Spread Art

Spread Art and Playground Detroit team up for F.A.S.H. Fest 2013 Residency

Spread Art and PLAYGROUND DETROIT are teaming up once again to offer one New York City artist a residency and exhibition opportunity in Detroit.  Playground Detroit just announced a call for any NYC-based artists with a Michigan ‘connection’ to do an outdoor installation at the 2nd annual F.A.S.H Fest, organized by Presence II Productions.  PLAYGROUND DETROIT has been invited back to participate for the second year, with a 10 x10’  granted open air space at the festival and this year, Spread Art has come aboard to offer the selected artist residency and work space.

This exciting opportunity gives groundbreaking artists and creators to travel to Detroit  to create and showcase their unique work in Detroit’s own vibrant art scene. This event is an anticipated city-based festival which will include a broad range of engaging activities and events to celebrate Detroit and Michigan talent. Festival partners and sponsors include: The Detroit Free Press, StyleLine Magazine, the City of Detroit, and the Detroit Creative Corridor Center.

Playground Detroit's installation last year by Detroit-based artist, Cristin Richard was a major highlight at the festival and was very well-received by the public . This year, one finalist will be selected to display their work at the Detroit-based festival event. Spread Art and Playground Detroit are offering the selected artist a two-week residency program so he or she may construct their work in Detroit, and do the installation themselves.

What is PLAYGROUND DETROIT and Spread Art looking for from artists?  

Michelle Matson opens at Whitdel Arts May 17th

 Spread Art X Playground Detroit Spring 2013 Detroit Artist Residency Exchange artist Michelle Matson has been hard at work here in Detroit creating on a new body of work that opens on  May 17th.  Michelle arrived on April 17th and quickly settled in to her new studio accomodations in the 555Arts complex.  Following a welcome brunch at the Spread Art Resdiency House, Michelle has been busy preparing for the opening on the 17th.  Michelle has also been keeping a photo journal during her month long stay here in Detroit.

 

Spring 2013 Detroit Artist Residency Exchange:
Michelle Matson @ Whitdel Arts

This brand new body of work explores systems of humor, social and sexual themes.  
The intricate sculptures featured in this exhibition combine facsimiles of common everyday objects and figures into darkly humorous, sexually charged, dreamlike totems and tableaux.

In the site specific installation "Grim Reaper" a figure camouflaged almost completely by household plants guards a large scale abstract sculpture.  Reminiscent of ancient Egyptian statuary and architecture this piece borrows snippets of its vernacular from far flung corners of popular culture and art history.  One can see references to artists Nick Cave, Tom Friedman and Tony Smith, along with references to stereotypical "women's interests" gardening, fitness, and protecting the sanctuary of home.  Both absurd and haunting, Matson leads the viewer subtly into a surreal tableaux via exaggeration and misinformation: errors in the hard lines of branding logos, distorted body parts and jarring coloration. Using a limited palette of commercially manufactured colored paper and household construction materials, Matson creates dream-like shadow selves of the world we know.

In her "Tickle" sculptures, Matson employs geometric plaster forms, handmade plaster bananas and paper ferns to create delightfully humorous and sexually charged totems.  These smaller scale sculptures are complimented by entertaining and macabre drawings, which delve further into the surreal miasma of Matson's psyche.

Michelle Matson (b. 1981) received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York in 2005.  Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles including the Zach Feuer Project Space, Postmasters Gallery, Stux Gallery, Flux Factory, Youth Group Gallery, Kravets Wehby Gallery, China Art Objects, Family Business Gallery and the Torrance Art Museum.  In 2011, she was selected to compete on the internationally syndicated Bravo reality television series "Work of Art, The Next Great Artist".  Matson was recently awarded a residency at Yaddo.  Her work is currently on view at The Parlour, Brooklyn, NY. 

