February 12, 7:00 PM–8:30 PM
Franklin Street Works presents a panel discussion explores painting’s role in contemporary art practices, especially as it relates to Franklin Street Works’ current exhibition “About Like So: The Influence of Painting.” Panelists are exhibiting artist Marley Freeman, art critic Noah Dillon, and the exhibition’s curator, Terri C Smith. The event is free and open to the public and takes place from 7:00 – 8:30 pm.
The panel will share observations about how painting’s histories, forms, and materiality relate to the works in the exhibition. In preliminary email discussions preparing for the event, the panelists have touched on topics such as how other forms of art production influence painting and vice versa, painting’s role as a tool in conceptual art and performance, and how some of the works in “About Like So” highlight the action of a painting’s creation and its development as image.
“About Like So: The Influence of Painting” is on view at Franklin Street Works through February 22, 2015. It features works that use paint in unorthodox ways or bypass the medium all together to reveal how the “language of painting” can invade, obstruct and enhance other media. This exhibition asks, “In an era where painting no longer has the art historical primacy it once did, what can it contribute to the dominant art practices of today – art that is often not medium specific and is rooted in the theory-driven practices of conceptual art?”
Exhibiting artists include Polly Apfelbaum, Paul Branca, Taylor Davis, Tim Davis, Marley Freeman, Ragnheiour Gestsdottir, Michael Graeve, Dave Hardy, Alex Hubbard, John Knuth, Sophy Naess, Tameka Norris, Peter Nowogrodzki/Max Kotelchuck, Seth Price, Paul Theriault, Brad Tucker, Siebren Versteeg, Augustus Thompson, Leslie Wayne, “in actu: music and painting” (K.R.H. Sonderborg, Wolfgang Hannen, Günter Christmann and Paul Lovens).
About the Panelists: Noah Dillon is an artist and art critic who lives and works in New York. He has written for The Zephyr, the Brooklyn Rail, and artcritical. Dillon has also contributed to Art in America, Painting is Dead, and ArtSlant and is currently the associate editor at artcritical. Marley Freeman is a dedicated painter who has been showing in New York since 2011. She received an MFA in painting from Bard College, 2011, and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2008. Her work was recently shown in House Arrest at Franklin Street Works, CT; Reading Boyishly at THIS IS THE PLACE, NY; Significant Ordinaries, The University Art Museum, California State University, CA.Of her work Freeman writes, “Painting is a manner of palimpsest, a battering of layers towards clarity- ‘object-ness.’ Brush as arbiter of form. My goals are in process. They devolve into a spirit of play and love of work.” Drawing on a history with textiles, Freeman’s work is a marginal type of abstraction born of a desire and pursuit of a new image. Her artist project website is www.ff-ff-ff-ff-ff.net. It has five works which change regularly. Terri C Smith has curated more than 100 contemporary art exhibitions for museums and other not-for-profit arts organizations. Her work has received numerous awards, including two multi-year grants from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Smith’s exhibitions have been met with positive reviews and features in international art publications such asArt Papers, Artforum online, Bombblog, Afterimage, and This isTomorrow.