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CENTER supports individual, emerging artists and curators, in a wide variety of mediums, including Film, Video Installation, Performance and Sound. Focusing on specific projects and fundraising in order to bring them to fruition, artists and curators work closely with CENTER to create new, often site specific, works and interactive projects.

Collector Mentorship
Occasionally THE CENTER presents The Collector Mentorship Auction. This silent auction creates the opportunity for young collectors to bid on the opportunity to spend time with older experienced collectors. Young art collectors from the Whitney Contemporaries, the Guggenheim Museum’s Young Collectors Council, the Core Club, and the Soho House, among others, bid for the opportunity to work with more experienced collectors such as Beth Rudin DeWoody, Bob Colacello, Enrique Norten, Jed Walentas, and Arnold Lehman.

P.D.A.
THE PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AUCTION created the opportunity for cultural luminaries and specialists to donate one hour of their time in the form of mini-mentorships. Offering the possibility of knowledge sharing, collaboration and mind expansion, participants bid on the mentors during a silent auction at the SCOPE Art Show NY ’10.

MENTORS INCLUDED:
Rachel Grady
Margaret Brown
Bradley Beesley
Stevie Bell
Keala Kennelly
Spencer O’Brien
Damon Dash
Sara Mednick
Will Alanick
Zach Layton
Tristan Perich
Kayrock Screenprinting

Alyssa Taylor Wendt
Carrie Dashow
Chloe Bass
Cinders Gallery
Craig Smith
Elinor Evelyn
Faith Johnson
Floor Obsession
Grace Exhibition Space
Jef Wolfy Scharf
Laura Arena
Lilah Freedland
Natalia de Campos
Richie Budd
Secret Project Robot
Stephanie Diamond
Subports
TJ Hospodar
Zach Layton

US vs. US | 5 days of performance

Organized by Lilah Freedland
Within the fenced-in mezzanine of Scope NY 2011, us vs us will investigate acts of creation inspired by self consumption, civil war, interior conflict, and the spectrum of human nature at odds with itself. Authentic and immediate, us vs us opens into an expanse of performance traditions and educational strategies: from Participatory Performance to Scholastically Judged Debate; from the Theatre of Failure to the B. Boy Battle.

Come On Guy is a party within a party. A centrally placed cube will contain an actual, traditional frat party where the brothers will drink from a keg and party “greek style”. Outside the enclosure, the usual opening party will be taking place replete with evening attire, champagne and art world conversation. Party goers will be able to interact with the frat party via text, purchasing items of clothing, accessories, and receiving messages and files created by the brothers. Presented by Subports and Richie Budd

Katya Hott and Eddie Yoo, members of Floor Obsession breakdance crew, are hosting an invitational dance battle at SCOPE. The battle will highlight eight of the finest bboy talent in New York, pitting them against each other in a one versus one, tournament-style competition. In battles like this members of the same community put aside their friendships to test each other’s skills and determine the top contender.

Lilah Freedland and Alyssa Taylor Wendt debate aesthetics, memory and fragmentation during a dueling slideshow annotated with simultaneous running commentaries. Q&A, heckling, fisticuffs and beautiful symmetry all possible.

Chloe & TJ presented BarCamp. This user-generated un/conference will address the Self: analog vs. digital. Participants should come prepared to make a five minute presentation that sets the stage for a 10 minute discussion. Presentations will tackle the broad subject of self analysis and representation in the digital age; slots assigned on a first-come first-served basis.

Bil’in (Arabic: بلعين‎) is a Palestinian village located in the Ramallah in the West Bank. The village has been organizing weekly protests against the construction of the wall taking the form of marches from the village to the site of the barrier with the aim of halting construction and dismantling already constructed portions. Israeli forces typically intervene to prevent protesters from approaching the barrier, and violence sometimes erupts in which protesters have been very seriously injured and killed. This video was made by Laura Arena in memory of the 21 protestors who have died during protests in Bil’in.

Craig Smith’s performance and imagery, entitled: “Stacking Boats: A Lesson Plan” will be webcast between London and New York. Smith will appear as a “talking head” that addresses issues such as self-training and development in the human, athletic body/ the American poet Walt Whitman’s altruistic leadership and therapeutic interventions with wounded soldiers during the American civil war/ a proposed ‘intensive-extensive’ binary between the speaking voice and the first-person narrator (intensive)/ and the spectrum of belief in visual and auditory cultures evaluating fact or truth in relation to the visual model of documented events (works on paper, photographs, oral traditions performed).

“i” migrate, as one does, for escaping Death and searching for Life in the Northeast. (Searching for) Death & Life in the Northeast explores the need and desire to migrate through text, video and sound in a collaboration between writer and director Natalia de Campos and video designer and VJ Keka Marzagão.

