Nancy Shaver
Songs for Presidents presents PLANT STAND
November 21, 2014 to January 6, 2015
Opening November 21, 6 to 9pm
'To plant' actively positions a subject: a tree, a kiss, an idea, a revolutionary.
'A plant' is alive and in process, development, it is growing: a tree, a factory, an agent.
'To stand' is to be solidly upright, not moving but active in place, engaged even if dormant, tolerant and enduring: a body, a decision, a pool of water, a lightning rod.
'A stand', is supportive and consistent, it is a destination, a site which upholds: an attitude, a pedestal, bleachers, an information booth, a witness box.
These terms are all active and powerful positions while also being immobile and locatable; together, they offer a strong projection of a singular content/subject.
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In 3 dimensions, all around us: plant stands, teacups, saucers, teapots, pots, pans, birdcages, bicycles, wine racks, sinks, dog beds.
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In 2011, Kelly Kaczynski, Julia Klein and Nancy Shaver went to an antique store in Chicago and came upon a bizarre and wonderful set of three plant stands. Created by an unidentified maker from Northern Michigan, the stands fuse the categories of art and craft, utility and decoration to the point of irrelevance. While categorical definition of the plant stands may be beside the point, the space they evoke is physically, conceptually, and semantically rich. PLANT STAND presents work by Kaczynski, Klein, and Shaver that exists in the capacious space prompted by their shared retail/aesthetic/domestic experience.
Nancy Shaver‘s work has been shown extensively in solo and group exhibitions for over forty years. Currently, her work is included in the exhibition, Robert Gober: The Heart is Not a Metaphor, at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. Shaver is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, Anonymous Was A Woman, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. This October, she received an Exceptional Merit Media Award (EMMA) from the National Women’s Political Caucus; she is the first artist in Caucus’s 44-year history to receive this award. In addition to running Henry, in Hudson, NY, Shaver teaches sculpture in the MFA Program at Bard College and is a co-director of Incident Report, an experimental viewing station for visual projects, also located in Hudson.
Julia Klein received a BFA from University of Michigan and an MFA from Bard College. This fall, she exhibited work in group shows at GAG (Chicago); Sidecar (Hammond, IN); Passenger (Detroit) and Elaine Jacobs Gallery at Wayne State University (Detroit). In 2013, she was a DEPE Space Resident at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and a researcher in residence at Sitterwerk, St Gallen; she also participated in the Terra Foundation Summer Residency Program in Giverny. Since 2009, Klein has run Soberscove Press.
Kelly Kaczynski is an artist working within the language of sculpture. Selected exhibitions include Ortega y Gasset Projects, NY; Soap Factory, MN; Gahlberg Gallery, IL; threewalls, IL; Hyde Park Art Center, IL; Triple Candie, NY; Islip Art Museum, NY; Josee Bienvenu Gallery, NY; DeCordova Museum, MA; Boston Center for the Arts, MA. Public installations include projects with the Main Line Art Center, Haverford, PA; the Interfaith Center, NY; Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston and the Boston National Historic Parks, MA. Curatorial projects include the 2014 exhibitions, Roving Room at Habersham Mills, GA and Virtually Physically Speaking at Columbia College, Chicago, IL and the 2011 exhibition Mouthing (a sentient limb) at the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL. She received an MFA from Bard College, NY and BA from The Evergreen State College, WA. Kaczynski is currently an Instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Songs for Presidents
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