Spread Art

Art Basel 2012 & A Sneak Peek into 2013

It's that time of year again! Spread Art is in Miami for all that surrounds Art Basel 2012...

We'll be stopping by Fountain Art Fair and checking out the exhibitions and performance art curated by Grace Exhibition Space.  If you are in Miami, do not miss the Non Grata Performances on Friday and Saturday nights! 

As always, the Wynwood district will be full of street art, murals, galleries, people, food and all night extravaganzas.  Other fairs Spread Art will be hitting up include, Select, NADA, Context, Miami Project, Pool, Verge.

Spread Art has been busy preparing for an abundance of creativity 2013.  Here's a quick look into next year:

Expanded Residency Opportunities:
Spread Art recently purchased a house in SW Detroit that we are rehabbing for artist residencies, as well as exhibitions and performances. The combination of the existing space at 2572 Michigan and the new house in SW Detroit opens a world of new possibilities. Its too soon to tell exactly what will manifest from the abundance of space, but we know that 2013 will see Spread Art facilitating more artists' work in Detroit and beyond.

Anti-Auto Show
Detroit Contemporary invited Spread Art to curate the Anti-Auto Show exhibition.

Thomas Bell, Christina deRoos and Anya Liftig - Itinerant Festival Performance

I T I N E R A N T Festival for Contemporary Performance Art Sunday, April 29th, 2012, 6 - 9 pm @ BRONX ART SPACE 305 East 140th Street Bronx, NY 10454 Join us Sunday April 29th 6pm to 9pm for the Itinerant Performance Festival at Bronx Art Space.   Spread Art Co-Directors Thomas Bell and Christina deRoos join forces with performance artist Anya Liftig for a collaborative improvised performance experience.  See the whole line up below! "playing with myself playing with yourself" Thomas Bell (sound), Christina deRoos (video) and Anya Liftig (performance) create an intimate collaborative work while each improvises in their respective medium while simultaneously working together.  Christina's video remixes of Anya's past performances, to which Anya performs along with, creates an opportunity for self reflection and introspection.   The addition of live audience participation through the use of video and sound feeds creates an intimate experience between the audience members and the three performing artists.

QMAD, Queens Media Arts Development, continues the presentation of ITINERANT, a citywide Festival for Contemporary Performance Art to be hosted at various venues in the five boroughs of New York City. On Sunday, April 29th, ITINERANT will be in the Bronx to present the work of local, national and international artists performing at Bronx Art Space from 6 - 9 pm. Participating artists at Bronx Art Space: Thomas Bell with Christina deRoos and Anya Liftig, Camila Cañeque, Bryon Carr, Irene Chan, Christine Ferrera, Jia-Jen Lin with Yung-Li Chen, Nadja Marcin, Panoply Performance Laboratory, Negin Sharifzadeh,and Jess Whittam with Lorelei Ramirez. Host: LuLu Lolo. ITINERANT 2012 focuses on live performative works that treat notions of intimacy, self-reflection, and introspection. Performance artists were selected to participate from an open call that attracted more than 175 local, national and international submissions. Forty five artists were selected and will be featuring new and existing works that explore the program’s theme over a period of 5 weeks starting on March 30th through May 12th, 2012. Directions: Bronx Art Space, 305 East 140th Street. #6 Train to 3rd Ave/138th St in the Bronx (first stop after Manhattan). Walk 2 blocks on Alexander Ave., turn left on 3rd Ave (Public Library is on the corner), walk towards the middle of the block. Program (borough, date & time, venue):  * BROOKLYN: Friday, March 30th, 8 - 11 pm at Grace Exhibition Space (past).  * QUEENS: Saturday, April 21st, 6 - 9 pm at Crossing Art Gallery (past).  * MANHATTAN: Saturday, April 28th, 7 – 10 pm at Floor 4 Art (featured).  * BRONX: Sunday, April 29th, 6 - 9 pm at Bronx Art Space (upcoming).   * STATEN ISLAND: Sunday, May 5th, 6 - 8 pm at Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art -     Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden (upcoming). Public Performances: 37th Road Pedestrian Plaza at 74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens:  * Every Friday, April 6th – May 4th, 3 – 6 PM: “Worlds Together, Worlds Apart,” a durational     performance collaboration between Camila Cañeque and Hector Canonge.  * Saturday, May 12th, 3 – 6 PM: Closing Event with performances by Chloe Bass, John Cichon,     Nancy Nowacek, Lizzie Scott, and Priscila Stadler. About: QMAD, Queens Media Arts Development, is under the direction of artist, Hector Canonge, who launched ITINERANT in Queens in 2011.  Canonge explains that ITINERANT is “the first program for performance art in this borough,” and that he “wants to introduce audiences to this art form as well as to create dialogue and exchange among artists coming from all over to the festival. ITINERANT started as a mini-festival with handful of local artists presenting their live performances at Crossing Art Gallery, I wanted to create the same in larger scale in NYC." Canonge adds that the experience has been an incredible challenge. "To be able to collaborate with organizations and galleries in the five boroughs, to have their support and trust that I could carry such enterprise has been a major incentive in organizing the event.”  QMAD, under the leadership of Canonge, presents the monthly LGBT film series CINEMAROSA, the annual program Framing AIDS, and the monthly art series A-Lab Forum.   More information: www.qmad.org/itinerant or email: communications@qmad.org