Zach Layton will present an improvised lecture positioning utopian ideals of 1970′s German communes such as Amon Duul and the lectures of Joseph Beuys against the capitalist crystallization of social spheres through the present day technologies- represented by Beuys and Fassbinder as the protagonists on one side and Mark Zuckerberg on the other…plus tangents about free jazz and modern music. The artist Alyssa Taylor Wendt will provide a Powerpoint visual accompaniment that will attempt to illustrate, mock, challenge, delve, twist, and ultimately derail said verbosity, instead forcing a lucid stream of consciousness that challenges the brain’s planned output through through the power of visual stimulation, interruption and influence.

Presented by Grace Space
Fabrication, ego and mistrust are bred when spectators are pitted against each other by participating in a public collusion. Each member of the audience is asked to lie to the other spectators. In repeating this lie, their own memory of the meeting is distorted as well. Striving to outdo each other, participants’ fantasies and deceptions collide. Even if an individual chooses not to enter the room, they are still held accountable to the artist’s rules. Simply by being present at SCOPE, one takes a role in the competitive arena that has been created. The artist, Elinor Thompson Monroe, hidden from view, can neither confirm nor deny any stories that her visitors have told. She is at once protected and vulnerable, humble and narcissistic; perhaps, both revered and reviled. She takes on the qualities of ‘the man behind the curtain’: an undercurrent, a gross manipulator–but with the divine ability to become whatever another wants her to be.

Presented by Grace Space
Leighton Collier Roux and Faith Johnson, having experiencing feelings of loneliness and isolation, have searched throughout their individual practices for a human connection. Often times inhabiting a space physically then removing their body to investigate traces of presence that remains. Since June of 2010 both artists have committed to meeting each other psychically by designating a time and then focusing their intention on becoming close to one another as if they were occupying the same room despite the reality of being on opposite sides of the country in two different time zones. They have evidence of successfully connecting with one another through shared emotions, somatic sensations, and flashes of color, memory, and visual images of the other recorded through journals kept by both and then reviewed and confirmed at a later time over the phone.

Home Away from Home is Diamond’s first comprehensive endeavor in creating an public component to her online project, Listings Project, a free weekly email of living and workspace for rent, sublet, swap, and sale focusing around the arts community. Home Away From Home sells objects, services, and pleasantries that often go missing while away from comforts of home during art fairs. The booth is designed to look like a local corner store and is reminiscent of a home with cozy wallpapered walls created by artist Jennifer Zackin, knit objects for home designed by Karelle Levy, and Listings Project Special Edition art objects by Sanford Biggers. At Home Away from Home there are yoga classes, meditation classes, a TV to watch, Listings Projects testimonials to read , free wifi, a courtesy computer and a charging station. For sale are: Advil, breath freshener, Dancing Deer brownies and cookies, KIND bars, Vita Coco coconut water, sharpies, tampons, key chains from Global Goods Partners, make your own business cards and more! Visitors are welcome to shop, rest, recharge, or just hang out.

Sound/video artist Zach Layton will present an interactive lecture, live and on video, surveying the subject of civil war, revolution and rebellion throughout recorded history. Using an EEG brainwave sensor to control the playback of a prerecorded video lecture listing world revolutions in chronological order, the subject and focus will repeatedly shuffle throughout history and geography, ranging from the overthrow of the Sumerian King Lugalanda (ca 2380 BC), the Roman slave rebellion of Spartatcus (73-71 BC) and the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302 up to the recent revolutions in Egypt (2011 AD). The challenge will be for the conscious focus of the live speaker to keep in sync with unconscious signals sent via the brainwaves, creating an inevitable conflict between the desire to discuss the subject rationally and in order versus chaotically and at random.

Presented by Cinders Gallery
As scientists are wedded to reason and experiments, artists behave similarly in meticulous thought, experimentation and repetition. Although not highlighted within the process of science due to its contrast to reason, science has revelation and inspiration similar to the process of making art. In this installation collaborating with the project US vs. US, we are presenting a learning center by curating a library of art books and also addressing themes of the intersection between science, art and myth through installation and performance. As Brooklynites, the Outer-Boroughs Cyclical Non-Cynical Art School of Thought grows out of the vantage point we have across the river from Manhattan, the center of the Universe, as well as our general estrangement from traditional society as working artists. We draw from many subjects of study including but not limited to neuroscience, alchemy, circular motion education, Buddhism, Egyptian/Roman/Greek mythology, self consumption, the holy trinity, magick, and unidentified flying objects. Additionally our name stems from the potent symbol of the Ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail to sustain its life: the basic mandala of alchemy and a recurring theme in our school. Life moves in circles. As we fight ourselves, we renew our life cycle. Time is nonlinear and we aim to present the people with our cyclical advancements in art and science. We invite you to run in circles with us as we find deeper meaning in the meditative state of repetition.