Spread Art is an artist-run creative incubator designed to foster new works through residencies and collaborations with artists, curators, and organizations from around the world. Spread Art supports emerging artists through residencies, group and solo exhibitions, music events, and performance showcases, and also facilitates opportunities for youth and adults to explore their creativity and increase self-awareness through art. Spread Art supports the creation and evolution of art festivals and cultural collaborations locally, nationally, and internationally. www.spreadart.or 

Playground Detroit is a non-profit creative platform whose mission is to enhance Detroit’s artistic reputation by connecting artists, entrepreneurs, and influencers to opportunities within international art markets. By establishing a link between artistic communities in these cities, Playground Detroit seeks to inspire, elevate, and power leading lights of America’s creative economy. Through the presentation of inspirational art, engaging online media, powerful music, provocative educational events, and unique residency opportunities, Playground Detroit promotes artists, investment, and effective action for growth in Detroit’s internationally connected arts community. www.playgrounddetroit.com

Whitdel Arts: A division of CAID, Whitdel Arts is an 1800 sq. ft. professional exhibition space that showcases the work of local and international established and emerging artists. Whitdel Arts is located at 1250 Hubbard Street, Suite B1, Detroit MI 48209. Whitdel Arts is also located on the web at www.whitdelarts.com

 

 

Artist Brunch: Sister Sylvester Work In Progress & Artist Talk

Join us for an artist brunch work in progress showing and get a first look at the latest work from Sister Sylvester, a Brooklyn-based collaborative theater company in residence with Spread Art as they create Come From There. 

Sunday April 14th 11:00am until 1:00pm

Get Directions

Come From There is a piece being made simultaneously in Turkey and in the USA. The piece is a search for stories and forms, for a time where the defining paradigm is a sense of un- belonging, of rootlessness, of being between cultures. Two directors - one in Turkey the other in the US - have set each other a series of challenges around this problem. In the first phase of the project they will work independently in their respective countries to create two performances, and in the second they will meet in both New York and Istanbul to combine their work and co-direct a final piece.

The piece is an attempt to wrestle with this sense of un-belonging through the lens of three performance makers from the previous generation, each of whom invented forms that became iconic to their place and time. The work of these three performers: Spalding Grey, Ethyl Eichelberger, Reza Abdoh, is the foundation of what we do as a company, and to this genre called ‘performance’ that we are a part of. We want to use the forms they created to see if they can hold contemporary stories – or to find out what we need to do to subvert and adapt these old forms for our contemporary reality. Working with an ensemble cast on what - in the case of the first two - are solo performances gives us the opportunity to complicate the single narratives, exploding these forms with new stories, and creating a performance for our times.

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Sister Sylvester uses performance to investigate the fictions—personal, political, and social—that are built up through language and habit, and remain largely unquestioned in social identity and discourse. Since 2008, they have made work in both site-specific venues as well as in theaters, keeping an investigation of the audience-performer relationship at the heart of their practice.

www.sistersylvester.org

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Thank you to Cathy Schneider & family, owners of the Izzy's building, for their ongoing support of the Detroit arts community & Spread Art.

Sister Sylvester - Detroit Artist Residency Exchange 2013

Spread Art invited New York City based theater group Sister Sylvester to Detroit for a 10-day residency retreat to work on their next project: Come From There.  

Sister Sylvester - April 5th - 14th 



Sister Sylvester is a Brooklyn-based collaborative theater company that uses performance to investigate the fictions—personal, political, and social—that are built up through language, and the dynamics of power that are created within those fictions.  Since 2008, we have made work in both site-specific venues as well as in theaters, with a constant theme of investigating the audience-performer relationship at the heart of our practice.  We've made work that is part performance and part rave, in an abandoned convent in Greenpoint; staged work in the cosmic-cavern installation space of artist Kenny Scharf; led audience members through freight elevators and into an old archive library for an immersive re-imagining of The Iceman Cometh. And we have developed work, such as our production Boxman, based on the novel of Kobo Abe, which are built of games and patterns rather than a set choreography, and are able to tour to a different venue every night and adapt to the new environment.  We also work in theater spaces: most recently a month-long run of a new work at Dixon Place, and performances at Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn.

