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The Second Annual
CURATORS’ INCUBATOR PROGRAM

Introducing this year’s curators:

Karey Kessler and Pat Goslee presenting On the Line: Machines, Maps and Memory
Jackie Milad presenting All Four Corners
Jennifer Selden presenting In This City

A good curator contextualizes artists’ ideas by framing their art in a way that informs audiences about particular methods, intentions and skills. Artists rely heavily on curators, often in a similar manner that musicians rely on microphones—to clearly let their work shine. The best curators are a bit like talented chefs, combining an overall programmatic theme while using ingredients such as gorgeous lighting, a theatrical setting, and every subtle element to highlight and emphasize the best in each artistic work in a particular exhibition. Learning these skills is an ongoing process, and most curators find that every exhibition provides new challenges. The planning process is often monumental, and opportunities usually limited, causing many curators to curb their best ideas.

Baltimore, MD – Maryland Art Place (MAP) is currently showing three innovative exhibitions by four Maryland area curators as part of its second annual Curators’ Incubator Program. This juried program, now in its second year, was designed to encourage area curators to strengthen the conception, creation and installation of dynamic exhibitions, while encouraging diversity and provide opportunities to mentor inexperienced curators by offering a flash-point look at contemporary art in our community.

The curators were selected through an open exhibition call, and throughout the summer have participated in a number of special programs assisted by prominent curators from the area’s art community. The entire program was designed to hone curators’ intentions and clarify their plans for specific exhibitions. It is anticipated that their skills and exhibitions will have been strengthened by result of experiences gained during the program, and audiences should benefit from the curator’s innovative collaborations with participating artists. This year’s program feature three different— though related— exhibitions exploring various ways that artists focus on their work as it relates to line, space and representation. MAP hopes that this opportunity will advance the curator’s careers and while providing area artists and audiences with a venue and forum to address critical issues of contemporary art.

This year’s program culminates with a talk on Thursday, September 9 from 6-7pm, on Baltimore’s first major Thursday evening event of the season. The talk will be followed by a reception from 7-9pm. This event is free and encourages the public to join the discussion about the exhibitions and issues relevant to contemporary art.

The 2004 Curators’ Incubator curators are: the team of Karey Kessler and Pat Goslee with the exhibition On the Line: Machines, Maps, and Memory (featuring artists Andy Holtin, Andrew Krieger, Walter Ratzat, Scott Reynolds, Dylan Scholinski, Perry Steindel, Jennifer Swan, Katy Uravitch and Sylvie van Helden); as well as individual curators Jackie Milad with All Four Corners (featuring artists Seong Chun, Catherine Pancake, Minna Philips, Amy Rathbone and Shannon Young) and Jennifer Selden with In This City(featuring artists Mike Citaldi, Geoff Grace, Amanda Matles, Chuck Miller, Jared Paolini and Rick Sacchetti.)

ABOUT THE EXHIBITIONS, CURATORS AND ARTISTS:

On the Line: Machines, Maps, and Memory:
The curatorial concept for Karey Kessler and Pat Goslee’s exhibition, On the Line: Machines, Maps, and Memory was intended tohighlight the increasing prominence of drawing and line in contemporary art. On the Line expanded the more general use of line in recording the connection between the external physical world and the internal experience of memory. The curators believe that memory—like line—is a way of mapping both what is real and what is unreal—creating internal structures that define our inner selves. For On the Line artists Perry Steindel, Andrew Krieger and Katy Uravitch, the paper itself offers up a new landscape, a frontier to conjure by creating new elements or by moving existing ones, adding layers of fantasy and mystery, abstracting what they choose to abstract and inventing worlds that never were. Dylan Scholinski, Sylvie van Helden, and Jennifer Swan concern themselves with the rendering of personal memories of place. Each creates work that delineates how different spaces not only define our lives, but how our memories of those spaces shape how we see the world. Andy Holtin builds devices that are, in essence, three-dimensional line drawings that keep track of the invisible, transient, easily eclipsed aspects of the world, while Scott Reynolds uses line to create ghost-like sculptures that allude to such manufactured objects as the cars and homes of suburbia. Finally, Walter Ratzat based his multi-media installation [located in MAP's public bathroom] on various machines he has built, used, and documented over the course of several years. Using a child’s “cootie-catcher” as a portal providing entry to and unifying a series of semi-fictional narratives, Ratzat’s performance-memoir utilizes the spoken word, drawing, photography, video and sound to create a startling confrontation in the privacy of an intimate space.

