David Krueger: Curated by Judy Pfaff

07 | 08

david krueger

two thousand

511 west 25th street | new york, ny | 10001 www.cueartfoundation.org

isbn-13: 978-0-9797964-5-6 isbn-10: 0-9797964-5-8

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david krueger c u e art foundation a p r i l 24 – m ay 31, 2008

cu r at e d b y

j u dy p fa f f

[foreword] We are honored and grateful to present this exhibition generously curated by Judy Pfaff. For the CUE solo exhibition series, Ms. Pfaff has chosen fellow artist, David Krueger, who lives and works in Houston, TX. Were it not for the opportunity that CUE gallery affords, it is unlikely that an installation such as this would be available for public viewing, whether in a commercial venue or not.

CUE appreciates that geographic location can sometimes limit an artist’s exhibition possibilities elsewhere, thus CUE is pleased to offer Mr. Krueger the opportunity for his first solo exhibition in New York. Ms. Pfaff and we, together, wish him a future of fulfillment and success.

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david krueger [artist’s statement]

as a boy i collected stamps. For several

years, we lived two blocks from my maternal grandmother who gave me my first stamps and stamp book before I started elementary school.

After we moved away, frequently I would receive lavender scented envelopes in the mail filled with beautiful stamps. In my teens, my paternal grandmother became the Postmaster of Encinal, TX. I loved going to the old wooden clapboard post office on the town square; the feeling it had was incredible. The building was the hub of local communication with people coming to pick up or drop off their mail while sharing the latest gossip.

Occasionally I was allowed to help put the mail in the boxes and I would examine the stamps on the envelopes, hoping to see something new or from a far off exotic place.

I never lost that attraction. I love the way stamps have the ability to travel around the world, miniature pieces of art, often barely noticed. Today I buy commemorative stamps to use for my postage.

Commemorative stamps were conceived as a way of celebrating great individuals, as well as high ideals, values and achievements of society. In my eyes, those values have disappeared, replaced instead by corruption, greed and cruelty. Therefore, it seems to be a natural choice for me to use the form of a stamp as a way to “commemorate” these new qualities and values. My first stamp “commemorating” the 2000 presidential election carried an image of George

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W. Bush, crowned and decorated, with the words “Idiot King” emblazoned on his chest. Created on the computer, laid out in grids and perforated using a manual machine from 1918, these tiny art works could be pulled apart and given away, a simple means of distribution.

This installation recreates the old post office where I spent so much time as a child. To me, it represents the disconnect between the past “ideal” and the loss of trust, privacy and human rights that I see today. Much of the installation is made from cardboard covered with an encaustic paint, infused with a bit of lavender oil to bring back those warm memories of my grandmother and simpler, idyllic times. The post office doors and working vending machines were purchased on eBay. The vending machines sell my stamps.

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judy pfaff [curator’s statement]

arriving in houston, t x early in 2007,

landing at the George Bush Airport, passing Halliburton’s headquarters, on my way to Rice University Art Gallery, I remember feeling a certain apprehension. I was not in liberal territory anymore. I think back now at how fortuitous and prophetic it was to meet David Krueger. He was the preparator for The Rice University Art gallery, the kind of person whose job it is to facilitate the construction and success of the installations of the invited artists. I found in him a curious character, humble and intense, and over the two weeks we worked together, he was inordinately helpful to me.

The first works that I saw of his were in his office, casually up on the walls, looking like wallpaper.

They were postage stamps or more accurately, facsimiles of postage stamps, convincing enough to be government issued. Upon inspection they were not as expected, offering up a scathing critique of the current administration.

His political outrage has been, it seems, evolving and increasing for some time. Ironically, he is an extremely gentle man, empathic, soft spoken and generous. He cuts an un-stereotypical image of political radical. There was another more personal aspect to my choice. When I was quite young I lived in Sweetwater, TX with my Air Force husband during the Vietnam War. It was a strange time and I was in an equally strange landscape— dry, red, harsh to the touch, a landscape unfamiliar

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to me. David Krueger was born in Odessa, TX. He is indelibly Texan, the likes of whom I did not meet in the 1960s. Some of the violence that was my experience was mirrored in his experience— violence that he endured in his own life. So forty years later, I get to revisit and find an artist who gives imagery to the lunacy of our policies then and now, full circle.

I had been approached by CUE Art Foundation to select an artist for an exhibition. Seemingly an easy decision since I know so many young, incredibly talented, deserving artists from teaching for so many years and from my own life as an artist.

It was not easy. If the right time and place means anything, choosing David was, to me, obvious once I understood his specific story and his relative anonymity in the art world. I find his work timely and personal, talking and working out ideas within a structure variable enough to include all that passed in his life and the world at large. His work does make me shudder and it finds its way inside— funny and angry. This installation of David’s has this other ingredient, being a flashback to his smalltown post office. I think this show is timely and has poignancy to provoke more thought.

