1
2
TERRY JAM E S C ONR A D Biomarkers
bruno david gallery
Terry James Conrad Biomarkers
April 12 - May 11, 2019 Bruno David Gallery 7513 Forsyth Boulevard Saint Louis, Missouri 63105, U.S.A. info@brunodavidgallery.com www.brunodavidgallery.com Owner/Director: Bruno L. David This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition “Terry James Conrad: Biomarkers” at Bruno David Gallery. Editor: Bruno L. David Catalogue Designer: Natalie Snyder Designer Assistant: Claudia R. David Printed in USA All works courtesy of Terry James Conrad and Bruno David Gallery Photographs by Bruno David Gallery Cover image: Crag 3, (detail) 2016 Hand-made ink on paper 30 x 22 inches (76.2 x 55.9 cm) First Edition Copyright © 2019 Bruno David Gallery All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of Bruno David Gallery
CONTENTS
TERRY JAMES CONRAD BY KIMBERLY MUSIAL DATCHUK AFTERWORD BY BRUNO L. DAVID CHECKLIST AND IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION BIOGRAPHY
1
TERRY JAMES CONRAD: BIOMARKERS BY KIMBERLY M DATCHUK
2
Biomarkers absorb and tell the history of their environment. Likewise, Terry Conrad’s prints bear the history of their materials from the inks on the paper to the printing press used to produce them. The responsive art process pulls objects from the environment into the production of the prints, making them inextricable from the final artwork. Just as biomarkers can reveal the “preservation and fate of organic matter in the geological environment,”i Conrad’s prints preserve a moment in the lifespan of the materials and signal a new start. As time passes, both biomarkers and the prints continue to develop and transform. Transformation is at the heart of Conrad’s printmaking process. The process begins with the production of inks. Conrad collects objects from his environment – metal cans, dirt, walnuts – and imagines new afterlives for the forgotten and discarded items. The histories of these materials mark the final print, lending each artwork a life much longer than that of the image printed on paper. As the inks oxidize during the printing process, their colors change. Copper, for example, turns bright sea foam green. The hue’s evolution continues throughout the print’s lifetime as it interacts with the oxygen and humidity in its environment. The found objects in Conrad’s inks become embedded in his prints. They punctuate and stain the paper in interlocking, radiating segments that recall foraminifera, complex single-celled organisms that informed some of the prints. Foraminifera, or forams, come in a dazzling array of shapes and have incredible adaptability for single-cell organisms. Conrad encountered forams aboard a ship in the Santa Barbara Basin in the summer of 2018. Dr. Joan Bernhard led the expedition. Her crew and team of scientists study dead zones, or areas with few organisms due to limited oxygen. Although dead zones can occur without human interference, many of the current dead zones appeared because chemicals, including fertilizers, seeped into the ocean and other waterways and depleted oxygen. Without enough oxygen, most marine life leaves or dies, but forams remain. Conrad’s presence on Dr. Bernhard’s expedition may lead one to believe he himself is a scientist, but it is his untrained scientific eye that breathes new life into the dead zones through his interpretation of forams. Forams’ external shells, or tests, can come in a variety of shapes (stars, spirals, cylinders), but forams are not limited to their original tests. They can enhance their tests from found substances in their environment. They join the substances to themselves and use them for their own purposes. Once integrated, the substances act as biomarkers, adding to the organism’s history. The compositions collect perfectly nestled, distinctly colored shapes the way forams might accumulate fresh additions; new pieces seamlessly integrate into a growing and adapting form. As much as they suggest forams, the prints do not replicate any specific forams Conrad saw with a microscope. Rather, the spiraling shapes and abstracted patterns play off of the organisms’ swirling tests. Like Charles Seliger (1926–2009), who produced
3
intricate interlocking webs of imaginary natural shapes, Conrad’s convolutions spring from his imagination, informed by his experiences aboard the ship and the awe forams inspired.ii As Conrad notes, “[Forams] are changing the rules about survival. They are both creepy and beautiful.” iii Conrad’s prints have a presence befitting the complex, “creepy and beautiful” forams. The range of tonal variations and depth of the compositions give the prints substance and tangibility. He achieves these effects through his unique printing process. As with his inks, Conrad combines chance and control in his printing press. He assembles the press from collected materials: wood, drinking straws, sponges, bricks, and cans, among other objects. The resulting detritus-cum-printing press is a sculpture in its own right. At the base of the press, bent metal cans become the matrix, or surface upon which (and through which) ink creates an impression on the paper. Conrad’s