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Special Project:
Special Exhibitors:
Trajector asked a selection of artists to nominate one established representing commercial
gallery that, in their opinion, created curatorial and artistic opportunities
beyond the traditional role of a gallery programme. A second
gallery was nominated on the basis of representing an emerging artist whose
practice engages with one of this year’s thematic programmes.
From the
shortlist, Trajector has invited two galleries to present a special
presentation at Trajector.
Trajector is
pleased to announce that Fred London is invited to present a special project in
recognition of the gallery’s contribution to curatorial opportunities. Fred has
persistently engaged in special curatorial initiatives both within the main gallery space, off-site and in the occasional Fred Basement Projects over the years, providing a platform for external curators and artists not represented
by the gallery.
Furthermore,
Trajector is particularly please that Fred will exhibit at this year’s fair
since the gallery’s own sensibilities and activities have engaged directly with
the agendas of both the Taut programme and the Keith Moon Suites thematic strand. For
example, in addition to running the eclectic Fred Label that puts out music
ranging from the hip pop of The Stained Glass Heroes
to the iconic Faust, the gallery has also engaged in special programmes with
fashion houses. An example of this includes the 2009 project for Mulberry in
which five artists from the gallery each produced a design for a limited
edition bag.
Fred [London] is pleased to announce our presentation of the work of New York based Polymath, Guy Richards Smit.
Smit will exhibit a suite of videos, paintings and drawings from the celebrated series, A Mountain of Skulls and Not One I Recognize. Essentially a meditation on cliché and black comedy, the videos begin simply as humorously absurd conceits, but through time and repetition become a sort of dreamy contemplation on power, desire and failure. The Smit composed soundtrack suggests an endlessly meandering sequence from an Antonioni film that is at odds with the outrageously charged moments. The buffoonish painter, the painfully empathetic doctor, the horny ogler, would all seem comfortable in a Benny Hill skit (or Rowan & Martin’s laugh in) but the punch line never comes and they – and we - are left suspended in a haze of pathos.
The paintings serve as one more perverse step in the process. A cast of characters carefully made to appear almost offhand, they are reminiscent of early Alex Katz, and have an ease and facility about them that suggests the videos are perhaps no more than an elaborate excuse to paint. That what he was looking for was a framework. A storyline.
Guy Richards Smit has previously exhibited at, among other places, FRED [London] Limited, Sketch (London), South London Gallery (London), Bloomberg (London), Ceri Hand (Liverpool), Roebling Hall (New York), Fred Torres Collorations (New York), The Museum of Modern Art (New York) and the Indiana Museum of Contemporary Art (Indianapolis), MOMA's Mediascope, La Bienal de Valencia, the Havana Biennial, the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, the Bass Museum of Art, Aeroplastics (Brussels), and G-Module (Paris). His recent films are part of a series of screenings on art and music at the Musée d'Art Contemporain du Val-De-Marne, Paris.
Gallery...
Base Alpha has been invited to make a special presentation of the work of the young
Antwerp-based Dutch artist Alexandra Crouwers. Crouwer’s ‘cross-media’ works
frequently combine apocalyptic, mythological and Romantic imagery, often of the
sorts and sources frequently appropriated by underground music and visual culture. And,
indeed the configuration of the works frequently scrutinizes the question of
physical space and time in relation to the enduring image; film becomes a
performance; a photograph refuses to clarify whether it is a registration or
something looking to painting; music and sound transmute the literary or
textual sources to which some of the imagery alludes, itself already
appropriated in rock music iconography.
Her work, approach and record of
working with those from the Antwerp experimental and music underground scenes –
such as Mauro Pawlowski- make her the ideal candidate for gallery
invitation under Trajector’s thematic strand, The Keith
Moon Suite.
Gallery...
Special Exhibit:
Consume Gorilla Shop, Gorilla Consume Shop
The notion of the ‘guerilla’ or ‘pop-up’ shop is one that is now ensconced in the fashion retail canon. And, it has begun to filter through to other cultural manifestations: pop-up exhibition spaces; time-limited project locations…
Engrained in the phenomenon is the contemporary economic context. Once, retailers strove to start a shop and build it into a chain or a grand emporium. But in the last decade – in which retail has changed forever with the advent of online shopping- even those with stable retail outlets have seen the benefit of a suck-it-and-see approach or more importantly still, outlets in which events, spectacle and a certain exclusivity defined by time ( It won’t be here forever!) have all come into play.
As a fitting homage to the no-strings reality of the pop-up consumption spaces of the last decade – many of which have been characterized by combing cultural and retail activities- Trajector Art Fair & Taut have set up a special retail/exhibition space and brought together a range of interesting exhibitors and vendors to entice you with their goodies; everything from music by Martin Kippenberger to unique art works; limited edition books to apparel. Welcome to Consume Gorilla Shop, Gorilla Consume Shop
Laura Mars Group/Maas Media Verlag
Crippled Dick Records
EDITION KRÖTHENHAYN
Ra
Gallery...
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