Contemporary Wing is proud to present Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi’s solo exhibition, I’M COMING HOME in our new permanent home on 14th Street N.W. in Washington, D.C.

Javanshir Ilchi’s paintings explore the duality of her cultural identity as an Iranian–American. The new series reflects her ongoing interest in the fusion of visual codes of Western abstraction and traditional Persian Art, with an emphasis on the “Tazhib,” the Persian tradition of illumination. The resulting synthesis evokes allegories of intrusion and invasion, referencing the historical and contemporary sociopolitical conflicts.

Unlike her previous bodies of work, where heroines conducted the non-linear narratives, these new allegories are exhibited through the absence of the figure. This conscious abandonment is consistent with the forbidden portrayal of humans and animals in Islamic art practices, which led to the birth of ornate geometric and floral patterns.

Javanshir Ilchi places these symbols in a particular milieu by referencing the Persian notion of “paradise,” which is rooted in the Old Iranian language of Avestan. This tradition represents paradise as an enclosed garden, commonly known as the ultimate idyllic abode where peace, prosperity, and pleasure surround the state of being. In these works, the idea of paradise is reconstructed to depict contradictory impulses in a social, political, and cultural context. The ethereal structures imply the idea of “home” surrendered by lush flora to suggest a blissful paradisiacal state, only to be ambushed by a strange sense of invasion.

I’M COMING HOME runs from May 12 through June 16, 2012, Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The public opening is Saturday, May 12, from 6 to 8 p.m.
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 Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi (b. 1981 Tehran, Iran) holds an MFA in studio art from American University and a BFA from the Corcoran College of Art + Design. Recently she was the recipient the 2010 International Research Mellon Grant and the Babs Van Swearingen Award from the American University. Her work is among a number of private collections in Washington D.C. where she lives and works.

To preview the works please contact info@contemporarywing.com

We look forward to showcasing this new series, along with our new home designed by Lori Graham Design at 1412 14th Street N.W. in Washington, D.C.

With private collections constantly evolving, collectors are always looking for innovative forums to discuss and market their desirable, high-quality works.

Though these artworks may no longer fit within the narrow focus of one collection, they may be a great acquisition for another.

During the summer months, June through September, Contemporary Wing will present OFF THE WALL, a series of collaborations which bring together serious collectors and the artwork they wish to exchange or acquire with other collectors who share a common passion.

If you have an exceptional work to propose, or a collecting sector you would like to expand, please contact info@contemporarywing.com.

Seeking:
Street Art
Works on Paper/Prints/Photography
Emerging Artists
Established Contemporary Artists
Works by African American Artists
19^th Century/Old Masters
Design

With private collections constantly evolving, collectors are always looking for innovative forums to discuss and market their desirable, high-quality works.

Though these artworks may no longer fit within the narrow focus of one collection, they may be a great acquisition for another.

During the summer months, June through September, Contemporary Wing will present OFF THE WALL, a series of collaborations which bring together serious collectors and the artwork they wish to exchange or acquire with other collectors who share a common passion.

If you have an exceptional work to propose, or a collecting sector you would like to expand, please contact info@contemporarywing.com.

Seeking:
Street Art
Works on Paper/Prints/Photography
Emerging Artists
Established Contemporary Artists
Works by African American artists
19^th Century/Old Masters
Design

What do artists Nina Chanel Abney, Nick Cave, Rashid Johnson, Rodney McMillian, Gary Simmons, Xaviera Simmons, Shinique Smith, Henry Taylor, Hank Willis Thomas, Mickalene Thomas, and Carrie Mae Weems have in common?  They are all widely acknowledged as top contemporary American artists, all African American, and each artist’s work is included in the seminal Rubell Family collection, 30 Americans, currently on view locally at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.  But there is another connection.  This group of artists also recently assisted Contemporary Wing in selecting the exhibitors featured in its debut show in D.C. entitled, NEXT GENERATION: Selections by Artists from the 30 Americans Collection.  Contemporary Wing asked the artists to provide one or two names of emerging and mid-career, contemporary American artists who, in their opinion, best represent the “next generation” of artists who have the potential to define the American landscape in the next decade.

The result is a fabulous group of artists working in a broad range of media, including photography, painting, sculpture, installation, textiles, drawing, light and new media, as well as works that combine or hover between these media. The twelve participating artists in NEXT GENERATION are: Derrick Adams, Kajahl Benes, Caitlin Cherry, Sonya Clark, Alex Ernst, Wyatt Gallery, Kira Lynn Harris, David Huffman, Jason Keeling, Karyn Olivier, Gary Pennock, and Cheryl Pope. 