All Four Corners:
This exhibition, presented by curator Jackie Milad, is comprised of installation-based work by emerging artists, exploring what art critics are calling Post-Minimalisim. In this exhibition, audiences will see artists using various mediums to explore space through the subtleties of line. A few works may go unnoticed as they blend seamlessly with the surroundings, while others are unavoidable in their presentation due to their chosen mediums. The purpose for exploration is different for each artist, yet a common format is apparent, installation. Featured artists Seong Chun (New York), whose delicately intertwined threads of woven lengths of paper incorporates aspects of language, minimalism and seriality to explore notions of space and time as they relate to one’s creative process. Baltimore artist, Catherine Pancake juxtaposes simple elements: water, air, and sound in a surprising combination, and hopes to inspire others to explore unique internal and external worlds they may have unwittingly marginalized. Minna Philips (Baltimore), exposes aspects of her native India, by subtly combining thread, light and shadow, pencil and paint as components of a system, to interact with each other to form patterns, while the system itself is defined by these patterns. Amy Rathbone (San Francisco) takes advantage of banal situations and makes them of interest, she has also been known to make ironic and humorous commentary by the use of the second and third dimensions. Shannon Young (DC) was born in Salt Lake City, UT and worked in theatrical production. Today, though trained as a painter, Young creates ephemeral works using materials like sugar and silicone caulking. Curator Jackie Milad is a native of Baltimore and has also lived in New York, Boston and Italy. She joined fellow artist Bonnie Jones in founding CHELA, an art space that focused on experimental works by emerging artists and a stopping point for touring artists such as Whitney Biennial artist, Cory Archangel.

In This City:
This exhibition, formulated by curator Jennifer Selden,calls attention to art practices that use the city of Baltimore as a format, in the hope that new attempts of city interaction will be fostered. If In This City was brought to another city, the same devices of interaction that the artists used in Baltimore could be applied, but the outcome would change. In all the categories of living environments and structures, people develop patterns they use to help them navigate through daily life. Different situations prompt different reactions with the environment. Selden believes that social, economic, ethnic, psychological, and climate related events all have an influence on how a place is traveled and experienced. This is clearly evident when considering artist Michael Cataldi. Born in Philadelphia and currently living in New York, Cataldi works with a variety of media to create a discourse about the social conditions of urban surroundings. Since 2003, Cataldi’s projects apply one rule: he must use materials found in a specific location to make the artwork on that same location. His artworks have been as diverse as vending in performance, public installation and sculptural interventions to situationist-inspired wanderings. In this exhibition, Geoff Grace continues his practice of painting directly on walls using clay slip to create a montage of birds found in this vicinity. Amanda Matles (NY) was born in Traverse City, Michigan in 1982, received a BFA in 2004 from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Her artistic practice ranges from event based works and installations, to video and 3D animation. Charles Miller also received a BFA in 2004 from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and has lived in Baltimore since 2000, having spent most of his life on a dairy farm in Hoosick Falls, NY. Jared Paolini was born in Reston, Virginia in 1982, before moving to Baltimore to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art, working in photography, video and music, and he anticipates receiving his BFA this coming year. Rick Sacchetti collaborated with Charles Miller on the digital prints in this exhibition. Elements of this exhibition will transform and change at various times during the installation period.

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Maryland Art Place (MAP) is a non-profit center for contemporary art established in 1981 to: develop and maintain a dynamic environment for regional artists to exhibit their work, nurture and promote new ideas and new forms, and facilitate rewarding exchanges between artists and the public through educational leadership. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 5pm. There is no admission charge to enter the gallery.  For more details, please contact MAP’s Director of Programs, Lisa Lewenz at 410.962.8565 or llewenz@mdartplace.org