Seed Space Catalog 2010 - 2013 by Seed Space

Editor: Andri Alexandrou Copy Editor: Laura Hutson Project Assistants: Guy Kotopsumbut, Kayla Saito Design Consultant: Dave Pittman Cover Design: Andri Alexandrou Copyright 2014, Nashville Cultural Arts Project (NCAP) NCAP, 1209 4th Ave S., Nashville, TN 37203 www.n-cap.org | www.seedspace.org director@n-cap.org | director@seedspace.org All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from Seed Space Press. This catalog was made possible with funding and assistance from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, the Tennessee Arts Commission, the Metro Nashville Arts Commission, and the Nashville Cultural Arts Project. ISBN: 978-1-63173-063-4 Seed Space Press 427 Chestnut Street, Suite 227 Nashville, TN 37203, USA

SEED SPACE CATALOG 2010 – 2013

Edited by Andri Alexandrou 5

Seed Space is a lab for site-specific installation, sculpture and performance-based art in Nashville. We bring in nationally recognized art critics to write our exhibition essays. We host regularly scheduled public talks. We facilitate meetings among artists, critics and curators. Through these means we aim to foster an exchange between a growing network of local and national artistic communities, which we believe is one of the best ways to support the careers of emerging artists. Located in the Track One building in the Wedgewood Houston neighborhood of Nashville, TN, Seed Space is supported by NCAP, the Nashville Cultural Arts Project, and is made possible with grants and individual contributions.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

001. Introduction Director Adrienne Outlaw 003. Space, No Space, Every Space Michelle Grabner 007. Seed Space: The Artist Incubator Ginger Shulick Porcella 011. Words of Support 015. Exhibition Criticism 017. Introduction to Exhibitions Curator Rachel Bubis 021. Calendar of Exhibitions 025. Exhibition Criticism: 2010 063. Exhibition Criticism: 2011 095. Exhibition Criticism: 2012 127. Exhibition Criticism: 2013 167. Introduction to Programming Programs Manager Andri Alexandrou 169. Flowers that Bloom in the Dark Amy Mackie 175. Community Supported Art 187. Insight? Outta Site! Calendar 189. Professional Development Workshops 193. Studio Tour, Summer 2013 201. Index of Artists 213. Index of Contributing Critics & Curators

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Seed Space is an organization that depends on the hard work of its volunteers and interns, and the experience of its Board of Directors and Artist Advisory Board. We thank you for your contributions. STAFF Adrienne Outlaw, Founder and Director Rachel Bubis, Curator Andri Alexandrou, Programs Manager VOLUNTEERS Lisa Croney and Janet Decker Yanez INTERNS 2010: Rachel Bubis, Laura Hutson 2011: Rachel Bubis 2012: Kellie Bornhoft 2013: Andri Alexandrou, Mariel Bolton, Julia Denison BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jeff Van Dyke (president), Nancy Cason (secretary), Kyle Baker, Michael Bressman, Jay Clayton, Lucille Houseworth, Sharon Louden, Michael McBride, Linda Orsagh, Jennifer Pepper, Ronnie Steine, Joe Stocker, Mel Chin (ex officio), Mary Rolando (ex officio) and Anita Sheridan (ex officio) ARTIST ADVISORY BOARD Rehema Barber, Benton-C Bainbridge, Alicia Beach, Dane Carder, Emily Clayton, Rebecca Dimling Cochran, Derek Coté, Natalie Dunham, Mike Calway-Fagen, Sher Fick, Skye Gilkerson, Jodi Hays, Stuart Horodner, Ryan Hogan, Robbie Lynn Hunsinger, Kristin Juárez, Veronica Kavass, Susan Knowles, Emily Leonard, Amy Mackie, David Maddox, Stephan Moore, Leslie Patterson-Marx, Vesna Pavlović, Jason Paradis, Rachel Reese, Jack Ryan, Ryder Richards, Susan Sherrick, Ginger Shulick Porcella, Chen Tamir, Benjamin Thorp, Adam Trowbridge, Mandy Cano Villalobos, Jessica Westbrook, David Wood, Janet Decker Yanez and Scott Zieher 11

INTRODUCTION

Early last year I was in an ongoing struggle over whether to fold or expand Seed Space. After a long search (thanks everyone!), I decided to expand, but not alone. Going bigger meant going stronger; it meant building a community to include not just artists, but those who value creativity. With help from two non-profit consultants we overhauled our board of directors. We formed an artist advisory board. We strengthened our internship program and added a programs manager. We put together a financial calendar and an organizational strategy. We also moved! During the four years we ran Seed Space from my studio, we presented 24 solo shows, organized four group exhibitions showcasing 125 artists, commissioned 53 texts from nationally recognized curators and critics, placed 624 cutting edge artworks in the homes of more than one hundred new collectors, and organized 27 lectures, studio visits and workshops with artists, critics and curators. Now with a larger space in a better building, we can do even more. Catalog contributor Michelle Grabner aptly describes our work, “While Seed Space, like Lissitzky’s cabinet, recognizes that some types of cultural production may need white walls or a traditional volume of architectural geometry to display work and engage an audience, Seed Space also relegates that sort of creative exchange as a footnote to its hybrid energies.” At the core of our efforts is our desire to cultivate creativity, expand networks and break hierarchies while remaining a nimble organization which generously contributes to the community. Well into our fifth year, Seed Space has grown into a networking, idea and career incubator built by and for artists of all disciplines. Our programming now has five main areas, which include exhibitions, artist residencies, a participatory speaker forum, a professional development series and a Community Supported Art (CSArt) program. Add to that music, performance art, film screenings, fashion shows, dinner parties, and whatever else you bring to the table — we welcome your involvement and hope to see you soon. Founder and Director Adrienne Outlaw

SPACE, NO SPACE, AND EVERY SPACE

Space: That which is not looked at through a keyhole, not through an open door. Space does not exist for the eye only: It is not a picture; one wants to live in it. El Lissitzky, “Proun Space” (1923)

A few years ago I visited El Lissitzky’s Cabinet of Abstract Art (1926), installed at the Hannoversches Landes Museum in Hanover, Germany. It is a room famous for its Constructivist design solution. When faced with the problem of installing his abstract paintings in a small and intimate space, Lissitzky invented a system of moveable panel walls, which Lissitzky called “an interchange station between painting and sculpture.” Because of the work’s new ability to be viewed from multiple vantage points, Lissitzky claimed that his artworks were given a “triple life” in his cabinet. In addition, this moveable space also represented a desire for viewers of his paintings to become active

participants. The result, however, was purely conceptual, an effect “without a call to action, without a change in the social institution itself.”1 Expanding on Lissitzky’s idea, George Bataille’s writing in L’Espace claims that space is discontinuous—a conflation of forces. “All resistance does not necessarily occur in space; rather it takes place through the agency of discourse, discourses that mark, channel, and position the body through and in other perspectives.”2 Seed Space acts on this. And although it is tempting to delve into the allegory of the seed as a frame for Nashville’s premier art lab: a nurturing nonprofit that “encourages risk and celebrates failure in our desire to challenge, 3

stimulate and encourage creativity,” be cautious. Seed Space is equally effective at threatening the neutrality of the prosaic exhibition space. While Seed Space, like Lissitzky’s cabinet, recognizes that some types of cultural production may need white walls or a traditional

to visit in December, 2013. The moss-covered enclosure was occupied with a suspended symmetrical armature that suggested a crescent moon or a Persian sword. Think of an updated Lee Bontecou for a close object-approximation. The bulbous lower end of this form reached

But during my visit, Seed Space also performed across a variety of spaces. For example, through Seed Space I found my way around Nashville’s cultural landscape, visiting various artist studios, a range of commercial galleries, other nonprofit galleries and Nashville’s main public library.

volume of architectural geometry to display work and engage an audience, it also relegates that sort of creative exchange as secondary to its hybrid energies. Instead, it is a space dedicated to pushing open conventional frameworks, a “dissenting space,” an ideological space, that also happens to host a real—albeit intimate— exhibition space. Seed Space proudly makes a platform for the discursive, the poetic, the personal and the shared, supporting Trinh T. Minh-ha’s observation that “if art can be neatly contained in systematic forms of closure, if it can be made to be an object of knowledge, then it no longer is art. Its very ‘essence’ rests upon its elements of inexplicability and of wonder. Or else, why would anyone engage in artist work, whose values lies precisely in its inability to prove itself worth the price or attention demanded.”3 It was my honor to sit on a folding chair in the corner of Seed Space’s gallery when I came 4

toward me at eye level. It revealed a video of a large eyeball that restlessly scanned me and the rest of the green gallery. It was a project by artist Brad McCombs, and it made me feel uncomfortable with its Orwellian propositions. Regardless, I performed for the object by sitting patiently, and it performed for me. But during my visit, Seed Space also performed across a variety of spaces. For example, through Seed Space I found my way around Nashville’s cultural landscape, visiting various artist studios, a range of commercial galleries, other nonprofit galleries and Nashville’s main public library. So don’t be fooled thinking that the word “Seed” is the key to understanding this art lab, because it is not. It is the protracted meaning of “Space” that affirms its shifting artistic energies: Nashville’s “interchange station” is a space, no space, and every space. Michelle Grabner

Judith Barry “Dissenting Spaces,” Damaged Goods exhibition catalog (New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1985) p. 49. 2 Ibid. 3 Trinh T. Minh-ha, “The Other Censorship,” When the Moon Waxes Red, (New York: Routledge, 1990) p. 230. 1

THE ARTIST INCUBATOR

Nashville is my home away from home, a home I’ve never lived in, the place where I come several times a year to visit friends and family, a welcome getaway from New York City. For me, a trip to Nashville would never be complete without a visit to Seed Space. I was introduced to Seed Space by Chen Tamir, the first visiting art critic for the venue. I was already somewhat familiar with art in Nashville; my brother-in-law Bryan Deese created the Johnny Cash mural with his graffiti crew TM. When I was younger he would take me to the First Saturday openings downtown. When I first met Adrienne Outlaw I was excited to see that unique places like Seed Space could thrive in Nashville. As a curator of new media, installation and performance, I found Seed Space to be a breath of fresh air in a somewhat staid commercial art scene. Seed Space is not your typical gallery or presentation venue. It serves as an authentic incubator for the arts. Its operators actively market the work of artists, supporting them by

facilitating critical dialogues between the local and national artistic communities through public talks and consultations with art experts. I immediately latched onto their mission because I believe my purpose in life is to support living artists. Unfortunately, our society generally doesn’t value these national treasures. I believe anyone can decide to become an accountant or a dentist, but you don’t choose to become an artist—art chooses you. Because artists have little agency in this matter, I believe we should do everything we can to support them, especially those who are not the most commercial. I thus felt a kindred spirit in Adrienne Outlaw and Seed Space. Seed Space fills a crucial role for artists, writers and curators, bringing attention to the importance contemporary arts plays in building community. Conceived as a programmatic arm of the Nashville Cultural Arts Project, Seed Space is hard to differentiate from Outlaw’s artistic oeuvre as a social practitioner. Founded by Outlaw in 2009, Seed Space operated as an intimate presentation venue within her studio 7

from 2010 – 2013, and serves as a laboratory for artists to experiment and make room for new ideas. This tiny outpost in an old factory in the up-and-coming Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood has quickly become the hub of a supportive community of artists and creative professionals across Nashville. In fact, it was just

Biennial co-curator Michelle Grabner to speak with and meet the artist community, ensuring that artists in Nashville stay engaged with global dialogues surrounding contemporary art. I’ve always preferred intimate venues such as Seed Space because they allow for exploration, a more intimate viewing experience,

I’ve always preferred intimate venues such as Seed Space because they allow for exploration, a more intimate viewing experience, and an opportunity for visitors to really look at and experience art on a whole new level.