NEXT GENERATION runs from February 4 until March 10, 2012, Tuesday through Saturday from 11-6 p.m.  The preview is Friday, February 3, from 6-9 p.m., and the public opening is on Saturday, February 4, from 6-9 p.m.  The artists and Kalia Brooks, who critiqued the work for the exhibition catalog, will be present at both private and public openings.  Because of the scale of the works, the show is being held at an alternative site, at 1250 9^th Street, N.W, in Washington, D.C.  NEXT GENERATION promises to present dynamic work of the highest quality that is changing the face of contemporary art, some of which deals directly with issues of race and diversity, and some with social and aesthetic questions more broadly.

A catalog will accompany the exhibition with critiques by Kalia Brooks, Exhibitions Director at MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts) in Brooklyn, NY.

Derrick Adams – Derrick Adams is a New York-based artist who is interested in how perceptions and ideals attach to objects, colors, shapes and materials especially in the built environment. A recurring theme in his work is the relationship between man and monument.

Kajahl Benes – Kajahl Benes is a painter from Santa Cruz, California, who lives and works in New York City.  Benes creates large-scale paintings of figures incorporating divergent cultural symbols as well as ancient and contemporary signifiers within each work.

Caitlin Cherry – Caitlin Cherry is a painter and installation artist from Chicago, Illinois who lives and works in New York City.  In her abstracted self-portraits, she replaces her own figure with an avatar to compelling effect.  Most of her paintings are connected to, or held by, found objects that further engage the themes of her work.

Sonya Clark – Sonya Clark is an installation, fiber, and textile artist based in Richmond, Virginia. She explores the social significance of hair with regard to race and assimilation and related notions of beauty. Using the thin-toothed black combs found in any barber shop, and in some cases, thread, and hair foil, she creates sculptures and tapestries of rapturous form and color.

Alex Ernst – Alex Ernst is a New York-based sculptor who uses wood, string, and rudimentary tools requiring only the power of her effort.  Her process is intentionally stripped down, leaving form, the inherent beauty of materials, and a record of her impact upon them.

Wyatt Gallery – Wyatt Gallery is a photographer who often documents humanitarian crises.  This body of work, Tent Life: Haiti, is a series of photographs taken after the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake in 2010.

Kira Lynn Harris – Kira Lynn Harris was born and raised in Los Angeles, and currently works in Harlem, New York.  She is a multi-media artist interested in light, space, and perception.  Her installations destabilize perception in order to reveal a new orientation.

David Huffman – David Huffman is an abstract painter based in Oakland, California. His works are an amalgam of the formal concerns of abstract painting and social identity.

Jayson Keeling – Jayson Keeling is a New York-based artist whose works evoke an ominous glamour.  He uses glitter on canvas to portray skeletons or nuclear explosions, and the tension created by disjunction in form and content draws the viewer to his work.

Karyn Olivier– Karyn Olivier was born in Trinidad and Tobago and works currently in Brooklyn, New York.  Olivier often uses playground elements in her work, since the playground is where children learn about isolation and socialization. Olivier also favors the repetition of identical forms–twin dilapidated houses or multiple tether balls–to transform banal elements into works of art.

Gary Pennock – Gary Pennock is a Brooklyn-based artist who works primarily with light, sound, and video projection.  With titles like “A Line Through the Center of Space,” and “Across the Stillness of Time,” Pennock transports viewers virtually to another dimension.  Beauty is a chief concern in his work.

Cheryl Pope – Cheryl Pope is a multi-disciplinary artist who incorporates collaboration and community into her process.  She is showing work from her “Hoop Dreams” series that is based on conversations with African American youth, many of whom expressed the belief–remarkably, to this day–that professional basketball is the only future open to them.

To preview the works please contact info@contemporarywing.com

Contemporary Wing would like to extend a special thanks to          CAS Riegler and City Interests for their generosity

ALL OF US AT CONTEMPORARY WING WOULD LIKE TO WISH YOU A VERY HAPPY HOLIDAY SEASON

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GALLERY NEWS

● IVORY TOWER  (RECAP).  Thanks to all who took time from the hustle and bustle of the Miami art fairs to visit “Ivory Tower.”  It was a hugely successful debut for Contemporary Wing, and we would like to extend special thanks for their assistance with this exhibition to:  Deborah Shelton Tynes, Veronica Jackson at The Jackson Design Group, Bill Apter at Avitecture, and John Gargus at Christie Digital.  If you missed the exhibition, please check out an amazing photo-recap, courtesy of “Look into my Owl.”

