SCOPE Art Show Presents


The SCOPE Film Program
ICONIC
The SCOPE Sculpture Garden
Chimera

SCOPE Art Show presents: The SCOPE Film Program
Each curator has personally selected a single work by an outstanding contemporary artist to screen continuously in the SCOPE Theater.



Wednesday, December 2 | 11am-6pm
Presented by Franklin Sirmans:
Patty Chang
Rather To Potentialities, 2009
b&w video, 10:52 minutes
Courtesy of the artist, and ARRATIA, BEER, Berlin

Thursday, December 3 | 11am-7pm
Presented by Kate McNamara:
Robert Boyd
Conspiracy Theory, 2008
two-channel video, 10:30 minutes

Friday, December 4 | 11am-7pm
Presented by David Hunt:
Jordan Wolfson
Infinite Melancholy, 2003
digital animation, 4 minutes
Courtesy of the artist and Johann Koenig, Berlin

Saturday, December 5 | 11am-7pm
Presented by Naomi Beckwith:
Edgar Arceneaux
An Arrangement without Tormentors, 2004
two-channel 16mm film transferred to video with sound, 19:40 minutes
Courtesy of the artist and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects

Sunday, December 6 | 11am-6pm
Presented by Benjamin Godsill:
Kon Trubkovich
Double Entrance/Double Exit, 2009
video, 9:19 minutes
Courtesy of the artist; Museum 52, London; and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York

SCOPE Art Show presents: ICONIC
A selection of ground breaking, career defining pieces from world-renowned artists placed throughout the fair

Aaron Spangler
Songbird, 2009
Basswood painted with black gesso and a touch of graphite
102 x 57 x 22 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin

Spangler brings his uniquely American vision to Songbird, 2009, executed in the superbly detailed bas relief technique that epitomizes his practice. His carvings are coated in black gesso and then graphite, lending them a slightly ghoulish appearance, suggestive of relics or talismans. Spangler not only expresses a native Midwesterner's sympathetic eye for what remains in the wake of the region's industrial decline, but defies the conventions of wood carving by transforming a marginalized craft into a conduit for the mythology of the American Prairie, without diminishing the medium's tactility or symbolic richness.

Less narratively driven than some of his earlier work, Spangler has been influenced here by the distinctive extravagance of the art deco era. The elaborate two-sided Songbird harkens back to a period when American populism spoke to the common man, while engaging in backdoor violence. Enigmatic masks, shotgun blasts and militant hippies occupy the same planes as a gloriously feathered creature, a lovingly rendered image of the artist's own Minnesota home and fairy-tale-like beasts. The absurdity of portraying a violent warring "defender" in the guise of a songbird on one face and an intricate mechanical floral motif on the reverse exemplifies Spangler's wedding of martial elements and rural spirit with an anarchist twinge.

Aaron Spangler was born in 1971 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and Minnesota.

Simone Leigh
Queen Bee, 2008
Terra cotta, porcelain, epoxy, graphite and antennas
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist

Simone Leigh's work investigates tropes of the ethnographic object, the black body and labor by using materials associated with 3rd wave Feminism and the global black liberation movement. Her work eschews the tidy reductivism of post-colonial discourse, though recent hybrid sculptural works evoke Pan-African symbol systems and celestial motifs associated with Afro-Futurism. Leigh's obsessive process and the "natural" materials employed in her work parallel the iconographic development of various histories central to the formation of contemporary black identity. For example, Queen Bee, 2008 is composed of watermelon shaped objects that have been coated with graphite referencing early 20th Century Minstrel shows. These terracotta forms, clustered like bananas, are marked with boot imprints suggestive of police brutality, racial profiling and the unfortunate aftermath of "suppressions of civil unrest." Its chandelier form is ornamented with radio antenna that are driven into these pendulous shapes in the manner of Central African Nkisis (power objects), and consequently project outward recalling Cold War Soviet Satellite systems such as Sputnik.

