2009
Jennifer & Kevin McCoy: The Family Show | Thur., Nov. 5 – Sun., Dec. 13
Presentation by the artists 6pm Wednesday 11/4 in Klein Lecture Hall in the Center for the Arts
Opening reception 5-7pm Thursday 11/5
The Freedman Gallery at Albright College is proud to present works by Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, two Brooklyn-based artists who give new meaning to the term collaboration.
The exhibition, The Family Show, explores the ordinary lives of parents and artists in extraordinary ways during extraordinary times through film, interactive media and installation works. Experiencing their work will stir up a dialogue about the idea of simulacrum as it pertains to every day lives in modern times. This duo seems to be preoccupied by how we might be fooled, how we look at art and how we look at ourselves.
I’ll Replace You, a 2008 16-minute video, is a film in which the McCoys cast 50 actors to play versions of themselves in their daily roles as parent, friend, artist, professor and spouse. The video utilizes cuts to emphasize daily repetition and routine, but also the random nature of these roles for which individuals can seemingly be played by just about anyone. As Chris Chang writes in Film Comment, “What better way to replicate the splintered and prismatic subjectivity of waking life than to hire a bunch of strangers to portray it?”
The McCoy’s work has been exhibited at a range of venues in the United States and internationally. Most recently their work was hosted by Gallery Guy Bärtschi in Geneva, pkm Gallery in Beijing, Museum of Modern Art in NYC, University Art Museum in Albany, BFI (British Film Institute) Southbank in London, Postmasters and Artists Space in NYC, and the San Jose Museum of Art.
I’ll Replace You, 2008, video, color, sound, edition of 5 + 2APs. Running time: 16:40
Double Fantasy 3 (Career), 2006, computerized live video feeds, cameras,
fabricated miniature environments. Collection of 21c Museum and Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, Louisville, KY
Double Fantasy 3 recreates the image we each had in childhood about the jobs and professional lives we would have as adults. Kevin wanted to be a scientist working in an underground lab and Jenn a diplomat’s wife living and entertaining in a large house.
Detail view of Double Fantasy 3. Each side of the sculpture has a model of a childhood career fantasy. Cameras project large scale images of it onto the wall, accompanied by a soundtrack.
Jennifer and Ken McCoy, 2008, Digital C-print, 43”x58”
Jennifer and Ken McCoy (detail)
Artist Talks, 2008
Artist Talks is a related project in which actors unfamiliar with the work and language of contemporary art are asked to spontaneously present the works of well known artists as their own. The improvised talks are set up as a video database where viewers can choose from the eighteen three-minute long discs. While dexterous in their presentational abilities, the actors deliver information that is suspect, relying on popular pre- and misconceptions of art and face value descriptors of the images presented. Although the tone of the performances ranges from comic to sincere to insightful, this work reveals the ‘artists talk’ to be a convention bound genre, but also illuminates the relativity and occasional pretension of accepted canon. The actors’ struggle reminds us of the limitation of any attempt to explain visual art with language. Postmasters Gallery, NYC
Robin Mandel: Relative Strangers | September 3 – October 23
Formal presentation by Robin Mandel: Wednesday 9/2, 6-8pm in Klein Lecture Hall, Center for the Arts.
Opening reception Thursday 9/3 5-7 pm.
The artist will be conducting informal gallery talks with students and guests Wednesday and Thursday in the gallery.
Dinner
mixed media w/ electrical components
36 x 25 x 43
Impasse
mixed media w/ bowling ball and electrical components
36 x 25 x 43
Suitcase
mixed media
22 x 58 x 63
Disturbance
wood, fabric, cast aluminum, electrical components
39 x 18 x 12
Development
cast aluminum, fabric
9 x 38 x 72
Whiffleball King
cast bronze
4 x 4 x 4
Summer Exhibition 2009 | May 23 – June 28
An exhibition of works by four Pennsylvania artists: Paula Everitt, Winni Brueggeman, Jane Runyeon, and Lawrence Charles Miller.
Opening reception Saturday May 23, 2-4PM.
Jane Runyeon, Fear and Desire |
Jane Runyeon, Fort Knox |
Lawrence Charles Miller, Fraktur series: Guaranteed |
Lawrence Charles Miller, Homer series: Defiance |
Paula Everitt, Figure #7 |
Paula Everitt, Torso #4 |
Winni Brueggeman, Coin Disc |
Winni Brueggeman, Sound Sculpture |
Jon Elliott: The Pursuit of Happiness | March 26 – May 1, 2009
Open March 26 – May 1. Opening RECEPTION Thursday March 26, 5-7.
Life and the Pursuit of Happiness |
Continental Drift |
The Limit |
Plague of Excess |
Nocturnal Transmissions |
Works by Sue Coe | January 22, 2009 – March 11, 2009
Sue Coe talk (FREE, open to the public): Thursday February 26, 5:30 Roop Hall, Center for the Arts.
Other opportunities to see and hear Sue Coe in informal settings:
- Wednesday 2/25, 1:30-3 in the gallery;
- Thursday 2/26, 9:30-10:45 in Klein Lecture Hall (down hall from the bookstore),
and light snacks and beverages in the gallery 4:30-5:15; - Friday 2/27, 10-11:30 in the gallery.
