Opening reception: Saturday, May 2, 6–8 pm
Artist Talk: Curators' talk at 7 pm
Lora Reynolds Gallery is pleased to present Practice, Practice, Practice, curated by Michael Smith and Jay Sanders.
This group exhibition began with the curators thinking about “threes”, the comedic idea of timing and the “Rule of Three” which suggests that things are inherently funnier in threes. They also considered Jasper Johns’ recipe - take an object, do something to it, do something else to it. Ideas of timing, comedy, repetition, self-improvement and practice are all explored in this exhibition.
Sharon Hayes’ piece, ‘Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) Screeds #13, 16, 20 & 29’, consists of nearly 200 dubbed VHS tapes stacked in an installation. The viewer is invited to take a tape home in order to view Hayes reciting the speeches Patty Hearst made to her parents via television when she had been converted to the SLA. Each time Hayes misspeaks, her audience corrects her and she continues. Max Schumann has made new paintings of condos for the exhibition. His practice of making different versions of the same painting, over and over again, and assigning different prices questions the correlations between market value and quality. Aura Rosenberg’s photographs, ‘Head Shots’ are images of men’s faces captured in masterbatory orgasms. Rosenberg gives us an alternative meaning for the term “head shot” and new definitions of practice, performance and casting.
Several works in the show allude to “hitting one’s mark”. In John Waters’ three photographic works entitled ‘Mark’ the artist documents the tape marks on the floor that indicate an actor’s position in a scene. Ray Mortenson’s ‘Untitled’ photograph shot in the Bronx of a large target painted on the wall in an abandoned bedroom. These works address timing, self improvement and practice. John Kilduff’s piece, ‘Let’s Paint, Exercise and Cook Pancakes’ features the artist in a television program performing all three tasks simultaeously and is a celebration of the absurdity of the feeling that one must be “on” all of the time. He makes it through his tasks in 28 minutes still standing.
Artists included in the exhibition are: Ericka Beckman, Patterson Beckwith, Robert Cumming, Harry Dodge & Stanya Kahn, Kate Gilmore, Pat de Groot, Rachel Harrison, Sharon Hayes, Alex Hubbard, John Kilduff, Joanna Malinowska, Ken Morgan, Ray Mortenson, Shana Moulton, Maria Nordman, Jim O’Rourke, David Robbins, Aura Rosenberg, Michel Sauer, Max Schumann, Stuart Sherman, Howard Smith, Josh Smith, Tony Tasset, John Waters, and Joe Zane
Michael Smith is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York and Austin. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Texas at Austin and was recently the subject of a major retrospective entitled Mike’s World at the Blanton Museum which traveled to The Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Jay Sanders is a curator, writer and Gallery Director at Greene Naftali, New York. This is the second time Michael and Jay are working together in a curatorial endeavor.
Practice, Practice, Practice will be on view at Lora Reynolds Gallery, 360 Nueces, Suite 50, Austin, Texas 78701 through June 13, 2009. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 am to 6:00 pm. For further information please contact Elizabeth Chiles at 512 215 4965 or info@lorareynolds.com.