PROJECT: COME FROM THERE

Come From There is a piece being made simultaneously in Turkey and in the USA. The piece is a

search for stories and forms, for a time where the defining paradigm is a sense of un- belonging, of

rootlessness, of being between cultures. Two directors - one in Turkey the other in the US - have set each other a series of challenges around this problem. In the first phase of the project they will work independently in their respective countries to create two performances, and in the second they will meet in both New York and Istanbul to combine their work and co-direct a final piece. Our piece is an attempt to wrestle with this sense of un-belonging through the lens of three performance makers from the previous generation, each of whom invented forms that became iconic to their place and time. The work of these three performers: Spalding Grey, Ethyl Eichelberger, Reza Abdoh, is the foundation of what we do as a company, and to this genre called ‘performance’ that we are a part of. We want to use the forms they created to see if they can hold contemporary stories – or to find out what we need to do to subvert and adapt these old forms for our contemporary reality. Working with an ensemble cast on what - in the case of the first two - are solo performances gives us the opportunity to complicate the single narratives, exploding these forms with new stories, and creating a performance for our times.

About Detroit Artist Residency Exchange:

Spread Art's Detroit Artist Residency Exchange invites international, national and regional artists to Detroit to develop, create, collaborate, perform, exhibit, present, discuss their work and to engage in the artistic community of Detroit. Spread Art is currently working with numerous Detroit organizations to provide performance, workshop and exhibition opportunities for visiting artists

Spring 2013 Detroit Artist Residency Exchange

Spread Art and PLAYGROUND DETROIT are happy to announce Michelle Matson, as the NYC artist resident  participating in our Spring 2013 Detroit Artist Residency Exchange.  Born 1981, she currently lives & works in Brooklyn, NY. She has had various solo shows in New York, including “Cactus Milk” (2012) at theYouth Group Gallery, Brooklyn and “Rise“ (2012) paper sculpture installation in Soho, NY at Issey Miyake’s Pleats Please.

Local Bushwick heavyweights 3rd Ward and Bushwick Daily have profiled her, citing her 3-D work as, “really impressive… [and] engaging to look at. As a creator, Michelle has great sense of humor…” Even NY Art criticJerry Saltz is in her corner; while working with her as a contestant on Bravo TV’s “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist”  Season 2, having said that,

When around her, I often found myself in a strange awe of her artistic grace. I believe Michelle has a real future in the real art world.”

After reviewing many other applications received, PLAYGROUND DETROIT curator Joe Jagos alongside Thomas Bell and Christina deRoos, Co-Directors of Spread Art are excited announce Matson as the first participant for the Detroit-based residency program. Her unique medium and sense of “PG adult humor” sets her art apart from other artists and we welcome her back to the city she never got to know giving her the opportunity to re-aquiant with the city as it is now.

Continue to full post to read the Playground Detroit interview with Michelle.

Spread Art and Playground Detroit team up for Spring 2013 Residency

Spread Art and PLAYGROUND DETROIT are teaming up to offer one NYC-based artist a month-long artist residency program in Detroit, MI this upcoming Spring 2013. In collaboration with the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID),the residency will conclude in Detroit with a solo exhibit at Detroit Contemporary or Whitdel Arts, dependent on the artist medium. The artist will also participate in a group show during Bushwick Open Studios in Brooklyn, NY in early June 2013 for joint-exposure in both cities. As a part of the residency program, the artist will be asked to engage and give back to the Detroit community through a workshop with a local organization or youth group.

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.

Konic Thtr in Detroit for Artist Residency at Spread Art

Spread Art has officially launched its 2012/13 Detroit Artistic Residency Experience, hosting international artistic platform and performance group Konic Thtr (Barcelona, Spain) for a two week artistic development residency.   Kònic thtr is an artistic platform based in Barcelona dedicated to contemporary creation at the confluence between arts, new technologies and science. The main activity being focused on the application of interactive technologies to artistic projects. Konic Thtr will be in residence at Spread Art from September 28th through October 14th to develop their new multidisciplinary interactive project, Cuerpo_SMS.

Konic Thtr's Rosa Sanchez

 

As part of the residency activities:

Konic Thtr will present two excerpted performances of Cuerpo_SMS:
Friday Oct 6th at Whitdel Arts during the opening of “Engage – An Interactive Exhibition”
Friday October 12th at Tank Gallery in Hazel Park.
Both performances at 8:30pm. 
There will also be a technology demonstration and Artist Q&A:
Friday October 12th at Tank Gallery at 6:30pm before the performance.

