STUDENT’S GUIDE TO THE EXPOSITION 27–30 September 2018
Contents Welcome........................................................................................................... 3 Map................................................................................................................... 4 About this Experience..................................................................................... 5 Navigating the Exposition............................................................................... 6 Galleries EXPOSURE IN/SITU Special Exhibitions EXPO Editions + Books EXPO PROFILE
Questions to Keep You Thinking ..................................................................... 11 Opportunities to Extend Your Experience..................................................... 12 Interview With the Curators: Corinne Granof & Amy Beste ........................... 13 Up is Down: Mid-Century Experiments in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl studio Block Museum, Northwestern University September 18, 2018–December 9, 2018
Chicago Park District Presents: Out of Sight (2016) by Lawrence Weiner...... 16 Acknowledgements......................................................................................... 18
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Welcome Welcome to the seventh edition of EXPO CHICAGO, the International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art. Each September, EXPO CHICAGO opens the fall art season at historic Navy Pier and presents artworks from 135 leading galleries, which were chosen by an international selection committee, represent 27 countries and 63 cities. The exposition offers a dynamic roster of programming including panel discussions with leading artists, curators, and collectors; uniquely curated sitespecific projects at Navy Pier and throughout Chicago; cutting edge film, video, and new media work; and special exhibitions by renowned institutions. The 2018 edition aligns with Art Design Chicago, an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art, to present various programs and events throughout EXPO ART WEEK. Consider this document as a guide to more easily navigate the expansiveness of the fair, examine its contents, and actively follow its dynamic programming and alignments. The information and questions offered in this guide can be used to form a path that best suits your learning focus and interests. We encourage you to extend your experience by attending events throughout EXPO ART WEEK and exchanging thoughts with your friends and peers.
expochicago.com @expochicago #expochicago
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About Upon entering EXPO CHICAGO, take in your first impressions of the space and think about your intentions in terms of pacing and viewing priorities. There is no wrong way to move around the exposition but setting intentions will help you navigate the exposition more intentionally. Note that on one side of the main entrance, there is a stage for /Dialogues panel discussions, which hosts the Art Critics Forum among other discussions, and EXPO Sound. On the opposite side of the main entrance, there is a screening room for EXPO VIDEO. Let us consider the breakdown of how the layout of the exposition is situated. The booth structures have been thoughtfully installed to represent galleries, institutions, and organizations that comprise exposition network. The layout of the booths features the Galleries section in the middle aisles of the exhibition hall with the EXPOSURE Section positioned towards the center. Moving outward, the booths of EXPO PROFILE, EXPO Editions + Books, and Special Exhibitions establish the perimeter. Breaking up the concentration of booths, site-specific works from the IN/SITU program are situated and suspended in both the center and surrounding areas of the hall.
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Navigating the Exposition Make your way down the center aisle to view the Galleries section, which presents booths from leading international galleries. What is your first impression of booth 201 (Paul Kasmin) located right in front of the main entrance? What tone does this exhibit set for the rest of the experience?
Which medium do you see most of in the Galleries section? Why do you think that is?
Do you notice any genres, tropes, or trends in the artwork exhibited throughout this section? May you connect these trends to any museum or gallery exhibitions you have attended in the past year?
Exhibitors 221 (LĂŠvy Gorvy), 237 (Salon 94), and 241 (Matthew Marks) are from New York City. Exhibitors 111 (Roberts Projects), 261 (Peter Blake), and 301 (Susanne Vielmetter Projects) are from Los Angeles. What varying regional trends may you deduce from these groupings?
Once you are about halfway down the exhibition hall, you will come across the EXPOSURE section, which features booth presentations by emerging artists from galleries eight years and younger. This section, curated by Justine Ludwig (Executive Director, Creative Time) highlights solo and two-artist presentations. The focused exhibitions within this section provide a great opportunity to learn about artists you may not have heard of and anticipate upcoming trends in artmaking and the art market. Which artists’ works are you most drawn to in this section of the exhibition hall? Be sure to write down or take pictures of their names so you may look them up at a later time and follow their work.
