Exhibition Closings & February Events!

Hi Everyone,

On Sunday January 31st Jee Hwangs I Have Something to Say, The Man I Wish I Was, and Power and Presence: Theo Westenberger's Portraits of Extraordinary Women close. Hope you get a chance to see them! Here are some images of the three exhibitions:

From I Have Something to Say

From The Man I Wish I Was

From Power and Presence: Theo Westenberger's Portraits of Extraordinary Women

There are a lot of exciting things going on with those in the A.I.R. Gallery family this February:

Haejin Yoon has an exhibition at John Connelly Presents with Justin Samson till February 13th.  

Louise McCagg's solo show at Barnard College's Diana Center, the inaugural exhibition for the new home of Barnard's art, architecture, and performance programs. The exhibition is from February 3-26th with a closing reception the 26th from 4-6pm. 

The DOVA Temporary at the University of Chicago has a retrospective on Emma Bee Bernstein (1985-2008) Masquerade, A Retrospective. The exhibition is from February 5-27th with an opening reception February 12th from 5-8pm.  Masquerade, A Retrospective is co-curated by Kat Griefen, Director of A.I.R. Gallery, and Laura Letinsky, professor and chair of the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago

A reading of Emma Bee Berstein and Nona Aronowitz's book Girldrive: Crisscrossing America, Redefining Feminism Thursday February 4th from 7-9pm at the Bluestockings Bookstore (172 Allen St. New York, NY).  Reading from Girldrive will be Nona Aronowitz, Jennifer Baumgardner, Una Osato, Likquid Stylez, and Susan Bee and/or Marianna McClellan (reading for Emma).

The Feminist Art Project will have a day of  panels at the CAA Annual Conference. The panels  on Current Feminist Art Issues are free and open to the public. Saturday February 13th at the Hyatt Regency Hotel Acapulco, Gold Level, West Tower (151 E. Wacker Drive Chicago, IL 60601). Click here for schedule and details!

I hope you find your way to some of these amazing events!

-Stephanie

 

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3 New Video Interviews

Hi Everyone,

Last weekend I had the pleasure of interviewing fellowship artist Jee Hwang and A.I.R. Gallery's director Kat Griefen on the current exhibitions. I hope you enjoy them!

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A.I.R. & Flat Files

Ever desire a work by your favorite artist but thought you could not afford it?

At A.I.R. Gallery you can purchase affordable, amazing works on paper by 25 of our artists. Artworks in this flat file collection are available starting at $200.00.

A.I.R.’s flat file collection started after our move to DUMBO. Our new space on Front Street is larger than our former Chelsea gallery so we designed it to include room for flat files. Flat files allow us to keep unframed prints, photographs, drawings, and other works of art on paper accessible in the gallery when not on exhibit.

The Flat File Committee members, JoAnne McFarland, Ann Pachner, Ann Schaumburger, and Barbara Siegel, worked for months developing the Focus on the Flat Files project. Focus on  the Flat Files is a monthly newsletter. Each edition will feature one of the 25 artists in the collection. The selection process showcases artists with up-coming shows as well as artists not slated for exhibitions in the near future.

The first Focus on the Flat Files features Ann Pachner and will be sent to the entire A.I.R. Gallery email list in the next few days. To be added to the list, email  info@airgallery.org and indicate if you are an artist to get notifications of various opportunities at A.I.R.

If you would like to see the flat files collection in person, please call and make an appointment for a personal tour. The collection may be viewed without an appointment during normal gallery hours, depending on staff availability.

I hope you get a chance to survey our stunning collection of works on paper in person, but in the meantime, catch a preview here in a video sampling from each artist. Enjoy!

***Edit: The first Focus on the Flat Files on Ann Pachner went out early in January, the second on Daria Darosch will be sent out February 1st.

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Great Press for A.I.R.!

Hi Friends,

Remember October's group exhibition Locks in Translation curated by JoAnne McFarland? 

Video Journalist Arian Boroumand for Voice of America made two videos about the exhibition; one interviewing JoAnne and another interviewing some of the artists: Barbara Siegel, Annette Rusin, and Jee Hwang. Boroumand's footage featuring the artists was recently shown in Iran as part of a program called Today's Woman.

I think JoAnne put it best in the email she sent me to share this news:

It's great to see the long reach of a relatively small show, and to see the political focus of an exhibition, how do we empower ourselves as women and what does that look like?, literally translated for women in Iran."

39 minutes into the video is our artists' section.

Locks in Translation  will be on view in Gallery West at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood, Long Island from February 10- March 10, 2010.