About Cuerpo_SMS:
Performances will invite audience interaction through a variety of technologies, such as cell phones, tablets, live video feeds, and/or light sensors. Prior to the performance at Tank Gallery the artists will present a demonstration of the platforms and interactive tools they have developed, while placing Cuerpo_SMS in context as related to their previous work in performance and installation and within the greater art & technology genre. Cuerpo_SMS is a multidisciplinary project that brings together live performance, audiovisual creation, and interactive technology. Cuerpo_SMS refers to the changes of perception in interpersonal communication mediated by new technologies, and to the spaces that this mediation generates, a recurrent theme in Kònic Thtr’s work, and that we have explored more recently in our performance “Before the Beep.” The piece confronts the body with these same communication technologies, and explores how these re-write the body and change our understanding of place and the idea of presence. In Cuerpo_SMS several technological devices, such as cameras, tablets, light and movement sensors, are controlled by the audience to affect the visuals and create part of the music used in the dance. Cuerpo_SMS is a space to collaborate with local artists, presenting a site-specific event every time it is performed. Building from the initial materials brought by the company, the background and knowledge from collaborators expand the possibilities of the initial proposal. Kònic Thtr is collaborating with Detroit artists, Christina deRoos and Thomas Bell to enhance the visuals and sound elements of the piece. The full performance of Cuerpo_SMS will be shown October 26, 27 and 28th at the Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, NY.

ARTISTIC TEAM:
Kònic Thtr  www.koniclab.info 
is an artistic platform based in Barcelona (Spain) dedicated to contemporary creation at the confluence of art, science and new technologies. Kònic Thtr’s work has been presented, among other places, in: MACBA, Mercat de les flors, Medialab Madrid (Spain), Institute of Contemporary Arts, Ikon Gallery, Tramway (UK), V2 (Netherlands), ZKM, Podewill (Germany), Centre Pompidou / IRCAM (France), Centro de la imagen, CCE, (Mexico), SESC Pompeia & File Fest (Brazil), Tsekh, Proekt Fabrika Moscow (Russia), 3-Legged Dog Art & Technology Center,  EMPAC, New York (USA), Fringe & DanStorm Int. Fest.,  Shanghai & Beijing (China). In their last projects Kònic thtr have been exploring the possibilities of the Internet as a platform for distributed creation and with audience participation. The projects e_pormundos (Kònic thtr_Catalunya/Spain - GTMDA_Brasil / 2009-2010) and Dance-Net (Kònic thtr + Digitalent / 2010-2011) allowed us to develop languages and tools for creating distributed in distributed locations (physical or Internet). In 2011 we presented our work ‘Before the Beep’ in Brazil, China and the US, each time with different artistic collaborators.

COLLABORATORS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Rosa Sánchez and Alain Baumann lead the conceptual, creative and technological lines of Kònic Thtr. They both have long professional trajectories related to new technologies applied to installation, interactive stage projects, dance and theater. Rosa Sánchez. Multidisciplinary and multimedia artist, performer & choreographer. Artistic director and co founder of Konic thtr. Alain Baumann. Musician, multimedia artist and researcher of new systems for producing sound. He is in charge of the interactive systems used by Konic thtr. www.koniclab.info

Christina deRoos: Christina deRoos is a visual artist whose work is at the intersection of photo/video, installation, and mixed-media. Most recently she has focused on real-time video mixing, collaborating with experimental musicians in improvised group collaborations to present integrated sound and visual landscapes. Her work has been presented recently at Whitdel Arts (Detroit), 555 Gallery (Detroit), Grace Exhibition Space (NY), The Tank (NY), Center for Performance Research (NY), Bronx Art Space (NY), Arts@Renaissance (NY), Art Gotham (NY), Samson Projects (Boston), and in a variety of festivals including Electro Music Festival (NY) and Bent Festival (NYC), and online platforms, such as Dimanche Rouge. www.christinaderoos.com

Thomas Bell: Thomas began studying music at age seven receiving instruction on guitar, electric bass, piano, flute, trumpet, percussion, trombone, music theory, composition, and vocal studies through high school and continued his instruction while studying jazz performance at Berklee College of Music and ethnomusicology at Florida State University.  He has been primarily involved with improvised music, electronic music and computer music for the last decade, and founded the Oxygen Music Collective in Seattle in 1999 and has since produced numerous music environments and events in Seattle and New York, bringing together hundreds of musicians from around the world to collaborate in improvised settings.  Currently, his main focus is on collective improvisation, multi-media integration and collaboration between artistic disciplines. www.thomasbellart.com 