after organizing the first studio tour and gallery walk in June 2013 that a local developer contacted Seed Space offering a space in his building.¬ For four years Seed Space hosted an active exhibition schedule of six solo shows and two or three group shows each year. It strives to be a place that encourages risk and celebrates failure. It is now entering into that critical five-year mark that either makes or breaks most organizations. I think that this is just the beginning for Seed Space. They have shown some of the most exciting and challenging installations I’ve seen, such as Jason Paradis’ site-specific, psychogeographic installation of the devastating Nashville flood, the interactive sound piece Skitter Flutter by Robbie Lynn Hunsinger, as well as works by renowned artists like Benton-C Bainbridge and Sonya Clark. Seed Space also understands the value of inviting top arts professionals such as the 2014 Whitney 8

and an opportunity for visitors to really look at and experience art on a whole new level. Seed Space can only expand from here, particularly in its professional development for artists who are rarely taught in our country’s art programs what it really takes to survive as an artist. Seed Space stands as proof that in this global (or perhaps even post-global) society, it doesn’t matter if you live outside a major art center like New York City or Los Angeles, because so much of being an artist is conducted online, and anyone, anywhere, can be omnipresent in the “art world.” Simply stated, Seed Space is a gathering place for like-minded individuals who want to put Nashville on the map as a cultural destination, who want their voices as tastemakers heard on a local, national, and international level. Seed Space as a concept could exist anywhere—it’s not tied to a physical location but to a frame of mind, one that

harkens back to an age where experimentation and innovation in art-making was lauded. Seed Space could be a pop-up venue, a performance on the street, a lecture in a library. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m excited to see what the next five years bring for Seed Space, and for Nashvilleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s art community as a whole. Nashville is certainly lucky to be home to such a place. Ginger Shulick Porcella

WORDS OF SUPPORT

Seed Space is not only a unique space to Nashville; it also provides a unique model for small art organizations around the country. It is rare to find an art space committed to supporting writers and curators in addition to artists… KRISTIN JUÁREZ Thanks to NCAP’s connections to the local community and commitment to supporting the artists they show, my work received a considerable amount of attention in the local press, and a pair of amazing write-ups from curator Rachel Bubis and critic Rebecca Cochran. STEPHAN MOORE Here I was able to experiment on a site-specific work that would otherwise have difficulty gaining exposure in traditional commercial venues. JACK RYAN [Seed Space] makes it possible for artists like myself to establish themselves and sustain relationships with other artists and the city at large. Their work makes Nashville a contemporary and relevant city to be a working artist. EMILY CLAYTON 11

Words of Support

[Seed Space] actively markets the work of artists, supporting them by facilitating critical dialogues between the local and national artistic communities through public talks and consultations with art experts. GINGER SCHULICK PORCELLA As a curator I am thrilled to watch Seed Space’s programming forge new paths for Nashville as an influential entity in the South and beyond. The gallery related projects, and resultant cultural currency are absolutely necessary to the city and are a model for others wishing to express their vibrant capital. MIKE CALWAY-FAGEN I cannot emphasize enough the return I’ve received by being involved with such a positive nonprofit leader in the arts. JANET DECKER YANEZ With the support and advice of Seed Space and other artists who have exhibited there, I have been able to extend my knowledge beyond the academic, and create a deeper insight of myself, knowledge and my work as I transition from Art Student and Art Instructor to Artist. ALICIA BEACH The program Insight? Outta Site! brings nationally acclaimed curators and critical thinkers in the contemporary art scene to Nashville to meet with local artists and create conversational platforms. These visits have been a tremendous exposure for the local art scene. VESNA PAVLOVIĆ By participating in the CSArt program, I have received additional exposure and my work has been distributed to a more diverse group of collectors that I otherwise would not have become connected to. RYAN HOGAN

Words of Support

Not only did Seed Space provide me with a platform to explore interpretations of art, but it enabled my own growth. VERONICA KAVASS CSArt provides a conduit for local artists to interact with the collecting public — a relationship that is lacking gravity in this up-and-coming southern city full of creative talent. DEREK COTÉ I have found Seed Space to be one of the very few non-commercial contemporary art galleries in town. It provides Nashville with cutting edge art including installation art, interactive art, new media and sound art. ROBBIE LYNN HUNSINGER [Seed Space] not only gives your work a critical point of view but also offers a translation of your visual endeavor. JASON PARADIS The space has become a place known for its experimental impulses, as well as its growing list of artists, which represents some of the most creative, innovative and sought after individuals in the field. REHEMA C. BARBER Seed Space has shown the community that creativity doesn’t need to exist only on white walls. CAYLA MACKEY

These words of support are excerpted from letters. To read more, please visit http://www.seedspace.org/lettersofsupport.

EXHIBITION CRITICISM

INTRODUCTION TO EXHIBITIONS

Among stacks of porcupine quills, scattered power tools, mp3 players and breast shaped cones, artist Adrienne Outlaw works in her historic Chestnut Square studio. Although she’s a maker of objects that utilize such materials, her practice extends far beyond studio and art gallery walls. Outlaw’s work is multi-dimensional, active and socially engaged. In Fall 2008, while building out a space in her studio in preparation for out-of-town installation planning, an idea was planted. Outlaw’s practice would soon grow to include Seed Space. “Somehow it didn’t seem right to turn that into a gallery or a storage space for me. Several other spaces organizing good shows shut their doors. I was in the middle of having kids, knew I couldn’t travel as much for a couple years, and wanted to continue having a strong dialogue with other artists, critics and curators so thought I’d see if I could bring them to Nashville.” I was interning with Outlaw at the time, assisting her with various programs such as Art Makes Place, an extensive project of temporary, community and performance-based public artworks around Nashville. When Outlaw approached me about Seed Space, I was immediately drawn to the idea. Nashville’s culture has really blossomed in recent years, but growing up here I always felt that the contemporary visual art scene was lacking. After I helped get Seed Space going in its first few years, I transferred into the role of Curator. Working directly with artists and coordinating exhibits has been the most professionally rewarding experience I could ask for, and allowed me to shape my perspective as an arts administrator. At first, the curatorial vision of Seed Space was simple: to present site-specific installation, sculpture and performance-based work that was both interesting and accessible. Two of the first exhibitions were by Nashville-based artists Sher Fick and Alicia Beach. Although their work varied aesthetically, both installations addressed art-making as a coping mechanism for physical and mental illness. Whereas Sher Fick wrapped her prescription pill bottles, Alicia Beach set 17

Introduction to Exhibitions

a surreal, obsessive compulsive picnic scene. Amelia Winger-Bearskin also set an intimate, personal scene in Performance for an Audience of One. In her interactive performance piece, Winger-Bearskin examined intimacy and private behavior through her one-on-one experiences with the viewer. Jason Paradis and Skye Gilkerson both looked to the sky in their installations Nashville 04.30 – 05.03.10 and Portable Horizon Project to contextualize past experiences. Paradis’ celestial paintings connected by masses of yarn showed the astrological time frame of the 2010 Nashville Flood. In her camera obscura sculpture and video piece, Gilkerson took control of her claustrophobia induced by an ever-changing landscape—with a portable horizon line. Ryder Richards and Mandy Cano Villalobos’ work were not directly autobiographical, but were reflexive in that they questioned the moral responsibility of an artist. After researching the history of the factory building in which Seed Space is set, Villalobos incorporated found objects and reproduced photos that addressed labor laws in mid 20th century factories. Richards’ addressed issues of beauty and evil with his decorated wooden beams and wall cutouts inspired by patterns found at the palace of Versailles and on a Winchester rifle. Both Sonya Clark and Jack Ryan centered their installations around a single historical figure. Clark’s hair drawings and comb mobile in Tales and Tresses expressed the role of cultural identity in climbing up a social, professional and political ladder through the perspective of Madam C. J. Walker, one of the first American Millionaires. In Sounds for a Third Ear, Jack Ryan features Philosopher Ayn Rand in his video and sound piece that attempts to shift the viewers’ perception and psychology. Nicole Baumann’s slew of nostalgic hand-stitched images pinned to the walls in Fortune Holiday captured a moment of feeling small in an overwhelming world. In contrast, Natalie Dunham’s installation Veneer offered relief: Ducking under her hand woven minimalist canopy provided comfort in its simplicity and sense of shelter. As Seed Space developed its programming, curatorial interests shifted more towards exhibitions that featured technology. Both Benton-C Bainbridge and Vesna Pavlović used abandoned technology to present a nostalgic display with their imagery and the obsolete material itself. Bainbridge created electronic video sketchbooks with his friends and family on bright orange VHS tapes. Pavlović mimicked a camera’s interior by projecting vintage slides of exotic places on large Plexiglas hemispheres. Stephan Moore created brand new technology through his sound installation in which field recordings were filtered through custom software and played at random through his hand made speakers. Nashville on Channel TWo by Jessica Westbrook, Adam Trowbridge and Benjamin Thorp and Six Flags by Derek Coté, addressed the United States’ increasingly mechanicized, commodity culture. Coté’s video in Six Flags bombards the viewer with politically charged images compiled from the internet, while Channel TWo presented a video camera projecting an image of a passing road, blown-up instructions to the video camera and a pile of discarded mass produced objects. Six Flags also alluded to the six national flags that flew over the state of Texas, exploring ideas of imperialism and where the limits of state lie. Similarly, Willard Tucker examined land ownership in Terra Nullius, an installation of moving sculptures, color lithographs and twisted copper. 18

Introduction to Exhibitions

Robbie Lynn Hunsinger’s interactive sound sculpture Skitter Flutter incorporated pipes, sensors, microcontrollers and motors to create a reactionary space. The sounds created by the viewer’s movements referenced her past experiences rescuing birds trapped in urban settings. In Skitter Flutter, Hunsinger both celebrates technological progress and warns of its potential dangers. Scott Smallwood’s sound installation hideout showed another side of technology, one that does not have to be in contention with nature. His intricate solar powered sound sculptures created an orchestra of insect-like buzzes, and demonstrated that there is just as much beauty found in the circuits of a machine as there is in the petals of a flower. Both Ryan Hogan and Brad McCombs transformed Seed Space into uncanny science fiction scenes to provoke moral dilemmas. Hogan’s Expanse resembled a futuristic aquarium containing live, bioluminescent jellyfish. In the final show of 2013, McCombs’ presented Oráculo, a giant winged figure with a video of a darting eyeball that comes down from the ceiling into a moss-covered room. The unnerving yet seductive displays looked both organic and industrially crafted, evoking the age-old question in sci-fi: If technology continues to progress at its current rate, how will we come to define life in the future? In classical antiquity, an oráculo is a person or agency that has the ability to predict the future. In a way, artists are our modern-day oráculos—through their art they provide a platform to consider possible futures. Perhaps this is a reason why Seed Space narrowed a curatorial lens towards technology—as a response to a growing sense of urgency to work out the kinks of these powerful technological tools at our fingertips. Just as important as presenting these works is cultivating a dialogue. As Seed Space looks to the future, we aim to present more socially engaged pieces with the public, by presenting artworks that extend far beyond the confines of a 10-by-10 gallery space. What began in the roots of Adrienne Outlaw’s practice has branched out into a growing network of artists, writers and curators, and now belongs to the community. Curator Rachel Bubis

