PRINTED MATTER ANNOUNCES THE RESIGNATION OF AA BRONSON AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE ORGANIZATION.

Portrait of AA Bronson by Ari Marcopoulos

Philip Aarons, Chair of the Printed Matter Board, said: “AA Bronson has accomplished a remarkable transformation of our institution over the last six years by bringing a clear, new relevance to young artists while consistently celebrating what was best in our past. The move to a cool, highly visible Chelsea storefront, the revival of our publishing program, the excellence of our exhibitions and perhaps most significantly, his tireless work in the creation and expansion of The NY Art Book Fair have made Printed Matter matter again.”

Formerly Treasurer of the Board, Mr Bronson left the Board in 2004 and joined the staff on a temporary basis to resolve the financial and administrative problems that had been plaguing the organization. A position that was originally intended to last six months grew to six years, a period during which Mr Bronson redesigned the financial and administrative structure of the organization while expanding its program. He continues as an advisor to Printed Matter, and looks forward to returning to the Printed Matter Board after a hiatus of some months. Printed Matter is one of New York City’s oldest and most venerable artist-run non-profits, founded by a group of artists and art workers in 1976.

Mr Bronson is departing to spend time on personal projects, especially Haute Culture, the retrospective of General Idea that opens at the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris in February, 2011. He is studying for His Master of Divinity at Union Theological Seminary, and will continue in his position of Artistic Director of the Institute for Art, Religion, and Social Justice, which he founded at Union in 2008. Finally, he intends to devote more time to his practice as an artist and healer. Septembre Editions (Paris) will launch his new publication AA Bronson’s GayHouse later this month. And Creative Time will launch his book Queer Spirits, a collaboration with Peter Hobbs, early in the new year.

AA Bronson will remain at Printed Matter until after this year’s NY Art Book Fair, the non-profit fair that he founded as a Printed Matter project in 2006. This year’s Fair features 285 exhibitors from 24 countries, and will be presented at MoMA PS1 from November 5 to 7, with a preview on November 4. www.nyartbookfair.com

Printed Matter’s Board of Directors announced that Catherine Krudy, currently Printed Matter’s Director, will become Acting Executive Director. Ms Krudy has worked under AA Bronson’s direction at Printed Matter since 2006. She has contributed to every aspect of the organization, and has been essential to the reinvention of Printed Matter and to the growth and development of the NY Art Book Fair. She has been planning with AA Bronson over the past year to effect this transition.

AA Bronson said: “Catherine Krudy brings a boundless energy and optimism to Printed Matter. On the eve of Printed Matter’s 35th anniversary, it is time to pass the organization along to a younger generation. Catherine Krudy is the ideal candidate to lead us into the future.”

Printed Matter Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1976 by artists and art workers with the mission to foster the appreciation, dissemination, and understanding of artists” books and other artists” publications.

Printed Matter, Inc. has received support, in part, through grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City, Department of Cultural Affairs, the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, The Cowles Charitable Trust, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Schoenstadt Family Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the Gesso Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary, Arts, the Morris B. and Edith S. Cartin Family Foundation Inc., the Mondriaan Foundation, and individuals worldwide.

ECSTATIC PEACE MOVING PICTURE SENSATION

BY THURSTON MOORE

LIVE SCREENING THURSDAY SEPT. 16TH

10PM

REENA SPAULINGS FINE ART

165 EAST BROADWAY \ ENTER ON RUTGERS ST

NEW YORK, NY 10002

REENASPAULINGS.COM

Michael Benevento presents Torbjørn Rødland

Opening Reception: Thursday, September 16, 6-8PM

September 16 – October 30, 2010

At first glance, Rødland’s photographs seem overtly simple: an aquarium, a shed, a cassette tape. However, rather than empty vessels, Rødland stages his images as reenacted sites, as venues where an image that may initially seem familiar is informed and complicated by what the artist calls a “mythological richness,” almost becoming abstractions.

While Rødland’s images tempt readings filtered by geography or subculture, they simultaneously suggest nuanced detours. In Black Tape, Rødland deals with Black Metal (a sub-genre of heavy metal) at an elemental level. He photographs a cassette tape, a blunt object of related ephemera countering the overtly visual nature of Black Metal and photography itself. The camera – like a tape – can record whatever, as well as meaning.

The alluring nature of heavy metal imagery invites generic classification, but Rødland’s practice is less about participating in the edification of photographic classifications and instead pointing to instances where graphic tropes become destabilized from their expected visual modes. While Norse mythology locates the beginning of life in fire (and ice), Rødland locates the end of life and the body in flames, in the crematoria furnaces of the intensely rich and vibrant Burning Skull, a series of color photographs hung in the back gallery. As the body – a most familiar object – is cremated, the skeletal remains are abstracted, suggesting an enchanting though haunting reflection where something can be at once foreign and familiar.