wall sculptures, also formed from bent metal cans – such as Artichoke (2019), Tomato Puree (2) (2019), and Water Chestnut (2019) – reveal to viewers some of the folding and shaping of the matrixes. The pressure created from the weight of the collected objects produces an impression of the matrix on the paper. Ink flows, sometimes interrupted by clogs, through a web of straws woven through the press’s towering objects. Over three to four days, the inks, press, and paper produce a responsive print, complete with tension creases on the paper from the heavy press. Like forams, Conrad’s prints have their own biomarkers, which carry the history of the materials used to make them. It will be fascinating to witness Conrad’s prints transform over time. His is an art of duration at every step: making inks, building presses, shaping matrixes, and printing. After all of that, the final print continues to adapt in response to its environment. Conrad said, “I kind of think of printmaking as a trace. There’s fragments and pieces all dissolving into the landscape.”iv Forams may be changing the rules of survival, but Conrad is changing how we understand art making and the evolution of a print.
Kimberly Musial Datchuk is an assistant curator at the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art and a visiting assistant professor at the University of Iowa. She has published articles about representations of movement and masculinity in Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s drawings and lithographs, as well as pedagogy in museums. She lives and works in Iowa City, Iowa. This text is one in a series of the gallery’s exhibitions written by fellow gallery artists and friends.
4
Katherine J. Ficken, “Biomarker,” Encyclopedia of Environmental Change, ed. John A. Matthews (Sage Reference, 2014), 99-100, emphasis added, http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446247501.n428. ii. Conrad’s experiences not only informed his current prints’ compositions, but they will also affect the appearance of his future prints. During the voyage, he assisted scientists to collect mud samples from up to 600 meters below sea level. The team used special tools to measure the salinity of the samples. From some of the samples, Conrad is making inks to use in later projects. iii. Correspondence with the author, June 5, 2019. iv. “Judy Child, Terry Conrad, and Thomas Sleet at the Bruno David Gallery,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCnvKGThtc0&feature=youtu.be. i.
5
AFTERWORD BY BRUNO L. DAVID
6
I am pleased to present a new series of prints by Terry James Conrad, Biomarkers. This is the artist’s first exhibition with the gallery. In Biomarkers, Terry Conrad views the printmaking process as a living organism, in which process and result are one entity. Akin to scar tissue or memory perception, constant movement and evolution make for an ongoing change in creation. As transformation plays both a physical and theoretical role, Conrad focuses on contrasts: control and chance, waste and decoration, and the use of finite and recycled materials. Conrad himself manufactures a press, a highly sculptural construct made from a growing collection of found objects, scraps and raw materials in piles and tiers, serving as strata themselves, and the resulting images, impressions created over the course of several days, are created through the oxidation of metals and hand made inks onto the paper, which lies underneath the press itself. The results are meditative images that are suggestive of rocks and minerals, also formed over time and under pressure. Ecological, architectural and natural elements become primary themes. Invisible motion, transitory and spontaneous action converge in a singular method. Terry James Conrad received his BFA from Alfred University and his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Conrad is a 2017 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Drawing, Printmaking and Book Arts. He was the 2015-16 Grant Wood Fellow in Printmaking He is an Assistant Professor in Printmaking at the University of Iowa. Terry has also been in group exhibitions nationally and internationally. He has been awarded residencies at The Elizabeth Murray Residency (New York), Frans Masereel Centrum (Belgium), Penland School of Craft (North Carolina) and the Vermont Studio Center. He previously taught at Skidmore College and assisted his partner Rachel Ziegler-Sheridan in founding the Round Lake School, which is a preschool/ residency in Round Lake, NY that follows the teaching philosophies of Reggio Emelia. Support for the creation of significant new works of art has been the core to the mission and program of the Bruno David Gallery since its founding in 2005. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Kimberly Musial Datchuk for her very thoughtful essay. I am deeply grateful to Natalie Snyder, who gave much time, talent, and expertise to the production of this catalogue. Invaluable gallery staff support for the exhibition was provided by Cleo Azariadis, Lauren Mann, Katie Engelmeyer, Taylor Fulton, Matt McLoughlin, Jin Xia, Natalie Snyder, and Peter Finley.