Dario Robleto
A Homeopathic Treatment For Human Longing, 2008
Glass vials, vintage glass electrode wands, 19th c. bloodletting cupping glass, various home made homeopathic remedies (sound of glaciers melting, voice of oldest to ever live, last heartbeats of loved one, million year old blossom, million year old raindrop, deceased lovers heartbeats, extinct animal sounds, extinct languages), various custom ordered remedies made by professional homeopath (black amber, willow, tears, mammoth hair, glacial runoff, voice of oldest widow, black swan bone dust, Silvia Plath's voice), velvet, silk, leather ribbon, brass, iron, cork, pine, typeset.
66 x 129 x 53.25 inches
Courtesy of the artist and D'Amelio Terras Gallery, New York

Dario Robleto was born in 1972 in San Antonio, Texas; he lives and works in San Antonio.
In his sculptures, Robleto uses rare and archaic materials, including vinyl records, dinosaur fossils, and impact glass formed by meteorites or nuclear explosions. Taking his cue from disc jockeys' music sampling, Robleto refers to history, memory, nostalgia, chance, and hope in order to understand the present. Sampling is a method of composing something new from existing sources in a nonlinear manner. To Robleto, this is a philosophy rooted in American history, rather than just a technique. His sculptures originate from his extensive research around an event, which eventually brings him to identify specifically evocative materials and forms. While his earlier work focused mostly on the history of rock and pop music and its relationship to official history and our personal lives, much of Robleto's more recent work references the experience of war, raising such questions as "who is the enemy?"

Liao Yibai
Top Secret Hamburger (large), 2009
Stainless Steel
37 x 66 x 66 inches
Courtesy of Mike Weiss Gallery, New York

One of Liao Yibai's early memories of school was of the American hamburger. His teacher taught each of his classes one English word a day, and though one of these "words of the day" was "hamburger," the teacher had never seen a hamburger and so was incapable of explaining the word's proper context or nature beyond saying it represented America's "decadence and evil nature." Yibai and his fellow students became fascinated with learning more about what a "hamburger" was. One day the possibility of actually seeing one arrived as one of his classmate's fathers went to the USA on a confidential trip. The children begged him to bring back an example of a hamburger for them but he refused, saying that as a representative of the People's Republic of China, he could not be found carrying any Western items.

Nevertheless, when he returned, he gathered Yibai and his classmates together and shut all the doors and windows to make certain no one was looking in. He then placed his suitcase on the table and opened it. From inside he took out an official government envelope with the words "TOP SECRET" stamped on top to ensure that no one at the border customs would open it. He carefully opened the package and pulled out a five day-old hamburger (since in the 70s it took five days to travel from the USA to China.)

The father allowed his son to be the first to take a bite. The son chewed it and swallowed saying it was "Gross! Horrible!" Nevertheless, everyone in the class divided up the rest of the rancid hamburger and ate it. As a remembrance of this incident, Yibai created a giant sculpture of Top Secret Hamburger in stainless steel. The meat and cheese can be seen seeping out of their buns. On the top of the burger, stamped in large letters, are the words "Top Secret" in reference to the circumstances of Yibai's first glimpse of a burger. Yibai also designed a large sculpture of Party Stamp, an overlarge copy of the Top Secret stamp used by Chinese for incoming mail that was not to be opened because of its confidential nature. The hamburger piece also reflects Yibai's reaction when he had the opportunity to dine in one of China's first McDonald's, ironically located one block away from Tiananmen Square. Yibai stood for two hours on an enormous line to taste a hamburger. Eventually he got to the front of the line and bought three hamburgers with his friends. Biting into one, he remembered tasting his first hamburger. He burst out laughing so hard that his friends asked what was so funny. He smiled and answered, "Top Secret."

