Filed under: News!
(dada is dead / Adrian Ghenie / 2009)
Alexander Conner (Adaptation Senior Curator) recently contributed an essay on Berlin-based artist Adrian Ghenie for the international online arts journal COME INTO LAND.
Read the interview here: Adrian Ghenie + Alexander Conner
(pie fight study 2 / Adrian Ghenie / 2008)
Filed under: News!
(Stills from Drink – kara crombie)
Alexander Conner (Adaptation Senior Curator) recently contributed an essay on Pittsburgh-based video artist and photographer Kara Crombie for the international online arts journal COME INTO LAND.
Read the interview here: Kara Crombie + Alexander Conner
(Stills from Hey Man (L) / Party (R) – kara crombie)
Filed under: News!
Andrew Henkels (Adaptation Associate Programmer) was recently interviewed by BEYOND RACE MAGAINE about his ongoing project, Drew & the Medicinal Pen and the release of his recent LP Heavy Head.
Read the interview here: Andrew Henkels on BRM
Heavy Head (Drew & the Medicinal Pen)
Available in digital format through iTunes / Available on vinyl direct from Drew & the Medicinal Pen
Naming the gap video by Drew & the Medicinal Pen (Created in collaboration with local Brooklyn artists / Inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock)
Filed under: News!
ONE THIN DIME /// DANIEL FALATKO
“A wild and borderline surreal piece of contemporary fiction, One Thin Dime follows the sideways trajectory of an unwilling career temp worker stuck in the most nowhere of nowhere jobs. Nathan spends many a hungover morning and afternoon fetching coffee for his delusional slumlord boss in a dust-choked office on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Between gossiping with his lone co-worker in their dangerously untidy office, attempting to calm a drug-addled friend terrified of the internet, and dealing with a jealousy-ridden girlfriend, Nathan stumbles headfirst into a clumsy property scam which finds him unknowingly at the center. With a cast of characters including a dead beatnik legend, an eccentric and pompous collector of the beatnik’s works, a new love interest in the form of a tenant with unclear intentions, and a network of sociopathic former literature professors, a saga unfolds over eight days in August which sends Nathan careening through lower Manhattan, Brooklyn, the suburbs of England, and Beyond in a swirl of comedic intrigue.”
ONE THIN DIME /// Daniel Falatko
Daniel Falatko is an inaugural member of Adaptation (2003). Adaptation has exhibited his work as part of Year One (A-Space / Philadelphia, Pa / 2003), as well as hosted a presentation of his new fiction work at Slow Graffiti (Adaptation / Philadelphia, Pa / 2008).
Filed under: News!
(Not Yet Titled (2009) – thrush holmes)
Alexander Conner (Adaptation Senior Curator) recently interviewed Toronto-based painter Thrush Holmes for the international online arts journal COME INTO LAND.
Read the interview here: Thrush Holmes + Alexander Conner
(Not Yet Titled (2009) – thrush holmes)
Check out images from the trip to Toronto: here
We are currently seeking submissions for this proposed exhibition:
FRESH MEAT
Each year countless artists and creatives transplant their lives and practice to our little-big city of Philadelphia. Coming from Left-Coasts, abroad, along 95 or anywhere in between, artists set up shop here with the promise of exploring and contributing to the vibrant arts community and culture of our region. Moving can be hard – so we want to help.
FRESH MEAT is an open-call exhibition that presents work from recent transplant artists to Philadelphia. This exhibition hopes to highlight talented and dynamic artists making the adjustment to a practice in Philadelphia, and to provide an opportunity for these artists to introduce their work to the area. Artists will be selected in early 2010 by our curators for an exhibition to occur within our immediate region in January 2011. Either initially submitted work or work completed during your first year in Philadelphia will be selected to exhibit (we want to see what you have been up to since you have been here). FRESH MEAT hopes to illuminate the struggles of the newly re-located artist, while providing a goal to work towards during that often fragile first-year.
