"Space Invaders" The Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy NY September 17 - November 21, 2004 Gallery Talk: Friday September 17, 5-6pm Space Invaders exhibition looks at blurring of public, private terrain. What happens when the distinctions between public and private space blur and lose their meaning - and how contemporary artists respond to that condition of modern life - is the concern of a new exhibition at The Arts Center of the Capital Region, 265 River St. in downtown Troy, New York. Space Invaders, curated by Gretchen Wagner, curatorial assistant at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, will formally open Friday, Sept. 17, with a free and public reception from 5 to 8pm. The reception will also feature a gallery talk by the curator beginning at 5pm. "In recent years, the distinction between those realms considered public and those considered private has grown slight," Wagner wrote in an essay accompanying the show. "Space Invaders brings together artwork investigating the tenuous borders delineating public and private terrains. Consequently, it aims to give voice to a diversity of perspectives on a condition that is an inescapable reality of the world in which we live." In all, the exhibition includes works by nine individual artists, among them the Austria-based State of Sabotage, a group of artists that has presented more than 100 thought-provoking "public sabotages" in the form of performances, actions, events and exhibitions since its founding in 1992. State of Sabotage will present a present a performance and video installation creating a state and its embassy. Vito Acconci, internationally known for his videos that look at the invasion of personal space, is represented with his 1970s video called Theme Song, featuring the artist offering seductive come-ons to the viewer, while pop music plays. Rob Carter's three large-scale silver gelatin prints depict telephone books manipulated and arranged to symbolize "Panopticon," a concept in criminal justice calling for the creation of prisons that offer authorities a panoramic view of prison spaces. Other artists featured in Space Invaders are Christopher Cassidy of Albany, Thomas Lail of Valatie, Matthew Moore of Goodyear, Arizona, Steed Taylor of New York City, Barbara Todd of Troy, and Rosemary Williams of Brooklyn. Moore's photographic images taken from his crop-dusting plane become the basis for a personal and poignant commentary on the invasion of the artist's generations-old family farm, which like much of the agricultural land surrounding Phoenix, Arizona, is giving way to development. In one part of his contribution to Space Invaders, Moore documents on video his slow, precise hand-cutting of trenches in the landscape, as he sculpts in the vegetation floorprints of the tract homes that will replace the family farm. Art Center of the Capital Region 265 River Street, Troy, New York tel: 518.273.0552 "Harvest" Eye Lounge, Phoenix AZ October 1 - October 31, 2004 Harvest, an exhibition currated by founding members Greg Esser and Carrie Bloomston Featuring Kris Keul, Matthew Moore, Christiana Moss, Ted Troxel, Dan Hoffman, Christopher Alt, Carrie Bloomston, Carolyn Lavender, Doug Baulos, Cyndi Coon, Carrie Marill, Jennifer Kiraley, Greg Esser, Melissa Martinez, Cindy Dach, Mike Slack, and Sue Chenoweth. Eye Lounge is a collective contemporary artist-run gallery in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. 419 East Roosevelt Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004 tel: 602.430.1490 Hours: Friday 5-9pm, Saturday 1-5pm and by appointment "southwestNet: PHX/LA" Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art April 24 - September 5, 2004 from: www.smoca.org/exhibit.php?id=84 southwestNet: PHX/LA Phoenix and Los Angeles are major western metropolises that sprawl over the arid environments from which they miraculously sprang. Both locales boomed in the post-war years and are defined by the subdivisions, strip malls, office compounds and landscaping that developed long before a sense of community took root. "southwestNET: PHX/LA" showcases a group of emerging artists from Phoenix and Los Angeles: Colin Chillag, Brian Cooper, Matthew Moore, Jared Pankin, Steve Roden, Keith Sklar and Shirley Tse. These artists investigate the factors at play in a new, western version of urbanism. From Shirley Tse's photographs of inflatable forms in the desert to Colin Chillag's thick, impasto paintings of factories, the works explore our attempts to dominate nature and its unflagging adaptability. The exhibition is curated by Erin Kane, SMoCA assistant curator, and Max Presneill, director of Raid Projects, Los Angeles. It is the fifth project in SMoCA's on-going "southwestNET" series, devoted to the art, architecture, and design of the Southwest." from: www.azcentral.com Exhibit at SMoCA focuses on sprawl Courtesy of the artist and Modified Arts, Phoenix SCOTTSDALE - By day, Matthew Moore is a farmer, growing carrots, wheat and sorghum on 1,000 acres in Goodyear. In his free time, Moore, 28, is an artist, inspired by the land that has been in his family for decades. Moore and five other artists are a part of the southwestNET exhibition that opened Saturday at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. The show, PHX/LA, features six emerging Phoenix and Los Angeles artists and focuses on issues of rapid urbanization and rampant sprawl in the Southwest. The show takes the serious topic and tackles it with some light-heartedness. Moore's contribution is a plaque fashioned after a California road sign for a historic site. In lieu of the icon of a monument are two pieces of wheat forming an X. Moore's work emerged from his experience with his own family farm and contemplates the development and evolution of rural land - from farmers who displaced Indians to developers who displace rural farmers. "My concern is with development and the rapid manner in which it is done," he said. "There is no sense of the history, of what was once there. Wouldn't it be more enriching if a piece of the history was able to remain?" Other artists included in the exhibition are: - Shirley Tse (Los Angeles) takes photographs of pool covers set against desert backdrops to create humorous "family portraits." - Brian Cooper (Los Angeles) creates installations using materials associated with 1970s suburbia such as wood paneling and kitsch upholstery fabric. - Keith Sklar (Los Angeles) uses images from Hollywood films, cartoons, historical religious paintings and mass media to design wall paintings. - Steve Roden (Los Angeles) creates his own small-scale sculptures based on the famed bubble houses by architect Wallace Neff. One of the most surprising pieces in the show is Jared Pankin's sculpture using a taxidermied fox and rabbit to address the resurgence of nature in urban areas. Colin Chillag uses heavy layers of oil paint to depict his take on development in Phoenix. "Instead of focusing on the pleasant, there is a recurring theme of my work," the Phoenix artist said. "I use paint in a really sick, kind of grotesque manner. It has a very wrinkled look." Chillag said his paintings, four in the exhibition, "hints at the inevitable decline" and "destruction that springs out of development." Chillag said he tries to stay neutral in his paintings of development, but in his personal artistic path, the growth of Phoenix has been helpful. His feelings are reflected in his thoughts about being chosen for the show. "Oh, geez, I was thrilled, really honored. Yeah. Yeah," he said. "For me, having grown up here, I didn't see a lot of contemporary art, and taking a chance on an artist that's unknown is a big deal. It's gutsy and unusual for an arts institution." Erin Kane, SMoCA's assistant curator, co-created the exhibition with Max Presneill, director of the alternative gallery Raid Projects in Los Angeles. "Max Presneill and I were discussing some of the environmental, historical and demographic similarities between the two cities. We thought it would be interesting to see work made by artists living in both places about these issues," Kane said. "We wondered whether or not similar ideas and motifs would emerge." The artists will be on hand June 4 for a reception for the show. The show runs through Sept. 5. FYI: southwestNET's "PHX/LA" WHAT: Exhibit featuring six emerging artists from Los Angeles and Phoenix and their work related to urban development. WHEN: Through Sept. 5. Reception with the artists is 7 to 8:30 p.m. June 4. WHERE: Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Drinkwater Boulevard and Second Street. INFO: (480) 994-ARTS. < Back to Current Exhibitions