MEDIA RELEASE
The Studio Museum in Harlem
144
West 125th Street
New York, NY 10027
Contact:
Liz Gwinn, Public Relations and Publications
Manager
egwinn@studiomuseum.org
646.214.2142
Exhibition previews and artist led tours may be
scheduled upon request.
Spring 2011 Exhibitions and Projects
On view March 31—June 26, 2011
Featuring Stephen Burks, Benjamin Patterson,
selected works from the permanent collection,
and
VideoStudio
STEPHEN BURKS:
MAN MADE
 
Stephen Burks, Wall
Mounted Basket Mirror with Daniel, 2010; Prototypes & Material
Compositions(Pile Up) Including Basket Lamps and Basket Low Tables, 2010. Photos: Daniel
Håkansson for
Readymade
Projects
The Studio Museum in
Harlem is pleased to present Stephen Burks: Man
Made, a unique
project that furthers industrial designer Stephen Burks’s ongoing exploration
of the global economy of artisanal craft. Inspired by Burks’s collaboration
with Senegalese basket weavers based in New York and Dakar—as well as projects
with artisans in South Africa, Peru and India—Man Made starts with the traditional basket-weaving process as
its core concept. This technique will be represented in various permutations
including tables, lamps and chairs that fuse clean, modernist aesthetics with
vernacular craft.
During the exhibition, the Museum’s galleries
will also be transformed into a workshop where New York-based weavers and
artisans will create a series of functional and experimental objects and
installations conceived by Burks. In addition, the exhibition will include
photographic and video documentation of Burks’s travels, as well as his own
drawings and prototypes, so that audiences can experience the entire design
process from inspiration to completion. On one hand, Man Made is an interactive design exhibition, and on the other,
it is an active platform for working with a collective of West African artisans
whose objects and presence have become a significant part of the Harlem
community.
Organized by Associate Curator Naomi Beckwith, Man Made is Burks’s first solo museum
exhibition in New York and will be accompanied by a new monograph designed by
Burks with Studio Lin. The book will follow several of his recent projects,
including those for the Museum and private clients. With Man Made and the new book, audiences will
come to understand Burks’s singular vision of making, a vision committed to
the expansive notion of design as an authentic basis for the production of
culture in a contemporary, global
context.
BENJAMIN PATTERSON: BORN IN A STATE OF FLUX/US:
SCORES
Benjamin Patterson, String
Music, 1960. Collection Getty Research Institute, Los
Angeles
Benjamin Patterson
(b. 1934), a founding member of Fluxus—a loose and international collective of
artists who infused avant-garde practices with humor and anarchic
energy—helped revolutionize the artistic landscape of the 1960s and 70s and
usher in an era of new and experimental music. The retrospective Benjamin
Patterson: Born in the State of FLUX/us marks the artist’s first major exhibition,
bringing together a multitude of works never before seen in the United States.
The exhibition is curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver, Senior Curator at the
Contemporary Art Museum Houston, where the exhibition originated.
Trained in classical music instrumentation and
composition, Patterson made his most significant contribution to Fluxus with his
concept of the “action as composition”—the resulting sound from simple and
complex actions. Exploring the connection between action and music, Patterson
created compositions for both the body in motion and unconventional playing of
his instrument, the contra bass, through ordinary gestures and other
actions.
The Studio Museum exhibition Benjamin Patterson: Born in the State of FLUX/us:
Scores presents a
selection of works from the Contemporary Art Museum Houston exhibition with a
central focus on scores from Patterson’s performances ranging from 1960 to
2005. Born in the State of FLUX/us: Scores also includes video from
recent performances, documentation, and ephemera from the twenty years in which
Patterson withdrew from his career as an artist. During this period, Patterson
was a reference librarian, arts administrator and entrepreneur, launching his
own music management company, Ben Patterson Ltd. After his hiatus, Patterson
reemerged in the 1980s to resume his prolific artistic career.
On March 31, the Studio Museum will host a
performance by Benjamin Patterson, preceded by a Q+A with Valerie Cassel Oliver,
Senior Curator at the Contemporary Art Museum Houston. More information
available at
studiomuseum.org.