Excerpt from Barbara J. Bloemink's catalogue essay, Liao Yibai Imaginary Enemy, 2009

SCOPE Art Show presents: The SCOPE Sculpture Garden

Thursday-Saturday | December 3 - 5 | 11am-7pm
Sunday | December 6 | 11am-6pm

Robert Melee
It Sitting, 2008
Bronze, enamel paint.
78 x 126 x 110 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York

Invoking the compact, monumental forms of Rodin, Robert Melee's It Sitting, 2008 - a 9 foot high by 11 foot long amorphous wraith of painted bronze - continues the artist's investigations into the more perverse and disturbing aspects of human psychology. Rather than celebrating the accomplishments of a single historical figure in the manner of Rodin's Balzac, 1898, Melee is insistent upon keeping his brightly colored forms purely in the realm of a featureless, generic tribe of subconscious "offspring," whose generalized poses - slouching, sitting, pointing, standing upright - counter the statuesque grandeur that one associates with figurative outdoor public sculpture. Melee's proprietary marbleizing technique, an exaggeratedly over the top version of classic marbleizing, employs the garish hues of 1970s suburban Americana - avocado, ochre, teal, and pistachio- suggesting the petri dish of repressed, deeply sublimated psychodramas from which they sprang. Both sublime and slapstick, lugubrious and possessed of faux-cheer, Melee's It-Sitting, is a queasy fusion of classic 50s Ab-Ex drip painting with early Modernist experiments in temporal simultaneity.

Rob Fischer
As Above, So Below 2007
Steel, mesh, galvanized pipe and stained glass windows retrofitted from a church
54 x 93 x 276 inches
Courtesy of the artist

As Above, So Below utilizes one of Rob Fischer's preferred materials - a standard industrial trash dumpster - as its starting point. The artist transforms this ubiquitous element of everyday urban life in a number of ways. It is presented standing erect, giving it an architectural quality which both elevates it to a seemingly higher cultural status and calls to mind art historical notions of entropy and excavation. Into the side of the dumpster he cuts a "door" - another architectural reference - through which the public can pass. Fischer further changes its "skin" from solid to semi-transparent by replacing its "panes" with stained glass. The dumpster creates a structure or housing for the windows, which were reclaimed from a 1940s church and recycled into the piece as abstract colors, geometric shapes and words, arranged in patterns devised by the artist.

Davis/Langlois
Midnight Labours, 2009
Concrete, audio equipment
40 x 40 x 240 inches
Courtesy of Charest-Weinberg Gallery, Miami

Midnight Labours, 2009 is a 20 foot long by 3 foot square concrete "barrier" with a circular tunnel running through its center. Incised on either side of the barrier are quotes in Spanish from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, rendered in the manner of a woodblock print. Wafting out of either end of the barrier is a sampled version of The 5th Dimension's Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, composed in the key of Wagner's tri-tone or diminished 5th - sometimes called the "devil's note."

Midnight Labours perpetuates Davis/Langlois's mash-up of time, space, culture, medium and identity as they rakishly don their sombreros, fill up their water jugs, and sneak across the Mexican border with Richard Wagner, Mary Shelly, Victor Frankenstein, and The Monster to help them better understand how it is possible to deprive a people of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Scott Musgrove
The Great Lesser PlantSampler, 2009
Bronze
66 x 60 inches (on 40 inch diameter base)
Courtesy of Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York

Although regarded as one of the leading artists in the Pop Surrealist art movement, Musgrove identifies as much with historical artists such as Hudson River School painters Frederic Church, Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran, as well as naturalist artists like John James Audubon. Scott's new book, The Late Fauna of Early North America, features lush, highly detailed landscapes and up-close encounters with all manner of strange and beautiful creatures. Full color reproductions of his oil paintings abound, including unique antique frames, custom gold engraved nameplates, carved wooden sculptures, watercolors, ink drawings, and pencil renderings from the field.

This new bronze sculpture depicts a life-size PlantSampler in its natural habitat. This is the first of 3 new bronze sculptures by Scott Musgrove, all depicting now-extinct animals. While at first glance these sculptures are seen as contemporary art, there is an environmental message lurking just beneath the surface. Scott Musgrove lives and works in Seattle, WA.