Kayrock Screenprinting
Kristen Schiele
Maya Hayuk

Up with Mural

Amid the numerous art fairs and curatorial exhibitions that populate Miami in early December, UP WITH MURAL moved beyond aesthetic pleasure into a contemporary dialog of social responsibility. UP WITH MURAL championed artists committed to community. Inspired by a working relationship between artists Maya Hayuk and Lilah Freedland, UP WITH MURAL was conceived to bring politics and community involvement back into the of contemporary art conversation. Spanning a 250ft wall in the center of the Scope Miami ’10. Six artists installed 3 mural statements, each with its own directive.

Participating Artists

Kayrock Screenprinting is both a business and a hub of artistic collaboration. Gangleaders Jef “Wolfy” Scharf and Karl LaRocca, have designed & printed show posters & art editions of their works, as well as works by Amy Sillman, Alexis Rockman, Fred Tomaselli, Mike Smith, Cory Archangel, Cecily Brown, Maya Hayuk, Joe Amrhein, Chris Johansen, Faile, Breyer P-orridge, and Gary Panter, to name a few.

To quote the artists:
“The artists of Kayrock Screenprinting Inc. never intended to be political. They fell into it years ago when they designed a t-shirt to promote the heterosexual lifestyle in a Christian United States. The shirt was misrepresented as an indictment against the reigning leader of the Free World at that time. They quickly learned to silence their ideologies in favor of the Almighty Dollar and went into selling political merchandise. They have learned to use their creativity, time, and resources for political change, this has shown negligible results but big, big profits. The people and causes they have worked with throughout the years have always been interesting and exciting before and after their failures. They do hope that their pretty, pretty pictures will inspire others to rise above the maddening din of the liberal-controlled media to make the world a bestest place for all the furry animals and smiling children. The artists are quite sick and tired of politics and activism. They just want to be like the girls and have fun.”
Written and signed by the artists 11/01/10

Maya Hayuk is a Brooklyn based muralist, painter, photographer, printmaker, musician and Barnstormer. From her large-scale murals to small works on paper, her obsession with symmetry and nourishing color play out in what might be views from the Hubble Telescope, airbrushed nail art, Mexican woven blankets, Ukrainian Easter eggs, chandeliers, mandalas, rorschach tests and/or holograms. Embracing both sexuality and spirituality via symbolism her work evokes the power of forces bent on maintaining the triumph of love over evil. Hayuk frequently collaborates with other artists and musicians, making album covers, posters, tee shirts, photographs, videos, video footage, murals and stage sets for Rye Rye/M.I.A, The Akron Family, TV on the Radio, Devendra Banhardt, Prefuse 73, Awesome Color, Oakley Hall, Home, Animal Collective and The Beastie Boys, amongst others. While Hayuk’s work may not be interpreted as overtly political, her dedication to the abstract plays of of light and love, spontaneous improvisation, and her commitment to the viewer’s individual interpretation serves to propose a unique political device, intent on promoting the power of self in society. Maya will be realizing this project with the assistance of artist Thyra Heder.

Eat Shit & Die is a loose collaborative of artists and musicians who come together to make text based work in public spaces. In this current incarnation Artists Kristen Schiele and Lilah Freedland create a conversation based on Einsten’s theories of Spooky Action at a Distance, and ”the indication that even though we occupy separate spaces, there is no separation in consciousness.” Freedland and Schiele have collaborated previously on installation and performance based work: Riding America Like a Cheap Pony, as part of Cheap Fast and Out of Control at Scope NY 08, and Electroception at Socrates Sculpture Park, 07. In her individual practice Schiele creates work in painting, scenic installations and collage. The works are inspired by stage sets, cinema, folklore, allegory, kitsch, and story telling that is psychologically dramatic and playful. Freedland is a conceptual artist who’s darkly humorous work, often performative and ephemeral, is intent on communicating the viewer/participant’s potential, and the possibility individual greatness.

Live Music by
Abacus
Christy & Emily
Flaming Fire II
Electric Junkyard Gamelon
Jon Keay
Neel Murgai
Ryan Sawyer
Wolf & Tuba

cheap fast & O.O.C

Organized by Lilah Freedland for SCOPE NY 08, CHEAP FAST & OUT OF CONTROL gave participants the opportunity to shoot arrows, cut up someone else’s artwork, buy limited edition t-shirts, records posters, and artist made multiples, listen to new bands and hang out on oddly large bean bags. Bands played all day behind Kristen Schiele’s installation “Riding America Like a Cheap Pony.” 70% of sales went directly to the artists and 30% to CENTER.

Artists

Aaron Diskin
Amanda Palmer
Anthony Manfreddo
Alison Wrad
Amie Cunningham
Andrea Wenglowskyj
Avant-God Records
Audria Brumberg
Carrie Dashow
CUNT Clothing
Chrissy Conant
Christine Edwards
Christy & Emily
Coke O’ Neil
Craig Smith
Digby & Iona
Dorothy Royal
Desert Island
Emily Noelle Lambert
free103point9
Jeff Lutonsky
Jibz Cameron
John Epinosa
Julius Metoyer
The Girl Project
Kelly Diaz
Kevin Cooley
Kristen Schiele
Lee Wells
Liz Ensz