-Stephanie

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Jee Hwang Named First Recipient of Emma Bee Bernstein Fellowship - Opening This Week!

Jee Hwang, Vertigo, Oil on Canvas, 45" x 29", 2009

A.I.R. Gallery is honored to announce the first recipient of the Emma Bee Bernstein Emerging Artist Fellowship, 2009-2010 A.I.R. Fellow, Jee Hwang.

The Emma Bee Bernstein Emerging Artist Fellowship was named in honor of Emma Bee Bernstein (1985-2008). In recognition of Emma’s significant contributions as a young artist, writer and feminist, each year one Fellowship Recipient, under the age of thirty, will receive the additional honor of holding the A.I.R. Emma Bee Bernstein Fellowship.

Jee Hwang (b. 1984) graduated from the Pratt Institute with a MFA degree in 2009. Born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, Hwang immigrated with her family to Maryland in 2003, transferring from her undergraduate studies at Kook-min University in Seoul to Salisbury University in Maryland. Hwang’s paintings use the physical act of eating as a metaphor for psychological action, and the flower as a symbol for desire and the body. Hwang explains: “Flowers go in or come out from a figure’s mouth just as my thoughts, as words fill the mouth with pain or pleasure. These metaphoric approaches to the subject come from my personal experience of living as a stranger in the United States. The difficulties in communication with people, either due to language or cultural differences, make me seek another way to communicate, with a visual statement.” Hwang’s solo exhibition, “I Have Something to Say.” will be on view at A.I.R. Gallery from January 6th through January 31st, 2010.

The A.I.R. Fellowship Program for Emerging and Underrepresented Artists, established in 1993, has helped launch the careers of over 35 women artists. Recipients participate in eighteen months of professional development workshops, receive a studio visit with an art professional, have their first solo show at A.I.R., and are mentored by A.I.R. artists and staff members.

Also opening this week...


In Gallery I, Power and Presence: Theo Westenberger's Portraits of Extraordinary Women. Theo Westenberger (1950-2008) became a very successful commercial photographer at a time when women in the field were scarce. Theo was the first female photographer to shoot the covers of Newsweek and Sports Illustrated; and was a staff photographer for Life magazine. This is an exhibition of 30 photographs by Theo, a trailblazer and feminist whose aesthetic and perspective resonate with both her subjects and audience. 


In Gallery II, The Man I Wish I Was, a group exhibition organized by Kharis Kennedy. This partially invitational, partially juried exhibition features 18 artists. Keeping with the feminist tradition of irreverent interal-critique of self-vigilance, The Man I Wish I Was questions how gender perception relates to personal reality. The exhibition asks: Have we happily reached a post gender moment, a moment where gender is no longer a relevant signifier and we can comfortably slip into daddy's shoes?

A.I.R. would like to acknowledge the generous contributors to the Emma Bee Bernstein Fellowship:

 Roselyn Abrahams and  Bruce Pandolfini

Jesse Huntley Ausubel

Lillian Ball and David  Reed

Susan Bee and Charles Bernstein

Alan Bernheimer

Sherry Bernstein

Rachel and Robert Blau DuPlessis

Nancy Bowen

Mary Ann Caws

Carol Cohen

Penelope Creeley

Peter Inman and Tina Darragh

Brian and Stephanie Ferneyhough

Peter Frank

Susan Friedland and Robert Grenier

Donald and Leslie Gross

Mimi Gross

Michael Heller and Jane Augustine

Susanna Heller

Lyn Hejinian

Patt and Paul Henry

Bob Holman

Paul and Maxine Hoover

Susan Howe

Kenneth and Florence Jacobs

Kevin Killian

Rita, Bob, and Antonia Lascaro

Joseph Ledoux

Lenore Malen

Nancy Manter

Gillian McCain

JoAnne McFarland

Bruce McPherson

Richard Milazzo

Robert C. Morgan

Margaret Moorman

Charles and Paula North

Bruce Pearson  and Monica de la Torre

Marjorie Perloff

Jeff Preiss and

Rebecca Quaytman

Ahni and Kit Robinson

Erika Rothenberg

Ruth and Marvin Sackner

Leslie Scalapino and Thomas J. White

Mira Schor

Carolee Schneemann

Sarah Schulman

Susan Schultz

Francie Shaw

Gloria and Leo Siegel

Jeremy Sigler

Ron Silliman

Sally Silvers

Mildred Sullivan

Susan Stewart

Nancy Storrow

Peter and Susan Straub

Eileen Tabios

Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop

Joan Weber

Deane Yang

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