These extra opportunities are free and open to the public.
Sue Coe is one of the most important politically oriented artists living in the U.S. today. From the outset of her career working as an illustrator for such publications as the New York Times and Time Magazine, Coe was committed to reaching a broad audience through the print media. Later, she began creating extended visual discourses on subjects (such as racial discrimination or animal rights) that she felt were not being adequately addressed by conventional news organizations. Widely written about and exhibited, Coe has appeared on the cover of Art News and been the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. Her work is in the collections of many major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Galerie St. Etienne, New York
Sue Coe. The Threepenny Opera. 1979. Photo-etching. 5 3/4″ x 7 5/8″ (14.2 x 19.4 cm). © Sue Coe. Courtesy Galerie St. Etienne, New York.
Albright students Cyndi Krupnik, Andrea Eiland, and Yana Faykina preparing works for the exhibition.
Sue Coe. Napalm on Falluja. 2005. Hand-colored woodcut. 11 1/4” x 18 1/4” (28.6 x 46.4 cm). © Sue Coe. Courtesy Galerie St. Etienne, New York.
Sue Coe. Rhino in Belgrade Zoo. 1999. Lithograph. 34” x 24” (86.4 x 61 cm). © Sue Coe. Courtesy Galerie St. Etienne, New York.
Sue Coe. Where’s the Good Shepherd? 1991. Etching and aquatint. 12” x 8 1/8” (30.5 x 20.6 cm). © Sue Coe. Courtesy Galerie St. Etienne, New York.
Terms such as “graphic witness” and “visual journalist” aptly describe Sue Coe. She travels in the footsteps of artists such as Francisco de Goya and Kathë Kollwitz, plunging into the depths of humanity’s darker side and addressing our propensity for cruelty and oppression. Her visceral and expressionistic works address issues that permeate our society, but are often overlooked or dismissed as legitimate subject matter for a contemporary art world. Taking on subjects of war, rape, animal cruelty and mass slaughter has placed Coe in the forefront of political action through art.
Ms. Coe will be on campus to talk about her work on Thursday, February 26 from 5:30-7:30pm. This is a unique opportunity to gain insight into the person behind works that are imbued with compassion, anger, artistic finesse, and a profound concern for life on this small and fragile planet that we all share. Her images frequently speak to us with the voices of those who cannot speak and those whose voices have been silenced. Both moving and disturbing, the images ask us to examine our roles as viewers and participants in a world that struggles with the age old questions of freedom, justice, and moral responsibility.
The Freedman Gallery at Albright College is proud to present 51 original prints by this renowned artist. In conjunction with the Freedman Gallery’s presentation of these works, and the production of The Threepenny Opera by Albright College’s Domino Players Theatre Company, there will be a panel discussion on Tuesday, February 24 at 7pm in the Wachovia Theatre in the Center for the Arts. ZEITGEIST, Political Art and Theatre: Diverse Perspectives from Faculty at Albright College, will offer a range of comments from faculty in English, Theatre, Fine Arts, History, Philosophy, Art history, and Humanities. This is free and open to the public.
Michael Howell
Director
We are very excited to have the Sue Coe exhibition on the campus here for our students to see and experience. Sue Coe draws us into her work through an instinctive form of communication that reminds us there are issues we simply cannot turn away from. She raises questions about existence and human dignity that we must deal with. Her process parallels our own learning and living process – as students in school but also in life – to take all the information we gather from history and from current events and ask ourselves a difficult question: are we merely going to witness it or do something about it?
Beth Krumholz
Curator of Education
Ms. Coe’s works deal with issues of violence and cruelty. Due to the graphic nature and adult themes in this exhibition it is not recommended for children.
Alex Rosenberg: Collector and Patron | October 30, 2008 – January 14, 2009
The Opening Reception for this exhibition is Thursday, October 30, 5 – 7 p.m.
Family Arts Workshops in conjunction with the Alex Rosenberg exhibition:
- Collectable Collages, with Octavia Beard. Students will explore text and images and create self referential collage-box art pieces. Saturday November 1st, 9:30-11:30.
- Mono Printing Workshop, with Caroline Henderson. Students will learn to create unique images using traditional techniques in a fine art printing studio. Saturday November 8th, 9:30-11:30.
- Grades K – 6. Snacks will be provided. (610) 921-7715 for reservations and information.
An exhibition of work that showcases the contributions that Dr. Rosenberg has made to the Freedman Gallery and Albright College. His support has helped to make the Gallery one of the nation’s premier galleries in the liberal arts tradition. Included in the exhibition will be works by Romare Bearden, Salvador Dali, Lee Krasner, Leon Golub and Nancy Spero. Dr. Rosenberg has worked directly with many of the artists and brings academic and personal insights into the creative processes and techniques employed by some of the leading figures in modern art.
- Podcast: Freedman Gallery Director, Michael Howell discusses the exhibit
- Read the Reading Eagle story on the exhibition
