Park Avenue Armory And Art Dealers Association Of America Announce Site-Specific Installations In Armory’s Historic Interiors
Commission Celebrates Ongoing Revitalization of Park Avenue Armory and Marks 20th Anniversary of The Art Show
NEW YORK, January 11, 2008 — Park Avenue Armory in association with the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) announced today that three artists have been commissioned to create site-specific works for the Armory’s historic rooms. The artists, selected by curators Tom Eccles and Trevor Smith, are Spencer Finch, Lisi Raskin, and Pietro Roccosalva. In addition, a video and multimedia art installation by multiple contemporary artists will occupy the Armory’s main hallway. The installations which are titled High Resolution: Artists Projects at the Armory will be on view from February 21–25, 2008, during the 20th annual Art Show which is organized by the ADAA to benefit Henry Street Settlement.
Rebecca Robertson, President and CEO of Park Avenue Armory commented, “The works by these emerging contemporary artists in the context of our historic rooms and main hall will be both unexpected and provocative. The installations will add to the experience of those attending The Art Show while attracting new audiences to the Armory. We are deeply grateful to the ADAA for their support of the exhibition and congratulate them and Henry Street Settlement on the 20th anniversary of the celebrated Art Show at the Armory.”
“The realization of this project speaks to the strengths of both The Art Show and Park Avenue Armory as they create an inviting space for contemporary, modern and historical art,” said Roland Augustine, President of the Art Dealers Association of America and Partner in Luhring Augustine. “The Armory has always been home to The Art Show and we want to support their work by stimulating new creative projects in its revitalized space.”
Spencer Finch utilizes a scientific method and a poetic sensibility to explore the relationship between color, light, memory, and perception. Many of his installations begin with Finch recording the specific color and intensity of the light at a remote site that has a specific historical or literary significance. That light is then recreated through the use of simple materials such as light fixtures, colored gels and stained glass. To date, Finch has mostly presented his work in neutral gallery spaces; the Armory commission will enable him to situate his historically charged work in dramatic dialogue with the 19th century interiors of the Armory.
Lisi Raskin’s work, Command and Control, will engage the role of Park Avenue Armory’s Colonel’s Office as a monitoring station. The installation will be a mobile observation point in which the room will be monitored by three guards within a private chamber. The secret chamber will not be physically accessible to viewers of the installation, but will be visible via TV monitors, and radio transmissions—creating a space where the would-be art viewers become the subjects being viewed. Raskin is artist-in-residence at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS) for 2008.
Pietro Roccasalva’s installations will bring seemingly disparate objects, materials, and techniques together to create a psychologically and mythologically charged environment in a traditional space. Along with sculpture, light installation, paintings, and video, this commission will include a tableau vivant featuring the curator of his exhibition, his twin brother, and his father. The “characters” will guard the installation, which will be located in the Armory’s Mary Diver Room.
In addition, first year graduate students at CCS Bard are organizing programs of five single channel videos drawn from the legendary video art and interactive media archives of the Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI). These videos will be played on monitors positioned like sentinels in a row, down the center of Armory’s main hallway that lead to the historic room installations. A different program will be produced for each day of the Art Show from February 21-25, 2008.
“The collaboration between the Park Avenue Armory and the ADAA is further testament to the continued presence of the past in contemporary art, and early career artists’ interest in connecting with that past,” remarked Tom Eccles, visual arts advisor to Park Avenue Armory, and executive director of the Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture at Bard College.
The installations are being organized by Eccles with CCS Bard curator-in-residence, Trevor Smith. Prior to joining CCS, Eccles served as director and curator of The Public Art Fund in New York City from 1997 to 2005. During that time, Eccles presented more than eighty major exhibitions throughout the city, featuring works by such artists as Rachel Whiteread, Ilya Kabakov, Francis Alys, Mariko Mori, Julian Opie, Vik Muniz, Janet Cardiff, Martin Creed, Richard Long, and Barbara Kruger.
Trevor Smith is currently the curator-in-residence at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College where he organized Feelings, the first North American survey of the work of British artist Martin Creed. From 2003 to 2006, he was a curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, where he co-curated the widely acclaimed and award winning exhibition, Andrea Zittel: Critical Space.
