Grabner Killam Oyster
Gallery 16 Editions is pleased to announce a limited edition by Michelle Grabner and Brad Killam, Oyster Multiple. It is made on in conjunction with the Grabner / Killam 2014 exhibition at Gallery 16, San Francisco. The artwork is designed to function as a bookshelf that supports a classic Grabner/Killam mobile. The bookshelf, made of powder coated sheet metal, houses the monograph “Can I Come Over to Your House”, a history of the first fifteen years of the internationally acclaimed art space run by Grabner and Killam, The Suburban. As well as an audio CD by Brad Killam and Darnell Thomas. The mobile is constructed from a hammered aluminum trash can lid upon which Grabners’ original paintings and silverpoint drawings are attached. Ken Johnson of the New York Times wrote of Grabner and Killam’s Oyster, “The basic structure is a disc made by flattened pieces cut from shiny metal garbage cans. Hanging by a cable, it turns freely this way and that. Attached to the disc are small paintings of gingham patterns and of radiating lines. For all the impressive physicality of Ms. Grabner’s piece, it’s the puzzling interplay of disparate signs that matters most. The garbage cans, the gingham patterns, the natural wood plank and the backyard photograph variously evoke suburban nostalgia. Ms. Grabner is not pining for a lost way of life, however. Rather, she presents a mind-teasing, rebus-like constellation of sociologically suggestive icons for viewers to sort out and make sense of for themselves.”
“The mobiles are building blocks to which other artworks and objects are attached, creating new dependencies. The serializing of their mobile form neatly fits into other concerns, namely, pattern and repetition, which is really order and chaos.”
Michelle Grabner & Brad Killam, Oyster Multiple, 2014 Edition of 10, Powder coated steel, hammered aluminum, gingham cotton, silverpoint and gesso on wood panel, Suburban Book, DVD. $5,000
It has been an incredible year for Chicago-based artist, curator, and critic Michelle Grabner. She was selected as one of the three curators for the 2014 Whitney Biennial, the first artist to do so since Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the Museum’s founder. “I Work From Home,” a survey of her artwork over the past 20 years opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland. Grabner is co-founder, with husband Brad Killam, of the acclaimed artist-run project space The Suburban, is an artist-run project space founded in 1999 by Grabner and Killam, situated between the artists’ home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois. The Poor Farm (est. 2009). The Suburban mixes sophisticated contemporary art exhibitions with backyard BBQs in the midst of a bustling family life. They developed it in response to the idea that the suburbs were an overlooked site for avant-garde activities.
Grabner works in variety of mediums including drawing, painting, video and sculpture. She is widely known for her abstract metalpoint works and her paintings of textile patterns appropriated from everyday domestic fabric. Michelle Grabner is a Professor in the Painting and Drawing Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She co-directs The Suburban (est. 1999) an artist project space in Oak Park, IL. She writes for Artforum, X-tra, Art-Agenda among others. Her work is represented by Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago; James Cohan Gallery, New York; Gallery 16, San Francisco and Anne Mosseri-Marlio, Basel. Brad Killam is an Associate Professor of Fine Arts at College of DuPage. He co-directs the Suburban, with Grabner. He has written for publications such as Tema Celeste and New Art Examiner as well as published artist’s catalog essays. He has exhibited his work widely in North America and Europe since 1992. Michelle Grabner’s work is included in the collections of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, France; Milwaukee Art Museum
Gallery 16 was founded by artist Griff Williams in 1994. Since then, Gallery 16 and its fine art imprint Gallery 16 Editions has produced exhibitions with over 250 artstis and published over 800 prints, artist books, and multiples with artists including Ari Marcopoulos, Jim Goldberg, Colter Jacobsen, Bill Berkson, Harrell Fletcher, Lynn Hershman, Amy Franceschini, Adam Lowe, William Kentridge, Tucker Nichols, Rebeca Bollinger, Libby Black, Deborah Oropallo, Jim Isermann, bell hooks, Ann Chamberlain, Elliot Anderson, Carol Selter, Rebeca Bollinger, Rex Ray, Margaret Kilgallen. MIchelle Grabner and Brad Killam’s artwork is available through Gallery 16. Gallery 16 is located at 501 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94107. Inquiries may contact Griff Williams at 415-626-7495. All images © Michelle Grabner and Brad Killam gallery16.com