CALENDAR OF EXHIBITIONS

027. Januart 15 - February 26, 2010 Coping Skills Sher Fick

065. February 12 - April 1, 2011 The May Hosiery Mill Project Mandy Cano Villalobos

033. March 17 - May 8, 2010 Performance for an Audience of One Amelia Winger-Bearskin

071. April 8 - June 17, 2011 Fair Stephan Moore

037. May 22 - July 17, 2010 Scenarios of Control Alicia Beach

077. July 8 - August 30, 2011 Expanse Ryan Hogan

043. July 24 - September 18, 2010 Nashville 04.30 - 05.03.1 Jason Paradis

083. September 16 - October 30, 2011 Terra Nullius Willard Tucker

049. October 2 - December 3, 2010 The Portable Horizon Project Skye Gilkerson

089. November 15, 2011 - January 30, 2012 Nashville on Channel TWo Jessica Westbrook, Adam Trowbridge and Benjamin Thorp

055. December 20, 2010 - February 5, 2011 Six Flags Derek Cote

097. March 17 - April 29, 2012 Breech and Breech: OMFG Remix Ryder Richards

Calendar of Exhibitions

103. May 12 - June 20, 2012 Super Long Play! Benton-C Bainbridge

141. May 10 - June 27, 2013 Skitter Flutter Robbie Lynn Hunsinger

109. June 29 - August 24, 2012 Fortune Holiday Nicole Baumann

147. July 8 - August 28, 2013 100x100=900 (100 Videoartists to Tell a Century)

115. September 14 - October 26, 2012 Veneer Natalie Dunham

149. August 3 - 23, 2013 Internatural Kellie Bornhoft Mariel Bolton Andri Alexandrou Julia Denison

121. November 9 - December 31, 2012 Tales and Tresses Sonya Clark 129. January 19 - March 1, 2013 Real Images Vesna Pavloviฤ 135. March 15 - April 29 2013 hideout Scott Smallwood

153. September 7 - October 21, 2013 Sounds for a Third Ear Jack Ryan 159. November 9 - December 31, 2013 Orรกculo Brad McCombs

2010

Coping Skills Sher Fick January - February 2010

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100x100=900 (100 Videoartists to Tell a Century) July 8 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; August 28, 2013

Still of White Noise (1965), Francesca Fini To celebrate 50 years of videoart, Magmart has organized the video project 100X 100=900, or 100 Videoartists to Tell a Century. 100 videoartists from around the world create 100 video artworks, each of which is based on one year of 1900s, matched randomly. With a wide network of collaborations, the project itself is showing around the world in an innovative way during 2013. As a partner, Seed Space is screening sets of 25 videos according to this schedule: July 8 and 10 screen 1st set July 15 and 17 screen 2nd set July 22 and 24 screen 3rd set July 29 and 31 screen 4th set August 5 and 8 screen 1st set August 12 and 14 screen 2nd set August 19 and 21 screen 3rd set August 26 and 28 screen 4th set

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Internatural August 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 23, 2013

Installation view, Internatural

Presenting works by Kellie Bornhoft Mariel Bolton Andri Alexandrou Julia Denison Internatural is a collection of work made by former Seed Space interns that offers unique perspectives on a shared idea. With pieces ranging from a motorized plastic flower bouquet to soap made from human DNA, the collective work challenges notions of gender, nature and memory.

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Clockwise from top left: Boyfriend Soap (2013), Mariel Bolton; Saving the Lost (2013), Kellie Bornhoft; Glass Girls (2013), Andri Alexandrou; Validation (2013), Julia Denison.

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Works presented in exhibition: Validation (2013) Julia Denison Materials: Acrylic, watercolor, steel, cardboard, glue, magnets, dryer sheets, paper, canvas Boyfriend Soap (2013) Mariel Bolton Materials: Human facial hair, lavender essence, goatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s milk, glycerine soap Two Birds Singing (2012) Mariel Bolton Materials: Dowel rod, mummified warblers, bells, fishing wire Glass Girls (2013) Andri Alexandrou Materials: Light box and transparencies Saving the Lost (2013) Kellie Bornhoft Materials: Silk flowers, concrete, servos, arduino

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PROGRAMS

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INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING

The trajectory of programs at Seed Space has grown organically. What began as informal conversations over the course of exhibitions became a lecture series, and has now expanded to include an intensive workshop series geared for the professional working artist, with even more growth and change imminent. The foremost guiding principle that has dictated this direction is that, as is stated in our mission, we aim to foster a community for meaningful art by facilitating meaningful relationships. To do so, we create inclusive environments in which collaboration may flourish. As Michelle Grabner observes in her essay for this catalog, we work best when we capitalize on “hybrid energies,” and we have seen the Nashville community respond positively to these efforts. To date, our programming efforts can be condensed into two categories. First, the “Insight? Outta Site!” series is structured as an open dialogue between Director Adrienne Outlaw, a visiting critic/curator and the attending audience. Because these have been able to operate as free and open to the public, audience members have ranged from university students, to artists, to faculty, to press, and to the larger public. Second, our Professional Development Workshops provide an intimate instructional setting in which critic/curators and participants may interact. When the need became apparent to capitalize on the visiting critic/curators’ working knowledge of navigating the art world as a practician, we started holding these participatory classes in order to navigate topics such as grant-writing, developing relationships with institutions in the art world, alternative art markets, and understanding the role that art criticism plays in the evolving world of contemporary publication. With these programs we are able to show how beholden we are to the community of artists we serve. While this record will document that past two years of programming, our efforts continue to look forward and outward. Programs Manager Andri Alexandrou

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FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE DARK

Nashville has recently re-entered the collective cultural imagination through the mainstream television show Nashville, a fictionalized version of the city’s country music scene. While this unique Southern city continues to be dominated by music, it also boasts a steadily rising visual arts community, which serves as a creative seedbed for metropolisexpats looking for a different lifestyle alongside the freedoms afforded to artists, writers and curators in smaller and midsize cities (namely, cheaper rent). Located in Nashville’s rapidly developing Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood, Seed Space could not be more aptly named. The initial germ of an idea for this endeavor came about via the Nashville Cultural Arts Project in 2009, and manifested itself as Seed Space in early 2010. Located in a modest corner of Outlaw’s warehouse studio space in Nashville, Seed Space was (and is) a way to implement a host of initiatives—the sale of CSArt editions, a visiting curator and writer program, exhibitions, workshops, a lecture series, etc.—designed to

provide opportunities and resources for creative individuals that are otherwise lacking. Seed Space can be positioned within a trajectory of practices that push beyond the preliminary terms of social propagation and engagement, functioning as an educational resource, community service, and cultural and/or economic exchange. In the recently published collection of essays titled Self-Organised, editor David Blamey states: “My understanding of the term ‘self-organised’ within the art context is that it describes how groups, collectives, and other networks of individuals can operate independently from institutional and corporate structures.”1 Seed Space does indeed provide an alternative and, at times, imperceptible ecosystem that functions outside and in collaboration with the larger arts institutions in the city. From its inception, Seed Space has described itself as “a lab for site-specific installation, sculpture and performance-based art in Nashville.”2 While this remains part of 169

their mission, the larger space to which they are relocating in February 2014 will allow Seed Space to expand by not only continuing to engage in community outreach directly, but also by supporting artists engaged in social art practices. According to Outlaw: We will be providing studio residencies to artists and other creative people working with the community—who may use the space however they see fit—as work/exhibition/ performance space. We aim to connect them with resources in Nashville and find other ways to exhibit their work outside of Seed Space so we can have a larger impact with the community.3

In the past several decades, curators, critics and writers have increasingly focused their attention on creative practices that involve socially engaged experiences and/or serviceoriented gestures, utilizing and re-inscribing strategies traditionally associated with political activism and grassroots community organizing. The kinds of initiatives put forth by Outlaw through Seed Space are certainly not new when considering countless historical precedents for engagement and education in the arts, especially since the 1970s. The invisible nature of many of these activities, which often fill a void by offering an unavailable service, resource or opportunity for a deserving individual, is unavoidable. As Jeff Khonsary and Kristina Lee Podesva state in their introduction to Institutions by Artists, Volume

Seed Space can be positioned within a trajectory of practices that push beyond the preliminary terms of social propagation and engagement, functioning as an educational resource, community service, and cultural and/or economic exchange.

The ambitions and ideas put forth by Seed Space are no less grand or far-reaching than before, but in spite of their anticipated move to a larger space —which might push them in the direction of more traditional, gallerystyle exhibitions—their desire is to further embrace more experiential practices such as live performances, socially-engaged and communitybased projects. 170

One, “artist-run endeavors are often born out of frustration, desperation and aspiration,”4 but it certainly hasn’t stopped artists from continuing to self-organize. There is no other way. “Either you do it, or you drown,”5 Jan Verwoert says in his essay, “All The Wrong Examples” in SelfOrganised. Artist projects such as Gordon MattaClark’s infamous FOOD, created in collaboration

with a handful of artists on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1971, not only served as a source of sustainability and nourishment for a community of artists living in New York at that time, but it provided a meeting ground for ideas to be exchanged and explored. FOOD was an incubator: a lab, a service-based initiative, a way to empower and employ artists. But ultimately it was a hopelessly flawed experiment, or rather “food-based philanthropy,” as it is described in Randy Kennedy’s 2007 profile of Matta-Clark in The New York Times.6 Artist-run spaces are always philanthropic gestures to some degree, but the idea of a sustainable, financially viable structure (even if short-lived) within which to situate one’s practice as an artist, curator, or writer, has been and will continue to be endlessly revisited. As Verwoert further elaborates in his essay, sorting out the financial mechanics is often the first hurdle. It doesn’t make too much of a difference these days whether you work as an independent artist, a freelance curator or critic or in a smaller arts institution. The need to create and maintain the economic conditions for the continuation of your practice is a daily challenge.7 Curators working in institutions are expected to constantly court board members and build relationships with donors. Meanwhile, artists and curators running their own spaces spend copious amounts of time vying for funding from a handful of city agencies and private foundations. The politics and economics of the situation have not changed much since 1971, but perhaps the needs and the means of accessing information are now slightly different. Two resource-based information gathering artist projects based out of New York City, e-Flux

(founded by artists Anton Vidokle and Julieta Aranda) and The Listings Project (founded by artist Stephanie Diamond), have changed the way information about exhibitions, events, funding opportunities, studio spaces for rent, etc. is circulated and accessed by the creative community worldwide. Founded in 1999, e-Flux has become the primary resource for announcements and opportunities in the arts (they also run a gallery space on Manhattan’s Lower East Side). Since 2003, The Listings Project has provided an equally significant service by aggregating real estate listings for studio and living spaces for artists in New York City. In an interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Vidokle elaborates: For me what is important about these other, self-organized initiatives is that quite often they can identify needs that are real, that are not contrived. This was precisely the case with e-Flux...there was a need for a new platform for communications on contemporary art. This need somehow encompassed both the extremely local level and the much larger, global scene. I am not sure whether it was intuition or just good luck, but by addressing very concrete needs of disseminating information...we touched on a much larger need out there.8 In Diamond’s case she very directly states on her website that she is a social practice artist and that “Listings Project is a social practice art project that is a business.”9 Both projects have become financially stable, but that desire did not exist when they were initiated. Anyone familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point will recognize that a number of factors—in addition to good timing and luck—contributed to the success of these ventures. And perhaps more 171

Like a multitude of artist-run endeavors far and wide, the sometimes invisible aspects of much of Seed Space’s work over the past four years must be acknowledged as the Nashville art scene blooms beyond the boundaries of the city.

importantly, a few individuals—artists in both cases—were able to target what a community needed and how they might deliver the information or service required. Seed Space, as an extension of Outlaw’s own creative practice, has met the needs of the community on a local and even national level, and though it shares commonalities with projects such as e-Flux and The Listings Project, it is ultimately bound by the politics of running an art space in a secondary city. Seed Space’s visiting curator and writer program is one of many that is less focused on exhibition-making in favor of relationship building. Inviting accomplished individuals from around the world to Nashville to write about work presented at Seed Space not only exposes visitors to Seed Space’s projects, but it allows for exchange with local artists, writers and curators in the city. This aspect of their

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program is a palpable example of their strategy of dissemination. In instance after instance, work shown at Seed Space has later been presented at museums and art spaces internationally. This evidence might not be overtly obvious, but it speaks volumes about Seed Space’s commitment to further enriching, challenging and expanding the dialog about contemporary art in the community in which it is situated and beyond. Seed Space is in every sense a “lab,” a site for ideas to flower and a place for people to seek and find various points of connection. But it’s also a catalyst for conversations and collaborations locally, nationally and internationally. Like a multitude of artist-run endeavors far and wide, the sometimes invisible aspects of much of Seed Space’s work over the past four years must be acknowledged as the Nashville art scene blooms beyond the boundaries of the city. Amy Mackie

