Art League Houston and FOTOFEST present
Medianation: Performing for the Screen
Curated by Gilbert Vicario
featuring Leslie Hall and Laurel Nakadate
On View: March 12 – April 24, 2010
Opening Reception: Monday, March 29, 2010, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Houston, TX. (February 18, 2010) Art League Houston and the FotoFest 2010 Biennial are pleased to partner in presenting Medianation: Performing for the Screen, curated by Gilbert Vicario, and featuring the work of media and performance artists Leslie Hall and Laurel Nakadate, March 12 through April 24, 2010. Medianation: Performing for the Screen is a series of 2010 FotoFest Biennial exhibitions that will feature eight artists at three separate venues: Art League Houston, New World Museum, and 3917 Main Street (Isabella Court., The 2010 FotoFest Biennial, the nation’s oldest and longest running international photographic arts event, focuses this year on Contemporary U.S. Photography.
The opening reception for Medianation: Performing for the Screen takes place at the Art League on Monday, March 29 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., with a talk by the curator Gilbert Vicario.
One of five curators invited to curate programs for the FotoFest 2010 Biennial, Gilbert Vicario is the Curator at the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa, and is the former Assistant Curator of Latin American Art and Latino Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. As a curator of contemporary art, Mr. Vicario
explores the interrelationship between the digital image and notions of process and performance in contemporary art. Taking the media as a starting point and as an undeniable (though not unique) American phenomenon, artists in Medianation explore political, sexual, and cultural issues in a moment when the demise of traditional forms of communication - radio, television, film, and photography – give way to an explosion of digitally-based forms of social interaction, [from] Facebook and Twitter to file and video sharing sites such as Youtube, Xtube, [and] MySpace.
About the Artists
Leslie Hall, a native of Ames, Iowa (b. 1981) and a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, initially caught the hearts and eyes of America’s children when she began uploading images of her world famous gem sweater collection (www.gemsweater.com) on the internet. Through word of mouth, interest in her site quickly grew, and within a month, she received over two million unique hits, which left her with an $800 bill for exceeding her bandwidth limit. To raise money to pay back her mother who footed the bill, Hall did what any 200 lb. plus girl from Iowa would do – she became a rapper, and formed a band with high school friends called Leslie and the Lys. Since then, Hall’s fame has soared with such viral music video hits as Gold Pants, Beatdazzler, Zombie Killer, and How We Go Out. Her performances include Los Angeles’s Hammer Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and sold out shows support the Scissor Sisters at New York City’s infamous Bowery Ballroom. Cathy Ressner, in a 2005 Seven Days article, calls her “brilliant and infectiously funny [with] performances so over the top, it’s impossible not to laugh.”
Laurel Nakadate was born in Austin, Texas (1975), grew up in Ames, Iowa, and currently lives and works in New York She has a B.F.A. from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University and an M.F.A. from Yale University. Known for provocative works, Laurel says about her films and photographs, in a 2009 The Rumpus.net interview, “[M]y intention is to make work about being uncomfortable. About being in a world that isn’t always the world you want to be part of.”
Widely exhibited and screened, Nakadate has had nine solo exhibitions, and numerous group shows at museums and galleries that include among many others, the Museo Nacional Reina Sofia in Madrid; the Berkeley Art Museum, California; P.S. 1 Contemprary Art Center, Long Island City; and the Getty Center, Los Angeles. Her first feature length film had its world premiere in January 2009 at the Sundance Film Festival, and was subsequently screened at the 2009 New Directors/New Films series at the Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center in New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the San Francisco Art Institute, and other international venues. Nakadate has been the subject of numerous articles and reviews in the art press and general interest publications through out the world. Her work is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey; and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. She is represented by Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York.
Additional Medianation: Performing for The Screen information
In addition to Ms Hall and Ms. Nakadate, the Medianation: Performing for the Screen exhibitions showcase the work of Susanne Jirkuff, Adria Julia, Kalup Linzy, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Sandra Valenzuela, and Emilio Chapela at the two other locations. The exhibition also features a special event screening of Laurel Nakadate’s film Stay the Same, Never Change, 7pm, April 1 at the Glassell School of Art, 5101 Montrose, 77006.
Mr. Vicario will take part in two free public Curatorial Forums as part of the FotoFest 2010 Biennial, including:
• The Symposium on Contemporary Curatorial Practice, Sunday, March 28 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1001 Bissonnet, 77005, along with acclaimed curators Anne Wilkes Tucker, and Charlotte Cotton, and Medianation artist Daniel Joseph Martinez;
• On March 31, a less formal Curatorial Dialogue will take place between Mr. Vicario and Houston independent curator Fernando Castro. The two curators will discuss their personal curatorial visions, as well as the Medianation exhibit. This event takes place at the Doubletree Hotel Houston Downtown, 400 Dallas, 77002, and is immediately preceded by the Evening with the Artists Portfolio Viewing.
For more information on these and other 2010 FotoFest Biennial events visit www.fotofest.org/biennial2010/forums.
About FOTOFEST
Founded in 1983, and based in Houston, Texas, FotoFest is a non-profit organization promoting photographic arts and education. FotoFest is recognized for its discovery and presentation of important talent, contemporary and historical, from around the world, its commitment to presenting important social ideas through the photographic arts, its groundbreaking exhibitions and its portfolio review program.
The FotoFest Biennial is the first international Biennial of Photography and Photo-related Art in the United States. Through the FotoFest Biennial and its year-round art programs, FotoFest is known as a platform for Art and Ideas, combining museum-quality art with important social and aesthetic issues. FotoFest curated exhibitions give priority to the works of important but little-known photographic artists from the U.S. and around the world. The FotoFest 2010 Biennial focuses for the first time on U.S. Contemporary Photography.
About Art League Houston
Art League Houston is one of Houston's longest operating non-profit visual arts organizations and was the first alternative art space in Texas. Founded in 1948 and incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1953, Art League Houston (ALH) was created to promote the public appreciation of and interest in the visual arts. During the past 62 years, ALH has provided over 780 exhibitions to the Houston community, showcased the work of nearly 12,000 artists, and instructed over 36,000 students through the Art League School and outreach programs.
Our Mission
The mission of Art League Houston is to cultivate awareness, appreciation, and accessibility of contemporary visual art within the community for its cultural enrichment. Art League Houston provides an opportunity for all members of the community to experience the contemporary visual arts. We achieve our mission through exhibitions, education, and outreach programs.
This project is funded in part by a grant from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance. This project is supported in part by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Art League Houston acknowledges the following private foundations, public funders, and corporations for their support this season: Art Colony Association, Inc., CenterPoint Energy, Inc., ExxonMobil Foundation, Felvis Foundation, Ray C. Fish Foundation, Houston Endowment, Inc., John P. McGovern Foundation, Mrs. Katherine McGovern, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Oshman Foundation, Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Target, The Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation, and the Wortham Foundation, Inc.
Art League Houston also wishes to thank its many generous individual donors for their support.