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The costs of exhibiting in an art fair, including airfare, shipping and booth space, can sometimes be prohibitive for younger galleries. To help offset these costs, EXPOSURE booth rates are significantly less than Galleries booth rates. How may a platform for younger galleries to present solo and two-artist exhibitions of emerging artists benefit the overall success of the exposition? Why may younger galleries that focus on representing emerging artists be motivated to take on the financial risk of exhibiting in a leading international art exposition, such as EXPO CHICAGO?
These galleries have come from all parts of the world to exhibit at EXPO CHICAGO, including Seoul (Booth 357, 313 Art Project); Moscow (Booth 161, LAZY Mike); Mykonos (Booth 445, Dio Horia); Brussels (Booth 252, Harlan Levey); Bogotรก (Booth 355, Instituto de Visiรณn); Toronto (Booth 260, Daniel Faria, Booth 459, Zalucky Contemporary); and London (Booth 153, Amar, 155, Edel Assanti, Booth 452, Fold, Booth 453, BEERS London). Why do you think they are trying to gain international recognition in their early years within the context of the city of Chicago?
The site-specific works and suspended sculptures displayed throughout the exposition hall are part of the IN/SITU program, a curated selection of works by artists from leading exhibitors of the 2018 exposition. There are 9 IN/SITU works displayed throughout the exposition hall, and several of IN/SITU Outside works displayed along the Lakefront and throughout neighborhoods of Chicago. IN/SITU was curated by Pablo Leรณn de la Barra, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Curator at large, Latin America. How does the shift in viewing context, from works positioned within booths to freestanding works in more open spaces, affect your evaluation of the work?
What kinds of materials are the works in this program made of? How do the various materials interact with the architecture of the exposition?
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Carmen Argote’s work reflects on personal histories, her own immigrant experience, and notions of home and place. Argote’s installation My father’s Side of Home (2014), located between booths 271 and 267, is inspired by her father’s architectural drawings of the houses he wanted to build in Guadalajara, one of which he did. Using the act of inhabiting as process to investigate the influences of a spaces, Argote traced the walls and floors on muslin fabric while inhabiting her family’s former home known as Mansion Magnolia. The works serve as representations of a space that are meant to leave their original site. How do you interpret the shapes and textures on the muslin that act as markers of objects?
Moving outside to the perimeter of the exhibition hall, you will find an exciting range of booth presentations and projects. The Special Exhibitions program features a curated selection of projects by regional, national, and international non-profit institutions, museums, and organizations. This program illustrates and preserves the important relationship between contemporary and modern art and non-profit organizations. In what ways may EXPO CHICAGO visitors serve as a point of connection between art galleries and arts non-profit organizations?
How do institutions and organizations in this program communicate their mission by means of their booth display?
How may some of these exhibitions, such as Aperture Foundation (Booth 140), Human Rights Watch (Booth 431), and National YoungArts Foundation (Booth 471), act as educational tools for the organizations’ missions?
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EXPO Editions + Books offers a diverse array of print media and object-based practices, including photography, sculptures, publications, limited editions, and monographs. This program includes both established and emerging artists from galleries, museums, and institutions. How may limited editions and other print media generate interest in collectors and visitors?
Spudnik Press Cooperative is a community-based art center in West Town, Chicago. In Booth 461, Spudnik Press displays editions by several artists and a selection of hand-bound publications produced in conjunction with exhibitions. Do other booths in the exhibition hall offer materials, such as books, editions, or printed essays, about the work of the artists with which they work? Why do you think they may provide these resources?
Notice the year that the artworks on view were created. Are galleries exhibiting works that just came out of artists’ studios in the past few years, or are the exhibited works more mature? What does this tell you about the collecting audience in Chicago? How may a focus on older or newer work interplay with the implications of medium in this program?