David Blamey, Forward for Self-Organised, ed. Stine Hebert & Anne Szefer Karlsen (London: Open Editions and Bergen: Hordaland Art Centre, 2013), p. 11. 2 Mission statement: http://seedspace.org/. Last accessed January 30, 2014. 3 Adrienne Outlaw, personal email (January 2014). 4 Jeff Khonsary & Kristina Lee Podesva, Introduction to Institutions by Artists (Conference), ed. Jeff Khonsary & Kristina Lee Podesva (Vancouver: Simon Fraser University, 2012), p. 18. 5 Jan Verwoert, “All The Wrong Examples” in Self-Organised, ed. Stine Hebert & Anne Szefer Karlsen, (London: Open Editions and Bergen: Hordaland Art Centre, 2013), p. 123. 6 Randy Kennedy, “When Meals Played the Muse,” in The New York Times, February 21, 2007 (Available online: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/dining/21soho.html?pagewanted=all&_ r=1&) 7 Jan Verwoert, “All The Wrong Examples” in Self-Organised, ed., Stine Hebert & Anne Szefer Karlsen, (London: Open Editions and Bergen: Hordaland Art Centre, 2013), p. 123. 8 Hans Ulrich Obrist interviews Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle: http://www.e-flux.com/wpcontent/ uploads/2011/01/Hans_Ulrich_Obrist_Interview.pdf 9 About Listings Project: http://www.listingsproject.com/faq#how-it-works_what-is-listings-project 1

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COMMUNITY SUPPORTED ART

COMMUNITY SUPPORTED ART (CSArt) is a yearly art subscription service of locally produced art. Much like community supported agriculture, a service in which shareholders invest in a local farm and receive a monthly payout of fruits and vegetables, CSArt Nashville asks shareholders to invest directly in the arts community with a â&#x20AC;&#x153;buy localâ&#x20AC;? mentality. The program offers a reasonably priced way to support Nashville and regional artists and receive limited edition contemporary art projects in return. Ranging from emerging to mid-career, participating artists have exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally, from the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Seed Space and Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville, Museum of Modern Art in Klagenfurt, Austria, The White House, Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Istanbul Biennial, Banff Center in Alberta Canada and Boston Center for the Arts. CSArt Nashville is an opportunity for collectors to access exclusive editions of work at an affordable price. Seed Space is excited to become part of a national movement to create sustainable models to fund local artists and make contemporary art affordable and accessible, drawing inspiration from the Community Supported Art program of Springboard for the Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Alula Editions, Threewalls Chicago, The Present Group and The Thing Quarterly in California and the Risograph CSA Project in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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CSArt

Dane Carder

From top: Hans Schmitt-Matzen Mike Calway-Fagen

Derek CotĂŠ

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CSArt

Jodi Hays

Emily Leonard

From top: Susan Shockley Herb Williams Benton-C Bainbridge

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CSArt

Sher Fick

Emily Clayton

From top: David Wood Nicole Baumann

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CSArt

From top: Vesna PavloviÄ&#x2021; Ryan Hogan

From top: Janet Decker Yanez Lesley Patterson-Marx

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CSArtists

BENTON-C BAINBRIDGE from the artist: “A stopped clock is right twice a day.” You’ve heard of ‘early adapters’; I am an ‘early abandoner’ of technology. While working with bleeding-edge gear that pushes the limits of electronic light, I have learned that salvages from the dump can be just as inspirational. I hope you like playing with this old-school artwork as much as I enjoyed making it with my friends and son. from the curator: Super Long Play! is an interactive ‘old media’ installation that uses abandoned technology to move minds, bodies and souls. The videos constitute an ‘electronic sketchbook’ of real-time recordings of rehearsals and studies united by the theme of people and pixels in motion, painted with live electronics. Obsolete gear encourages a physical, playful engagement with the media, giving visitors a hands-on and intimate look at the video-performance creative process. NICOLE BAUMANN from the artist: Write, right, rite, where, wear, ware, hose, hoes, knew, new, bare, bear, clothes, close, know, no, be ,bee, pear, pair, grease, Greece, ewe, you, peace, piece, so, sew, course, coarse, threw, through, flee, fea, horse, hoarse, cruise, crews, steak, stake, bore, boar, sun, son, sole, soul, week, weak, waist, waste, hole, whole, beat, beet, feet, feat, peek, peak, tale, tail, pale, pail, to, too, two, meet, meat, witch, which, pie, pi, lone, loan, four, kneed, need, sale, sail, flour, flower, pour, pore, roux, rue, creak, creek, fur, fir, sent, scent, cent, our, hour, read, red, pane, pain, seen, scene, won, one, bust, bussed, sea, see, hair, hare, mite, might, fairy, ferry, fair, fare, ail, ale, mail, male, soar, sore, steal, steel, real, reel, weight, wait, leek, leak, wring, ring, bread, bred, muscle, mussel, pea, pee, brake, break, carrot, karat, ceiling, sealing, paws, pause, tax, tacks, metal, meddle, peddle, petal, claws, clause, rode, road, cite, sight, sleigh, clay, wail, whale, hear, here, flare, flair, eight, ate, wrap, rap, maid, made, time, thyme, bale, bail. from the curator: With the “tiniest needle known to man,” Baumann meticulously hand-sewed forms into disposable paper cups. By transforming an everyday object into something special, Baumann questions our notions of worth in a consumerist culture. Might someone throw away an embroidered cup by mistake? At the same time, the delicate imagery on her playful sculptures present us with a simple, fleeting associations we recall from our memories. MIKE CALWAY-FAGEN from the artist: The collage is a very immediate way to draw connections between images. This connection allows linear relationships and expands associations beyond what’s visible. I scan the originals and enlarge them to reveal further the analog relationship of layers and the cut of the blade through the paper. Collage starts with a removal from the original source, and the scanning and enlarging removes the viewer one step further to consider their relationship to material and its source. from the curator: Calway-Fagen’s collages create dynamic formal and symbolic associations. In using collage — a multi-process, deconstructive medium — Calway-Fagen examines the relationship between color, form and texture as well as between humans and the natural world. 180

CSArtists

DANE CARDER from the artist: This body of work is not simply about the Civil War. It is about an emotion: the layered, all-encompassing emotion that accompanies a life lived. It is about being passionate enough to fight, compassionate enough to grieve, honest enough to be open. It is about ghosts and hopes. from the curator: Carder’s mixed-media collages contain photographs of Civil War-era figures in front of 19th-century wallpaper. Their waxy textured surfaces and shadowy patinas make the men at war appear ghost-like, floating within the domestic setting of wallpaper. EMILY CLAYTON from the artist: I began Studio Warmups in the streets of New York in 2012 by challenging the weight and size of people and lifting them off the ground. By physically picking up men who were often twice my size, I sought to create an intimate, isolated moment that was situated in the social, but mirrored my autonomous existence in the studio. What had previously existed in my work as a negotiation with the object was transformed into an interaction that dealt with form, balance and scale. from the curator: Clayton’s photographs capture fleeting, intimate moments between strangers. The work serves as formal study of objects, while also challenging notions of gender, relationships and private/public practices. DEREK COTÉ from the artist: This work is an adaptation from an original series of 10 prints on paper produced at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. The series is based on historical accounts of assimilation and exploitation during the western expansion of the United States and Canada. from the curator: Coté’s prints contain political words divided and displayed like an eye test at the optometrist’s office. Words such as “American,” “trade” and “cession” can be read in the column of letters divided by stars and stripes. Addressing concepts of identity, place and impermanence, Coté’s work tests the viewer on their ability to see, focus on and discern the words and symbols before them. SHER FICK from the artist: As an artist, I never identified myself as a feminist. My being female was just a part of biology. For years I de-feminized my subject matter, colors, and construction. Unfortunately, this separatist attitude developed into a denial of my complete person. I am a woman. I am a wife. I am a mother. As I began an archeological dig culturally, psychologically and personally, I rediscovered and acknowledged, for the first time, my feminine history and existence. My works now include the very ambiguity I feel over this issue. By questioning what femininity means to me, I offer a record of one artist’s journey into acceptance, and embrace, of the feminine spirit I have denied for years. My work now reflects the depolarization of my artist/feminine self. from the curator: Fick’s sculptures, made from pieces of vintage fabric sewn together over 181

CSArtists

prescription pill bottles, examine normality and the process of coping. Through wrapping and stitching, a process associated with female craft, Fick addresses social stigmas attached to medicine and motherhood. JODI HAYS from the artist: Using landscape as a metaphor for affectations of the community on the individual, in this sculptural project I explore ideas of connection and dependence. The sculptures are consistent in vision and intention with my studio investigations in other media including painting and drawing. from the curator: In her work All Together, Hays creates a cold, minimal landscape in which to consider ideas of place. A thin line of string tethers two porcelain white forms that look like miniature boulders. The string, in some cases neon orange and bright blue, resembles caution tape — a sign of a place as temporarily “off limits.” How are we both connected by and dependent on our environment? What if it were taken away? RYAN HOGAN from the artist: This series of dialectics, including control and freedom, order and chaos, and transparency and opacity characterizes my body of work. Rather than being polarized among these relationships, the process poises itself between these binaries. As the contemporary philosopher Mark Taylor asserts, it is at this liminal space where complexity resides. from the curator: Hogan’s Plexiglas works look biological, like remnants of microscopic organism in a Petri dish. When light shines through them, it illuminates details of their complex forms. Although non-representational, Hogan’s works are eerily uncanny. They are neither opaque nor transparent. In creating work that falls somewhere in between, Hogan creates new reference points for the viewer. EMILY LEONARD from the artist: Focusing on the Middle Tennessee landscape as my subject, I have cultivated a layering process in which I break down an image and build it back slowly with hundreds of washy glazes and gestures that are more searching than literal. My pieces both take time and contain time. I want them to come upon the viewer as such — slowly and intimately, as if the viewer feels like he found this image instead of me. I’m interested in the experience of being in your body in a place. Rather than painting the tree out the kitchen window, I want to paint what it feels like to stand at the kitchen window and look at the tree. I paint to excavate the truth from the literal, the space from the air, and the seeing from the looking. from the curator: Inspired by the Tennessee landscape, Leonard’s layered works are not literal depictions of a specific place or subject, but rather a celebration of human memory and experience of nature. Her multi-phase process reflects the constant yet subtle changes in light, shadow, atmosphere of our surroundings.

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CSArtists

LESLEY PATTERSON-MARX from the artist: I walk nearly every day and find the most beautiful and fascinating things: cicada wings, butterflies and moths, and a variety of plans that I press and preserve. These gifts from the natural world are reminders of the cyclical nature of all things. Searching, collecting, preserving and transforming are the seeds of my work. In a favorite antique store I found an astounding photograph of all the students and faculty of the West Kentucky Teacher’s College, 1934. I began to think of their lineage as teachers, about how many hundreds of students each one of those individuals had taught. I combined portions from the photograph of the teachers with silhouettes from my nature collection using two different photo printmaking processes to make more permanent these ephemeral things. It is often comforting, sometimes unsettling, the thought of us, in our current pace and time, as part of the many small beings passing through this mysterious, floating life. from the curator: Patterson-Marx’s colorful prints of plant and animal silhouettes over old photographs reflect the artist’s interest in symbols, myth and narrative. Through her process of collecting objects and piecing them together, Patterson-Marx addresses themes of transcience. VESNA PAVLOVIĆ from the artist: Color Test brings together several of my previous works through which I have investigated color and the material properties of the photographic image. Taken over the last several years, works such as “Six Color Transparencies,” “Color-Sync,” “White Slide” and “Six Color Polaroid Tests,” subject the photographic medium to the mechanisms of projection and installation to open up a conersation about the subjective eperception of color and modes of display. While investigating the physical properties of the photographic objects, I am treating photographs as both a material and a representation. from the curator: Can you take a color photograph of pure color and achieve something that even approaches the original? Only if you take a a “bad” photograph, according to Pavlović. Appearances are deceiving in “Six Color Transparencies,” a group of solid color photographs representing Pavlović’s investigation of the photograph as object. Decidedly her most minimal work, here the surface and physical properties of the photographs are key. Pavlović achieves her saturated tones by purposefully blurring the image, effectively erasing what grain might show up in print while negating photography’s usual intent of objectivity. It is a strange inversion as the final photographs are truer representations of the actual subject — color — than can be achieved with the most expert of techniques.

