Carmen Devine Curatorial Experience I have a broad range of curatorial experience, from working off-site as a curatorial assistant in graduate school, to traditional exhibition planning in a museum setting, to collaborative work as a member of a small museum board.
Spoleto Festival USA Charleston, SC, 2002 While in Graduate School I worked as the assistant to independent curator Mary Jane Jacob. My efforts focused on the ongoing program entitled Evoking History which engaged with Charleston's deep historical roots, illuminating the community‘s changing landscape from a colonial capital with global reach to a cosmopolitan locus of contemporary cultural. I aided a group of leading international artists as they produced large-scale public art installations throughout the city of Charleston, SC . Artists: Yinka Shonibare (Nigeria), Nari Ward (Jamaica), J. Morgan Puett (United States), Marc Latamie (Martinique), Kim Sooja (South Korea), and Kcho (Cuba).
John Michael Kohler Arts Center The Arts Center is a nationally acclaimed visual and performing arts complex devoted to innovative explorations in contemporary American visual art. The institution includes ten galleries, theatre, interdisciplinary performance space, and studio-classrooms. My work at the Arts Center reflects the diversity of my own interests, as well as my dedication to promoting the work of Women and Minority artists. In my years as Assistant Curator at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center I curated 15 group and solo exhibitions. The Following slides present an overview of these:
Metamorphosis January – May 2004 The artists in METAMORPHOSIS, through a variety of media, suggest that the once far-fetched sci-fi world is now close at hand. From practices used to grow a better tomato or breed a more beautiful dog, to scientists and doctors possessing the technology to clone a human being, the advances in genetic science have pervaded the minds of many artists, making for visually arresting work. Artists: Ming Fay, Daniel Lee, Chris Hipkiss, Holly Rittenhouse, Marianne Lovink, Karen Rich Beal, Michelle Samour, Jim Toia, Catherine Chalmers, Bryan Crockett, Marc Dennis, Heidi Fasnacht, Mara G. Heseltine, Tony Matelli, Michelle Segre, and Eva Sutton, Linda Cordell, Yuriko Yamaguchi, John Grade and David Kroll, and Kimberly Richards.
Engaging the Audience I led gallery talks tailored to The Arts Center‘s diverse audiences, including the general public at exhibition openings, arts patrons at fundraising galas, and students who visited the Arts Center as part of a ―careers in the arts‖ program. • I also prepared the volunteer docents for their tours, guiding them through the gallery and sharing as much detail as possible about each work.
The Persistence of Growth: Barbara Cooper February – April 2004 As Illinois sculptor Barbara Cooper shapes her large-scale sculptures - laboriously constructing organic forms from small scraps of wood - she recreates the incremental process of growth and reflects the passage of time. Cooper hopes that, through "the persistence of growth" evoked in her large-scale sculptures, we come to understand our own place in the greater context of our ecological and spiritual environment.
Curating Solo Exhibitions When curating a solo exhibition, I worked closely with the artist to decide which works to include, modes of display, and the overall message the exhibition meant to convey. Working so closely with artists gave me the opportunity to move beyond artists‘ statements and even telephone interviews – to engage in in depth conservations about their work , visit their studios – and bring that depth to our audience in the form of gallery talks and didactic materials. In these instances I aimed to act as a conduit, using wall texts and handouts to explain and clarify the artist‘s work and ideas without editorializing.
18 Holes: An Art Course by Gerhard Mayer and John Powers May – Sept. 2004 18 Holes was a unique large-scale art installation framed around the concept of a golf course. Mayer's enveloping drawings and Powers' complex sculptures are obsessively detailed. Unlike a more straightforward interpretation of the game of golf, this 'art course" emphasizes the philosophical aspect of this time- suspending journey and offers visitors a completely unique opportunity to enter into the art of Mayer and Powers.
Visiting Artists During my years at the Arts Center I had many opportunities to work directly with artists who came to install their works, or who created their work on site, such as Gerhard Mayer whose ink drawings dazzled viewers in the exhibition 18 Holes. On several occasions visiting artists were in town long enough to attend an opening, or for me to organize a symposium, giving artists and audiences an opportunity to engage directly.
Project 20 involves a series of wall- size ―coloring book‖ drawings that require the participation of visitors in order to become fully realized. A unique drawing is tailor made to fit in each space involved in the Project series. For the Arts Center the artist designed a zoo. Over time scaffolding was added, giving visitors an opportunity to color in the entire surface.
Interdepartmental Coordination When I came across Jun‘ya Yamaide‘s works – or ‗projects‘ as he prefers to call them – at the Julia Friedman gallery in Chicago, I knew I had found an excellent opportunity for a professional artist to collaborate with the community. Generally the ―Connecting Communities‖ Department, or the Education Department prepared community art programming, with the Exhibition Department staff sometimes helping to designing the display. When I approached them about trying a new type of programming Yamaide‘s project was well received and provided our departments with a chance to collaborate,
Mirror Image New York artist Daniel Rozin Daniel Rozin explores the realm of new Aug – Dec 2004 media with a series of interactive computer-mediated works focused on the concept of mirror images. Rozin constructs motorized sculptures which reacts to viewers presence through sensors and computer software written by Rozin himself. His works often evade any evident manifestation of technology, foregrounding a dialogue between everyday materials, and audience members‘ own reflections.
Art 2.0 Museum visitors are fascinated by works utilizing new technology. Yet, these are some of the most costly to exhibit. Providing appropriate equipment was sometimes a budgetary challenge, and high-tech works require special technical skills to install. The Exhibitions Department often relied on technicians from the Performing Arts Department to aid in the installation of audio/visual and computerized equipment.
Paranirvana (Self-Portrait) Lewis deSoto Sept – Nov 2004 Toying with the expectation associated with a sculpture of monumental scale, deSoto created a 26-foot-long Paranirvana to appear as a vastly heavy stone figure. In the place of the Buddha's visage, he incorporates his own self-portrait. He presents us with a conflated image of himself at the very point of death-and, according to Buddhist teachings, the point of greatest significance.
Emergence William Wood Dec 2004 - March 2005 This solo exhibition presented New York painter William Wood's sumptuous, large-scale, abstract oil paintings. Wood is notoriously silent about his approach to painting, but his smooth canvases of richly rendered abstract forms recall the Photorealist works of the 1970s, while the "all over" compositions and guestural lines reference canvases from mid- twentieth-century Abstract Expressionism.
Troubleshooting We always hope that in the serene atmosphere of the gallery it seems as though the exhibition fell effortlessly into place, but the truth is that when coordinating hundreds of details, things often go awry. My planning for William Wood‘s solo show went underway shortly before a planned solo exhibition at his gallery. As works we had contracted to borrow began to sell we were in a rush to contact collectors and request a loan before they ever brought the work home. All of the details seemed to be in order, until two days before our scheduled opening when the art shipment arrived and one of the works from a series of small paintings was missing. Imagine my surprise to have it delivered to my desk the next day by Fed Ex.
Dreamscapes Sept. 2005 – Jan. 2006 Dreamscapes The contemporary artists whose paintings, photographs, and installations are included in Dreamscapes embrace the ambiguities and inexplicable juxtapositions of their dreams as subjects for artistic exploration. Theories regarding the nature and meaning of dreams vary widely, from the scientific and psychological to the mystical, yet one unifying element among them is the visual nature of the dream experience. Artists: Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison (MA); Rie Hachiyanagi (MA); Scherer & Ouporov (FL); Blanca Lopez (IL); Marialuisa Tadie (Italy); Debra Birmingham, Susan Graham, and Kahn/Selesnick (NY); and Marion Peck (WA)
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