● NEXT GENERATION  (FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012).   Our inaugural exhibition in Washington, D.C., opens February 4, 2012, at 1250 9th Street, NW.  “NEXT GENERATION” complements the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s exhibition of Mera and Don Rubell’s collection, “30 Americans,” on display through February 12, 2012.  For “NEXT GENERATION,” Contemporary Wing invited each artist represented in the “30 Americans” exhibition to identify one or two American artists that he or she believes is a critical “up and comer” of the next generation.  Selected artists from Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Baltimore, and Richmond, VA, among other places, will be announced in January.  A catalog will accompany the exhibition with critiques by Kalia Brooks, Exhibitions Director at MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts) in Brooklyn, NY.
Contemporary Wing would like to extend special thanks to CASRiegler Real Estate Development for its generous support.

● I’M COMING HOME.  (MAY/JUNE 2012) Appropriately named for Contemporary Wing’s first exhibition in its home gallery space at 1412 14^th Street, “I’m Coming Home” is a solo exhibition of new works by gallery artist, Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi relating to home life and domestic space in Iran.

For more information about the gallery and exhibitions, please visit contemporarywing.com or contact info@contemporarywing.com

header image: Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky), Ice Sonification, Antarctica Project, DVD, 8:08 minutes, edition of 5 + 2 AP, 2011. Courtesy of Look into my Owl and the Artist

The exhibition’s title, “Ivory Tower,” evokes its elevated location on the 50^th floor of the Marquis Residences, at 1100 Biscayne Blvd, and refers to a lofty space removed from the commercial hustle and bustle.  The exhibition will be announced to the city of Miami with a 700 foot projection on the exterior of the Marquis building of original artwork by Tiffany Carbonneau, which will be visible from I-95 North and South bound, I-395, I-195, and the Venetian Causeway.

Artist Sean Capone will premiere, “High Rise,” a floor-to-ceiling projection with accompanying videos based on J.D. Ballard’s novel of the same name.  Filmed over the course of two years as a luxury residential building is erected in Brooklyn, Capone’s “High Rise” evokes Ballard’s themes of isolation, social degeneration, and the deconstruction of time.  Paul Moakley, former photo editor at PDN and current deputy photo editor at TIME magazine, explores adolescence with an in-depth chronicle of an all-boys catholic high school captured through large-format photographs and short films.

Video artist Alex Villar harnesses his medium’s susceptibility for literal representation to a figurative end in, “Breaking into Business;” Villar “breaks into the art world,” by “breaking and entering” art institutions.  Nia Burks explores our dependence upon and addiction to new media with humorous and pedestrian account in “Angry Gamers.”

The mutability of the new media is central to the work of artists Paul D. Miller and Phillip David Sterns.  As part of his “Antartica Project,” multi-media artist and composer, Paul D. Miller (“DJ Spooky”) translates snowflakes into music, by overlaying the hexagonal shape inherent to all snowflakes on a logarithmic sound track. Artist Phillip David Stearns uses raw electronic signals to create visual imagery.

Art enthusiasts who visit “Ivory Tower” will be challenged, energized, and delighted.  Prepare for a conceptual and humorous feast of sight and sound.  “Ivory Tower” runs from Dec. 1-4, 2011, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.  There is an opening with the artists on December 1^st from 6 to 10 p.m., and an unveiling of the Carbonneau projection from 8 to 10 p.m. on November 30th.

ABOUT THE CURATORS

Lauren Gentile, a longtime art professional and the former Director of Irvine Contemporary, launched, Contemporary Wing in October 2011, bringing a fresh and dynamic voice to the Washington D.C. art scene.   The mission of Contemporary is to find and advance the careers of contemporary artists whose work will define American Art in the coming decade, while maintaining vigorous exhibition program.  For more information about “Ivory Tower,” the artists exhibited, or Contemporary Wing, please go to www.contemporarywing.com.

Ginger Shulick is the founder of Big Deal Arts, www.bigdealarts.com, and the Director of Strategic Initiatives for Art Connects NY, and its Spattered Columns exhibition space in SOHO.  Shulick has curated a number of exhibitions, such as, “LUMEN,” an international video and performance festival, and the “The Tycoon Continues and So Do You,” about the artifacts of war.  She lectures frequently about performance and video art in New York City and internationally

Special thanks to NYC-based Bomb Lager for providing the liquid fun for all of the IVORY TOWER events.