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Our Way Or No Way [detail], 2002 Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps, 8½˝ x 11˝

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Gluttony [detail], 2006 Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps, 8½˝ x 11˝

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Fox [detail], 2008 Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps, 11˝ x 8½˝

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Best Little Whorehouse, 2003 Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps, 11˝ x 8½˝

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[top] War Bonds [detail], 2003 Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps, 8½˝ x 11˝

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[bottom] Freeing Iraqi Children [detail], 2003 Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps, 8½˝ x 11˝

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Assault Rifles [detail], 2002 Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps, 11˝ x 8½˝

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Wrath [detail], 2008 Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps, 8½˝ x 11˝

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Stop Terrorism [detail], 2003 Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps, 11˝ x 8½˝

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For Americans, 2006 Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps, 8½˝ x 11˝

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0Red Cents, Bird,2003 Waves, Gold, 2003 Sheet of chalk perforated, printed 8½˝ xon 11˝paper, 30˝ x 66˝ Acrylic, and oillaser pastels with stamps, oil paintstick

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Love [detail], 2004 Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps, 8½˝ x 11˝

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Global Warming, 2006 Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps, 8½˝ x 11˝

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Earth Day [detail], 2008 Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps, 11˝ x 8½˝

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Post Office [detail], 2008 Wood, cardboard, encaustic, paint Dimensions variable

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judy pfaff is [tk]

Group of loose stamps, 2001–2007

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[biographies]

david krueger was born in Odessa, TX. He received his MFA from the University of Houston, TX in 2003. His solo exhibitions include Nature/ Nurture (2005), Commerce Street Art Warehouse, Houston, TX, and Parallel Lives (2001), ArtCar Museum, Houston, TX. Group exhibitions include, My God Wants to Kill Your God, Rice University Media Center, Houston, TX; Frontera 450+, Station Museum, Houston, TX; unReal, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX; Red Fall, Station Museum, Houston, TX; Spacemakers, The Suburban Political Poster Project, Space for Contemporary Art, Munich, Germany; Secret Wars, ArtCar Museum and Great Texas Shootout, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX. Krueger is the Preparator for the Rice University Art Gallery, Houston, TX. The exhibition at CUE Art Foundation marks Krueger’s first solo show in New York.

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judy pfaff was born in London, England.

She received her MFA from Yale University, New Haven, CT in 1973. Pfaff is currently the Richard B. Fisher Professor of Art at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY since 1994–present.

Her solo exhibitions began in 1974 at Artists Space, New York, NY and continued with the Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY from 1979–1990. She has made site-specific work for the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; USA Representative to the 1998 Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art; Tate Gallery, London, UK; Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY; Detroit Institute of Arts and others. Her work has been commissioned by the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA; the GTE Corporation, Irving, TX; Wacoal, Tokyo, Japan and set design for Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY and the opera, Regina, commissioned by the American Symphony Orchestra, Fisher Center, Bard College. Pfaff was the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship in 2004 and is presently represented by Ameringer & Yohe Fine Art, New York, NY.

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CUE Art Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit forum for contemporary art and cultural exchange that provides opportunities and resources for under-recognized artists.

We value the astonishing diversity of creativity that artists provide and the importance of their activity in the social context of the city.

CUE provides artists, students, scholars and art professionals resources at many stages of their careers and creative lives. Our programs include exhibitions, studio residencies, publications, professional development seminars, educational outreach, symposia, readings, concerts and performances. Since 2002, we have operated from our 4,500 square foot storefront venue in the heart of New York’s Chelsea Arts District.

CUE exhibiting artists are chosen by their peers and a rotating group of advisors and curators from across the country. This pluralistic process ensures that CUE consistently offers diverse viewpoints from multiple disciplines of artistic practice.

Simply put, we give artists their CUE to take center stage in the challenging world of art.

Board of Directors Gregory Amenoff Theodore S. Berger Patricia Caesar Thomas G. Devine Thomas K.Y. Hsu Brian D. Starer

Advisory Council Gregory Amenoff Bill Berkson William Corbett Michelle Grabner Deborah Kass Kris Kuramitsu Jonathan Lethem Lari Pittman

Staff Executive Director Jeremy Adams Director of Development Bryan Markovitz Cover: Idiot King [detail], 2001 Sheet of perforated, laser printed stamps, 8½˝ x 11˝ All artwork © David Krueger Catalog design by typeslowly

Programs Director Beatrice Wolert-Weese Programs Assistant Ryan White

Printed by mar+x myles, inc. using 100% wind generated power on FSC certified paper

Development Assistant Talia Spetter

isbn-13: 978-0-9797964-5-6 isbn-10: 0-9797964-5-8

Preparator William Bolton

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