7
8
CHECKLIST & IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION
9
10
Psammochthonica anoxiki, 2019 Hand–made inks on paper 30 × 22 inches (76.2 × 55.9 cm) Unique
Event 3, 2019 Hand made inks on paper 30 Ă— 22 inches (76.2 Ă— 55.9 cm) Unique
11
12
Drusy (1), 2016 Hand-made inks on paper 30 Ă— 22 inches (76.2 Ă— 55.9 cm) Unique
Event 5, 2019 Hand-made inks on paper 19 Ă— 14 inches (48.3 Ă— 35.6 cm) Unique
13
14
Event (1), 2019 Hand-made inks on paper 30 Ă— 22 inches (76.2 Ă— 55.9 cm) Unique
Crag 3, 2016 Hand-made inks on paper 30 Ă— 22 inches (76.2 Ă— 55.9 cm) Unique
15
16
Fold/Fault I, 2016 Hand-made inks on paper 30 Ă— 22 inches (76.2 Ă— 55.9 cm) Unique
Vug (5), 2016 Hand-made inks on paper 19 Ă— 14 inches (48.3 Ă— 35.6 cm) Unique
17
18
Fold/Fault II (1), 2016 Hand made inks on paper 30 Ă— 22 inches (76.2 Ă— 55.9 cm) Unique
Psammochthonica anoxiki, 2019 Hand made inks on paper 30 Ă— 22 inches (76.2 Ă— 55.9 cm) Unique
19
20
Event 4, 2019 Hand made inks on paper 30 Ă— 22 inches (76.2 Ă— 55.9 cm) Unique
Psammochthonica anoxiki, 2019 Hand made inks on paper (30 Ă— 22 inches) 76.2 Ă— 55.9 cm Unique
21
22
Psammochthonica anoxiki, 2019 Hand made inks on paper 26 Ă— 22 inches (66 Ă— 55.9 cm) Unique
Vug 3, 2016 Hand made inks on paper 19 Ă— 14 inches (48.3 Ă— 35.6 cm) Unique
23
24
Fold/Fault II (3), 2016 Hand made inks on paper 30 Ă— 22 inches (76.2 Ă— 55.9 cm) Unique
Crag 4, 2016 Hand made inks on paper 30 Ă— 22 inches (76.2 Ă— 55.9 cm) Unique
25
26
Drusy (3), 2016 Hand made inks on paper 30 Ă— 22 inches (76.2 Ă— 55.9 cm) Unique
Psammochthonica anoxiki, 2019 Hand made inks on paper 26 Ă— 22 inches (66 Ă— 55.9 cm) Unique
27
28
Fold/Fault II (4), 2019 Hand made inks on paper 30 Ă— 22 inches (76.2 Ă— 55.9 cm) Unique
29
30
Untitled, 2019 Folded Metal 7 × 15 × 2 1/2 inches (17.8 × 38.1 × 6.4 cm) Unique
Artichoke, 2019 Folded Metal 17 1/2 × 6 × 1 1/4 in (44.5 × 15.2 × 3.2 cm) Unique
31
32
Gravy, 2019 Folded Metal 17 × 17 × 1 1/2 inches (17.8 × 43.2 × 3.8 cm) Unique
Tomato Puree (2), 2019 Folded Metal 7 × 15 × 2 1/2 inches (17.8 × 38.1 × 6.4 cm) Unique
33
34
Chick Peas, 2019 Folded Metal 7 × 10 × 1 3/4 inches (17.8 × 25.4 × 4.4 cm) Unique
Water Chestnut, 2019 Folded Metal 7 × 14 × 1 1/2 inches (17.8 × 35.6 × 3.8 cm) Unique
35
Terry Conrad: Biomarkers 2019 (installation view)
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
Terry James Conrad Lives and works in Round Lake, New York and Iowa City, Iowa.
