Hello Docents-
The Biennial artists have been announced! The press release is below. I will have the ARC volunteers work on getting binders together on the artists but you now have the names in case you want to start studying.
Thank you,
-Jana
Jana Wennstrom | TACOMA ART MUSEUM
Manager of Public and Volunteer Programs
T: 253.272.4258 x3030
embrace art in everyday life ♥ Folk Treasures of Mexico ♥ October 29 - February 19
MEDIA RELEASE
November 3, 2011
Media Contact: Lisa McKeown, Public Relations and Communications Manager, 253.272.4258 x3047, LMcKeown@TacomaArtMuseum.org
The 10th Northwest Biennial Artists Announced
Tacoma Art Museum Takes a Close Look at Northwest Art and Identity
(Tacoma, WA) – Tacoma Art Museum has announced the artists selected to participate in The 10th Northwest Biennial, which will be on view from January 21 through May 20, 2011. Curator Rock Hushka, Director of Curatorial Administration and Curator of Contemporary and Northwest Art for Tacoma Art Museum, and collaborator Renato Rodrigues da Silva, an independent curator and art critic based in Vancouver, British Columbia, selected 30 artists for this exhibition.
The 10th Northwest Biennial will focus on the ever-increasing ways we define ourselves as a region and a community. Artists working in "interdisciplinary art," which is broadly defined to include all art forms encompassing mixed media installations, video and sound works, performance, and social practice as well as traditional formats such as painting and sculpture, were encouraged to apply. Application was open to current residents of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, and British Columbia, which is Tacoma Art Museum's geographic definition of the Northwest.
In September, Hushka and Da Silva reviewed 179 digital submissions and selected a short list of artists for studio visits. During October, Hushka, in consultation with Da Silva, met the artists in their studios and sought to confirm their opinions of the artists' work while shaping the exhibition to explore the themes outlined in the call to artists. From this process, the following 30 artists have been selected to be part of The 10th Northwest Biennial:
Cynthia Camlin (Bellingham, WA)
Pamela Caughey (Hamilton, MT)
Dana Claxton [Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux] (Vancouver, BC)
Harrell Fletcher (Portland, OR)
Flicker Art Collabratory [Kenneth Newby and Aleksandra Dulic] (Vancouver, BC)
Wynne Greenwood (Seattle, WA)
Wendy Given (Portland, OR)
Gray & Paulsen [Anna Gray and Ryan Wilson Paulsen] (Portland, OR)
Laura Hughes (Portland, OR)
Allison Hyde (Eugene, OR)
Abraham Ingle (Portland, OR)
Ariana Jacob (Portland, OR)
Jeff Jahn (Portland, OR)
Sean M. Johnson (Seattle, WA)
Susie J. Lee (Seattle, WA)
Benjamin Love (Boise, ID)
Kirk Lybecker (Portland, OR)
Jeremy Mangan (Fife, WA)
Matt McCormick (Portland, OR)
Kelly Neidig (Portland, OR)
TJ Norris (Portland, OR)
Paul Pauper (Seattle, WA)
Juliette Ricci (Tacoma, WA)
Paul Rucker (Seattle, WA)
Reza Michael Safavi (Pullman, WA)
Seattle Catalog LLC [Gretchen Bennett, Matthew Offenbacher, and Wynne Greenwood] (Seattle, WA)
Henry Tsang (Vancouver, BC)
Matika Wilbur [Swinomish/Tulalip] (Seattle, WA)
Jin-me Yoon (Vancouver, BC)
Joshua Zirschky (Portland, OR)
"The 10th Northwest Biennial will be remarkable for its diversity," said Stephanie A. Stebich, Director of Tacoma Art Museum. "We will include artists at all stages of their careers, from a wide geographic area, and from artists of rich and diverse backgrounds and experiences."
The Biennial will address the critical issues that underpin the larger issues of identity and community, including the fluidity of regional identity in an age of global capitalism, increased urban migration, and the virtual diffusion of a discernible regional style. Because of the extraordinary complexities of these issues, The 10th Northwest Biennial will focus on the newly revitalized and resurgent forms of interdisciplinary art practices.
"The goal is to show how amorphous and dynamic the idea of Northwest identity has become," explained Hushka. "Because of the enormous complexity of the issues that inform our identity, we sought to include types of artworks that our museum has not displayed including new media and social practice that demonstrate how deftly artists are utilizing all forms of expression to identify the Northwest culture."
The Biennial remains the only Northwest project of its size and scope. The museum began the exhibition's tradition in 1991 with Collaborators: Regional Juried Exhibition, juried by the internationally acclaimed artists Felix Partz and AA Bronson of General Idea. Under the guidance of Tacoma Art Museum's former Curator of Modern Art Greg Bell, the museum continued to present thematic biennials juried by nationally prominent artists. In 2007, the museum restructured the exhibition to focus on artistic achievement and stylistic developments in the Northwest as identified by nationally prominent curators working collaboratively with Hushka.
About the Jurors
Rock Hushka is Director of Curatorial Administration and Curator of Contemporary and Northwest Art at Tacoma Art Museum. In 1994, Hushka earned a master's degree in art history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He worked at the Henry Art Gallery, the Seattle Art Museum, and is an adjunct faculty member at University of Washington's School of Art. He has worked at Tacoma Art Museum since 2001. At Tacoma Art Museum, he has curated Bill Viola: Something Above, Beyond, Below, Beneath and The New York School: The Politics of Abstraction. He has increasingly focused on the art of the Northwest, including the four-part Building Tradition: Gifts in Honor of the Northwest Collection, A Decade of Excellence: Celebrating The Neddy Artist Fellowship, and The Romantic Vision of Michael Brophy. His publications include the books Lewis & Clark Territory: Contemporary Artists Revisit Place, Race, and Memory and Dale Chihuly: A Celebration.
Renato Rodrigues da Silva is an independent curator and art critic based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Texas at Austin. He published the book Modern Photography in Brazil, and besides several articles in international magazines such as Leonardo Journal, Third Text, Fillip, and BorderCrossings, among others. His curatorial proposals focus on the notions of global art and multiculturalism, and he is particularly interested in the contemporary art produced in Canada, the United States, and Latin America. Rodrigues da Silva is currently a visiting scholar at the Latin American Studies Program of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.
The 10th Northwest Biennial it organized by Tacoma Art Museum thanks to the generous support provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.
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