Event
April 4, 2019, 6:30–8:30pm

25th Anniversary Spring Fundraiser: Julie Mehretu and Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi in Conversation

Tickets are now available for purchase for ISCP’s 25th Anniversary Spring Fundraiser: Julie Mehretu and Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi in Conversation.

Hosted by ISCP Trustee Sophie O. Riese, the conversation will be held in the home of Tracey and Phillip Riese, designed by Morris Adjmi Architects, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The private collection of Tracey and Phillip Riese, acquired over 40 years, with a focus on contemporary and emerging artists, will be on view.

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Beer will be provided courtesy of Grimm Artisanal Ales, Hiatus Tequila will be mixing cocktails onsite and hors d’oeuvres by Pistache NYC will be served throughout the evening.

Julie Mehretu is a world renowned artist, born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1970, she lives and works in New York City. She is a graduate of Kalamazoo College, and RISD and is the recipient of many awards, including The MacArthur Award (2005) and the U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts Award (2015), and she is a co-founder of Denniston Hill, a multidisciplinary residency program. Ms. Mehretu is known for her paintings and drawings that often allude to topography of built and political landscapes, and most recently the deliberate incorporation of abstracted elements of photographic and filmic documentation of international and national conflict, war and injustice as a point of departure in her paintings. This year her work will be included in the 58th Venice Biennale exhibition May You Live in Interesting Times, and this November a major solo survey exhibition will open at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, (LACMA), and continue on tour to: The Whitney Museum, New York; The High Museum, Atlanta; and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Ms. Mehretu is represented globally by Marian Goodman Gallery, and she is a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi is an artist, art historian, and Curator of African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Nzewi will join the Museum of Modern Art in New York as a curator in its department of painting and sculpture in July 2019. Previously, he served as the curator of African art and oversaw global contemporary art at Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum of Art. He has co-curated major international exhibitions including the Dak’Art Biennale in Dakar, Senegal. His writing has appeared in important academic journals and art magazines. He is co-editor of New Spaces for Negotiating Art (and) History in Africa (2015), and his most recent book is Emeka Ogboh: Lagos Soundscapes (2019). As an artist, Nzewi has participated in major artists’ residencies and workshops including Art Omi (2007); he was also the Critic-in-Residence at Art Omi in 2018. He has exhibited internationally and is represented in public and private collections in the United States and elsewhere. Nzewi is a trustee of ISCP.

Proceeds from this event will go towards the Dennis Elliott Founder’s Fund, supporting residencies for African artists, and towards ISCP’s overall work, which includes other ways to support residencies for artists and curators from culturally underfunded parts of the world.

ISCP thanks Sophie, Tracey, and Phillip Riese for hosting this event, and Marian Goodman Gallery for making this conversation possible. ISCP is grateful to Grimm Artisanal Ales and Hiatus Tequila for their sponsorship of the event. Special thanks to the 25th Anniversary Spring Fundraiser Committee: Yng-Ru Chen, Karen E. Jones, and Arthur Zegelbone.

Can’t attend? Please consider making a donation here. Pledges of $1,000 and above towards the Dennis Elliott Founder’s Fund will be acknowledged both on ISCP’s website and announced at the event.

Please note:

  • Exact address will be provided upon registration
  • Capacity is limited
  • $125 of the ticket purchase is tax deductible
6:30–8:30pm
Download Press Release (PDF)

Open Studios
March 29–March 30, 2019

Spring Open Studios 2019

Opening Reception: Friday, March 29, 6–9pm
Guest speakers Hrag Vartanian and Veken Gueyikian from Hyperallergic at 8pm
Annabel Daou will perform her Fortune project on March 29, 7–8pm, and March 30, 4–6pm
Open Hours: Saturday, March 30, 1–7pm

The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) Spring Open Studios is a two-day exhibition of international contemporary art presented by the 35 artists and two curators from 23 countries currently in residence. Veken Gueyikian and Hrag Vartanian, whose work in the field of art journalism has had a significant impact in New York City and beyond, will make remarks at 8pm on March 29.

Twice a year only, ISCP offers the public access to private artists’ and curators’ studios to view artwork and share one-on-one conversations. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, ISCP invites the public to engage in dialogue around contemporary art with arts professionals from across the globe. Concentrated in a three-story postindustrial loft building on the edge of Bushwick, ISCP supports the creative advancement of residents, with a robust program of individual workspaces and professional benefits.

Chiara Fumai: LESS LIGHT, curated by Kari Conte, Director of Programs and Exhibitions at ISCP, and Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, directors of the Chiara Fumai archive, will be on view during Open Studios. A 2017 ISCP alumna, this is the artist’s first solo exhibition on this continent. LESS LIGHT brings together two of Fumai’s pioneering works, The Book of Evil Spirits (2015) and Dogaressa Elisabetta Querini, Zalumma Agra, Annie Jones, Dope Head, Harry Houdini, Eusapia Palladino read Valerie Solanas (2012-13). Fumai’s hybrid practice was deeply rooted in performance and her interests were far-reaching. In her work, she frequently deconstructed ideologies that have impeded women’s empowerment.