SCOPE Art Show presents: CHIMERA
Curated by David Hunt

Pedro Barbeito, Melissa Brown, Stephan Doitschinoff (aka CALMA), Doze Green, Luis Macias, Christof Mascher, Fernando Mastrangelo, Dave McDermott, Ted O'Sullivan, Jeff Soto, Christoph Steinmeyer, Ouattara Watts, Andrzej Zielinski, Kevin Zucker.

From the Greek meaning "she-goat" the Chimera is a fire-breathing creature that has the body of a goat, the head of a lion and the tail of a serpent. Some sources have represented the Chimera with three heads (a lion's head as the main, a goat's head sprouting from its back, and a serpent's head on its tail), but the popular myth tells of a single, fire-vomiting head. The very unlikely aspect of the chimera has gradually turned its name into a synonym for a vain dream or an impossible or foolish fantasy.

She was of divine race, not of men, in the fore part a lion, in the hinder a serpent, and in the middle a goat, breathing forth in terrible manner the force of blazing fire. And Bellerophon slew her, trusting the signs of the gods.
Homer, The Iliad

The Chimera who breathed raging fire, a creature fearful, great, swift footed and strong, who had three heads, one of grim-eyed lion, another of a goat, and another of a serpent. In her forepart she was a lion; in her hinder part a dragon; and in her middle part, a goat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire. Her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay.
Hesiod, Theogony

Pedro Barbeito
Scylla 6, 2009
Acrylic on canvas
90 x 156 inches
Courtesy of Charest-Weinberg Gallery, Miami

Ted O'Sullivan
Grey Milk, 2009
Oil, paper mache, marble dust, crushed charcoal on canvas
84 x 60 inches
Courtesy of the artist

Dave McDermott
L'Homme de Jaurez, 2009
Gold leaf, yarn on panel
94 x 72 inches
Courtesy of the artist

Ouattara Watts
Makeda, 2009
Mixed media on canvas
60 x 72 inches
Courtesy of Maggazino Arte Moderna, Rome

Andrzej Zielinski
Branco ATM, 2008-2009
Mixed media on panel
69 x 60 inches
Courtesy of DCKT Contemporary, New York

Doze Green
Siddhartha, 2009
Mixed media on canvas
72 x 108 inches
Courtesy of Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York

Jeff Soto
Volcano, 2009
Acrylic and spray paint on wood panels
72 x 120 inches
Courtesy of Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York

Fernando Mastrangelo
La Salva Mara, (Santa Muerte), 2009
Cremated human ash, chrome hands
84 x 49 x 3 inches
Courtesy of Charest-Weinberg Gallery, Miami

Christof Mascher
Tales from the Hood, 2009
Oil and lacquer on wood
106 x 79 inches
Courtesy of Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin

Luis Macias
Personal Activity, 2009
Acrylic on canvas
72 x 48 inches
Courtesy of the artist

Stephan Doitschinoff (aka CALMA)
O Jejun De Sao Astraate, 2009
Mixed media on canvas
72 x 126 inches
Courtesy of Jonathan LeVine Gallery

Melissa Brown
Paper Fortune Teller, 2008-2009
Woodcut on Hand Dyed Rag Paper with Metallic Leaf
and Stencil
84 x 84 inches (unframed)
Courtesy of the artist

Christoph Steinmeyer
The Dream of the Musketeers, 2009
Oil on canvas
79 x 77 inches
Courtesy of Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin

Kevin Zucker
(Featuring Garth Weiser, Molly Smith, Hilary Berseth, Patrick Meagher, Michael DeLucia, Lansing-Dreiden, Carter Mull, Craig Taylor, Daniel Lefcourt, Clement Valla, John Hodany, and Dana Schutz).
The Sixth Platonic Solid, 2008
Watercolor, pencil, silkscreen and inkjet on canvas
77 x 53 inches
Courtesy of Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York