Monday, December 22, 2008

Pour Faire simple: 1/17/09- 2/7/09

This is new project space opening called ParisConcret. I'm very happy to be a part of this. From the website:
The ParisCONCRET space is taking shape and the first exhibition as well! "Pour faire simple" will open on Saturday 17 January. We have had a very positive response to our invitation and the following artists are already confirmed to be participating. More to come...Pam Aitken(au), Daniel Argyle (au) Sanne Bruggink (nl) Carola Bark (de) Christoph Dahlhausen (de) Julian Dashper(nz), Rene Eicke(nl), Billy Gruner(au), Tony Harding(fr), José Heerkens(nl), Sarah Keighery(au), Vaclav Krucek(cz), Arjan Janssen(nl), Kate Mackay(au), Simon Morris(nz), Roland Orépük(fr), Jacek Przybyszewski(fr), Alexandra Roozen(nl), Marlene Sarroff(au), Clary Stolte(nl), Bogumila Strojna(fr), John Tallman(us), Richard van der Aa(fr), Iemke van Dijk(nl), Jacques Weyer(fr), Guido Winkler(nl).

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

BIN BY SEED AT AVA




SEED, an art collective in Chattanooga, TN is producing BIN. The motivation for BIN comes through a need to address the historical marginalization of artists and methods for overcoming this scenario. Each collective involved in this project is a vital model for alternative pathways, invention, action, and interdisciplinary approaches to making. This project is not predetermined. Instead of formulas, conventions, expectations, and objects - SEED is working with online relationships, and local negotiations.

SEED is pleased to announce the participation and/or contribution by some fantastic collectives including Basekamp (Philadelphia), BLW, Common Places Project (Tampa), DeadTech (Chicago), Fugitive Projects (Nashville), Graffiti Research Lab (New York), Guerrilla Girls, InCUBATE-Chicago (Chicago), Mess Hall (Chicago), Paintallica (Washington), RTmark, TEAM LUMP (Raleigh), 6+ , and The Yes Men.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Assemblage #3 and SNO

Rennaissance Art Investment Consultancy from Potts Point Australia had some nice words about Assemblage #3 and Sydney Non Objective:
Finally out in Marrickville, an assembly of three little shows at SNO (on until 7 December)was the only show which made us smile with optimism this month and gave us the urge to make SNO the first art space to be featured in In Focus (see below). On offer, in room 1, Assemblage No. 3 curated by Billy Gruner, brings together object based works from an international array of artists, Cathy Blanchflower (Melbourne), Christopher Dean(Sydney), Iemke van Dijk (Leiden), Anthony Farrell (Toowoomba), Emma Langridge(Melbourne), Ben Raynor (Melbourne), John Tallman (Tennessee), Ken Villa (Sydney),Guido Winkler (Leiden) united successfully by a monochrome wallwork by John Adair(Sydney).
See the full text at 'newsletter':
Rennaissance Art Investment Consultancy
Thanks to Billy Gruner for making it all happen.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

On Visual Discrepancies With Brent Hallard

Brent Hallard and I recently had a conversation about some recent pieces.

He's posted it here on Visual Discrepencies:

Lost and Found

Monday, November 10, 2008

Contemporary Two-Dimensional Art Objects For the Home or Office


Contemporary Two-Dimensional Art Objects For Home or Office by John Tallman is a new set of colored cast resin objects created specifically for this exhibition.

Tallman's idiosyncratic art exists somewhere in between painting and sculpture, however they all explore vibrant color riding the vehicle of a wide range of materiality. All the work in this show are untitled, though the artist casually calls them “sponges, washcloths, and cotton balls.” This underscores the way Tallman simultaneously embraces and pokes serious fun at the high-minded ideals of late modern “purist” approaches to art making.

His work was last exhibited in Philadelphia in 2006 at the Abington Art Center. Since then his work has been included in exhibitions at The Drawing Center (NYC), IS Projects (The Netherlands), and Sydney Non-Objective (Australia).

