A German ELLE from 1998 functions as an initial reflection on the self-presentation of the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) and its then artist-residents and professional visitors. The magazine’s full-page shots of artists in their studios provide the starting point for a three-way examination of disparate clichés about contemporary artists as workers and the people in their surroundings who legitimize this peculiar ‘at-work-ness.’

pertaining to a profession proverbially energetic and nervous is curated by Sarah Demeuse and includes work by Étienne Chambaud, Irene Kopelman, David Levine, David Maroto, Mladen Stilinovic, Magnus Thierfelder, and Carey Young. A selection of ISCP’s own collection of photographs will function as a refrain in this group show. As a whole, the exhibition subtly undermines three tropes associated with an artist’s work: the mysterious invisibility or potentiality of artistic labor as example of post-industrial immateriality; art as resistance to commonplace productivity; and, possibly closer to home, the performative formulas and taboos associated with successful artistic professionalism.

As the second installment in a year-long thematic exhibition related to work, pertaining to a profession proverbially energetic and nervous takes at face value the fact that the international roving artist-cum-MacBookPro has taken the place of the blue-collar Brooklyn printmaker and therefore turns the tables, highlighting the expectations of those who visit this contemporary workspace.

Sarah Vanhee’s Great Public Sale of Unrealized but Brilliant Ideas, culling from works-in-progress by ISCP residents, will complement this exhibition and is scheduled to take place in September 2011.

This exhibition is organized by Sarah Demeuse in close conversation with Kari Conte.

_{This exhibition has been made possible thanks to the support of: Brooklyn Arts Council, The Greenwich Collection, National Endowment for the Arts and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.}