EXPO PROFILE presents solo booths and focused projects by established international galleries. While the Galleries section is a platform for exhibitors to showcase their repertoire of artists and brand, PROFILE is an opportunity for established galleries to bring attention to a single artist or artist collective with a thematic solo exhibition. Exhibitors may apply for a booth exclusively in EXPO PROFILE or as a compliment to their Galleries presentation. How have various exhibitors interpreted the function of the PROFILE exhibitions?
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Does the work exhibited by Martos Gallery (Booth 132) look familiar? Artist Jessica Vaughn’s After Willis (rubbed, moved, and used) (2017) series consists of discarded bus seats, some over 30 years old, that she sourced from a Chicago Transportation seat manufacturer. Vaughn’s practice is based on an analysis of the manner in which materials inhabit a space, the way they move, change hands and are discarded, and thus invoke broader social contexts. In what ways does this work invoke your own experiences in urban spaces and connection to the city of Chicago?
Carbon12 (Booth 134) is the first time a gallery from the United Arab Emirates is exhibiting in Chicago—presenting works by Sara Rahbar, an artist who interrogates the twenty-first century human condition. Visualized by assemblages of collected tools of trade that satisfy basic needs, the collected objects in her work include wheels, batons, shoe forms, weapons, and other materials. How do these objects communicate the function of her pieces?
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Interested in the Organization of the Exposition? Here are some questions to keep you thinking. The structure of an art exposition facilitates connections between exhibitors, collectors, museums, educators, professionals, and other visitors. At an international art exposition, there is also the opportunity to connect with individuals outside local networks. How may you use EXPO as an opportunity to expand your network?
Why do you think the words “contemporary” and “international” are often used together in the art world context?
One major reason for coming to an art exposition is to experience such a large quantity of artwork in-person and compare it to other works all in one space. Anticipating the comparative nature of art expositions, how may exhibitors make themselves stand out and attract audiences to their booth?
Art expositions often have a status as a tourist destination of the city in which they occur. Individuals visit the city annually to experience the week-long event. Furthermore, expositions interact with various industries in that city, such as travel and restaurants. How may EXPO CHICAGO influence the branding/identity of the city of Chicago?
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Opportunities to Extend Your Experience Presented in partnership with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), /Dialogues offers panel discussions, conversations and provocative artistic discourse with leading artists, curators, designers and arts professionals on the current issues that engage them. https://www.expochicago.com/programs/dialogues Book Signings will take place Friday–Sunday at the /Dialogues Stage and exhibitor booths. expochicago.com/programs/book-signings The third annual Art Critics Forum, “Criticism and the Image,” highlights significant issues in arts journalism today, hosting leading national and international critics to discuss topics related to writing, authorship, and publishing. Open to the public. expochicago.com/programs/art-critics-forum Alignments include the Art Design Chicago initiative led by the Terra Foundation for American Art and Hans Ulrich Obrist: Creative Chicago – An Interview Marathon hosted on a stage commissioned and designed by artist Barbara Kasten. Art Design Chicago is a spirited celebration of the unique and vital role Chicago plays as America’s crossroads of creativity and commerce. Led by the Terra Foundation for American Art, this citywide partnership of cultural organizations explores Chicago’s art and design legacy with more than 30 exhibitions and hundreds of events throughout 2018. The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation is the Presenting Partner of Art Design Chicago. artdesignchicago.org The Chicago Humanities Festival in partnership with EXPO CHICAGO and the Terra Foundation for American Art’s Art Design Chicago initiative will present Creative Chicago: An Interview Marathon led by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London, and one of the world’s leading curators, critics, and art historians. Open to the public. expochicago.com/visit/expo-art-week/2018-alignments EXPO ART WEEK openings and special events extend the exposition into a citywide celebration of art and culture. expochicago.com/visit/expo-art-week/schedule-of-events-openings A list of museum and institutional partners exhibitions showing during EXPO ART WEEK. expochicago.com/visit/expo-art-week/museum-institutional-exhibitions IN/SITU Outside provides the opportunity for exhibitors to present temporary public art installations situated along the Lakefront and throughout Chicago neighborhoods, presented in partnership with the Chicago Park District (CPD), the city of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE), and Navy Pier. expochicago.com/programs/in-situ-outside OVERRIDE | A Billboard Project is a public art initiative presented by EXPO CHICAGO and the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). expochicago.com/programs/override 13