A Black Ant Traveling invites discussion of classic categories of the portrait, still life and landscape while italicizing the notion of these as specific formal conventions with generic elements that when underscored can provide other temptations.

Torbjørn Rødland is the author of several books of photography, including: White Plant, Black Heart (2006) and I Want to Live Innocent (2008). He is the subject of numerous international solo exhibitions at venues including the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art (Norway), Air de Paris (France), Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (Japan), Nils Stærk (Denmark), Standard Oslo (Norway) and P.S.1 (New York). He lives and works in Los Angeles and Oslo and will be guest lecturing at CalArts on October 30th.

Excerpt from the press release.

Photo courtesy National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office

PARC SAINT LÉGER – CENTRE D’ART CONTEMPORAIN presents

AMERICA DESERTA
JUNE 27 – SEPTEMBER 5 2010

A group show curated by Etienne Bernard & Sandra Patron featuring the works of :

Robert Adams, Wilfrid Almendra, Lewis Baltz, Hilla & Bernd Becher, Bernd Behr, Julien Berthier, Alain Bublex, Tacita Dean, Julien Discrit, Aurélien Froment, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Peter Goin, Geert Goiris, Siobhán Hapaska, Anne-Marie Jugnet et Alain Clairet, Vincent Lamouroux, Richard Misrach, Melik Ohanian, John Pfahl, Evariste Richer, Katrin Sigurdardottir, Ettore Sottsass, and Andrea Zittel.

The first Art Los Angeles Contemporary, January 28-31, promises to be a highly exclusive and tightly focused selection of top blue chip and emerging art galleries from Los Angeles and around the world. The 2010 selection committee members for the premiere edition of Art Los Angeles Contemporary will choose up to 50 galleries to present exhibitions at the international contemporary art fair.  The 2010 selection committee members include 1301PE, Los Angeles; David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles; Peres Projects, Los Angeles / Berlin; Susanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles / Berlin.  

The galleries chosen for this years’ fair, to date, will feature a wide array of emerging and established artists and will spotlight the curatorial skill of each gallery.  Below are the galleries that have been selected: 1301PE, Los Angeles; Angles Gallery, Los Angeles; Artbook, New York; Blum &; Poe, Los Angeles; The Breeder, Athens; Kathryn Brennan Gallery, Los Angeles; Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York; Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago; Charest-Weinberg Gallery, Miami; Charro Negro Galeria, Guadalajara; China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles; The Company, Los Angeles; Lisa Cooley, New York; Crisp, London; Crystal; Contemporary Art, Stockholm; Dogenhaus Galerie, Leipzig; Eighth Veil, Los Angeles; Marc Foxx, Los Angeles; Honor Fraser, Los Angeles; François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles; Anthony Greaney, Boston; Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco / New York; I-20, New York; Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin; Kalfayan Galleries, Athens/Thessaloniki; Galerie Ben Kaufmann, Berlin; Klosterfelde, Berlin; David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles; LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), Los Angeles; LA><ART, Los Angeles; Kim Light / LightBox, Los Angeles; Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND), Los Angeles; Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles; Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica; Museum 52, New York/London; Nice & Fit, Berlin; Ooga Booga, Los Angeles; On Stellar Rays, New York; Otero Plassart, Los Angeles; Patrick Painter Inc., Santa Monica; Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York; Peres Projects, Berlin/Los Angeles; Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles; Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Rental, New York; Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles; Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami; Thomas Solomon Gallery, Los Angeles; SolwayJones, Los Angeles; Standard (Oslo), Oslo; Starkwhite, Auckland; Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles; Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles; Jonathan Viner Gallery, London; Kate Werble Gallery, New York; Tracy Williams, Ltd., New York.

Further highlights include talks and book signings by D.A.P. / Distributed Art Publishers, New York.  An independent publishers section will be organized by Wendy Yao of Ooga Booga, Los Angeles.  LA-based non-profit organizations LA><ART, Los Angeles and Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) will organize special on-site programming.

Art Los Angeles Contemporary is aligned with the citywide Los Angeles Arts Month, a collaboration between dozens of local arts organizations, arts and civic leaders, artists, philanthropists, and committed public and private partners. LA Arts Month aims to connect Los Angeles’ diverse communities to the arts, while showcasing its vibrancy to both national and international visitors.  

Tim Fleming is founder of Fair Grounds Associates (FGA), an organization that runs and owns the new Art Los Angeles Contemporary. For over a decade, Fleming has produced some of the country’s most noted contemporary art shows.  Under his direction, ART LA (2006 – 2009) gained notoriety on the international art fair circuit as having a strong community background that championed the bustling Los Angeles contemporary art scene.  In addition to ART LA, Fleming also served as director of photo MIAMI (2006 – 2008). Shortly after graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Fleming began his career as a cultural events and art show developer. He served as the director of non-commercial project gallery Seven Three Split, and later while working with Art Chicago, served on the team that developed The Stray Show, an acclaimed ancillary art fair for alternative gallery space.