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Newspaper has been an important material in the artist's studio
ever since Picasso collaged 'JOU' onto a cubist painting almost
a century ago, transforming a throwaway scrap of paper into
art. In the mid-century, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg
both used newspaper, sometimes investigating political significance
in their choices. Many contemporary artists are rediscovering
this ubiquitous daily object as a site of beauty, political
opposition, formal device, or just a convenient medium for
their art. Art News brings together a group of artists who
explore the possibilities of this most ephemeral of media.
Not surprisingly, many artists work with the building blocks
of paper itself; letters. When Turner
Prize winner Martin Creed was asked by the Independent
to do a project on their pages, he requested a whole page
on which to print the alphabet in sucessive days. Kim Rugg
cuts individual letters from the paper and rearranges them
alphabetically, in a strange, obsessive pursuit of purity
and order. Other artists enact a kind of redemption: Hugh
Mendes paints fragments of newspaper, preserving a bit of
obituary or snippet of photojournalism, while Gordon Cheung
creates haunting landscapes from the Financial Times.
Art News promises to be a powerful exhibition by contemporary
artists who wrench beauty and meaning from newspaper, that
paltry scrap of the everyday.
Text by Craig Burnett; a writer and the assistant editor
of the V&A Magazine. He is a frequent contributor to publications
including Frieze, Contemporary, Art Review and Art Monthly.
Art News was first exhibited at Three Colts Gallery, London
2004 featuring works by both established art world figures
(including 2
Turner Prize winners) and their emerging successors, is
curated by Hugh Mendes and supported by the British Council
USA
RAID PROJECTS
602 Moulton Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90031
323.441.9593
Open Fri-Sat 12-5pm
Mon - Thurs by appointment
raidprojects@yahoo.com
www.raidprojects.com
Raid Projects is a non-commercial artist-run
project space and curatorial organization that is dedicated
to promoting the exchange of cultural products and ideas through
various curatorial models on a regional, national and international
basis. Every year we host 8 projects in our Los Angeles gallery,
4 projects at alternative, commercial, institutional, and/or
appropriated spaces world-wide, and a year-round Artist In
Residence program.
Supported by:
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