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CSArtists

HANS SCHMITT-MATZEN from the artist: Many aerial landscape photographs exhibit textural qualities that call to mind oil paint applied in a pleasantly haphazard way. It is difficult for me to look at such photographs and not read them as both rare depictions of real places and conceptual paintings utilizing the language of abstraction. On these works, topographical gestures of thick paint are juxtaposed on slick pictorial representations of peaks, valleys and waterways with a spirit of visual play. The finished artworks are a meditation on recognizing the value of a balance between human control and the unplanned. from the curator: Schmitt-Matzen’s prints of aerial photographs with painterly brush strokes create dramatic tensions that encourage contemplation. In juxtaposing the media of painting and photography, the natural and the man-made, the artist suggests a universal gestural language that may exists in the form of a waterfall, the spine of a book, or the stoke of a brush. SUSAN SHOCKLEY from the artist: My work imitates a written diary. Shapes make up the visual sentences of these musings. They are not literal in their make-up. I strive for dialogue between the shapes and the information presented in the map key of each drawing. I am older now, and my life has become both messier and sweeter. My drawings reflect that change. from the curator: Shockley’s drawings look like sophisticated doodles you may find in a personal sketchbook. With media ranging from fingernail polish to crayons, Shockley’s intriguing colored forms and symbols read like clues to a mysterious puzzle or map. AMANDA VALENTINE from the artist: On the ground level of this work are remnants of my Midwestern upbringing, like clean shapes and color blocking; layered above are elements of darkness, humor, and nods to the richness of costume history. For each of my collections, I create a new design hybrid; international culture marries pop culture in collections with titles like “French Medieval Fly Girl” and “Maccu Picchu Punk.” These tote bags are part of the Spring 2014 Collection named “Memoirs of a Metalhead,” inspired by both traditional Japanese dress and 70s heavy metal. from the curator: Amanda Valentine’s trademark designs absorb the exhuberance of angsty teenage doodles in order to produce an updated version of the dark side of the collective American youth. The inverted triangle, cross and all-seeing eye, a consistent visual language for Valentine, reference the loud style of those first learning to express dissatisfaction with the modern world. In all of her collections, she matures that voice with subtle silhouettes and textures, while still keeping the passion for engagement and expression alive.

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CSArtists

HERB WILLIAMS from the artist: “If you’re feeling like the 99%, at least you can eat like the 1%” These crayons-and-glitter apple pies are composed of an actual individual circular tin pie pan with peach (instead of the now recalled and politically incorrect “flesh”) crayons cut to lay over red glitter like strands of dough. They are my response to the flitter bombing of politicians who are claiming that such American wholesome values and symbols are strictly a moral or Christian right. from the curator: What’s more innocent and American than crayons, glitter and apple pie? Williams’ “Occupies” are representative of his oeuvre of Crayola crayon sculptures, a medium that proves to be fun, uncanny and at times political. In his CSArt works, Williams comments on the less innocent, deep-rooted discrimination present in American culture. DAVID WOOD from the artist: These works are photo prints of beach patterns made by Dotilla Fenstrata, the Bangladeshi sand crab. I took these pictures on the beach in 2010, being watched by hungry tigers in the mangrove swamps. from the curator: These dynamic photo prints capture the intricate patterns created by Bangladeshi sand crabs. By presenting these beautiful animal-made forms, Wood asks of his viewer: Is it possible these crabs are artists? Beach Balls deconstructs notions of nature and culture, causality and freedom, and instinct and creativity. JANET DECKER YANEZ from the artist: In Conversations, a growing paper trail of interactions between dual forms, I substitute food coloring for watercolors with dynamic results. Although consistently influenced by emotions and feelings rather than by intellect these days, I archive these moments in time on paper. from the curator: In Conversations, Yanez experiments with the saturated pigments in food coloring to create improvised watercolor sketches that take on a life of their own. Her resulting studies express the power of nature’s duality and humanity’s idle curiosity.

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INSIGHT? OUTTA SITE!

Playing on the success of NCAPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Outta Site! series, which brought internationally prominent artists, architects and urban planners to Nashville, Insight? Outta Site! redefines the traditional lecture model. Seed Space facilitates interaction by moderating a Q and A style conversation between the invited speaker and our audience. There are no microphones and no visuals. 2010 Chen Tamir (at Nashville Public Library) Kevin McGarry (at Neuhoff ) Sylvie Fortin (at Neuhoff ) 2011 Rebecca Dimling Cochran (at Zeitgeist Gallery) 2012 Bill Carroll (at Zeitgeist Gallery) Sharon Butler (at Zeitgeist Gallery) Stuart Horodner (at Parnassus Books) Rehema Barber (at Zeitgeist Gallery)

insight? outta Site! artist engagement 2012 Sonya Clark (at E.T. Burk) Ryder Richards (at E.T. Burk) 2013 Scott Smallwood (at Seed Space) Benjamin Thorp for Channel TWo (at Seed Space)

2013 Sharon Louden (at Barnes & Noble) Amy Mackie (at University School of Nashville) Michelle Grabner (at Nashville Public Library) 187

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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

MARCH 29, 2012 SHARON BUTLER STUDIO VISITS WITH AREA ARTISTS APRIL 19, 2012 BILL CARROLL STUDIO VISITS WITH AREA ARTISTS OCTOBER 9, 2012 SHARON LOUDEN ARTIST BOOT CAMP Not for the timid or the uncommitted, this two hour professional development bootcamp was an opportunity to learn best professional practices. MARCH 19, 2013 ANDREA ZIEHER MAINTAINING MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE ART INDUSTRY This two-hour workshop discussed best professional practices regarding developing and maintaining the artist/dealer relationship. Topics included: How to approach galleries Studio visit etiquette The importance—or not—of connecting with the New York art scene Artist’s Rights Guidelines on Crafting the “elevator speech” Networking, consignment and more

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Professional Development Workshops

MAY 15, 2013 GINGER SHULICK PORCELLA CRAFTING ARTIST STATEMENTS Porcella led a hands-on workshop on writing winning artist statements. Workshop covered: Drafting artist statements Resources for 2013 grant opportunities The Dos and Don’ts of applying for grants, residencies and fellowships MAY 16, 2013 GINGER SHULICK PORCELLA ARTIST CONSULTATION Porcella provided 30-minute one-on-one consultations with artists. Participants were provided practical and professional advice and feedback on new or existing work, websites, or artist statements/ bios/CVs. SEPTEMBER 7, 2013 KYLE BAKER ETSY FOR ARTISTS SoundCrawl’s Kyle Baker presented Etsy for Artists, a day of interactive seminars that explored the possibilities of maximizing Etsy’s functionality, and how to create and run your own Etsy store. OCTOBER 9, 2013 SHARON LOUDEN BEST ARTIST PRACTICES For working artists, maintaining the balance between work and getting the work “out there” can be difficult. Louden led this workshop on how to focus your practice, and how to build and maintain a receptive community for your work. Subjects included: Isolating a single goal for your practice from the many possibilities Building an audience and community for your work Making and maintaining meaningful relationships

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Professional Development Workshops

OCTOBER 3, 2013 SUSANNAH DARROW PROPOSAL WRITING FOR ARTISTS Darrow covered the basics of what grants and proposals are, and where to find them. Workshop participants then went through the general process of proposal writing, which includes: Identifying the best grant/residency to apply for Working smarter: maintaining your practice while competitively searching for grants Knowing what grantmakers are looking for in applicants Writing the narrative Creating project budgets Pulling together strong support materials to represent your work NOVEMBER 11 - 14, 2013 GINGER SHULICK PORCELLA MARKETING! FUNDING! NETWORKING!: STRATEGIES FOR CREATIVE WORKERS Session 1 Are you contemporary? Session 2 Marketing your art and creating Web presence Session 3 Funding art through nontraditional means Session 4 Networking and Group Critiques NOVEMBER 15, 2013 CLAIRE SCHNEIDER THINKING LIKE A CURATOR What do curators look for in an artist? Since the curator’s role expands beyond selection of artists and works to encompass writing, teaching, research, fundraising and all-around community building, reconsidering your practice from a curator’s perspective can give you leverage to promote your work in a new way. Schneider led this discussion on how to gain better exposure through better exhibitions, and how to diversify your career through curation. NOVEMBER 15, 2013 CLAIRE SCHNEIDER STUDIO VISITS WITH AREA ARTISTS DECEMBER 17, 2013 MICHELLE GRABNER STUDIO VISITS WITH AREA ARTISTS 191

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STUDIO TOUR

BLOG POST JUNE 1, 2013 We’re very excited to be a part of the Wedgewood-Houston community here in Nashville, as we see it growing and developing every day into a very exciting art community. Our good friends and frequent collaborators at Zeitgeist Gallery are new to the neighborhood, and Nashville Scene arts writer Laura Hutson gave a write-up of the new location and inaugural exhibition that suggests she sees just the same happening in this neighborhood. Zeitgeist’s new location, which lies just around the corner from Gabby’s Burgers near Greer Stadium, signals a shift in ambition from a commercial storefront to a hub for the future of Nashville’s art scene. (Leave it to a gallery owned by an architect to dictate purpose through a built environment.) Artist collective Fort Houston, indie galleries Seed Space and Threesquared, and studios for some of Nashville’s most talented artists are all coming up within blocks of each other. Now that Zeitgeist, a stalwart of the independent creative community, has joined the fold, the neighborhood is shaping up to be the antipode of 5th Avenue of the Arts’ safe middle-of-the-road fare. The article comes at an advantageous time, as we’ve been working very hard to put together a new kind of event for Seed Space, and that is our Studio Tour and Gallery Walk. While the Studio Tour will be Seed Space facilitated, we’ve specifically designed this event to be run by the artists and creative businesses of the area. Our curator, Rachel Bubis, will lead an initial tour of the Chestnut building as an introduction for those interested in joining her, but visitors will be able to go to the artist’s studio and talk with artists in a way that hasn’t really been possible before. This is also an endeavor on our part to get to know our neighbors. We have rented out space in the SNAP Community Center for our professional development workshops. We chat and chocolate daily with Three Squared next door. However, there are others in our building and in our neighborhood that we want to see more of, and to collaborate more with. This is as much an introduction for Nashville residents wanting to see this burgeoning art scene as it is a way to draw out the artists and get us all to know one another. Join us this June 9, and get to see the neighborhood for yourself. 193

Wedgewood Houston Neighborhood Wedgewood Houston Neighborhood

1 2 3

7 8

Chestnut Square Building

Railyard Studios

Nate Akey, 5 String Furniture

David Knudtson

Stephen Zerne

Boiler Room Glass

Candice Sone

Meredith Edmondson

Cleft Productions

David Gibson

Bill Arthur, at SNAP Center

Andrew Watson

Zeitgeist Gallery

Andrew Yowell

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Fort Houston

Greg Pond

Chestnut ChesnutSquare Square Building Building

3rd FLOOR

Stairs 7

Stairs 2nd FLOOR

(street level)