Interview with the Curators: Corinne Granof & Amy Beste Up is Down: Mid-Century Experiments in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl Studio The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University September 18, 2018 – December 9, 2018 In the 1950s, Chicago-based design firm Goldsholl and Associates made a name for itself with innovative “designs-in-film.” Headed by Morton and Millie Goldsholl, the studio produced television spots, films, trademarks, corporate identities, and print advertisements for international corporations like Kimberly-Clark, Motorola, and 7-Up. Although they were compared to some of the most celebrated design firms of the day, the Goldsholls and their designers are relatively unknown today. Opening in September 2018, the Block Museum’s exhibition Up is Down: Mid-Century Experimentation in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl Studio will reexamine the innovative work of Goldsholl and Associates and its national impact. This exhibition is presented in conjunction with Art Design Chicago, a wide-ranging initiative to explore the breadth of Chicago’s role as a catalyst and incubator for innovations in art and design. Art Design Chicago is a spirited celebration of the unique and vital role Chicago plays as America’s crossroads of creativity and commerce.
EXPO CHICAGO: Morton and Millie Goldsholl attended Chicago’s School of Design (later the Institute of Design) founded by artist and designer László Moholy-Nagy. Moholy-Nagy’s teachings often incorporated Bauhaus philosophy that emphasized aesthetic experimentation, abstraction, and the idea that art can be an agent for social reform. How were Bauhaus principals reflected in the Goldsholl firm’s creative process and production? CORINNE GRANOF: Morton and Millie Goldsholl were deeply inspired by their time at the School of Design, and especially by László Moholy-Nagy, in the late 1930s and early 1940s and applied approaches they learned at the School to their later commercial work. For example, Morton, Millie, and the firm’s associates played around with light in slides, photographs, films, but also in graphic work and package designs. Their personal experimentations with unconventional materials, especially light, were often repurposed and found their way into work Goldsholl Design Associates did for corporations. This is what makes their design and film work so innovative and original. The Goldsholls merged their interest in light and film, avant-garde and experimental art with graphic design, package design, corporate identity campaigns, and advertisements for television. In their firm, Goldsholl Design Associates, Morton and Millie Goldsholl also fostered a collaborative work culture. A staff photograph of twelve associates from 1963 includes two women, Millie Goldsholl, who served as one of the firm’s principles, and Susan Jackson Keig, who was eventually promoted to Vice President. It also includes the Japanese American designer Fred Ota and African American designer Thomas Miller, who worked for the firm for 30 years. This level of diversity was exceptional for the era. 14
EC: The title of the exhibition, Up is Down, refers to Millie Goldsholl’s award-winning short film dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It depicts the story of an unconventional young boy who is temporarily persuaded to accept others’ viewpoints as his own and presents themes of difference, social consciousness and the potential dangers of state and social institutions. Why did you decide to use this title for the exhibition and how does it speak to the lessons offered by the Goldsholl firm’s story? CG: Up is Down was made as an educational film in 1969, the year following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, and promotes individuality and tolerance. Morton and Millie lived during a time of social and cultural transformation—from the Civil Rights movement, to the Vietnam War protests, to the proliferation of televisions in American homes—and their work is in dialogue with external events. Millie was especially interested and involved in socially progressive causes, and political activism infused her life and work. This is one theme in the exhibition and book, but the title also refers more generally to the Goldsholl Design Associates’ innovative approach to advertising, filmmaking, and design— turning conventions upside down. EC: This exhibition highlights Chicago’s central role in