A native of the Philadelphia area, Tallman now lives and works near Chattanooga, TN.
text by D. Witmer

Thursday, November 6, 2008



Opening Reception For:
'Contemporary Art Objects
For the Home or Office By John Tallman'
Saturday, November 8, 4-6pm

Green Line Art Projects
3649 Lancaster Avenue
Philadelphia PA 19104
215-222-3431

Details can be found here.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

November Exhibitions: Sydney and Philly

There are two exhibitions coming up for November.

'Assemblage No. 3' is a group exhibition at Sydney Non-Objective. Curation by Billy Gruner.

Sydney, Australia


'Contemporary Two-Dimensional Art Objects For Home and Office' is a solo exhibition at Green Line Art Projects, which is run by Douglas Witmer.

mummers

See it here.

Details to come...

Friday, September 5, 2008

Thursday, August 14, 2008

UND @ Croxhapox Gent (BE)

The notes below by Billy Gruner relate to the upcoming exhibition at Croxhapox. See previous posts for further details.
UND is a simple yet questioning title used for an annual show on Contemporary Non-Objective Art. This year in September it is held at Croxhapox, Gent, Belgium. Looking closely, it is an unusual international program. First, it has been curated since 2006 by a small group of artists without any budget. Secondly, the use of a somewhat blunt title remains intentional and functional. As in the previous group shows, a punk attitude aims to present a certain flavor to a complex art-historical discourse.

Croxhapox is not a typical gallery either way. Because of its non-selective design, it is seen as a place of art critical focus, and an appropriately chosen space on the contemporary route that this particular set of artists seeks to engage. They are able to do this from many entry angles because travel is easier and faster than ever. But most importantly, because physically meeting is a necessary process to go through in order to find inspiration from others interested in a development of relational critical concerns.

In short, UND 2008, like UND 2006 held at Chiellerie in Amsterdam in 2006 and, UND Jetzt held at IS in Leiden in 2007, is the latest of a series shows that are, in a sense, homogenate - an evolving event providing a unique yearly convergence. If restated, UND 2008 is the latest opportunity for various artists to continue their participation or, selective viewing of new works from out of a greater array of activities. These may fall under the banner of Presentational Art (US), Super Formalism or Minimal Pop (EU) or, as it is sometimes defined in Australia, Post Formalism - as just three examples of fresher terminology in use. The list of artists participating in this particular gathering is by no means comprehensive or, representational. Nor is it a surveying event – that is not possible. Nevertheless, they form one group that has come together from other spaces and sets of associated connections. Curiously, this is an established network that has no name or structure per se or, any managerial style or directorship to speak of. Yet, it is a self-regulating identity regardless. In my opinion, the symbolism is very interesting as artists connect out of recommendation - through working with each other.

This process is in certain ways uncommon to witness within global or localised contemporary art productions. And perhaps for these reasons it may remain something that others consider difficult. I am unsure how I became involved but I am glad I did as I continue to find the unique social aspect a rewarding and demanding aspect of practice. In this manner, it is the social that determines. Just as that integral process of clarification assists in how new language may be fittingly used. That is an important metering process, and an activity I now personally respect. For instance, questions of style or modes or practice are understood or rejected collectively within an internationally based milieu growing more aware of its language patterns each year.

Actually, I find this a stunning attribute of cosmopolitanism rarely experienced, and the UND program in my opinion is a significant opportunity in the contemporary art world were regionalism, factionalism, and an incomprehensible system of social stratifications that may appear utterly unjustified, remain trenchant – even after the modernist and post-modern eras have seemingly elapsed. Probably what is more interesting overall about this unsolicited network is a stringent ability to develop, expand, and engage traction with other interested artists, gallerists, collectors, outside of more conventional systems.