1 9 10

Stairs 1

John Peres Bruno

Ground Floor Gallery + Studios

4th FLOOR

Amy Hutcheson Amanda Joy Brown Stacey Pierce-Nickle Janet Decker Yanez 3

Art & Craft Table

Threesquared Dane Carder

Seed Space Robbie Lynn Hunsinger Adrienne Outlaw

Jimmy Abegg

Kit Reuther 7

Anice Doak Victor Schmidt

Photo Booth

Dustin Hedrick

10 Winona Weatherby 11 Michael McBride

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Studio Tour

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Studio Tour

ARTISTS

Jimmy Abegg, Bill Arthur, Amanda Joy Brown, John Peres Bruno, Dane Carder, Anice Doak, Dustin Lee Hedrick, Robbie Lynn Hunsinger, Amy Hutcheson, David Knudtson, Michael McBride, Adrienne Outlaw, Stacey Pierce-Nickle, Greg Pond, Kit Reuther, Victor Schmidt, Candice Sone, Winona Weatherby, Janet Decker Yanez

GALLERIES

Ground Floor Gallery + Studios, Seed Space, threesquared, Zeitgeist

BUSINESSES

5 String Furniture, Boiler Room Glass, Cleft Productions, Fort Houston, Railyard Studios

From top left: Adrienne Outlaw’s studio, as photographed by Jerry Park for Artists’ Studios series; detail of Bill Arthur’s Mirror Mirror; exterior of Cleft Productions; studio, Dane Carder; artist in studio, Jimmy Abegg; studio, John Peres Bruno; studio, Amanda Joy Brown, as photographed by Jerry Park for Artists’ Studios series; studio, Kit Reuther; detail of Michael McBride’s Sensual Melodies; detail of Winona Weatherby’s Taco Mamacita; detail of Stacey Pierce-Nickel’s Cheeckwood Charm; detail of Victor Schmidt’s Family Piece; Robert Hendrick, owner of Railyard Studios; installation shot of Greg Pond’s I’d Leave the Whole World Round at Zeitgeist.

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STAFF

ADRIENNE OUTLAW founder, director Adrienne Outlaw is a socially engaged, interdisciplinary artist whose work is informed by ethical issues. She is curious about the individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s function in and responsibility to community, and how individuals can retain autonomy in an increasingly diverse and rapidly advancing society. Outlaw has exhibited her artwork at galleries and museums across the United States and abroad in Italy, Hong Kong, South Korea and Nigeria. A dozen exhibition catalogs and two art books feature her work, which has been positively reviewed in such publications as Art in America, Sculpture, Art Papers, World Sculpture News and M Magazine. A recipient of several grants, awards and fellowships, Outlaw holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MLAS from Vanderbilt University. Interested in ways artists can partner with the public to create positive change, Outlaw often collaborates with and invites others to participate in the realization of her work. In addition to founding Seed Space, she also writes, curates and facilitates professional development programs for artists as part of her artistic practice. RACHEL BUBIS curator Rachel Bubis has worked with Outlaw for five years on both Seed Space programming and other projects. She is an independent arts writer whose work has been published in the Nashville Scene, Nashville Arts Magazine, Native, Art Art Zine and Art Now Nashville. Bubis has been the curator of Seed Space for two years. She is responsible for working directly with artists on the planning and installation of shows, writing exhibition texts and designing exhibition brochures. She has written 18 exhibition texts. Bubis holds a BA from Rollins College. ANDRI ALEXANDROU programs manager Andri Alexandrou oversees the programs, including the professional development workshops and the Insight? Outta Site! participatory speaker forums, assists with grants, and maintains Seed Spaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s online presence and communications. Alexandrou holds a BA from Vanderbilt University; her independent writing and photography has appeared in the Nashville Scene, Art Now Nashville and Native.

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INDEX OF ARTISTS *NOTE: Because these artists may have interacted with Seed Space at any point over a four year period, we are including their bios as published at time of exhibition.

BENTON-C BAINBRIDGE is a media artist based in Nashville and The Bronx. Benton-C’s work is made with custom systems of his own design. Bainbridge has presented video in immersive environments, screenings, installations and live performances across five continents, collaborating with scores of artists around the world. Bainbridge has shown in venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, American Museum of the Moving Image, 2011 International Horticultural Expo (Xi’an, China), EMPAC (Troy, NY), the American Museum of Natural History, SFMoMA (San Francisco), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.), Dallas Video Festival, Boston Cyberarts Festival, Mercat des les Flors (Barcelona), LUX2006 (Sevilla), Auditorium Parco della Musica (Roma), Sonic Light (Amsterdam), Wien Moderne (Vienna), Inventionen (Berlin), Teatro Colón CETC (Buenos Aires), CELCIT (Managua), Korean Festival (Seoul), Good Vibrations (Australia), MTV Networks (global), and Seed Space (Nashville). 8, 18, 22, 103, 177, 180 NICOLE BAUMANN is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University where she earned both her BFA and MFA in Crafts and Material Studies. She has exhibited nationally including exhibitions at Zone Gallery in New York City, SPACES in Cleveland, OH, Lancaster Museum of Art, Wichita Center for the Arts, Marble House Cultural Arts Center in Mableton, GA, The Visual Arts Center of Richmond, 1708 Gallery and Quirk Gallery in Richmond, VA and Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville, TN. Baumann is also is a recipient of a Professional Artist Fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, as well awards from the Surface Design Association and the International Sculpture Center. 18, 22, 109, 178, 180

201

Index of Artists

ALICIA BEACH is a sculpture and installation artist based out of Tennessee. She received her BFA from Memphis College of Art in 2004 and an MFA from the University of Tennessee in 2010. Beach has participated in several group and solo exhibitions throughout the country. 12, 17, 21, 37 MARIEL BOLTON began her art career with a series of paintings exploring the sensory nature of decaying objects. She is currently working with performance-based sculpture, installation and other 3D mediums. Her work involves contrasts between life and death, along with alternative manifestations of memory. She recently had the privilege of featuring a collaboration piece with Adrienne Outlaw at the December 2012 Art Basel Miami. Bolton works out of her home studio in the Wedgewood Houston neighborhood. 22, 149 KELLIE BORNHOFT is an artist born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, currently residing in Nashville, TN. Bornhoft predominately works in time-based sculpture and installation evolving from ideas of entropy in the conflicting borders between nature and culture. 22, 149 MIKE CALWAY-FAGEN has shown across the country and abroad in venues such as Gazelli Art in London, the southXeast Biennial in Florida, QED Gallery in Los Angeles, Vox Populi in Philadelphia, Islip Art Museum in New York, Banff Center in Alberta Canada, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. He has attended residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Sculpture Space and others. In 2008 he received Tennessee’s Individual Artist Grant. He received a BFA from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in 2006 and is currently finishing up his MFA at the University of California in San Diego. 12, 176, 180 DANE CARDER was born (1972), raised, and still lives in Nashville, in the deep end of the pool of our nation’s history. After several attempts at attaining an art degree, he opted for a long course of self-taught study in a studio at Chestnut Square. For nearly twenty years, he has been steadfast in his pursuit to create meaningful Work. Dane has exhibited in a variety of art spaces and galleries, and for five years he has curated other artists’ shows at threesquared, a gallery within his studio. For the last seven years, he has utilized Civil War images in a universal, symbolic expression of life’s ironic combination of tragedy and beauty, of despair and hope. 176, 181, 195, 196, 197 SONYA CLARK has exhibited internationally at over 250 museums and galleries. She has received a Pollock-Krasner Award, a Rockefeller Foundation Residency in Italy, a Red Gate Residency in China, a Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship, a Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowship, a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Award, a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship in Italy, and most recently was a United States Artist Fellow. She is chair of the Department of Craft/ Material Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Clark holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in psychology from Amherst College. 8, 18, 22, 121, 187

202

Index of Artists

EMILY CLAYTON received her BFA in 2004 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in Chicago, New York, Nashville and Knoxville. She is a recipient of the 2012 Tennessee Arts Commission Professional Development Support Grant and has attended residencies at the School of Visual Arts, New York (2012), ACRE, Steuben, Wisconsin (2011), and Harold Arts, Chesterfield, Ohio (2009). 12, 178, 181 As a former explorer, frustrated architect, and aspiring social examiner, DEREK COTÉ studied at Western Washington University, and Virginia Commonwealth University where he received his MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media. Coté has exhibited nationally and internationally including exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Tacoma Art Museum, Art Museum of the University of Memphis, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Houston Center for Photography, Exit Art, AC Institute, and Roebling Hall in New York City, Marmara University in Istanbul, Marc DePuechredon Gallery in Basel and Artwave Radio in Athens, Greece. In addition, Derek was included in the 2007 Young Sculptors Competition, received a Professional Artist Fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Support Grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Tennessee Arts Commission, and was an Artist-in-Residence at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. In 2012 Derek will be attending The Arctic Circle, an artist and scientist-led research expedition to the high arctic. 13, 18, 21, 55, 176, 181 JULIA DENISON is a Nashville native who received her BA in Studio Art from Indiana University. Denison’s work brings together her experience as a teacher and her interest in large-scale public art, through which she works to engage and empower individuals and communities. 22, 149 NATALIE DUNHAM has a BFA in painting from Birmingham-Southern College and an MFA in sculpture from Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including shows in Prague, New York, Washington DC, Baltimore, and Birmingham. Dunham is currently the Gallery Director at Rymer Gallery in Nashville, TN. 18, 22, 115 SHER FICK holds a BFA Painting/Sculpture from Middle Tennessee State University and has studied at the Santa Fe College of Art and The Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. While living in the Florida Panhandle, Fick was nominated for the Cox/Bravo Channel’s Champion for the Arts Award. She has received several grants from The Tennessee Arts Commission and recently exhibited at The Pool Art Fair in Miami, FL. Fick works from her rural home studio, teaches privately and is currently working on her book “Coping Skills — The Art and Inspiration of Sher Fick.” Her work has been chosen for regional exhibitions and biennials to represent the State of Tennessee. 17, 21, 27, 178, 181 SKYE GILKERSON’s work has been in over 20 shows including Paperworks, juried by Maura Heffman, Exhibition Manager at the Whitney Museum of Art. She has been an artist-in-residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, and the Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Skye received her MFA in 2009 from Cranbrook Academy of Art. 18, 21, 49 203

Index of Artists

JODI HAYS is an artist who makes work over several media that is informed by both the physical and the psychological landscapes in which we live. She studied Foundations at School of Visual Arts and graduated from the University of Tennessee School of Art with a BFA in Drawing. She pursued studio and curatorial projects in Boston where she lived, then earned her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Art. She has been a resident at the Cooper Union School of Art and the Vermont Studio Center. She has exhibited her work at such venues as the Brooks Museum of Art (Memphis, TN) and Boston Center for the Arts. Public collections include the J. Crew Company, National Parks of America and Gordon College (Wenham, MA). Publications include Studio Visit Magazine (Boston, MA) and her work can be viewed through Gallery ELL (Brooklyn) and The Drawing Center (NYC). 177, 182 RYAN HOGAN is a native of Southeast Missouri and graduated with honors from Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee with a BA in art and philosophy. Hogan is a former artist-inresidence at Gallery F at the Scarritt-Bennett center (Nashville, TN) and has an upcoming show at Dittmar Gallery at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL). His work has been featured at Seed Space, Twist Gallery, the Renaissance Center (Dickson, TN), Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, KY), and Gallery F. His work has been reviewed in the Nashville Scene and the underground art publication The Rabbit. Hogan has received a critic’s mention as the Nashville Scene’s 2011 best artist to watch. 12, 19, 21, 77, 179, 182 ROBBIE LYNN HUNSINGER is a Grammy Award winning classical oboist turned multiinstrumentalist, composer and interdisciplinary artist. She writes custom software to create interactive audiovisual installation and performance. She has performed at the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Chicago World Music Festival, SXSW and Marlboro Music Festival, and she has toured internationally with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Her installations have been shown at ISEA Chicago, Thomas Blackman Gallery and at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. For Skitter Flutter, Hunsinger collaborated with Patrick Becker and Steve Ghertner, fellow members of the Middle Tennessee Robotic Arts Society.. 8, 13, 19, 22, 141, 195, 197 EMILY LEONARD’s paintings are included in numerous private and public collections around the world, including those of the Tennessee State Museum, Swedish Hospital in Seattle, the UBS offices in Nashville, Martha Ingram, Nathan Followill of the Kings of Leon and Taylor York of Paramore. Leonard’s painting “I woke up and loved you” is featured in the book Speak for the Trees, alongside such artists as David Hockney, Christo and Jean Claude, The Starn Brothers and Mark Ryden. Leonard is represented by Davidson Galleries (Seattle WA), The Rymer Gallery (Nashville TN), Blue Spiral 1 (Asheville NC) and Anne Reed Gallery (Sun Valley ID). 177, 182 BRAD MCCOMBS has shown both nationally and internationally with exhibits at the Gallery Project (Ann Arbor, MI), Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (Los Angeles, CA), SPACELab (Cleveland, OH), the International Arts Festival (Chania, Greece), Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris, France), a public artwork with the Seattle Arts Comission (Seattle, WA), and the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art (Grand Rapids, MI). 4, 19, 22, 158 204