American design history. Despite Goldsholl Design Associates’ impressive contributions to the field, including several iconic corporate logos such as the recognizable Motorola “M” that has remained in use for over 60 years, the Goldsholl firm is not relatively known today. Why do you think that is and how may we become more aware of the firm’s influence on Chicago’s own history and the history of consumer culture? AMY BESTE: Yes, this a fascinating paradox. As you note, Goldsholl Design Associates made a number of important and well-known designs. At the peak of the studio’s activity in the 1960s and 1970s, one could purchase its package designs in the grocery store, examine examples in design journals like Print, Industrial Design, or Art Direction, see its films at tradeshows, and catch its virtuosic television ads and show titles while watching the evening news. The firm’s designers were widely respected. When Morton Goldsholl, the firm’s head, retired in 1991, he had amassed over 400 awards from across the film and design industries I think Goldsholl Design Associates’ location in Chicago defined the studio’s aesthetic and provided it with an important international platform, but it also circumscribed the studio’s legacy. As a small studio in the Midwest, Goldsholl Design Associates didn’t have access to the same resources or design community as its peers in New York or Los Angeles. Additionally, I think the kinds of materials the Goldsholl studio produced also played a role— while they were everywhere, they were also highly ephemeral. Many of the studio’s films, television ads, print pieces, and package designs were in circulation only briefly, unlike the work of their better-known designer counterparts like Saul Bass, who made titles for popular Hollywood films, or Charles and Ray Eames, who also produced furniture. Chicago has a number of institutions that have tried to preserve this kind of ephemeral, material culture. These include the Chicago Design Archive, an online repository for the city’s consumer and graphic designs from the 1920s to now and the Chicago Film Archives, whose mission is to collect and preserve the kind of films and advertising the Goldsholl studio produced —films and TV ads which were seen by the larger culture as useful tools rather than fine works of art, and often set aside when their use was fulfilled.
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EC: Can you please describe the “designs-in-films” technique that the Goldsholl studio is known for and explain how it relates to mediums within visual culture? AB: Goldsholl Design Associates was invested in experimentation, innovation, and collaboration and the studio’s film and television work stood out for its dazzling use of animation, montage, and light. In the 1950s, the firm applied constructivist principles of collage and assemblage Morton and Millie had learned at the School of Design to stopmotion animation. In the 1960s, the firm expanded these ideas to editing, building visual worlds and moods for viewers through inventive montage sequences. Morton had been particularly influenced by the culture of light-play at the School of Design, and over the years, the firm produced a number of spectacular pieces that incorporated light effects. You can see this, for example, in a mid-1970s television ad the firm produced for 7Up, which uses a grid of dots to evoke the electric light bulbs of theater marquees and the effervescence of the drink itself. Morton and Millie encouraged a culture of experimentation, and the firm’s designers employed numerous other avant-garde techniques to its productions and even developed new tools for sophisticated optical effects. In fact, firm designers patented a number of them, including the Modulens, an optical device that filters images into pixelated color fields. This device was used in some of the firm’s most famous ads in the 1970s, including for Revlon and Quasar Television. EC: Many of the artists / designers / filmmakers working for Goldsholl Design Associates in this period maintained an independent practice alongside their role in the firm. In what ways did their independent and commercial work inform one another? AB: Over the years, Goldsholl Design Associates hired a number of artists and filmmakers who had already established or pursued independent careers outside of the firm. These include filmmakers like Wayne Boyer, Larry Janiak, Byron Grush, Paul Jessel, and Marie Cenkner. Morton and Millie encouraged a culture of experimentation and collaboration, which in turn fostered an atmosphere of innovation and inspiration. These artists applied many of the techniques they had developed in their own works to those at the firm— including hand-scratching and flash-frame montage—techniques which can be seen in Goldsholl Design productions like Kleenex-X-Periments (c. 1960) and Up is Down (1969). At the same time, many of the artists used the firm’s equipment for their own productions or pursued ideas they had begun to develop at the firm in different ways.
