Three New Exhibitions
Opening at The Aldrich
Sunday, December 14, 2008; 3 to 5 pm
Round-Trip Transportation from NYC Available
www.aldrichart.org/evite.html
258 Main Street
Ridgefield, CT 06877
THREE NEW EXHIBITIONS OPENING AT THE ALDRICH!
Three new exhibitions will open at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut, with a reception from 3 to 5 pm on Sunday, December 14, 2008.
The public are invited to the celebration for Full Circle: Ten Years of Radius; Kwang-Young Chun: The Soul—Journey to America; and Video A—Harry Shearer: The Silent Echo Chamber.
Refreshments will be served. Round-trip transportation from New York City is available; please call the Museum at 203.438.4519 for reservations.
Exhibition Summaries:
Full Circle: Ten Years of Radius
November 28, 2008, to June 7, 2009
Radius, the successful professional artist development program presented by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and the Ridgefield Guild of Artists, has been instrumental in jump-starting the careers of many regional artists. Now, the partners are pleased to announce Full Circle: Ten Years of Radius—a special anniversary exhibition which will celebrate the first decade of Radius. The exhibition will survey a diverse selection of recent works produced by alumni from the Radius: Emerging Artists from Connecticut and Southeastern New York exhibitions of the last ten years. Curator: Regine Basha. Artists: Kelly Bigelow Becerra, Jaclyn Conley, Paul Favello, Robert Federico, Beth Gilfilen, Jim Hett, Bryan Jones, Nathan Lewis, Christopher Mir, Mari Ogihara, Alyse Rosner, Joseph Smolinski, Thuan Vu, and Benjamin Weiner.
Kwang-Young Chun: The Soul—Journey to America
December 14, 2008, to May 24, 2009
Noted Korean artist Kwang-Young Chun has created his largest free-standing paper sculpture to date—just over 14 feet and approximately 650 pounds—expressly for presentation in the Museum’s two story Project Space for his exhibition The Soul—Journey to America. Kwang-Young Chun makes intricate sculpture out of the recycled pages of old Korean books and medicine wrappers printed on mulberry paper. He wraps the handmade paper—inscribed with Korean characters—around thousands of Styrofoam tetrahedrons and other geometric forms that serve as the basic units of his compositions. The forms are then arranged in free-standing three-dimensional sculptures or mounted on the wall as two-dimensional low-reliefs. The new sculpture, which belongs to his Aggregation series, will be installed in the center of the gallery, offering visitors a holistic three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of the piece, as well as a spectacular bird’s eye vantage from the Museum’s Project Space balcony. The Soul—Journey to America will travel to the University of Wyoming Art Museum following its Aldrich debut.
Video A—Harry Shearer: The Silent Echo Chamber
December 14, 2008, to February 8, 2009
The Silent Echo Chamber is the newest video work by actor, musician, and satirist Harry Shearer. Presented on ten plasma monitors, The Silent Echo Chamber captures well-known personalities from politics and the media in the silent moments before “going live.” Individuals portrayed include James Carville, Barack Obama, Larry King, Dr. Phil, John McCain, and Chris Matthews, each caught in the uneasy prelude to becoming the familiar animated “talking head.” Shearer’s silent portrait gallery turns the familiar into the strange, allowing visitors to project their own meaning on the awkward collective silence of those to whom Americans usually look for guidance and commentary. Over his fifty-year career, Shearer has, among other things, been a writer for Saturday Night Live, a co-creator and actor in the 1984 spoof This is Spinal Tap, host of KCRW’s radio comedy and music program Le Show, and perhaps most memorably, the voice actor for over twelve characters on The Simpsons, including Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, and Ned Flanders.
Also on View:
Huma Bhabha: 2008 Emerging Artist Award Exhibition (through February 8, 2009); Karin Davie: Symptomania (through February 8, 2009); Lars Fisk: Trashbags (through February 15, 2009); and Peggy Preheim: Little Black Book (through February 8, 2009).
Sponsors:
Aldrich exhibitions are supported, in part, by the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism and the National Endowment for the Arts. Thank you to our media sponsor, artasiapacific, and event sponsor, HSBC World Bank. Special thanks to SK Telecom for funding the transport of Kwang-Young Chun’s sculpture from Korea to America. Kwang-Young Chun is represented by Robert Miller Gallery, New York. The Museum wishes to also thank Kim Foster Gallery, New York, and Michelle Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, for their help in the realization of this work.
Image Caption:
Top image: Benjamin Weiner, The Great New Wave (detail), 2007, collection of Tonya and Thomas Nicholson, courtesy of the artist and Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica; bottom left image: Kwang-Young Chun, Aggregation 06–MY020 (detail), 2006, courtesy of the artist and Robert Miller Gallery, New York; bottom right image: Harry Shearer, Larry King (video still from The Silent Echo Chamber), 2008, courtesy of the artist and Susan Inglett Gallery, New York.
The Museum:
The Aldrich is one of the few non-collecting contemporary art museums in the United States. Founded on Ridgefield’s historic Main Street in 1964, the Museum enjoys the curatorial independence of an alternative space while maintaining the registrarial and art-handling standards of a national institution. Exhibitions feature work by emerging and mid-career artists, and education programs help adults and children to connect to today’s world through contemporary art. The Museum is located at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT 06877. All exhibitions and programs are handicapped accessible. Regular Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 12 noon to 5 pm. For more information call 203.438.4519.
Contact: Pamela Ruggio
Phone: 203.438.4519
Email: pruggio@aldrichart.org