New Perspectives in Contemporary Art
Curated by Chessia Kelley
June 19 – July 10, 2009, Opening Reception: Friday, June 19, 6pm – 8pm.
PRESS RELEASE
Affirmation Arts is pleased to present, in collaboration with Columbia University School of the Arts, New Perspectives in Contemporary Art curated by Chessia Kelley. The exhibition results from the Affirmation Arts Visual Arts and Curatorial Award. For the award, recent graduate students in Columbia’s Modern Art and Curatorial Studies program were invited to propose an exhibition of work by 2009 Columbia Visual Arts MFA graduates.
The selected exhibition, New Perspectives in Contemporary Art, focuses on artists who have distinct perspectives. The artists take the tools and materials of their generation and flash them back upon the viewer, causing one to see in a new way. They continue to question how we look and what we are looking at, turning our gaze in a fresh direction. Additionally, the work instigates the reexamination of one’s humanity. Featured artists include: Per Bilgren, David Brooks, Gabriel Martinez, Virginia Poundstone, and Gilad Ratman.
Bilgren’s color photographs provide a glimpse into the world of conventions. His work reveals what is typically considered outsider personalities, at intimate moments. Concrete with Eggs by Brooks changes our perspective to one that is more long-term, conscious of our future effect on the environment. Martinez’s chalkboard wall uses the gallery architecture as a descriptive receptacle for his Lucky Day project that occurred elsewhere in New York. His flower box sculptures also refer to inside/outside gallery space transforming the dividing tool of the police barrier into a cheerful pedestal for flowers. A site specific mobile by Poundstone proposes new ways to look at the world we live in. Ratman’s video experiments with new, organic visual forms. The Boggyman presents thedescent of the boggyman into a deep pool of mud recalling primeval, and strangely sexual imagery that is eerily familiar.
The Visual Arts Program at Columbia University School of the Arts is a vigorous, interdisciplinary community where painters, printmakers, photographers, video artists, installation artists and sculptors interact freely with each other and with an internationally renowned faculty, including, among others, artists Gregory Amenoff, Jon Kessler, Thomas Roma, Sarah Sze, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Tomas Vu-Daniel and Kara Walker. For more information please visit arts.columbia.edu.