Park Avenue Armory is a new arts institution that is dedicated to producing and collaborating on groundbreaking works that can only be realized because of the unique capabilities of its vast, vaulted Drill Hall, and those that respond to its historic rooms which were designed by such artists as Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White and the Herter Brothers. Its inaugural program was Aaron Young’s project, Greeting Card, a 9,216-square-foot painting created by the burned out tire marks of twelve motorcyclists, performed and exhibited in association with Art Production Fund in the Drill Hall in September 2007. Park Avenue Armory is collaborating with the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Art Production Fund to host large-scale artworks, performances, and site-specific installations as part of the 2008 Whitney Biennial. In association with Lincoln Center Festival 2008, it will present an epic production of the opera, Die Soldaten, with the massive space in the Drill Hall enabling this rarely seen work to be staged as it was originally conceived by the composer.
About Park Avenue Armory
Park Avenue Armory is a newly launched arts organization whose mission is to revitalize one of New York’s most important landmarks as a dynamic center for the arts unlike any other in the city, unique in its non-traditional programming and for the splendor of its restored interiors. Its programming will use the vast space in its Drill Hall and the array of exuberant period rooms to present performing and visual art that resists the confines of formal single purpose halls and galleries. Filling a crucial niche in the cultural landscape of New York, Park Avenue Armory catalyzes works of contemporary art that cannot be realized at existing venues.
History of the Park Avenue Armory
Built between 1877 and 1881, the landmarked Park Avenue Armory is one of New York City’s most important historic structures, occupying a full city block on the Upper East Side. The Armory’s Drill Hall, reminiscent of a 19th-century European train shed, measures approximately 200 by 300 feet, with an 80-foot-high barrel-vaulted roof, and is one of the largest unobstructed spaces in the City. The adjacent Administrative Building includes interiors by Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, the Herter Brothers, and other prominent designers of the period, constituting what the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission described as “the single most important collection of 19th-century interiors to survive intact in one building.”
Art Dealers Association of America
All Art Show exhibitors are members of the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA), a non-profit membership organization of the nation’s leading galleries. Founded in 1962, ADAA seeks to promote the highest standards of connoisseurship, scholarship and ethical practice within the profession. Visit www.artdealers.org
The Art Show
The Art Show, organized by the Art Dealers Association of America, is one of the U.S.’s most prestigious art fairs, featuring 70 of the nation’s leading art galleries. All proceeds from the event and its opening night gala benefit Henry Street Settlement, one of New York City’s best known and most effective social services and arts agencies. The 20th annual Art Show runs from February 21–25, 2008 at the Park Avenue Armory at 67th Street. Intimate in scale, The Art Show features works by international artists ranging from recently completed contemporary painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and multi-media works to museum-quality pieces from the 19th and 20th centuries. Several galleries present solo exhibitions. More information can be found at www.artdealers.org/artshow. A media preview for The Art Show 2008 will be held on a new day and time: Thursday, February 21 from 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon. For more information, please contact Dan Tanzilli at FITZ & CO at 212-627-1455 x226 or at dan@fitzandco.com.
The Art Show Gala Benefit Preview
To inaugurate The Art Show 2008, a Gala Benefit Preview will be held on Wednesday, February 20, from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and benefits Henry Street Settlement, a prominent social services and arts agency, located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. For advance ticket purchases or additional information, please call 212-766-9200 ext. 248.
Henry Street Settlement
Founded in 1893 by social work pioneer Lillian Wald and based on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Henry Street Settlement delivers a wide range of social services, health-care initiatives and arts programs that improve the lives of more than 65,000 New Yorkers each year. Distinguished by a profound connection to its neighbors, a willingness to address new problems with swift and innovative solutions, and a strong record of accomplishment, Henry Street challenges the effects of urban poverty by helping families achieve better lives for themselves and their children. Visit www.henrystreet.org
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For further information please contact:
For the Park Avenue Armory:
Danielle Oteri / Maggie Berget
Resnicow Schroeder Associates
212-671-5165/157
doteri/mberget@resnicowschroeder.com
For ADAA and The Art Show:
Dan Tanzilli / Mac Russell
FITZ & CO
T 212-627-1455 x226 / x232
E dan/mac@fitzandco.com