Artist Eligibility
- You must be a recent transplant to Philadelphia (relocation within the last 6 months eligible)
- Work in ALL medium/media (including video, performance and site-specific installation) will be considered for FRESH MEAT
- We encourage art students enrolled at local colleges, universities + academies to submit
- We encourage artists temporarily residing in Philadelphia as part of local fellowship or residency programs to submit
Submission Materials
- Medium-sized jpgs (15 max) of work to be reviewed OR website
- Current CV/Resume
- Explain where you are from and show us that you are ACTUALLY here (be creative if need be)
- Submit all materials (or questions) to adaptationart@gmail.com (MEAT as the subject line)
SUBMISSION DEADLINES
- All work + materials must be submitted by FEBRUARY 18TH, 2010 to be eligible for selection (via email ONLY)
- All work submitted (and potential new work) must be available to exhibit in JANUARY of 2011
Curatorial Staff / FRESH MEAT
Brookes Britcher (Director / Senior Programmer, Adaptation) / Alexander Conner (Senior Curator, Adaptation) / Katrina Kuntz (Associate Curator, Adaptation)
We hope to meet you soon.
Best,
adaptation.
Filed under: News!
(voidentity series – tania leshkina)
Alexander Conner (Adaptation Senior Curator) was selected as the Philadelphia Correspondent for the international online arts journal COME INTO LAND. He recently contributed a short essay on the work of London-based photographer Tania Leshkina.
Read it here: Tania Leshkina by Alexander Conner
(voidentity series – tania leshkina)
Filed under: Call for Entry
(Photo credit: Christopher Motta)
The gravestone of the notoriously confident and talented Satchel Paige warns, “…don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.” A simple offering of guidance – for artist and base-runner alike.
The Rules for Staying Young explores the impact of baseball as an inspiration and conceptual model for historical and contemporary American artists, while investigating the ties between the game and the visual arts. From Thomas Eakins to Stephen Shore, baseball has captured the imagination and eye of American artists since its conception. The parallels between the timeless nature of our pastime and the evolving artistic studio are abundant, and remain profoundly relevant to contemporary practice. This exhibition highlights the rich territory between game and artist, where the perpetual moments of art and baseball meet.
Artist Eligibility
- Artist working within the United States
- Work in ALL medium/media will be considered
- Work must be related to the game of baseball (explain how if necessary)
- There are NO scale restraints for work
Submission Materials
- Medium-sized JPGS (15 max) of work to be reviewed OR website
- Brief statement regarding submitted work
- Submit materials to adaptationart@gmail.com (BASEBALL as header)
SUBMISSION DEADLINES
- All work + materials must be submitted by JANUARY 10TH, 2010 to be eligible for inclusion (The earlier you submit the better…)
Curatorial Staff / The Rules for Staying Young
Brookes Britcher (Director / Senior Programmer, Adaptation) / Alexander Conner (Senior Curator, Adaptation)
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We are pleased to announce that the NWAA (New Wilmington Art Association) will be the first venue to host this exhibition!
The Rules For Staying Young / May 2010
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Filed under: News!
All For One (Photographs 1977-2009) / Peter Capano will be CLOSING at the New Wilmington Art Association Thursday, September 17th 2009 from 6-10pm, with a live performance & films by Drew & the Medicinal Pen. Please join us!
Refreshments (compliments of DogFish Head Brewery) and Philadelphia soft-pretzels will be served.
Exhibition details:
September 4th – September 17th 2009
- Opening – September 4th 2009 / 6-9pm (Meet the artist)
- Closing – September 17th 2009 / 6-10pm (Meet the artist with a live performance & films by Drew & the Medicinal Pen [Brooklyn, Ny])
- Exhibition by appointment – contact Michael Kalmbach (302-312-5493) to schedule a visit
Hosted by:
The New Wilmington Art Association
4 West 5th Street
Wilmington, DE 19801
Live performance by:
Drew & The Medicinal Pen
An energetic four-piece band and multi-disciplinary project from Brooklyn, Ny, Drew & the Medicinal Pen is comprised of music (live/recorded), drawings, film/video, photographs, writing, painting, performance and curated screenings. Recently the project was featured in a front-page New York Times article on young Brooklyn artists, recieved airplay on Japanese radio and the Independent FIlm Channel, produced collaborations with filmmaker Brent Green and legendary Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty, as well as completed two U.S.tours.