In addition, Living Room: UIT (Use it together), a collective site-specific proposition by alumna curator Amanda Abi Khalil, organized in collaboration with ISCP’s community, will be presented during Open Studios. Inspired by artist Hélio Oiticica’s discussions of Eden and theorist Stephen Wright’s concept of Arte Útil, Living Room takes over an exhibition space that usually triggers modes of spectatorship. Turning ISCP’s Project Space into a room for living, a shared space—by altering its function to a space of usership, created, used and activated (together) by the people who inhabit it—transforms its capacity to frame what is displayed inside it as art. Annabel Daou will perform her Fortune project on March 29, 7–8pm, and March 30, 4–6pm. A video screening that comments on the aesthetics of participatory approaches in social art practices will take place at 3pm on Saturday, March 30.

Open Studios participating artists and curators:

Fatma Bucak (Turkey/Italy), Jesse Chun (United States/South Korea/China/Hong Kong/Canada), Danilo Correale (United States/Italy), Simone Couto (United States/Brazil), Furen Dai (United States/China), Mariajosé Fernández-Plenge (United States/Peru), Antonio Fiorentino (Italy), Andrea Flemming (Germany), Helene Førde (Norway), ektor garcia (United States/Mexico), Alicja Gaskon (Poland/Switzerland/United States), Jude Griebel (United States/Canada), Johannes Heldén (Sweden), Hesselholdt & Mejlvang (Denmark), Allard van Hoorn (The Netherlands), Hsiang Huang (Taiwan), Srajana Kaikini (India), Tali Keren (United States/Israel), Jonna Kina (Finland), Tina Lechner (Austria), Joshua Liebowitz (United States), Yi-Hsuan Lin (Taiwan/Brazil), Fritjof Mangerich (Germany), Rusudan Melikishvili (Denmark), Orr Menirom (United States/Israel), Fatima Mohammed (Qatar), Alison Nguyen (United States), Erkka Nissinen (Finland), Chadwick Rantanen (United States), Jana Schulz (Germany), Jens Settergren (Denmark), Esther Tielemans (The Netherlands), Teresa Viana (Brazil), VOID – Arnaud Eeckhout and Mauro Vitturini (Belgium), and Maja Vukoje (Austria).

ISCP thanks the following residency sponsors: Alfred Kordelin Foundation; Alice and Lawrence Weiner; Artis; BKA – Bundeskanzleramt Österreich Kunst und Kultur / Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria; Danish Arts Foundation; Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles; Fire Station – Qatar Museums; Finnish Cultural Institute in New York; Galeria Le Guern; Hartfield Foundation; IASPIS – The Swedish Arts Grants Committee’s International Programme for Visual Artists; Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation; Italian Cultural Institute of New York; KdFS – Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen; Kunststiftung des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt; La Fondation pour l’Art Contemporain Claudine et Jean-Marc Salomon; Ministry of Culture, Taiwan; Mondriaan Fund; National Endowment for the Arts; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York City Council District 34; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur and Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung; OCA – Office for Contemporary Art Norway; Yoko Ono; Danna and Ed Ruscha; Saastamoinen Foundation; Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF); The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, Columbia University; The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation; The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc.; and Toby Devan Lewis Donor Advised Fund of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

This program is supported, in part, by Austrian Cultural Forum New York; Consulate General of Brazil in New York; Consulate General of Denmark in New York; Consulate General of Finland in New York; Consulate General of Sweden in New York; Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York; Google; Greenwich Collection Ltd.; Grimm Artisanal Ales; Hartfield Foundation; Jane Farver Memorial Fund; Lagunitas Brewing Company; Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation; Materials for the Arts; The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York City Council District 34; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York; Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF); The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; The Church of Chiara Fumai; The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, Columbia University; as well as numerous individuals.

ISCP thanks the members of Director’s Circle for their generous support: Anne Altchek, Karyn Issa Ginsberg Greenwald, Samar Maziad, Tracey Riese, and Laurie Sprayregen.

Opening Reception: Mar 29, 2019, 6–9pm
Open Hours: 1–7pm
Download Press Release (PDF)

ISCP Talk
March 19, 2019, 6:30–8pm

Artists at Work: Tali Keren and Allard van Hoorn

For Artists at Work, Tali Keren will present two recent projects that investigate the interaction of religion, politics and military technology. Heat Signature (2018) examines infrared vision and The Great Seal (2017) is an interactive installation that invites viewers to engage with the lure of political populism. Both works examine the historical and contemporary imbrication of “Judeo-Christian” identity in American politics and American involvement in Israel/Palestine and the Middle East-at-large.

Allard van Hoorn will discuss recent developments in his work Urban Songlines, an ongoing utopian/dystopian series of collaborative translations of buildings, urban structures and public spaces into music through site-specific sound-generation. These performances allow listeners to connect to places, and the ways we use and experience the public domain.

This program is supported, in part, by Artis; Hartfield Foundation; Mondriaan Fund; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; and Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).

6:30–8pm

Participating Residents