Sculpted,
Etched and Cut: Metal Works from the Permanent Collection
Mining the versatile properties of metal, Sculpted, Etched and Cut brings together a
selection of artworks from the Studio Museum’s collection that incorporate
metal as medium or that were produced through metal-based processes. The
exhibition features an array of sculptures and works on paper by artists
including Melvin Edwards (b. 1937), Glenn Ligon (b. 1960), Stephanie
Pogue (1944—2002), and Michael
Queenland (b. 1970). Sculpted, Etched
and Cut was organized by Assistant Curator Lauren Haynes and continues
the Museum’s exhibition history of illuminating new facets of the permanent
collection.
Collected. Vignettes
Using Hale
Woodruff’s (1900—1980) painting Vignette (1970) as a point of departure, Collected. Vignettes highlights works from
the permanent collection that exhibit an impressionistic quality through formal
and conceptual means. The artworks offer a vast meditation on technique and
subject matter, ranging widely in medium and time span. Organized by
Curatorial Fellow Tasha Parker, Collected.
Vignettes features Norman Lewis
(1909—1979), Wangechi Mutu (b. 1972),
Adrian Piper (b. 1948), Gary Simmons (b. 1964), Alma Thomas (1891—1978), and William Villalongo (b. 1975), among
others.
VideoStudio:
Playback
VideoStudio:
Playback is the first exhibition in a series of programs dedicated to
work made in the late twentieth century that reflect the influence of dance and
avant-garde theater as well as contemporaneous social concerns on early uses of
video by artists. Emphasizing improvisation, collaboration and innovative uses
of technology, the artists in the exhibition include Houston Conwill (b. 1947), Maren
Hassinger (b. 1947), Fred Holland
(b. 1951), Ishmael Houston-Jones (b.
1951), Ulysses Jenkins (b. 1946), Senga Nengudi (b. 1943) and Howardena Pindell (b. 1943). Organized by
Exhibition Coordinator and Program Associate Thomas J. Lax, Playback is the fourth installment of VideoStudio, an ongoing series of video and
film installations inaugurated in fall 2008.
Also on View
This season, our ongoing Harlem Postcards series continues with new
works by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe (b.
1951), Matthew Day Jackson (b. 1974),
Demetrius Oliver (b. 1975), and Hank Willis Thomas (b. 1976). The
artists’ photographs will be on view in the lobby, accompanied by postcard
versions that visitors are encouraged to take free of charge. Visitors in the
lobby will also experience StudioSound: OJO, a continual broadcast a new composition
created exclusively for the Studio Museum by OJO, a Los Angeles-based visual art, music, and
performance collective. Their experimental projects range from albums on
vinyl and CD, to interactive social performances and public interventions, which
are often spontaneous, improvised and multisensory. The composition, Voluminous Sparks (2011), blends excerpts
from live performances, as well as OJO’s vast array of studio-recorded material.
About The
Studio Museum in Harlem
Founded in 1968, The Studio Museum in Harlem is a
contemporary art museum that focuses on the work of artists of African descent
locally, nationally and globally, as well as work that has been inspired and
influenced by African-American culture. The Museum is committed to serving as a
unique resource in the local community, and in national and international
arenas, by making artworks and exhibitions concrete and personal for each
viewer.
Hours and
Admission
The Studio Museum is open Thursday and Friday,
noon-9pm; Saturday, 10am-6pm; Sunday, noon-6pm. The museum is closed to the
public but available for school and group tours on Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday. Museum admission is by suggested donation: $7 for adults, $3 for
students (with valid id) and seniors. Free for children 12 and under. Sundays
are free at the Studio Museum, thanks to generous support from Target. For more
information visit studiomuseum.org.
The Studio Museum in Harlem is
supported, in part, with public funds provided by the following government
agencies and elected representatives: The New York City Department of
Cultural Affairs; Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation;
Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright, 70th A.D.; New York State Council on the Arts, a
state agency; Institute of Museum and Library Services; the National Endowment
for the Arts; Council Member Inez E. Dickens, 9th C.D. and Speaker Christine
Quinn and the New York City Council.
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