Selected Exhibitions
Cunningham in the Northwest
September 7 – October 22, 2010
Cornish College of the Arts Main Gallery
1000 Lenora St. Seattle, 98121
www.cornish.edu/merce
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Cunningham in the Northwest is an interdisciplinary art exhibition that explores the connections between the groundbreaking work of choreographer Merce Cunningham and his hometown region. The first art exhibition to look at Cunningham’s work within the context of the Pacific Northwest, Cunningham in the Northwestcelebrates his legacy of collaboration and examines how his relationship to Cornish and the Northwest informed his philosophies and the work he created.
Using elements of Cunningham’s dances as guidelines, we created an exhibition that viewers could experience in the way they might experience a Merce Cunningham Dance Company performance. In other words, Cunningham in the Northwest is less a presentation about his work and more an experience of the work. In creating this experience, we are asking ourselves, “What would one of his performances look like if it was opened up and the ingredients separated out?” The goal is to provide visitors with the opportunity to “reassemble” these elements however it may happen.
In order to be honest about our intentions, we decided to employ Cunningham’s process and embrace the results. Borrowing from the I Ching, which Cunningham used often in his work, we used chance operations to arrange the historical photographs and other objects on the gallery walls similarly to the way in which Cunningham would have placed dancers on a stage or choreographed a piece. In doing so, we were refuting the traditional role of the curator as organizer of materials and ideas, and allowing decisions to be made by other means.
This exhibition pays tribute to Cunningham’s philosophies by presenting viewers with the elements of his dances that can be “reassembled” differently by each viewer. And, as gallery visitors move through the space, they become part of the work. We hope Merce Cunningham would approve.
Jess Van Nostrand, Cornish College of the Arts Exhibitions Curator
Bridget Nowlin, Cornish College of the Arts Curator of Visual Resources
September, 2010
Photo: Barbara Morgan Merce Cunningham, Totem Ancestor, 1942, printed c. 1942. Gelatin silver contact print - courtesy of Bruce Silverstein Gallery, NY, © Barbara Morgan
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Dan Webb: Unring the Bell
January 21 – February 26, 2010
Cornish College of the Arts Main Gallery
1000 Lenora St. Seattle, 98121
Sculptor Dan Webb is featured in the second installment of this exhibition series. Part of the Alumni Retrospective Series, Unring the Bell emphasizes Webb’s artistic development from his student experiences at Cornish through recent years. Featuring a comic book co-created by Dan Webb and Cornish student Kelly Martin the exhibition focuses on student and early work, especially that which plays a key role in the artist’s development. The artist’s following solo show at Greg Kucera Gallery (opening February 18) picks up where this exhibition leaves off, and visitors are encouraged to visit both venues for a cohesive look at his career.
The Alumni Cornish College of the Arts Retrospective Series focuses on the trajectory of one artist’s career within the context of their Cornish education. Featuring class projects and other work from their student days through their development into their current work, these exhibitions provide the public and students a different perspective on the work of an established Cornish graduate.
Image: Installation view showing Rosary, 1999; Carved wood, 300” x 24” x 12” by Frank Huster. Courtesy of the artist and Greg Kucera Gallery
Live in the Hyphen: An Interdisciplinary Experience
September 10 – October 16, 2009
Cornish College of the Arts Main Gallery
1000 Lenora St. Seattle, 98121
The Cornish Main Gallery serves as an intersection for the college’s academic departments, a venue where different art forms can be explored within the context of contemporary visual art.
Live in the Hyphen brings together, for the first time, the work of two established Northwest artists who create between mediums. Through their unique perspectives on music, theater, sculpture, video, printmaking, and performance, this exhibition demonstrates the depth and complexity of each of their artistic efforts while offering insight into how and where the disciplines intersect. Print-performance-music, video-interactive technology-music, these are some of the ways in which their work “lives” in hyphens.