The influence of artists such as Tilman and director Petra Bungert from CCNOA, Jan and Karen van der Ploeg from PS in Amsterdam, Daniel Gottin and Gerda Maise from Hebel 121 in Basel, like that of the long standing support provided by John Nixon from AC4CA and SNO in Australia, and Matthew Deleget and Rossana Martinez from Minus Space in New York, are just a few examples that come to mind whose collective import should not be underestimated in those terms. It is their efforts amongst many others running back decades that have led to the greater development of credibility for what remains today, a vastly misunderstood genre. Perhaps little has changed concerning perceptions on the purely abstract since Delauney and Van Doesburg first questioned Mondriaan’s rather static relations or reliance on a fundamentally figurative imaging in an classic abstract modality – and in view of the vastly greater currency that the De Stijl movement continues to offer – it matters to redress.

Importantly, the growing acceptance of concrete artistic concerns worldwide for example, directs our attention to the possible appearance of the significance of generics for instance. Certainly it is illustrative of one area of ongoing artistic and optimistic investigation after the 20thcentury and, the specific places where many artists are seeking to engage ideas via newly presented realities. But that revolutionary topical matter currently being opened out in the Sydney Biennale is of less concern here. The discourse un-coverable through the UND program is more generally about a kind of alternate movement, and its overall consistency, historically speaking. It is one zone of contact that in general terms has remained relatively unconcerned by overt critiques, furphy, and the like. Just as it is driven by newer groups of artists and fans who continue finding currencies worth defining.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Crox 269: Gent



The exhibition Crox 269 is set to open August 31 in Gent, Belgium. There will be 22 artists from 9 countries participating. See the Croxhapox Agenda and more information here. The exhibition was curated by Billy Gruner, Tilman and Jan van Der Ploeg.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Text from the IS Box

Written by Marijke Uittenbroek
Translation by Auke van den Berg
For John Tallman (1969, York, Pa., U.S.A.), not the object/painting itself is the primary goal, but the artist’s mental process. His works are not paintings or sculptures in a traditional sense, and then again they are. His working method entails the construction of moulds in the shape of a painting, into which he pours pigments and various resins, such as polyurethane. The end result is simultaneously two- and three-dimensional. To emphasize this ambiguity, Tallman does not hang his works straight onto the wall; as a result, they become more of objects than ‘paintings’ that offer a glance into a different world through the creation of illusions. His formal language is deliberately limited: there are square works and round ones; limiting himself to an autonomous abstract vocabulary, the artist feels free; any personal emotion is thus banned from his work and he deliberately refrains from making any political statements. It is the mental processes of the artist during the creation of his work that count, nothing else. Through reduction he aims to give the viewer access to this mental process, focusing particularly on the questioning of the principles of the notion of a ‘painting’. He is fascinated, for instance, by how objects (paintings) influence their environment, the effect of gravity in painting, the area behind the painting. In brief, he is basically concerned with the essence of painting, or rather, the painting. In his artist’s statement he states that he is fascinated by the theoretical possibility of making a composition that repeats itself endlessly, the substance (the skin of the painting), but also the position of abstraction. Tallman poses questions, and the work resulting form these questions raises new questions, resulting in new works that are in part repetitions yet subtly different within his restricted formal language, as if it were a kind of modernist Droste effect*.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

"crox 269" to open august 30

John will be participating in a group exhibition at croxhapox, gent, belgium.

22 artists, 9 countries.

curated by bill gruner, tilman and jan van der ploeg.

more info to come...

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

IS Box on Minus Space

The Is Box is on the great
reductivist art themed site
known as:
Minus Space.

Monday, June 30, 2008

IS Box Update: A New Blog














An IS Box Blog has been created: IS editions.
You're invited to take a look.

This second IS box contains 6 limited-edition prints of 30x42cm, all signed and numbered, including a pop-up
by Henriëtte van 't Hoog (double size unfolded).
The other 5 prints are by Tony Harding, Eric de Nie,
John Tallman, Gilbert Hsiao and John de Rijke.
The prints are combined with an essay by Marijke Uittenbroek' and is limited to 41 sets.

