“Thanks” Exhibition
Lu Magnus
This event has ended.
Lu Magnus presents Thanks, a group show curated by Adam Parker Smith.
Featuring 77 of today’s emerging contemporary artists living and working in New York City, Thanks includes sculpture, video, drawing, painting, photography, prints, studio objects, art making byproducts, and inspirational objects all discreetly acquired by Adam Parker Smith.
Beginning with a series of studio visits, Smith set out with the clear intention of “acquiring” work for the exhibition. However,he concealed the true concept, premise, and even timing of the exhibition from the artists. Through various surreptitious means, a work of art or object was taken from each artist’s studio. The pilfered work is not any random object but rather one that explicitly relates to the artist’s wider practice. For example, Micah Ganske, who designs and produces sculpture with a MakerBot 3D printer, is represented by one of his innovative sculptures.
Two weeks prior to its opening, the artists were informed of the exhibition. Only then were they let in on the true concept and scope of the exhibition. Presented with the choice – if the artist agreed, they would be included in Thanks; if they refused to give permission, works were to be returned immediately. However, all invited artists agreed to participate in Thanks.
Works are displayed on viewing tables in the gallery akin to anthropological exhibits in a natural history museum. Thanks is, after all, a cross-section of the contemporary art world & Adam Parker Smith’s circle.
This exhibition combines the work of a large portion of the emerging New York art scene, as well as Smith’s own personal practice, combined with his trademark sense of humor. Ideas of appropriation, ownership, and how artists influence each other are brought to the forefront in Thanks. The role of the curator is highlighted and questioned, and some of the social dynamics of the art world – artists who live and work together as colleagues, friends and competitors – are laid bare, shedding light into what it is like to be a practicing artist in New York City.
A practicing artist himself, Adam Parker Smith is a graduate of the Tyler School of Art at Temple University currently living and working in Brooklyn, NY.
Smith’s most recent solo and group exhibitions include: 9:4:1, Storefront Bushwick, Brooklyn (2013); Forever 21, Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco (2012); Funny Business, Nordine ZIDOUN, Luxembourg (2012); A Summer Group Show, Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco (2012); A Gleeful and Relentless Forward Moving of Time, Carmichael Gallery, Culver City (2012); Young Curators, New Ideas IV, Meulensteen Gallery, New York (2012); Post Acid, Small Black Door, New York (2012); Ghost Face, Bobby Redd Project Space, New York (2012); This Side of Paradise, Andrew Freedman House, New York (2012); Crush, Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco (2011); Blind Spot, Airplane Gallery, New York (2011); Shift Mindsets, Times Museum, Guangzhou, China (2011); Cowboy Mouth, St. Cecilia’s, New York (2011); and Al Ghaib, Aesthetics of the Disappearance, Maraya Art Center, Sharjah, UAE, and STUX, New York (2011).
Smith has also had the privilege of participating in numerous residency programs. Most recently: AIRspace Residency, Abrons Art Center (2012); Wave Hill Winter Residency Program (2012); Triangle Arts Residency Program (2011); and the Swing Space Residency Program, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (2011).
Thanks is the first exhibition curated by Adam Parker Smith at Lu Magnus.
Media
Schedule
from March 29, 2013 to April 26, 2013