Paul Rucker is an award-winning cellist-bassist-composer who produces jazz albums under his Jackson Street Records label. Rucker frequently experiments with interactive sculptures that incorporate musical elements and using printmaking techniques to create new types of musical scores. In 2007, Rucker was invited by legendary filmmaker David Lynch to perform for the opening of Lynch’s film, Inland Empire; and in 2009, he completed a permanent site-specific audio installation for the Museum of Flight in Tacoma, Washington.
Wynne Greenwood is a lesbian feminist artist working with video, performance, music, sculpture and installation. She received her MFA from The Milton Avery Graduate School for the Arts at Bard College. In 2009, Greenwood was a visiting faculty at Seattle University, teaching “Video, Performance and Identity.” Selected performances and exhibitions include Reena Spaulings Fine Art, NYC (2005), Whitney Biennial (2004), The Kitchen, NYC (2005), Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, LA (2006, 2008), Tate Modern (2007), and DIY art spaces and nightclubs (2001-present). She lives and works in Seattle, WA.
An important element of Live in the Hyphen is the weekly events series that take place in and near the gallery throughout the duration of the show. These events, which feature a variety of student, alumni and professional artists projects, provide the “live” (as in “alive”) component of the exhibition theme.
Image: Wynne Greenwood, Big Candy, 2008; Video, 3 min. 5 sec. Videotaped in the installation “Face It” at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects
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The Hotness: A Sort of Retrospective by Joe Park
January 14 – February 20, 2009
Cornish College of the Arts Main Gallery
1000 Lenora St. Seattle, 98121
Online virtual catalog: www.cornish.edu/exhibitions/joepark/
The Hotness: A Sort of Retrospective by Joe Park features artwork, memorabilia, sketches, video, and other sources of inspiration from Park’s personal archives. A new exhibition program, the Alumni Retrospective Series focuses on the trajectory of one artist’s career within the context of their Cornish education. Featuring class projects and other work from their student days through their development into their current work, these exhibitions provide the public and students a different perspective on the work of an established Cornish graduate.
The Hotness includes early work from Park’s studies at Cornish, stills from a “failed” performance piece, functional pieces from his business in furniture design, and early sculptural work that foreshadows his eventual focus as a painter. The exhibition also features current work that ties together the pieces of his artistic journey. Also featured online and in the gallery is a web-only catalog that includes comments by Park and a virtual tour of the exhibition.
Joe Park graduated from Cornish in 1988 and received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1990. His rich and imaginative paintings possess a distinct style that is able to evoke illustration, photography and painting all at once. His 2004 solo exhibition “Moon Beam Caress” at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle won him widespread acclaim, and the exhibition poster made a subsequent appearance on a memorable episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Park was named “Best Artist Under 41” by The Seattle Weekly in 2005, and has received the NEDDY Award from the Behnke Foundation in addition to an Artist Trust Fellowship. Park became Cornish adjunct faculty in fall of 2008; his work is represented by Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco.
Image: Installation photo by Frank Huster
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Internal Unrest by Jodi Rockwell
August 6-17, 2007
The Lab Gallery
At the North East corner of 47th and Lexington, New York
Video and curator interview: http://thelabgallery.com/?p=151
Seattle-based artist Jodi Rockwell presents a time-based installation for The Lab Gallery, curated by Jess Van Nostrand. Throughout a ten-day period, the sublime activity of snowfall threatens the pristine interior of a Victorian sitting room. Rockwell, known for her intimate investigations into autobiography, created a room-sized flour sifter with ominous clouds that release 100 pounds of flour a day in correspondence to the activity outside the gallery on the hot August streets. A total of half a ton of material accumulates on the ornate furniture below, as if vulnerability, neglect and loss of control have invaded a private place where comfort was believed to be protected. Issues of current events, social injustice, and autobiographical references offer points of reflection as the viewer observes from the exterior of the gallery windows.
Image: Installation shot showing Victorian sitting room, flour, screen and mechanized solenoids. Photography by Emily Poole