ITINERANT is an independent initiative supported by QMAD

 

Photos from Non Grata Performance in Detroit!

Non Grata performance at Tangent Gallery (Detroit)

On March 29th Spread Art and Grace Exhibition Space co-presented international performance group Non Grata at Tangent Gallery in Detroit. Special thanks to 555 Arts and Moonlight Underground for additonal support.

It was an incredible evening and inspired me to think of performance art in new ways. A few photos are below. Follow this link for more.  Photos by Christina deRoos

 

The Tronic and Anya Liftig performances @ Summer Group Show IV

As part of the Summer Group Show IV, The Tronic performed at 20min set of improvised sonic environments with Circut Bent instuments and plenty of looping.  Live video manipulation and projection by Christina deRoos.  Anya Liftig also performed a 15min solo work.  Watch both videos below!

Spread Art

Summer Group Show IV
Brooklyn, NY

 

The Tronic / Spread Art / June 18, 2011 from Christina deRoos on Vimeo.

 

Anya Liftig - "Want Me Like Time" - Solo Performance

Anya Liftig, Want me like time from Christina deRoos on Vimeo.

 www.anyaliftig.com

 

 

 

Bushwick Is...2009

Spread Art was wandering around Bushwick today with a canvas, Sharpies, crayons, and a desire to see how folks would respond to "Bushwick Is..."  Directors, Thomas Bell and Christina deRoos left Spread Art around 1pm with the canvas showing the boundaries of Bushwick way back when (1800s) and the boundaries of Bushwick today. 
After a few initial stops (a pharmacy, a laundromat, a bodega) we made our way to Maria Hernandez Park (named after a woman who was shot and killed in 1989 for fighting to rid her block of drug dealers).

In the park we were overwhelmed with kids 
and also a lot of adults wanting to participate. Among them was a veteran (Iraq and Afghanistan), whose reflections on his experience returning to Bushwick, and the words he added to the canvas ("god forgive me can you") are unlikely to leave my mind anytime soon.

After the park we made our way to Brooklyn Fireproof to share the community dialogue that had happened so far and invite further participation. Brooklyn Fireproof was a location of today's BETA spaces event, described as "a one-day festival of independently curated, collaborative group exhibitions."

The "Bushwick Is..." canvas is part of an ongoing project begun in 2006 by Erin Partridge, Thomas Bell and Christina deRoos. The project aims to facilitate community dialogue and self-reflection and to document moments in time as Bushwick experiences rapid gentrification.

See photos from the day here.