Richard Höglund is one those young artists you meet, have a beer with, chat about all things impertinent and precious, and leave saying to yourself, “You know what? The art world will be okay.” The Paris-based American works diligently on his trade, is charismatic and articulate, yet doesn’t always take things too seriously, and definitely will not hesitate to throw a punch if you are behaving like a complete a-hole. If Die Antwoord was leading a 21st century reformation, I would want him on my team.

Read the full interview Here

Voorhees Special Exhibition Gallery
Jan 28, 2012 – Jul 08, 2012

Rachel Perry Welty is a conceptual artist who creates humorous, beautifully crafted, process-based work on the subject of life in the twenty-first century. Addressing issues that include consumerism and the cycle of purchasing, collecting and eventual purging, as well as social networking, information overload, narcissism, language and time, she uses fruit stickers, restaurant take-out containers, messages left on her answering machine, medical records, toys, and email spam as materials for her art. By drawing attention to what she describes as the “business of living” – the  unremarked and insignificant moments, detritus, and every day materials of our lives – Welty reminds us to look at what we overlook and to pay attention to the momentary.

Read more about the exhibition HERE

Read the full review Here

Read the full article HERE

Read the complete review HERE

Cheat Chains and Telephone 14 January – 18 February, 2011

OPENING RECEPTION 14 January, 6-9 PM

KANSAS is pleased to present Cheat Chains and Telephone, a group exhibition featuring new works by Fabienne Lasserre, Elisa Lendvay, John Newman and B. Wurtz. Opening January 14, the exhibition runs through February 18. By obscuring material hierarchy and challenging the codification of an art object, the artists in Cheat Chains and Telephone expose the pluralism of sculptural assemblage. Together, these works enumerate a spectrum of approaches to parallel concerns: collection, found objects, the currency of labor, economics of material content and the general multiplication of visual assemblage.

Fabienne Lasserre’s practice involves the use of pliable materials such as linen, wood, handmade felt and paint, and the work represents what the artist calls an “excluded middle” – the part that is left out when things are named or divided into categories. To achieve this hybridity, Lasserre stretches and elongates forms, arriving at shapes and volumes through pressure and touch that evoke the language of furniture, playground equipment and commercial signage, among others. Reflecting the artist’s interest in science fiction and mythology, these works take on the shape and stance of a familiar yet ethereal form.

Elisa Lendvay’s work absorbs ideas about the underlying poetics of natural phenomena, and combines with formal considerations about art making to create a byproduct of what she terms “colliding forces.” She depicts this force or surge in her work as dispersal – each of the works seem to simultaneously come together and break apart. Studio detritus and found objects are cohered into composed sculptures based on their formal attributes and their allegorical imperatives.

John Newman’s tabletop sculptures are involved with a rich vernacular of materials and components, both found and fabricated, that obscure the categories to which each belongs. Newman’s inexhaustible and ever changing list of materials – bronze, wicker, stone, paper, glass, fabric to name a few – are meticulously and laboriously composed. Impossible couplings of material, shape, color and techniques pile up and offer a dizzying constellation of effects both specific and otherworldly. Forms are imbued with a language connected to a cultural world of object specificity including votive and historical relics and the belongings of a “wunderkammer” – a strange intersection of oddity, craft and artifact.

Since the early 70′s, B. Wurtz has limited his involvement with found materials to three fundamental categories: Food, Clothing and Shelter. With a lightness of touch, Wurtz adopts and fashions those qualifying items in a manner that suggests other familiar forms while preserving and emphasizing the utilitarian origin of the found object. The artist transforms plastic bags, shoelaces, wood, yogurt tops, buttons and other orphaned scraps into lowly but charming sculptural objects and wall hanging compositions in an effort that’s part “green” and part fetishistic.

For additional information, please contact Steven Stewart at KANSAS by calling 646-559-1423 or emailing info@kansasgallery.com

Betty Woodman is Internationally recognized as one of today’s most important sculptors using ceramics, since the 1950′s she has worked to challenge traditional notions of form and materiality through her manipulations of the material. Charlie Woodman has been working in the field of Electronic Art for more than twenty years creating works of sound, video, and interactive projects that blend live music with video projection. Francesca Woodman is best known for photographic works often using herself as the subject, her sophisticated images of the body are referenced by countless artists working with performance, photography and the body. George Woodman has worked in a variety of media including painting and sculpture, his current work focuses on photography, and photographs with paint on them.

Recent Press Includes:

A review of Betty Woodman’s work in The New York Times

An article about the Woodman Family in The New York Times

Read the full interview Here

Endgame No. 1, Performance No. 7-
Richard Höglund

A Performance by Richard Höglund at Dimensions Variable
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 7:00 pm

Dimensions Variable is pleased to present Endgame No. 1, Performance No. 7, a performance by artist Richard Höglund. The performance will take place on Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 7:00 pm.

Dimensions Variable is located at 171 NE 38th Street in the Miami Design District.

Endgame No. 1, Performance No. 7 is rooted in the question: when does art/philosophy/theory/etc. end? Höglund’s proposed response to the question is that we cease to think of these higher things when physical urgency draws us away from them. Basic human needs like I am hungry, I am tired, I am horny, I must piss or shit—I am afraid for my life, or of physical harm all take precedence over theory. Endgame No. 1, Performance No. 7 is a very simple mise-à-l’épreuve of this contention. The performance is designed to place the spectator in a situation in which it becomes increasingly difficult to sit and listen to the reading of important theory-based texts.

Richard Höglund has been living in Europe since 2001. He grew up in New York, and was educated at Northeastern University, Univerzita Karlova in Prague, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg. Awarded the prix Jeune Création Paris 2006 and several grants from the French government, Richard has been invited as Artist-in-Residence at diverse institutions in France, Iceland, Switzerland, Germany, Bulgaria and the United States.  Most recently his work has been exhibited at the Mamco in Geneva and La Spirale in Lyon.

Watch the performance HERE