Stockholm: Transparency and Trans-formations in Contemporary American Art
Exhibition of Contemporary Works by American Artists to be Exhibited at Residence of U.S. Ambassador to Sweden
Transparency and Trans-formations in Contemporary American Art, an exhibition of 23 works by 20 American artists — including Kiki Smith, Spencer Finch, Claes Oldenburg, Mark Bradford, and Jennifer Steinkamp — will be on view at the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden from April 16, 2010, through June 2012. Reflecting America’s increased emphasis on transparency and international engagement, the exhibition offers a view of the rapid shifts occurring today in culture, society, technology, and science.
The exhibition builds on a 46-year history of bringing works by American artists to American diplomatic residences around the world. The works in Transparency and Trans-formations in Contemporary American Art include paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos, and other forms of new media that explore issues of cultural and political mythology, gender and racial identity, and the nature of space and time.
The project is a collaboration between the United States ART in Embassies program, artwithoutwalls, an independent non-profit art organization based in Louisville, Kentucky, and the U.S. Embassy, Stockholm. The brainchild of Brooke Brown Barzun — wife of the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden Matthew Barzun — this exhibition brings together a range and scope of works unprecedented in the ART in Embassies program. Curated by artwithoutwalls’ director Alice Gray Stites, the exhibition includes works on loan from artists, galleries, private, and public collections. The exhibition will be seen by the thousands of guests that visit the U.S. Residence in Stockholm each year.
“I hope this exhibition will be a productive platform for engagement,” said Ms. Barzun. “I hope the works of contemporary American art here in Sweden will start new conversations and that the partnership that made it possible — a combination of private, public, and non-profit resources — will inspire other collaborations, and can provide a new model for sharing and expanding the role of contemporary art in diplomacy.”
The co-founder of artwithoutwalls Steve Wilson said, “Art has a unique ability to both defy and embody ‘cultural traditions’ and communicate across the barriers of language. The mission of artwithoutwalls is to present unconventional art events in unconventional settings and draw artists and people together. In our inaugural projects we brought works by international artists to the United States and with Transparency and Trans-formations in Contemporary American Art we are bringing diverse works by American artists to an international audience. We are deeply appreciative of the energy and insight Ambassador Barzun and Mrs. Barzun and their team at ART in Embassies program and the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm have devoted to this project.”
Alice Gray Stites, director of artwithoutwalls and curator of the exhibition, added, “In presenting contemporary art that actively engages viewers in new perspectives — on science, technology, culture, history, society and the self — the U.S. residence, Stockholm, is writing a truly progressive experiential script. New art anticipates the future; our engagement with it maximizes our global potential to understand and to effect change in the world we share.”
Works in Transparency and Trans-formations in Contemporary American Art
Laura Ball (Born 1972, lives and works in San Diego, California)
Confrontation, 2006. Watercolor on paper
Embroilment, 2006. Watercolor on paper
Mark Bradford (Born 1961, lives and works in Los Angeles, California)
The Practice, 2003. Video
Elena Dorfman (Born 1965, lives and works in Los Angeles, California)
Pleasure Park Horse, 2009. C-print on aluminum
Spencer Finch (Born 1962, lives and works in New York, New York)
Winter Light (Snowstorm New York 2/10/03), 2003. 12 fluorescent tube lights, fixtures, and filters
Valerie Sullivan Fuchs (Born 1964, lives and works in Shelbyville, Kentucky)
1/3 of a second, 2009. Dye sublimation on aluminum
Sisyphus, 2009. Video
Lynn Geesaman (Born 1938, lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Bernheim Arboretum, 2003. C-print
Anthony Goicolea (Born 1971, lives and works in New York, New York)
Cherry Island, 2002. C-print
Dinh Q Le (Born Ha-Tien, Vietnam, 1968, lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Los Angeles, California)
Go Cong Dong Beach #2, 2006. C-print
David Levinthal (Born 1949, lives and works in New York, New York)
Untitled (Wild West Series), 2000. Polaroid ER Land film
Walter Martin (Born 1953, lives and works in New York, New York, and Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania) and Pamela Muñoz (Born Spain, 1965, lives and works in New York, New York, and Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania)
Labyrinth, 2004. C-print
Lori Nix (Born 1972, lives and works in New York, New York)
Ice Storm, 1999. C-print
Claes Oldenburg (Born Sweden, 1929, lives and works in New York, New York) and Coosje van Bruggen (1942-2009)
Knife Ship 1:12, 2008.
Letitia Quesenberry (Born 1971, lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky)
peeled 8, 2009. Dye sublimation on aluminum
Paul Rusconi (Born 1965, lives and works in Los Angeles, California)
Barack Obama, 2008. Digital screen inks on Plexiglas with c-print
Stefan Sagmeister (Born Bregenz, Austria, 1962, lives and works in New York, New York)
Being Not Truthful Works Against Me, 2007. Interactive video
Peter Sarkisian (Born 1965, lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Green Puddle 7, 2003. DVD projection
Alyson Shotz (Born 1964, lives and works in New York, New York)
Small Universe, 2007. Glass beads, glass lenses, and cut plastic
Torqued Elipse, Flattened and Stretched for RS, 2010. Yarn and pins on wall
Kiki Smith (Born Nuremberg, Germany, 1954, lives and works in New York, New York)
Ballerina (Stretching Left), 2000. Etching and aquatint
Andréa Stanislav (Born 1968, lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Blow Away, 2009. HD video
Jennifer Steinkamp (Born 1958, lives and works in Los Angeles, California)
Dervish 3, 2004. Video