Index of Artists

STEPHAN MOORE is a sound artist based in Providence and Brooklyn who makes improvised performance systems; scores for dance, theater, and video productions; recordings; sound installations; and custom-built speakers and software. He is also an experienced performer, teacher and freelance programmer. He holds an undergraduate music degree from Western Michigan University and an MFA in Electronic Art from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is currently enrolled in the MEME Ph.D. program at Brown University. 11, 18, 21, 71 JASON PARADIS is an artist and curator from Canada who now lives and works in the New York area. Paradis currently teaches studio classes at Stony Brook University and Art Theory and Appreciation at St. Joseph’s College. His work has been displayed in several exhibitions in and around New York City as well as across the United States and Canada. He received a BFA from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, an MFA from Stony Brook University, and attended the selective Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) program hosted by the Bronx Museum of the Arts. 8, 13, 18, 21, 43 LESLEY PATTERSON-MARX Nashville, Tenn.-based artist Lesley Patterson-Marx was born in 1975 in Louisville, Ky. She received her BA in Fine Art from Murray State University in 1997 and her MFA from The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 2001. She has exhibited her artist’s books, prints and mixed-media works in galleries, art centers, colleges and universities across the U.S., including Cynthia Broan Gallery in New York City; Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wis.; Berkeley Art Center in Berkeley, Calif.; and Frist Center for Visual Arts, TAG Art Gallery and Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville. Her work has been featured in national publications, including Craft and ReadyMade, and 500 Handmade Books, Voume 2 . She is a founding member and Education Coordinator at Platetone: Printmaking, Paper, and Book Arts in Nashville, TN. Lesley works as a teaching artist and illustrator, having taught at Watkins College of Art Design, Vanderbilt University’s Sarratt Art Studios, Art & Soul and University School of Nashville. 179, 183 VESNA PAVLOVIĆ (Belgrade, Serbia) obtained her MFA degree in visual arts from Columbia University in 2007. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at Vanderbilt University where she teaches photography and digital media. She has exhibited widely, including solo shows at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, Museum of History of Yugoslavia in Belgrade, and the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. She has been featured with a solo presentation at the 12th Istanbul Biennial in 2011, and group exhibitions in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, Carinthian Museum of Modern Art in Klagenfurt, Austria, Photographers’ Gallery in London, Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, and FRAC Center for Contemporary Art in Dunkerke, France. Vesna Pavlović is the recipient of Robert Penn Warren Fellowship at Vanderbilt University and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation grant and artist residency in Taos, NM in 2011. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gardens and the National Museum of the Women in the Arts in Washington DC, Crocker Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade among others. 12, 18, 22, 129, 179, 183

205

Index of Artists

RYDER RICHARDS holds a BFA from Texas Tech University and an MFA from Texas Christian University. After opening and running two alternative art venues in Lubbock, TX, in 2009, Richards became the Gallery Coordinator for Richland COllege in Dallas, TX. Richards is also co-founder of the Ryder Jon Piotrs Nomadic Gallery, a travelling art gallery in the form of a 24’ Ryder moving truck, and Culture Laboratory, a collective of 12 American artists spread across the U.S. 18, 22, 97, 187 JACK RYAN lives in the Pacific Northwest and is the co-director of Ditch Projects in Springfield, OR. Select solo show history includes: Space 4 (San Diego, CA), Maison Laurentine (Paris), Archer Gallery (Vancouver, WA) and Cascade Gallery (Portland, OR). Group shows include The American University Museum (Washington, DC), Powerhouse (Memphis, TN), Brooks Museum (Memphis, TN), Crawlspace (Seattle, WA), Hunter Museum (Chattanooga, TN), Zeitgeist (Nashville, TN) and Consolidated Works (Seattle, WA). Ryan was in last year’s Oregon Biennial, received an Oregon Individual Artist Fellowship, and has had recent residencies in Iceland and at the New Media Institute’s Interactive Screen in Banff, Canada. 11, 18, 22, 153 HANS SCHMITT-MATZEN received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Middle Tennessee State University in 2003 with an emphasis in painting and a minor in philosophy. Since 2001, his artwork has been featured in numerous national juried exhibitions, museum shows and art events independent of the gallery system. Hans often collaborates with photographer Gieves Anderson, who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. The objects they create together are denoted as Hans + Gieves artworks. Hans is represented by Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville, TN, and Like the Spice Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. Hans is involved with a number of curatorial efforts. He is a board member of Fugitive Projects, a curatorial collective that organizes exhibitions nationally and internationally. Hans is also a former member of the COOP Gallery in Nashville, TN. Since 2004, Hans has been employed at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, where he currently holds the position of Exhibition Designer. 176, 184 SUSAN SHOCKLEY received her M.F.A. from Memphis College of Art in painting and her M.F.A. from Cornell University, also in painting. After graduate school she worked on a family farm in upstate New York for approximately ten years. During that time period she received a Pollack Krasner Grant and exhibited in juried shows around the country. Subsequently, she moved to Nashville to work at the Parthenon Museum. She is curator of the museum and has been there for eighteen years where she has organized over 100 exhibits. 177, 184 SCOTT SMALLWOOD is a multi media artist based in Alberta, Canada, where he is an assistant professor of composition at the University of Alberta, and Director of the Humanities Computing MA program. His work has been presented worldwide, including recent presentations at the Stone in NYC, the Burning Man Festival in Black Rock City, Nevada, and the The Hong Kong Arts Centre. He holds music degrees from Seattle Pacific University, Miami University, Peabody Conservatory and Princeton University. 19, 22, 135, 187

206

Index of Artists

BENJAMIN THORPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work has been shown in large scale public spaces in Hong Kong and Italy, as well as in museums and galleries in the United States and Europe.Benjamin lives and works in Lexington, Kentucky. He is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Kentucky. 18, 22, 89, 187 ADAM TROWBRIDGE is Assistant Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Contemporary Practices and Art & Technologies Studies departments. He holds an MFA in Electronic Visualization from the University of Illinois Chicago and a BFA in painting and sculpture from the University of Central Florida. HIs work has been featured nationally and internationally in venues such as The Grey Market and Anthology Film Archives, NYC; Pleasure Dome, Toronto; Workspaces Ltd., San Francisco, CA l The Hyde Park Center, Chicago, ILl and festivals in France, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Korea and Russia. 18, 22, 89 WILLARD TUCKER graduated from the University of Kentucky with a BFA and Ohio State University with an MFA in sculpture. He has exhibited at The Sculpture Center in Cleveland, Land of Tomorrow in Louisville, Root Division in San Francisco and other art spaces in the south and midwest. His work has been reviewed in Sculpture Magazine, Artweek, Louisville Courier-Journal, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Columbus Dispatch, and Lexington Herald-Leader. 18, 21, 83 AMANDA VALENTINE was born and raised in Nebraska, the youngest of five children to a beauty queen mother and professor father. On the ground level of her work there are remnants of her Midwestern upbringing, like clean shapes and color blocking; layered above are elements of darkness, humor, and nods to the richness of costume history. The scope of her styling work has since grown to include television, advertising, red carpet, and, after relocating to Nashville in 2007, a growing list of artists and musicians, including Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding. In 2012, Amanda was chosen to compete on the eleventh season of Project Runway. As a result, in early February 2013, she showed a twelve-piece collection at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York City. 184 MANDY CANO VILLALOBOS lives and works in Grand Rapids, MI. She graduated from George Washington University with an MFA in painting and exhibits her work throughout the United States. Canoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s artwork centers upon historical research, memory and personal interactions. She teaches Painting and Drawing at Calvin College. 18, 21, 65 JESSICA WESTBROOK is Director of Technology Initiatives and Assistant Professor in The Department of Contemporary Practices at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including: the Carnegie Museum, Hirshorn Museum of American Art, Axiom Center for New and Experimental Media, Eyedrum, Syracuse University and ICA Grand Rapids. 18, 22, 89

207

Index of Artists

HERB WILLIAMS received a BFA in sculpture from Birmingham-Southern College. Williams has received The Joan Mitchell Foundation Museum Purchase Grant in 2004, the Next Star Artist Award in 2008, and was sponsored by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2011. One of the only individuals in the world with an account with Crayola, Williams creates original sculptures out of individual crayons that may require as many as hundreds of thousands. His work holds records with Ripley’s and Guinness. His sculptures have been placed in public arenas, such as children’s hospitals, corporate lobbies, museum walls and the White House. His work was featured recently at an Inaugural art exhibit in Washington, DC, with Shepard Fairey, and he opened “Plunderland,” a walk-in room installation consisting of almost 500,000 crayons at an art gallery in Chelsea. Herb is currently represented by The Rymer Gallery in Nashville, TN. 177, 185 Classically trained as an opera singer at the Eastman Conservatory of Music in Rochester, New York, AMELIA WINGER-BEARSKIN received her undergraduate degree at George Mason University in 2000, studying sculpture and time based art and receiving her BAIS in Performance Art. She received her MFA in Transmedia (time based art) from the University of Texas, Austin, in 2008. She has been in numerous group shows and art fairs nationally and internationally. 18, 21, 33 DAVID WOOD is an earth artist and professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. He has exhibited throughout the United States and Europe. He currently runs a 75 acre sculpture park, wildlife refuge, and retreat near Woodbury, TN. 178, 185 A multidisciplinary artist with a tendency to work in series that document shared memories and experiences, JANET DECKER YANEZ has a history of using sentimental and/or vintage fabrics, culled from her personal stockpile and donations from friends or family. She holds a BFA from the University of Houston in painting, with a minor in art history, and has exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions nationally. Recently she founded Ground Floor Gallery + Studios in Nashville, TN, an alternative exhibition space and studio collective. 12, 179, 185, 195, 197

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Index of Artists

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INDEX OF CRITICS & CURATORS *NOTE: Because these critics and curators may have interacted with Seed Space at any point over a four year period, we are including their bios as published at time of exhibition.

