news

Beacon, NY

by

NYAP Visits Steve Lambert in his studio in Beacon, NY. We talked about his creative practice and the pros and cons of not living in New York City.

Kristin Lucas and Joe Mckay took us to their favorite secret waterfall near their home in Beacon, NY. Afterwards they welcomed us to their home and studio for a barbeque.

While we were in Beacon we also saw the Riggio Galleries at Dia:Beacon.

Andrew Norman Wilson

by


Andrew Norman Wilson’s work in stock media tends to conflate the lines between subversion and genuine interest to appeal to a more corporate audience. To the New York Arts Practicum participants, these works made sense as a sort of twisted, subliminally charged take on traditional PowerPoint presentations or generic TV ads. Cohorts were exposed to a tense world of women crying during phone surveys, corrupted trails of his former Google job, and anxiety-inducing slides set to drone sounds as a penis pops up in the corner. This was weird stuff, but enticingly so.

With some of the participants working in subverting or recreating these corporate aesthetics as a form of critique, Wilson’s art was a definite inspiration. He tilts back and forth between shaking up this otherwise stale, consumer-hungry media aesthetic, and then actually being a salesman of such stock media. Cohorts had many questions regarding his unsettling sounds, Google background, and how he juggles between giving presentations to a business audience compared to an art audience. It was an overall refreshing talk with an artist who plays and operates within these sorts of conventions.

June 17th Visit: Pablo Helguera

by

On June 17, the New York Arts Practicum met with artist Pablo Helguera, at his studio in the Elizabeth Foundation of The Arts. Helguera, who is also an educator at the Museum of Modern Art, interstices his trans-disciplinary practice with his interest in pedagogy. During the Practicum’s visit, the artist shared a keynote presentation on his work and recent projects. These included: The Dead Languages Conservatory (2004–present) —where Helguera travels, finds, records, and presents languages that are currently dying. Further, the artist presented video documentation of Lyra Kilston­–This is Not a Panel Discussion (2009), a subversive performance that occurred at the Kansas City Art Museum. Helguera, camouflaged as a fictional artist (Lyra Kilston), generated both artworks for exhibition, and a panel discussion on Kilston —the discussion eventually broke down into an argument between actors; posing as curators, gallerists, lovers, and historians.

From sculpture to installation, drawing, photography and lecturing, Helguera presented a variety of works, meant to engage the Practicum on a dialogue surrounding current practices of the participants. During this time, the artist continued to share his interests in the merging of language, history and artistic production.

Memefactory

by


Memefactory (Mike Rugnetta, Patrick Davison, and Stephen Bruckert) hosted us for a barbeque at the end of a long day of visits. They talked about their work together, and told stories of moving to and surviving in New York.

Friday Visit: Sherry Millner and Ernest Larsen

by

For the first Friday session of 2013, the Practicum met with Sherry Millner and Ernest Larsen to learn of their filmmaking practice. The couple — who are ardent anarchists and have been honing their craft for 40 years — invited the Practicum into their home/studio.

Collaboratively merging politics with cultural analysis, interest and humour, Millner and Larsen spent the visit speaking of the softening of radical politics in the current cultural climate. They related their experiences of the Left, as Americans, during the Vietnam War, and attributed the weakening of current Leftist politics to the immersive rise of globalization and late capitalism. For the duration of the visit, Millner graciously shared an unfinished film on the current economic crisis in Greece. The film, which has been shown a handful of times, is a wondering foray into the resistance of anarchists in Greece and its possible relationship to both Old and New Left struggles during the past 150 years.

Both Millner and Larsen welcomed the Practicum into their home, continually wanting to engage in political and artistic discourse. For the filmmakers, this is life and resistance.

Caroline Woolard at Exchange Café and Ellie Glicklich from MoMA

by

The Practicum visited the Brooklyn-based artist Caroline Woolard at the Exchange Café, the Department of Education’s Artists Experiment initiative in the MoMA Studio.

The Exchange Café is a social space in the mezzanine of MoMA’s Education and Research building that is dedicated to exchange-based practices. Taking the form of a café, the Studio encourages visitors to question notions of reciprocity, value, and property through shared experiences. Tea, milk, and honey—products that directly engage the political economy—are available by exchange. Instead of paying with legal tender, Exchange Café patrons are invited to make a resource-based currency. Exchange Café features an interactive participatory archive, a matrix of exchange projects, and a library of books and ephemera.


The artist talked to us about her work, her experiences, and her future projects.

Ellie Glicklich from MoMa talked to us about different job opportunities in the art environment