Recent Press for All For One (Photographs 1977-2009) / Peter Capano
- CommunityPub / Sept. 13th, 2009 : <Artists fill void in Downtown Wilmington>
- LOMOphilly / Aug. 28th, 2009 : <Our neighborhood’s past, through the lens of Peter Capano>
Filed under: Call for Venue
We are currently seeking multiple venues for this proposed exhibition:
Vanishing Point
* If you are interested in hosting this exhibition please contact us at : adaptationart@gmail.com *
Vanishing Point aims to present work that confronts the notion of a “new abstract”. Inclusive to all medium, the exhibition presents abstraction as a means of reconciliation to the dislocation of self in modern life.
Engaging concepts of science, personal histories, politics and beyond, these artists build upon the histories of abstract art to fashion a sense of stability in an environment ever changing, ever updating – an environment built upon a constant feed for more information, with its reference point focused evermore on the self in synthetic environments.
Through this visual storm these artists have honed their use of abstraction not only as a means to understand their world, but as a mechanism to locate themselves as an individual in a sea of turbulent messages and meaning. Our understanding of our self becomes more abstract each day – these artists represent a direction where abstraction is no longer universal, but an intrinsically personal understanding.
Below – Excerpt from the curatorial statement by Alexander Conner (Senior Curator – Adaptation)
( This proposal is looking at artwork that is, in essence, abstracted in a conceptual manner. This common thread throughout the show, will allow each artist’s works to place themselves at different coordinates along on its continuum. “Vanishing Point” will attempt to relate to its viewers how this conceptual abstraction is indicative of how each artist orients themselves socially to establish and examine their current status as makers within their greater milieu.
In Holland Cotter’s February New York Times article entitled, “The Boom is Over, Long Live The Art!”, he poses a variety of rhetorical questions:
“Will the art industry continue to cling to art’s traditional analog status, to insist that the material, buyable object is the only truly legitimate form of art, which is what the painting revival of the last few years has really been about? Will contemporary art continue to be, as it is now, a fancyish Fortunoff’s, a party supply shop for the Love Boat crew? Or will artists — and teachers, and critics — jump ship, swim for land that is still hard to locate on existing maps and make it their home and workplace?”
These questions touch on an aspect of revolution through parsing escapism that we at Adaptation have noticed for some time in work by early-career artists today. This is not an ascetic endeavor, but one which has relegated itself beyond the realms of objective inclusion and into subjective collusion. Artists who have graduated from academies into the world of day jobs experience the comfort of camaraderie with so many others like themselves. However, this large amount of makers, competing with one another tooth-and-nail for exhibition, residency, and grant opportunities, leads to a more competitive and complex field of advancement and play within individual’s art-making practice.
Abstraction, as a conceptual entity within art-making, is a handy vehicle for the artist to attempt to make sense of, as well as obfuscate, the quickly approaching future (or for the nihilistic, perhaps end) of their art-making. These artists treat the abstract with a sensibility of engagement and distance that is dependent on the manifestation of their own belonging within different contexts. And it is this constant hindsight, this nostalgia without irony, that is particularly indicative of their individual interpretations of their collective revolution. )
Artists
Strauss Borque-LaFrance / Jenna Hannum / Katie Hinton / Simona Josan / Michael Kalmbach / Adam Lister / Caroline Santa / Cullen Stephenson / Stephanie Terao / Matthew West
/ Thank you to all the artists that submitted work to this show – We hope to find a place for your work in future exhibitions. /