EDUCATION Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, M.F.A. NYSCC at Alfred University, Alfred, NY, B.F.A.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2019 2018 2017 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011
Biomarkers, Bruno David Gallery, St Louis, MO (catalogue) Upcoming, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Woods Hole, MA light and heavy, Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, KA stage, Maharishi University, Fairfield, IA Builder’s Alchemy, Inky Editions, Hudson, NY rocks, boxes, and dirt, Good Weather, North Little Rock, AR Short Stories pt II, Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY Paper, Plastic, Concrete, The Foundry, Cohoes, NY Short Stories, Yates Gallery, Siena College, Loudonville, NY Upstate, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020 2019 2018 2018 2017
Intersecting Methods, Stockton University, Galloway, NJ OVERVIEW_2019, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO Environmentality, SGCI, Dallas, TX Adaptation to Extremes, Courthouse Gallery, Lake George, NY Frogman’s, University of Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha, NE Impact 10 Encuentro, with Anita Jung and Isabel Barbuzza, Santander, Spain Made in Granville, Collarworks, Troy, NY Machine Breakers, Southern Graphics Council, Las Vegas, NV Machine Breakers, Noise Gallery, Bloomington, IN Entropic, Map Gallery, East Hampton, MA Then and Now, Saratoga Arts Center, Saratoga, NY UIOWA, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea MoreLand, Edition (Simone DeSousa Gallery), Detroit, MI
45
2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008
46
Residue, Cohen Center for The Arts Gallery, Alfred University, Alfred NY Still Eden, Collar Works, Troy NY Root Signals Festival, University of Southern Georgia, Statesboro, GA Grant Wood Fellowship Exhibition, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Ink, Press, Repeat, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ Design as Art, Art as Design, Greenly Gallery, Bloomsburg University of Penn. PA Scenes and variations, Schick Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga, NY Devices and Decoys, Two person with Danny Goodwin, curated by Liz Blum New Art Center, Newton, MA Print Matter Book Fair, Good Weather Booth, Los Angeles, Ca Infinity in Layers, Cary House Gallery (SAW), Salem, NY Floating Library, Lilac Steamship, New York, NY 9/50 Summit, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, Ga Public Lettering (Collaboration with Nick Tobier), Incident Report, Hudson, NY Adirondack Forum, Several Locations, Round Lake, NY Selected Art Faculty Exhibition, Schick Gallery Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, Upstate Artists, Laffer Gallery, Schuylervillle, NY New Prints/Autumn, Visual Arts Center at the University of Texas, Austin, TX More or Less, Albany Airport Gallery, Albany, NY Faculty Exhibition, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY Units, Albany Academy, Albany NY (Collaborative Project with Students) No Object is an Island, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI New Prints/Autumn, IPCNY, New York, NY Kiss: New Sincerity and New Romanticism, Murray State University, Murray, KY Summer Faculty Show, Case Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY 75TH Mohawk-Hudson Regional, Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY Chainletter, Samson Projects, Boston, MA Faculty Art Exhibition, Siena College, Loudonville, NY Out Of the Woods, Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit, MI Exchange, Academie of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium The Amazone Conversation, Raum Zur Kunst, Basel, Switzerland New Insight Exhibition, Next Fair at Art Chicago, Chicago, IL The Line, Forum Gallery, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI Exchange, School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA New Prints/Winter, IPCNY International Print Center, New York, NY Cranbrook At Cave, Cave Artspace, Detroit, MI Locally Grown, Albany Airport Gallery, Albany, NY New Prints, Bryan Art Gallery, Coastal Carolina University, SC