KYLE J. BAKER is a Nashville-based composer and impresario most known for directing the Soundcrawl Festival. He composes for acoustic and digital forces with a recurring emphasis on rhythmic post-minimalist structures. Notable teachers include Ken Read, John LaBarbara, Delfeayo Marsalis and William Pursell. Originally from St. Louis, Baker holds an M.Mus from Belmont University, and makes his home in Cane Ridge, TN. 137, 190 SHARON BUTLER maintains the award-winning art blog Two Coats of Paint and is a contributing writer at The Brooklyn Rail. She has received numerous grants, awards and residencies, including a Pollock Krasner Foundation grant. Butler has upcoming exhibitions at Pocket Utopia in New York, NY, Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT, and Season in Seattle, WA. A professor of art at Eastern Connecticut State University, Butler is currently on a leave of absence to pursue other projects. She divides her time between New York City and Washington, DC. 98, 187, 189 BILL CARROLL has been involved in the New York art world for over twenty five years. He has been Director of both the Charles Cowles and Elizabeth Harris Galleries. In the non-profit world, he has worked at the Dia Art Foundation, the Brooklyn Museum and the Nancy Graves Foundation. He is currently Director of the Studio Program of The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. Carroll has lectured extensively and taught numerous professional practices courses. Carroll holds a BFA from Pratt Institute and a MFA from Queens College C.U.N.Y. 187, 189 MATT CHRISTY is a writer and an artist. Graduating from Watkins College with a BFA in Fine Arts, he is currently an arts writer for ArtNowNashville, Number and Art Papers Magazine. 90 211

Index of Critics & Curators

REBECCA DIMLING COCHRAN is an independent critic and curator based in Atlanta. She has published in Art in America, Art & Antiques, Art Review, Flash Art, Frieze, New Art Examiner and Sculpture magazines; on the web at Artforum.com and ArtscriticATL.com; architecture and design writing in Atlanta Magazine and Atlanta Magazine Home, as well as doing radio commentary on WABE Atlanta. She holds a BFA from the Portland School of Art, a certificate in Fine and Decorative Arts from Sotheby’s and an MA in contemporary curating from the Royal College of Art, London. 72, 187 SUSANNAH DARROW is the Executive Director and Co-founder of Burnaway, an Atlanta-based nonprofit arts organization dedicated to providing critical coverage and dialogue about arts in Atlanta and the Southeast since 2008. She serves on the Board of Directors of Art Papers magazine, the Forward Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award Committee and Hudgens Award Advisory Committee. She received a BA in Art History from the University of Georgia and MA in Art History from Georgia State University. She has worked as an arts administrator in Atlanta since 2007. 191 SYLVIE FORTIN is an independent curator, art historian, critic and editor who has worked internationally since 1991. She was the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Ottawa Art Gallery (Ottawa, Ontario, 1996-2001), Program Coordinator at la chambre blanche (Quebec City, Quebec, 1991-1994), and a long-term collaborator with OBORO (Montreal, Quebec, 1994-2001). Her critical essays have been published in Canadian, American and European catalogues, and her reviews have appeared in many periodicals including Art Press, C Magazine, Espace, Fuse (where she is also a contributing editor), NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art and Parachute. Fortin studied Art History at the University of Toronto, Université Laval and Duke University. She has received numerous significant grants and awards as a critic and curator, as well as for her academic research. In 2007 Fortin was named a Lexus Leader of the Arts. 187 MICHELLE GRABNER is an internationally lauded artist, critic, educator, gallerist and curator. Represented by Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago and Anne Mosseri-Marlio, Zurich, Grabner has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including the Musée d´art Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg; Tate St. Ives, UK; Stadtgalerie, Keil; Kunsthalle, Bern; Daimler Contemporary, Berlin; Rocket, London; Cranbrook Art Museum; The Walker Art Center; The Milwaukee Art Museum; Turbinehallerne, Copenhagen; and The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland among others. In 1999 Grabner founded the artist-run project space The Suburban with her husband Brad Killan. In 2009 they started the nonprofit exhibition space The Poor Farm, both of which they continue to run. Grabner is a corresponding editor at X-TRA and a contributor to such publications as Artforum, Modern Painters, Frieze, Art Press, and Art Agenda. She is professor and chair of Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and recent senior critic at Yale University in the Department of Painting and Printmaking. 3, 8, 187, 191

212

Index of Critics & Curators

Before his position at ACAC, STUART HORODNER was the visual arts curator at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR; director of the Bucknell University Art Gallery, Lewisburg, PA; and co-owner of the Horodner Romley Gallery, New York, NY. He founded and co-directed the Affair at the Jupiter Hotel, an annual art fair in Portland. Horodner has contributed to journals and magazines including Art Issues, Art Lies, Art on Paper, Bomb, Dazed & Confused, Sculpture and Surface. He received his BFA from The Cooper Union, New York, NY, and his MFA from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. 132, 187 LAURA HUTSON studied art and anthropology at New York University. She is currently the Arts Editor of the Nashville Scene. 35, 44 KRISTIN JUÁREZ is a writer, curator and arts administrator in Atlanta, GA. As a contirbuting editor for the online magazine BURNAWAY, her column, called “The Fringe,” looks at public art as a means to better understand our relationship to others and the places we live. 118 VERONICA KAVASS is a writer and occasional curator based in Nashville, TN, where she teaches at Watkins College of Art. She began working with artists in 2006 as an archivist at Headlands Center for the Arts in California. She received her MA at Chelsea College of Art in London. She returned to Nashville in 2011 to be the visiting curator of art at Cheekwood Museum. She selected art and wrote stories for the book Artists in Love (Random House, 2012). She is currently working on a book which she plans to complete through the MFA program at University of Minnesota. 13, 34 SUSAN KNOWLES is an independent curator in Nashville who has been writing for the Art Papers since 1984. Having held curatorial positions at Cheekwood Museum of Art and the Metro Nashville Arts Commission, she has also served as guest curator for the Frist Center for the Visual Arts and the Tennessee State Museum, and as a consulting curator for Fisk University. She is the author of numerous catalogue essays and has also written for New Art Examiner, Number, Raw Vision, and Sculpture. 66 SHARON LOUDEN is a full-time practicing professional artist who lives and works in New York City. She teaches professional practice at the New York Academy of Art and lectures on this topic at many universities, art schools and museums across the country. In all of Sharon’s seminars, she tries to instill a philosophy that artists can sustain and make a living independent of a gallery. Especially in these times of economic uncertainty, Louden believes it is important for an artist to create his or her own opportunities and charter a journey that will provide as many avenues as possible from which to grow. 187, 189, 190

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Index of Critics & Curators

AMY MACKIE is a nomadic curator and writer based in New Orleans, and co-director of PARSE (parsenola.com). She curated numerous exhibitions as the director of visual arts at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans from 2011 to 2012, and as the curatorial associate at the New Museum in New York from 2007 to 2010. Mackie was the recipient of a 2013 Curatorial Fellowship from the Stavanger Municipality Culture Department in Norway, a 2010 Research Fellowship at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, England, and a 2009 CEC Artslink Grant to produce a project in Sofia, Bulgaria. She has lectured at Bard College, Brooklyn College, the College of Charleston and Yale University, and has written for Art in America, Art Papers, FANTOM Photographic Quarterly, Pelican Bomb, Universes in Universe. Mackie holds an M.A. in curatorial studies from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College and a BA in liberal arts from Sarah Lawrence College. 122, 169, 187 DAVID MADDOX is a Nashville-based critic and musician who has covered the areaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s art scene with varying degrees of intensity for a number of years. He also has a management consulting practice in which he advises institutions on resource allocation, planning and decision-making under conditions of multiple constraints and large-organization complexity. 78 KEVIN MCGARRY is a writer and curator based in Brooklyn, NY. He has contributed to Rhizome, New York Times Magazine, and the online editions of Art in America, Arforum, Art 21, Bidoun and Interview Magazine. McGarry is co-director and programmer of Migrating Forms, a festival of new and experimental film and video held at Anthology Film Archives. 38, 187 JOE NOLAN is a poet, musician and freelance writer in Nashville, TN. The author of the popular blog Insomnia, Nolan also regularly contributes to Nashville Public Radio, The Nashville Scene, number: an independent journal of the arts, and Disinformation World News podcast. 46 GINGER SHULICK PORCELLA is the Executive Director of the San Diego Art Institute, and Founder of Big Deal Arts Advisory. She holds an M.A. in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from Columbia University and a B.A. in Art History from DePaul University. She is a recent recipient of a National Arts Strategies Fellowship for Emerging Arts Leaders, a National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Grant for her exhibition The Sixth Sense and Other Myths at New York City Industries for the Blind, and a curatorial grant from the Danish Agency for Culture. Porcella has more than ten years arts administration experience, including a successful history of development and fundraising for arts organizations and individual artists. 7, 11, 142, 190, 191 MARK SCALA is the Chief Curator of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. He was previously a curator and educator at the Art Museum of Western Virginia for ten years. He was also the regional editor and critic for New Art Examiner, the director of the University of Richmondâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Marsh Gallery, and an art teacher at Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Richmond and Randolph-Macon College. Scala received his MA in art history, Museum Studies emphasis, and an MFA in painting from Virginia Commonwealth University. 56 214

Index of Critics & Curators

An independent curator and art historian, CLAIRE SCHNEIDER is presently Consulting Curator of Contemporary Art at the Ackland Art Museum at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she organized More Love: Art, Politics, and Sharing Since the 1990s. Previous projects include: co-curator of Extreme Abstraction in 2005 at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, a monumental international survey of over 150 artists that included site-specific commissions by Liam Gillick, Jim Isermann, Leo Villareal and Pae White, among others. Schneider founded the series Architecture + Art at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) in 2010, which invites architects to create site-specific installations in response to the museum site and environmental contexts. In 2010, she organized Soups, Flukes, and Follies for Cheekwood. Schneider served as Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Albright-Knox, 1998-2008, and Senior Curator at SMoCA, 2008-2010. In 2013, she founded CS1 Curatorial Projects, a facilitator of creative art projects in unexpected spaces. A Nashville native and graduate of USN, she received her BA in Art History from Tufts University and MA in Art History from Williams College. 160, 191 SUSAN SHERRICK has over 12 years of experience working in the contemporary art and fine art photography world. She began her career at the Harvard Art Musuems as the assistant to former Chair of the Department of Art and Architecture, Yve-Alain Bois. She later worked in sales assistant positions at David Zwirner and Marian Goodman galleries. Sherrick recently moved to Nashville from New York City, where she was sales director at Howard Greenberg Gallery and art advisor to Sandy Heller. In Nashville she curates Joint, a series of pop-up gallery events hosted with Libby Callaway. 154 DENISE STEWART-SANABRIA is an artist and freelance writer based in Knoxville, TN. She exhibits extensively in museums and galleries throughout the eastern United States. She contributes reviews to number: an independent journal of the arts, and Art Papers. 50 CHEN TAMIR is an independent curator and arts writer based in New York, Toronto and Tel Aviv. She is also the Executive Director of Flux Factory, a non-profit arts center in Queens, N.Y. Chen holds an M.A. in Curatorial Studies from Bard Collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Center for Curatorial Studies, a B.A. in Anthropology, and a B.F.A. in Visual Art from York University. 28, 187 TOM WILLIAMS is an Assistant Professor of Art History at Watkins College of Art, Design, and Film and has taught previously at MoMA, Binghamton University, the School of Visual Arts in New York and Vanderbilt University. His writings have appeared in Art in America, Grey Room and other publications. Williams attended the Critical Studies Program at the Whitney Independent Study Program. He holds a PhD from Stony Brook University. 84

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SCOTT ZIEHER lives and works in New York City where he is co-owner of ZieherSmith, an art gallery dedicated to the work of emerging artists in all media. Zieher is also an accomplished poet who has published three book-length poems. He is a founding member of Emergency Press, a nonprofit organization that produces a biannual literary and arts almanac. He holds an MFA in poetry from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Zieher’s written work has also appeared in The Believer, Jubilat, KNOCK and The Iowa Review, and online at Eleven Bulls, Flaneur, Slurrymagazine and DIAGRAM. 111 ANDREA ZIEHER is co-owner and co-director of ZieherSmith, a New York gallery specializing in emerging and contemporary artists working in all media. Established in Chelsea in 2003, the gallery is regularly reviewed by the press, including The New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, among others, and has participated in over 30 art fairs internationally, including Art Basel Miami Beach. From 2006-2010, Andrea served as President of the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) and oversaw both the organization and its prestigious annual art fair. She has been featured in New York Magazine’s annual “Influentials” issue. 189

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