Contemporary Wing will lease its office and exhibition space from Lori Graham Design, also at 1412, with Contemporary Wing located in the front exhibition area. “Contemporary Wing is about creating synergies, whether it be with the unique features of the Washington D.C. community or other creative fields,” says founder and director, Lauren Gentile. “1412 is a fabulous space and an ideal location.”

The look and feel of Contemporary Wing will be entirely distinct from the space’s prior incarnation as Irvine Contemporary. 1412 14^th Street is currently under renovation with a design concept that is both edgy, in keeping with its contemporary allegiance, and elegant.

Contemporary Wing will open to gallery goers in mid-November with works by represented artists. Please come by and see us at 1412 14^th Street – your go-to destination for all things creative.

With the rounding support of her colleagues, artists and collectors, Gentile will launch Contemporary Wing on November 1. While Gentile is in the process of finalizing her Northwest Washington location, Contemporary Wing will be open for sales and appraisals, at http://www.contemporarywing.com. The first exhibition, a multi-work video installation designed to run concurrently with Art Basel, Miami Beach, will take place on December 1-4, 2011 in Miami, Florida. For Ivory Tower artist Tiffany Carbonneau will project an original art work onto the exterior of the Marquis Miami, where the exhibit will be held. Her site specific projection will be visible from the surrounding area as well as from I-95 North and South bound, I-395, I-195, and the Venetian Causeway. Once inside the exhibit, viewers will be immersed in a conceptual and humorous feast of sight and sound. Gentile is co-curating the exhibit with New York curator Ginger Shulick, of Big Deal Arts. Participating artists include: Nia Burks, Sean Capone, Tiffany Carbonneau, Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky), Paul Moakley, Phillip David Stearns and Alex Villar.

Contemporary Wing’s inaugural exhibit in Washington, D.C., NEXT GENERATION, ties into the District’s strongest asset, its world class museums. NEXT GENERATION is designed to complement the Corcoran Gallery of Art’s exhibition of “30 Americans,” and opens on February 1, on the tails of the Corcoran’s exhibit. Each artist represented in the “30 Americans” exhibition was asked to identify one or two American artists working today that he or she believes is a critical “up and comer” of the next generation. The resulting group will comprise NEXT GENERATION. “I want to create a dialogue with Washington’s outstanding museum exhibitions,” Gentile said. “For too long the media has talked about Washington’s museums and its galleries as unrelated entities. There is a natural synergy between the two, and my goal is to buttress what Washington already has to offer in the arts, in order to advance the work of artists who will define American art in the coming decades.”

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About the Founder/Director: Lauren Gentile has produced major exhibitions of historically significant artists including Shepard Fairey, Teo González, and Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky), among others. While supporting the artists of today, she has helped nurture such emerging talent as Gaia, Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi, and Sebastian Martorana. She is a certified appraiser of fine and decorative arts and an expert in the economics of the international art market. Lauren studied art history, Italian, and German at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, the University of Florence and the Goethe Institute. She holds an M.A. in art business from Sotheby’s Institute London and B.A. degrees in art history and international studies from DePaul University in Chicago. Her private sector career includes work with art hedge funds and as director of sales in auction houses and galleries specializing in a variety of markets. Lauren is a member of ArtTable and The Contemporaries Steering Committee at The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Ashley No Love Lost by Gregory Crewdson

Apologies for the radio silence from the Specullector blog.  Friendly reminder to graduate students (you know who your are):

These posts are my opinions and I retain intellectual copyright. A blog is not considered an A source so I would highly suggest not using this content  for your theses. If you still decide to, please quote it, some of your professors could have second careers as private investigators.

I am happy to leave the blog up as a public archive and if there are any questions, or if you would like my opinion on an art world situation, please reach out to me at lauren@irvinecontemporary.com

One last final prediction: lets not ignore what is brewing in LA – London galleries opening outposts, NY power dealers accepting museum directorships, blockbuster Getty acquisitions, large financial and personal investments from mega-collectors  -  building blocks for the future of a new American and global art node.

Hitler in his bunker hopes that he will get the job as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), but is told by his senior staff that the job has gone instead to the New York art dealer Jeffrey Deitch, known for his business dealings and embrace of spectacle. Upset, Hitler lashes out at MOCA’s board of trustees, Deitch, some of Deitch’s artists (or those he admires) and the man who saved MOCA, L.A. philanthropist Eli Broad.

(thanks Veronica !)