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2013 2012 2011 2007 2006
Iowa Now UI Professor puts artistic spin on marine research, Iowa City IA Kimberly Musial Datchuk, essay, catalogue, Bruno David Gallery Publications, St. Louis, MO Daily Iowan UI Professor creates artwork through the influence of science, Iowa City IA “Judy Child, Terry Conrad, and Thomas Sleet at the Bruno David Gallery.” Interveiw by Kerry Marks for HEC-TV, April 15 European Hand Papermaking, Traditions, Tools, and Techniques, Timothy D. Barrett Baltic Gender, Sharing the Caring: Marine Geologist Helana L Filipsson (Image) Moli Heibai, Lundao Dongxi, (Drawing included) Chapter by Lin Xia Jiang Ink, Press, Repeat Catalog, William Paterson University, NJ Grant Wood Fellows 2015-2016 Catalog Review of Decoys and Devices, Boston Globe, Cate McQuaid Review of Decoys and Devices. MetroWest Daily, April M. Crehan Decoys and Devices, Critics Pick, Boston Globe (James Reed) GWC Settles at the University of Iowa, Interview with Cedar Rapids Gazette Rock, Boxes and Dirt, Rooted Little Rock, Online Publication Bomb Magazine, April 17th Interview by Mary Jablonski in the Online Journal Numero Cinq Interview by Tim Kane,Times Union IPCNY New Prints Review, Art in Print, Online Review More or Less, Times Union, Schenectady, NY Kiss Catalog, Murray State University, KY New Prints 2011/Autumn Curatorial Essay, IPCNY, NY No Object is An Island Catalog, Cranbrook Art Museum, MI Artists of the Mohawk Hudson Region, Exhibition Catalog Land-Tracking-Land (Exhibition Catalog)
VISITING ARTIST LECTURES AND PANELS 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
Grinnell College Artist Lecture, Grinnell, Iowa Dead zones (Presentation), Southern Graphic Council, Dallas, TX Adaptations to Extremes (Panel with scientists), Bolton Landing, NY Screenprint Biennial Panel, Opalka Gallery, Albany NY Maharishi University, Fairfield, IA Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, KA Lecture at Sage College, Albany NY University of Iowa, Research Talk Skidmore College, Visiting Artist Works on Paper Class Workshop at the American Gothic House, Eldon, IA Frances Day, Tang Museum, Saratoga, NY Polyester Plate Workshop at Davenport High School, Davenport, IA University of Iowa, “Shop Talk” Lecture/Workshop at Emma Willard School Visiting Artist at Shenendahoah High School Siena College, Lecture, Intro to Visual Arts Lecture at RPI , Visual Poetics and Narrative Course
47
2013 2012 2011 2010
Malta Avenue Elementary, The Book Project with the 5th Graders Printmaking Workshops at Ragged Edges, Cohoes, NY Visiting Critiques at University at Albany 2012 Siena College, Lecture on Short Stories at Yates Gallery Miscellaneous projects at Childtime Nursery School collaborations with Rachel Ziegler-Sheridan (2009-Present) Lecture at Vox Populi, Moderated by Kate Kraczon Bookbinding Workshop at Cranbrook Art Museum Lecture at University at Albany, Works on Paper Class 2007 Skidmore College, Lecture to Advanced Printmaking
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, KA Southern Graphics Council International Archives, Kennesaw, GA Grant Wood Colony, Iowa City, IA Good Weather Gallery, North Little Rock, AR Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee, Belgium Hotel Baronette, Novi, MI, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI
PORTFOLIO AND EDITIONS 2020 2019 2018 2015 2013
Intersecting Methods (Portfolio), Organized by Matthew McLaughlin Environmentality (Portfolio), Organized by Leah Kiczula, SGCI Dallas Frogman’s 2019, Organized by Jeremy Menard The Opposite of Prayer by Douglas W. Milliken, Book Cover Image Machine Breakers(Portfolio), Organized by Nathan Meltz , SGCI Las Vegas A Real Fake: Truth In the Making Organized by Denise St. Onge and Sarah Pike Origins, Portfolio Organized by Sandy Wimer and Pattie Lipman Orange Truck, Published by Good Weather Gallery
PROJECTS 2018 2017
48
Collaboration with Joan M. Bernhard and others, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI; Woods Hole, MA). Part of a Science-ThroughArt effort funded by the US National Science Foundation, to create prints using materials and inspiration from scientific research conducted at sea on microorganisms inhabiting extreme habitats (deoxygenated marine sediments). Participant, Scientific Research Cruise, R/V Robert Gordon Sproul, San Diego to San Diego, 1-8 May 2018. To sample benthic foraminifera in Santa Barbara Basin on NSF- funded project through Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (JM Bernhard, Chief Scientist). Visit, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), 20 November 2017, to meet and confer with Senior Scientist Joan M. Bernhard regarding NSF-sponsored research supporting a Science-through-Art outreach activity.
ADDITIONAL EDUCATION Frogman’s Print Workshops, University of Nebraska at Omaha, NA Experimental Television Center, Owego, NY Lower East Side Printshop, New York, NY Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, New York, NY Zea Mays Printmaking Studio, Florence, MA AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES 2018 2017 2016 2015-16 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2005
Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency, Granville, NY New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Printmaking, Drawing and Book Arts (First Prize) Ink, Press, Repeat, William Paterson University Gallery, Wayne, NJ Grant Wood Fellowship in Printmaking, University of Iowa SPAF Grant, NYSCA Funded Skidmore College Faculty Development Grant, Print; Process and Trace NYFA SOS Grant, Distributed through the Arts Center of the Capital Region Penland, Letterpress Residency, Penland, NC Frans Masereel Centrum Residency, Kasterlee, Belgium Frans Masereel Centrum Residency, Kasterlee, Belgium Cranbrook Merit Scholarship, Cranbrook Academy of Art Helen L. DeRoy Scholarship, Cranbrook Academy of Art Vermont Studio Center Artist Residency, Johnson, VT Fulton Street Gallery Artist Residency, Troy, NY Arts Electronic Residency, Louisville, KY
49
brunodavidgallery.com brunodavidprojects.com @bdavidgallery #BrunoDavidGallery #KimberlyMusialDatchuk #TerryJamesConrad #biomarkers #print #GoSeeArt #ArtExhibition #ArtBook #ArtCatalog instagram.com/brunodavidgallery/ facebook.com/bruno.david.gallery twitter.com/bdavidgallery
50
ARTISTS Laura Beard Heather Bennett Lisa K. Blatt Ben Brough Michael Byron Bunny Burson Judy Child Carmon Colangelo Terry James Conrad Alex Couwenberg Jill Downen Yvette Drury Dubinsky Damon Freed
Douglass Freed Ellen Jantzen Michael Jantzen Kelley Johnson Howard Jones (Estate) Chris Kahler Xizi Liu Bill Kohn (Estate) Leslie Laskey Justin Henry Miller James Austin Murray Ralph nagel Yvonne Osei
Patricia Olynyk Gary Passanise Charles P. Reay Daniel Raedeke Tom Reed Frank Schwaiger Charles Schwall Christina Shmigel Thomas Sleet Buzz Spector Cindy Tower Mark Travers Monika Wulfers
51