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Chicago Park District Presents: OUT OF SIGHT (2016) by Lawrence Weiner This summer, Chicago Park District will be hosting the first public art installation of OUT OF SIGHT at both Maggie Daley Park and Walsh Park. The OUT OF SIGHT installation invites the public to explore the outdoor installation and think creatively about the direction of their lives as they encounter the floor-based work. The installation combines wit and whimsy in a game-like format, encouraging learning and self-actualization through the use of graphical phrases embedded throughout the work. Maggie Daley Park 337 E Randolph, Chicago, IL, 60601
Walsh Park 1722 N. Ashland, Chicago, IL, 60622
ABOUT OUT OF SIGHT is an interactive, generic ‘sculpture’ by internationally recognized American conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner. Adaptable to the ground—indoor or outdoor—this twodimensional, site-specific work offers participating museums, civic and public venues an opportunity to temporarily (or permanently) install a work of art that forges an engaging connection with audiences from all walks of life including adults, teenagers and children. With the OUT OF SIGHT project, Weiner’s signature text-based work has shifted off the wall and onto the floor, creating a pathway to be viewed and navigated, both physically and intellectually. OUT OF SIGHT is not only a work of art but also acts as a metaphorical framework for the journey of self- discovery and empowerment, enlivening the experience of each person who encounters it. OUT OF SIGHT is an artwork that celebrates the potential within all of us to connect with ourselves and with each other in a process of shared exploration. OUT OF SIGHT is about visualizing what can be!
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OUT OF SIGHT INSTALLATION OUT OF SIGHT is a site-specific ‘sculpture’ intended to fit the host venue—indoor or outdoor—and can be scaled and tailored for the exhibiting location. OUT OF SIGHT lays flat on the ground. The suggested material for this installation is black vinyl. HOPSCOTCH or 'MARELLE' OUT OF SIGHT is fashioned after a hopscotch or 'marelle' (in French). Unlike the traditional hopscotch design, Weiner’s creation is a curved structure, suggesting a fluid journey that embodies forward motion. JOURNEY OF PERSONAL DISCOVERY OUT OF SIGHT connects audiences with the heroism of the journey or the path. Rather than walk a straight line through a civic, public, or cultural space, it slows the pedestrian down, encouraging awareness and play with respect to who we are and who we want/ought to be. THEMATIC CONNECTIONS The inherent public appeal of OUT OF SIGHT is its ability to tap into social forces and dynamics evident in the world today. Among these are the quest for self-discoveryand self-actualization; the notion that the journey itself is as important as the destination; the role of optimism, positivity and humor in understanding ourselves and who we can be; and the sense of being part of a larger community. The physical, interactive experience of OUT OF SIGHT taps into the “gameification” of learning and socially based experience that is at the heart of such phenomena as gaming communities, virtual and enhanced reality, and collaborative or game-based social networking.
To learn more about OUT OF SIGHT, please reach out to: Zara Hoffman zara@oosproject.net
The public is invited to share their images of the artwork using the hashtag: #OUTOFSIGHTChicago Follow OUT OF SIGHT on social media Instagram: @OUTOFSIGHT_OOS Facebook: @OUTOFSIGHTChicago
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Acknowledgements Amy Beste, Director of Public Programs, Department of Film, Video New Media and Animation, School of the Art Institute of Chicago Stephanie Cristello, Director of Programming, EXPO CHICAGO Corinne Granof, Curator of Academic Programs, Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University Jeff Rhodes, Director of Exhibitor Relations, EXPO CHICAGO Anja Xheka, Education Intern, EXPO CHICAGO
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