addition to these works there will be a video projection by Peter Friedl of museum staff dressed as animals, computer mouse-pad drawings by Kristin Lucas, video work by Ciara Finnegan, and highly personal graphics by Tere Recarens.

In P.S.1’s south wing Jeanne van Heeswijk has transformed Gallery S205 into a hotel room with the help of Hotel New York, Rotterdam, and Doriene de Vos. A rotating schedule of collaborators will work and exhibit their projects in the hotel room throughout the exhibition. Sculptuor Rolf Engelen will occupy the room on February 7, making small gifts that visitors may keep, and later, guests will present performance-oriented projects. Solitary in one of P.S.1’s first floor galleries is Olaf Nicolai’s Greenbag, Varient 2, an ordinary plastic bag filled with earth and a small living tree. Greenbag focuses on the relationship between nature and design, and the processes by which natural and given phenomena become artificial.

On view May 20 at the Clocktower Gallery will be long-term works by Bruna Esposito, Tere Recarens, Yan-kei So, and Yoshiko Shimada.

The 1998-99 Studio Program artists were selected by a distinguished panel of artists, critics, and curators: Carlos Basualdo, Mike Bidlo, Leslie Camhi, Eleanor Heartney, Louise Neri, artist group Parasite, Calvin Reid, Sam Samore, and Franz Stauffenberg. The twenty-one artists selected for the program were chosen from more than three thousand applicants from around the world.

Since 1976, the National and International Studio Program has been a defining component of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and has established itself among the premier artists’ communities in the nation. The program aims to provide annually—from September 1st to September 1st of each year—a free studio workspace to approximately twenty-one national and international artists. Through the program, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center hopes to create a vibrant and supportive community of artists, and to utilize the resources of the museum to positively impact the work and careers of program artists during their residency and beyond. Currently, sixteen studios are housed at P.S.1 and a further five are located at the Clocktower Gallery in lower Manhattan. Notable past participants in P.S.1’s studio program include Andres Serrano, Annette Messager, Lorna Simpson, David Wojnarowicz, and Jessica Stockholder.

999
Studio Program Exhibition