In case you wish to order a box, please send an e-mail to guido@guidowinkler.com.

On Steven Alexander's Blog

"Tallman is a true and fully engaged investigator of the nuances of reality, and a very savvy painter to boot. His work operates within a highly focused set of processes and strategies, but within those limitations, achieves a sense of total freedom – a freewheeling and playful approach to the richness latent in the mundane."

More...

Steven Alexander's Blog

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

On Joanne Mattera's Art Blog

"Tallman is a painter and sculptor for whom materiality is essential. Indeed, you can't disentangle the painter from the sculptor any more than you can disentangle the color from the form."

Joanne Mattera's Art Blog

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Speed of Color, IS Projects, Leiden

Exhibition: June 15 - July 13
De Nie, Harding, Hsiao,
De Rijke, Tallman, Van 't Hoog

IS
Drie Octoberstraat 16 A
2313 ZP Leiden
The Netherlands
+31 71 5149882


IS Box 2 Now Available!

Please send e-mail to guido.winkler[at]gmailcom for information. Contents: 6 original prints of 30x42cm, topsheet and essay by Marijke Uittenbroek. Artists: Henriëtte van 't Hoog, John de Rijke, John Tallman, Tony Harding, Gilbert Hsiao and Eric de Nie.

Friendly priced at 235 euros.

IS BOX 2

Friday, June 13, 2008

Surface Issues: 'Tactile Explorations'




May 28- July 11
Reception: June 20, 5-7pm
Create Here
Surface Issues
'Tactile Explorations'
55 Main St.
Chattanooga, TN

Monday, June 9, 2008

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Croxhapox, Ghent, Belgium, August 2008

CROXHAPOX is an experimental art house and an open working place for contemporary art, situated in Ghent, Belgium.
It was created in 1990 by Hans van Heirseele, Frank Van den Eeckhout and Guido De Bruyn. Intended as a small non-commercial exhibition room, CROXHAPOX evolved through the years towards a multidisciplinary entity, with a particular vision on content and a diversified exhibition policy. Today, CROXHAPOX receives any form of contemporary art, and offers a working space for music, film, poetry and art criticism. In doing so, CROXHAPOX focuses not only on young or less reputed artists, but also aimes at throwing some light on the importance of artistic research and content.
In this way CROXHAPOX offers a large potential for experimenting. CROXHAPOX has no commercial activities, nor does it represent any artists, art disciplines or genres, and for this reason is not to be considered a gallery.


croxhapox
Lucas Munichstraat 76/82
9000 Ghent (Belgium) Europe

Hans van Heirseele / artistic director

van@croxhapox.com
Mobile: +32-479-453779

www.croxhapox.com

UND 2008 - Ghent- opening: August 30th 2008

Tilman (Bel)
Michak Skoda (CZ)
Lars Wolter (D)
Sacha Goerg (SUI)
Pieter Vermeersch (Bel)
Leopoldine Roux (F)
Ingridmaria Sinibaldi (F)
Ward Denys (Bel)
Jan Van der Pleog (NL)
John Nixon (A)
Julian Dashper (NZ)
Ro Hagers (NL)
Geeske Bijker (NL)
Machiel van Soest + Ton Schuttelaar (NL)
Guido Nieuwendijk (NL)
Billy Gruner (A)
John Tallman (US)
Gerold Miller (DE)
Jan Maarten Voskuel (NL)
Sarah Keighery (A)
Kyle Jenkins (A)
Andrew Leslie (A)

Surface Issues-- Create Here

Surface Issues
May 28th - July 11th

"Surface Issues" is CreateHere's latest exhibit, exploring the way 14 local artists and artisans think about the surfaces of their work. "Surface Issues" presents an eclectic mix of painting, sculpture, video installation, decorative and functional art. The presentation of work is refreshing, while the overall resonance is quite progressive.

Drop by and check out the show Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 PM! Come back and join us for a reception celebrating the artists on Friday, June 20th from 5 until 7 PM.