November 30, 2010 – September 30, 2011
Opening:
Tuesday, November 30, 7-10pm
Press preview:
Monday, November 29th, 12-5pm
Hours during ArtBasel/Miami Beach:
Saturday – Tuesday, December 4-7, 1-5pm
Mon/Tues Dec 6/7 – 1-3pm
Girls’ Club presents its first solo exhibition, Frances Trombly: Paintings, new works by the Miami artist. Commissioned for Girls’ Club’s exhibition space located in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Paintings expands upon the artist’s prior practice of hand-crafting everyday items from fiber and displaying them to initially deceive and then reward ordinary perception. Trombly’s Paintings invite close attention to the minutiae of their own making. They inhabit the realm of the micro, calling attention to the handmade rhythm and texture of the woven textile, its blips and glitches betraying the artist’s hand. But they initiate questions in the macro, issuing a provocation to the viewer to assess the value of contemporary art objects. How is value in art defined? Does greater labor equal greater value? Are these even paintings that we are looking at? Trombly states “These new sculptures make no effort to create narratives. They merely offer the viewer a glimpse into the hard-working hands of the artist. They are what they are.”
In February 2011, Girls’ Club will publish a catalog to accompany the Paintings exhibition, designed by Miami’s Fulano Inc. Texts are contributed by Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami Chief Curator Bonnie Clearwater, critic and art historian Jenni Sorkin, currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, and conceptual fiber artist Elaine Reichek. A limited edition of the catalogs will be uniquely bound using Trombly’s hand-loomed cloth.
Girls’ Club collection includes seminal works by female artists using fiber and traditional craft media, such as: Ghada Amer, Elaine Reichek, Beverly Semmes, and Kiki Smith. A growing trend among younger artists is the customized or “hacked” adaptation of traditional craft media and intensely hand-worked construction of their works. Other artists in the collection using handmade, vintage, artisanal and archival processes are Tara Donovan, Ellen Gallagher, Ann Hamilton, Orly Genger, Yui Kugimiya, Amparo Sard, and Alison Elizabeth Taylor. Among South Florida artists, the handmade is vital, and well-represented in Girls’ Club collection with works by Kevin Arrow, Courtney Johnson, Kerry Phillips, Carol Prusa, Dinorah de Jesus Rodriguez, Cristina Lei Rodriguez, TM Sisters, and Jen Stark.
In Girls’ Club mezzanine gallery, Facsimile is on view. The group exhibition of works from the collection of Francie Bishop Good + David Horvitz and others enjoys a conceptual dialogue with Trombly’s Paintings. Works by artists Ghada Amer, Kevin Arrow, Amanda Burnham, Orly Genger, Sarah Lucas, Amy Mahnick, Rita McBride, Elaine Reichek, Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova and others explore the ambivalence of fetish objects and the spaces we contemplate them in.
Founded in 2006 by artist Francie Bishop Good and her husband David Horvitz, Girls’ Club is a 501(c)3 foundation and alternative space exhibiting contemporary art by women. Cutting edge works in painting, drawing, photography and video are presented in curated, thematic exhibitions which include works loaned from other collectors, galleries and artists. Girls’ Club’s facility is a dynamic, multi-functional building created by AIA award-winning designer Margi Nothard of Glavovic Studio in Fort Lauderdale. Girls’ Club’s mission is to educate the public, nurture the careers of female artists, and to serve as a resource for art students and scholars, curators, and practicing artists. A special commitment is made to expose the work of local artists to a broader national and international audience.
Girls’ Club gratefully acknowledges support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Broward County Cultural Division, Target Foundation, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, and private donors.
www.girlsclubcollection.org
info [at] girlsclubcollection.org
117 NE 2nd Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
954-828-9151
*Image above:
Courtesy of the Artist and David Castillo Gallery.
Photo by F. Trombly.