Paul (Magic) DiStefano (NY Performances Only):
Magic Distefano is a highly diverse performance artist, who was trained in Modern, contemporary and classical dance at the Joffrey Ballet school of New York.  He has acted across from Toni Colette and Jon Corbit in The United States Of Tara, and has performed in Gelsey Kirkland's rendition of the Nut Cracker.  Magic has street performed throughout Europe, Australia and the United States.  His travels through Europe allowed him to delve into other crafts like physical comedy, the corporal mime, and juggling. Among other artists of note Magic has worked with Alexandre Proia, Stephan James Back, and Stephan Haves.  For the past year Magic has been dancing for Pilobolus dance theater.  You can read more about magic at Magicdistefano.com 

CREDITS CUERPO SMS_Detroit / NY / US

Artistic and Stage direction: Rosa Sánchez
Technological direction: Alain Baumann
Performers :
Dance (NY Performances Only): Paul (Magic) DiStefano
live AV-performance: Rosa Sánchez, Alain Baunmann, 
(Detroit Performances only): Thomas Bell & Christina de Roos 

Sound Composition : Alain Baunmann & Thomas Bell
Video and Computer Graphics: Adolf Alcañiz, Rosa Sánchez & Christina de Roos
Software: Alain Baumann, audio and interaction development Miroslava Moreno & Eduard Gomez, Internet interactions
Costumes: Carme Puigdevall     

PRODUCTION: Kònic thtr/Koniclab
CO-PRODUCTION: Chez Bushwick, NY & Spread Art, Detroit

Special thanks to Living Arts, Detroit

With the support of: Spain Culture New York- Consulate General of Spain- & Spain Arts & Culture. ICUB, Ajuntament de Barcelona(SP), Ramon Llull Institute (SP), Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya (SP)

 

Interview: Playground Detroit

Thank you, Playground Detroit, for the interview & profile of Spread Art and our new location in Detroit. 

SPREAD ART CREATIVE INCUBATOR RELOCATES TO DETROIT FROM BROOKLYN

PLAYGROUND DETROIT sat down with the duo behind the organization, Thomas Bell and Christina de Roos, to ask them about Spread Art and their recent re-location from Bushwick, Brooklyn, to Corktown, Detroit. The two are originally not from Detroit, or NYC, both growing up elsewhere.

PD: When was the first time you visited Detroit? What was your experience and impression of the city like?

Allison & Taya's Impressions: 2012 Spread Art Residency in Mexico

Below are reflections and photos from Allison & Taya De Long after returning from a week in La Manzanila, Jalisco, Mexico as part of Spread Art's residency program. We are grateful they were able to take part, and appreciate their positive contribution to the community. See more photos here.

 Our opportunity in Mexico, thanks to Spread Art, turned out to be an even richer experience than we had imagined!  Our location was right where all the action happens, near the plaza and right next to the church.  The day after we arrived, a bishop was visiting and there was a great celebration which included a parade, live entertainment, and a huge "pozole" feast!

On Saturday, we helped with a free art class for the local children.  There were over 20 enthusiastic kids in attendance.  They worked on 4 different projects during the class.  Two gringo artists living there in La Manzanilla give their time and materials(?) to put this on every weekend.

A couple days later we helped with an after school art class in the La Catalina Education Foundation building next to the elementary school.  It was fun to see some of the same kids there as the Saturday class.  Another afternoon we helped with an after school English class in the same location.  It turned out the woman teaching was a friend of ours from back home!  And she was there with her kids who we knew also which was fun for my daughter, Taya.

Our last day we were invited to come to the elementary school to help with the English classes that occur as part of the regular school day.  We saw many familiar faces that we had come to know during the week.  It was fun to see the kids in their school uniforms too!  We were surprised to see as many as 37 kids in one classroom.

We love the small, friendly size and safe feel of La Manzanilla.  We enjoyed being on the streets in town and having kids we had met in classes come up to us and say "Hola" and want to speak with us.  These connections were priceless and unforgettable.  We gave little of our time and were given so much more in return.  It was much better than a vacation just sitting on the beach day after day (but I admit we did a bit of that too!).