Exquisite Corpses: Thomas Glassford in dialogue with Mary Coffey

Vis-à-vis Series: Dialogues between Artists and Critics from the Western Hemisphere

Exquisite Corpses:
Thomas Glassford in dialogue with Mary Coffey
Tuesday, April 14, 2009. 6:30pm

Members-only reception to follow the discussion
680 Park Avenue at 68th Street
New York, NY 10065

www.americas-society.org

Mexico City based artist Thomas Glassford’s objects and large-scale projects are distinguished for their engagement with the layered materiality of the modern urban milieu. Often located in politically charged spaces — the US-Mexico Border, the Tlatelolco Housing Project in Mexico City – Glassford’s public projects forge a relationship between the artist’s interest in the history of our materiality and definite physical places. In so doing, Glassford transforms sites coded with violence, suturing their wounds or giving them new “skin”. These exquisite corpses establish the conditions for a new functionality without eviscerating memory or fetishizing trauma.

Glassford will discuss the process of working with the politics of place with the Art Historian Mary Coffey (Assistant Professor, Dartmouth University). How does the artist bring his personal aesthetic into a meaningful relationship with social space, popular memory, and the built environment? The dialogue will emphasize the creative process as well as the political, economic, and logistical challenges involved in executing public commissions within a transnational art market.

This program is organized in collaboration with the Mexican Cultural Institute and Sicardi Gallery.

UPCOMING EXHIBITION AT AMERICAS SOCIETY

DIAS & RIEDWEG
… and It Becomes Something Else
Curated by Gabriela Rangel

On view Tues. May 12 – Sat. August 1, 2009
Gallery hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 12 – 6pm

Mauricio Dias and Walter Riedweg, a duo of artists based in Rio de Janeiro, have fused visual and performance art to develop a cohesive body of video installations that delves into the poetic and critical potential of the moving image. The works featured in the exhibition, their first solo show in the United States, reflect on the role of film and video as time-based devices and media for the discussion of global issues such as cheap labor, immigration, and displacement.

This exhibition will be accompanied by a series of Public Programs and a publication. For more information please visit our website.

Americas Society gratefully acknowledges the following donors for their generous support of the exhibition Dias & Riedweg…and It Becomes Something Else, and accompanying public programs: Rockefeller Brothers Fund; Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council; Consulate General of Brazil in New York; and Consulate General of Switzerland in New York. These programs are also made possible in part with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

UPCOMING PUBLICATIONS
The Visual Arts Department will launch the following publications this spring:
- Carlos Cruz-Diez: (In)Formed by Color (Distributed by DAP)
- The Painted Photographs of Melvin Charney
- Paula Trope: On Collaboration
For more information please contact us at culture@americas-society.org

All of our programs are free of charge, open to the public. We are located at 680 Park Avenue at 68th Street in New York City. To arrive by public transportation, take the 6 train to 68th Street / Hunter College. For wheelchair access, kindly call in advance.

Americas Society members enjoy advance priority reservations and priority seating at our culture programs. To reserve your place at our culture events this season, please call the exclusive members-only reservation line at 212.277.8333 or email membersres@americas-society.org.