Alan Saret: Gang Drawings November 9, 2007 - February 7, 2008 Main Gallery, 35 Wooster Street
and
Kirstine Roepstorff: It�s Not the Eyes of the Needle That Changed November 9, 2007 - February 7, 2008 Drawing Room, 40 Wooster Street
Opening Receptions: Thursday, November 8, 6-8 pm
Alan Saret Gang Drawings
November 9, 2007 - February 7, 2008 Opening Reception: Thursday, November 8, 6-8 pm Gallery Talk: Saturday, December 1, 4 pm
The Drawing Center is pleased to announce the exhibition Alan Saret: Gang Drawings, on view in the Main Gallery from November 9, 2007 through February 7, 2008. Alan Saret: Gang Drawings, organized by The Drawing Center, marks the first major museum exhibition of the pioneering artist�s work in nearly two decades. Saret is an important figure in the history of Post-Minimal art and was a vital part of the SoHo alternative art scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The exhibition will trace the evolution of Saret's process-based experimentation with drawing, including approximately 30 �Gang Drawings,� made with fistfuls (�gangs�) of colored pencils swept across the page, spanning from the late 1960s to the present. Organized in close collaboration with the artist, Alan Saret: Gang Drawings aims to reveal Saret's influence on a generation of postwar American artists and his contributions to the alternative arts movement, and will feature never-before-seen work from Saret's personal archive. This exhibition is curated by Jo�o Ribas, Curator, The Drawing Center.
Saret's drawings, like his sculptures, address the artist's interest in gestural encounters with mutable materials and a commitment to the metaphysical and spiritual dimensions of art, reinforced by his trip to India in the 1970s. The �Gang Drawings,� begun in 1967 as preliminary studies for three-dimensional work, combine spontaneous gesture with formal rigor. While regimented by structured repetition, Saret's drawings are composed of improvised marks, combining chance procedures with the delicacy of touch and a transparency of process.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Alan Saret was born in New York, NY in 1944 and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Saret received a Bachelor's degree in architecture from Cornell University in 1966 and subsequently studied with the artist Robert Morris at Hunter College from 1966 until 1968. In the early 1970s, Saret traveled to India, a trip that served to reinforce his spiritual convictions and continues to influence his output to this day. In the mid-1980s, Saret gradually withdrew from the commercial art world to focus on site-specific and architectural projects. Saret's work has been exhibited at museums throughout the U.S. including the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Modern Art Pavilion in Seattle, WA; Fine Arts Gallery, Irvine, CA; and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY. His most recent solo exhibition took place in 1990 at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, a MoMA affiliate, in Long Island City, NY. Saret's work is included in numerous public and private collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
In conjunction with Performa07, The Drawing Center announces Ryan Gander: Loose Associations Lecture (Version 1.1) on Tuesday, November 13 at 6:30 pm. London-based artist Ryan Gander will present a wide-ranging meditation on cultural phenomena combining video, still images, and sound. Admission is $5/free for members.
The Drawing Center's new series of Artist Talks presents outstanding contemporary artists in dialogue with Jo�o Ribas, Curator. Join us on Wednesday, November 28 at 6:30 pm for a talk with Ernesto Caivano and Wednesday, December 19 at 6:30 with Michael Smith. Admission is free.
Family Programs continue on Saturday, November 17 from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm with an art-making activity related to Alan Saret: Gang Drawings. Designed to engage children accompanied by an adult in hands-on creative exploration, this Saturday's program is geared toward children ages 9 to 11. Family Programs are led by museum educator Wan Ling Fahrer. Admission is free.
On Saturday, December 1 at 4:00 pm, Jo�o Ribas, Curator, The Drawing Center, will lead a tour of the exhibition and a discussion of Saret�s contributions to Post-Minimal practice and the alternative arts movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
PUBLICATION
Alan Saret: Gang Drawings will be accompanied by Drawing Papers 73, a 16-page edition of The Drawing Center's publication series featuring essays by Klaus Kertess, Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, and Johanna Burton, critic and art historian, and accompanied by images of works in the exhibition.
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Kirstine Roepstorff: It�s Not the Eyes of the Needle That Changed
November 9, 2007 - February 7, 2008 Opening Reception: Thursday, November 8, 6-8 pm Gallery Talk: Saturday, November 10, 4 pm
The Drawing Center is pleased to announce It's Not the Eyes of the Needle That Changed, an exhibition of new work by Berlin-based artist, Kirstine Roepstorff. Featuring the artist�s signature use of the medium of collage to confront the tension between political identity and individual desire, the exhibition will consist of approximately twelve works ranging in size from 8 x 10 inches to a labor-intensive 12-foot installation mounted directly on the gallery wall. It's Not the Eyes of the Needle That Changed will be the artist's first solo museum exhibition in North America.
Through a working method that Roepstorff calls �approprio-arranging,� the artist sews, glues, pins, and weaves together photocopies, fabrics, glitter, paper, and images appropriated from magazines and newspapers to construct a poetic, post-feminist narrative. Roepstorff's work addresses issues such as the failure of collective social projects, consumerism, and contemporary gender politics. This exhibition is curated by Jo�o Ribas, Curator, The Drawing Center.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Kirstine Roepstorff, born 1972 in Copenhagen, currently lives and works in Berlin. Roepstorff earned a Fine Arts degree from The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 2001. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world including recent solo exhibitions in Turin; Berlin; Bristol, UK; Copenhagen; Los Angeles; and Toronto, as well as group exhibitions at IASPIS, Stockholm; Gagosian Gallery, New York; Kunstfabrik, Berlin; ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany; DESTE Foundation, Athens; and the Prague Biennale 3, Prague, among others. Her work is included in a number of international collections, including the Judith Rothschild Foundation Collection of Contemporary Drawings, Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Royal Museum of Fine Art, Copenhagen; and the Saatchi Collection, London.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
The Drawing Center will present a free Gallery Talk on Saturday, November 10 at 4:00 pm with Kirstine Roepstorff and Jo�o Ribas in the Drawing Room. On Saturday, December 1 from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm, we continue our Family Programs with an exhibition-related art-making activity for children ages 5 to 8 and their parents.
PUBLICATION
In conjunction with the exhibition, The Drawing Center will publish Drawing Papers 74: Kirstine Roepstorff with images documenting the artist's works and featuring an essay by art critic Daniel Kunitz.
