September 20 to November 18, 1995
For Immediate Release
August 31, 1995
Contact: Lorelei Stewart
(415) 626-5416San Francisco-From September 20 to November 18, 1995 New Langton Arts presents three local visual and media artists in its second annual Bay Area Award Show. Angela Lim, Kathy Spence, and the collaborative team of Ian Pollock and Janet Silk create poignant and provocative works centered on the body, survival, and testimony. The Bay Area Award Show features the best regional talent and provides those artists important funding and presenting opportunities. The opening reception is Thursday, September 21, 6 - 8 PM. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Saturday, 12 - 5 PM, Tuesday by appointment. Admission is free. New Langton is located at 1246 Folsom Street, San Francisco. For more information please call (415) 626-5416.
Angela Lim, the daughter of a Hong Kong textile merchant, embroiders diaristic texts into small cloth and found object assemblages reminiscent of keepsake pillows. Her assemblages, however, are obsessive not precious. They incorporate organic elements including: blood, fingernails, fish scales, dirt, human hair, teeth, charcoal, and leather; and are often scorched, cut, or mangled. The texts are challenging, direct, and reveal frustrations over conflicts between Eastern and Western ideals of femininity and sexuality. Lim's compulsive assemblages undermine traditional notions of women's work and craft versus art forms and expose the onslaught of expectations endured by women and immigrants. Angela Lim holds a BFA from the Academy of Art College, San Francisco. She has exhibited at Sesnon Gallery, University of Santa Cruz, CA; Morphos Gallery, San Francisco; and HereArt, New York, NY.
Preoccupied with accumulation, preservation, and loss, Kathy Spence reworks small objects that are normally discarded or uncontemplated. She adjusts our relationship to familiar, personal objects such as wallets or shirt labels, by disassembling them or by adding layers of waste, paper, dirt, or cement. Focusing closely on the objects, reworking them and changing our perception of their existence, her process of art making mirrors contemplation as a mental exercise. Kathy Spence graduated with an MFA from Mills College in 1993. She has exhibited at Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA; Center for the Arts, San Francisco; and the Society for Contemporary Photography, Kansas City, MO.
Ian Pollock and Janet Silk who have collaborated for the past four years tell a true story of the Bosnian war, the story of a person who has been rigging their home with explosives. Pollock and Silk present Two Stories, a mixed media installation evoking a giant domestic booby trap in photographs and audio recordings. Pollock and Silk investigate environments as sites of trauma and probe the determination of time, place, and history on human action. Using a narrative that otherwise would be untold, Pollock and Silk create a memorial serving as a reminder of the desperation of the people still living in Bosnia. Ian Pollock and Janet Silk have collaborated on installations, performances, and public access sound installations since 1992.
They have exhibited at Works/San Jose, CA; Center for the Arts, San Francisco; and Gallery 400, Chicago, IL; and were recent contributors to Latent August at the Fort Mason Center, San Francisco. Ian Pollock is a 1991 BFA graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute. Janet Silk is a 1985 BFA graduate of the California Institute of the Arts.
Au Musée d'Honneur Minuscule: Jeff Richards, Once upon a time, in a place far, far away: a meditation on superheroes, manifestations of infinity, and the importance of a day job
In it's street level window gallery, the Musée d'Honneur Miniscule, New Langton presents Jeff Richards' infinitely receding "mirror box." Before what looks like a never-ending vortex, superhero figurines struggle to escape the tangle of their own ambitions.
New Langton's second annual Bay Area Award Show features the best regional talent in literature, media arts, music, performance, and visual arts. Throughout September, October, and November New Langton presents performances by: Keith Hennessy, Sha Sha Higby, Miya Masaoka, Victoria Jordanova, Ben Goldberg, Kevin Killian and Wayne Smith, Camille Roy, and Mike Amnasan. From September 20 to November 18, 1995 New Langton presents local visual and media artists Angela Lim, Kathy Spence, and the collaborative team of Ian Pollock and Janet Silk. The Bay Area Award Show directly impacts the lives of local artists by providing important funding and presenting opportunities.
The Bay Area Award Show receives special funding from the Bay Area Arts Collective, GAP Foundation, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, The National Association of Artists Organizations, The National Endowment for the Arts, Safeway Inc., The Zellerbach Family Fund, and New Langton's membership and board of directors. The Bay Area Arts Collective directly supports the Bay Area Award Show and it's selected musicians, writers, performers, and visual and media artists. The Arts Collective is a donor interactive support mechanism that produces educational and public events and raises funds to meet the goals of the Bay Area Award Show.
New Langton Arts (NLA) was founded in 1975 by a coalition of local artists and arts professionals who sought to provide San Francisco with a center for experimental arts. Now in its twentieth year as an internationally recognized non-profit arts organization, NLA's programs feature visual arts exhibitions, performance, literary events, experimental music, media arts, and inter-disciplinary presentations.
New Langton Arts is supported in part by Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Bothin Foundation, The California Arts Council, The D&DF Foundation, GAP Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Lannan Foundation, The National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, The National Association of Artist Organizations, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Swig Foundations, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Zellerbach Family Fund, as well as generous contributions from New Langton's membership and board of directors.
For further information, photographs or to schedule interviews, please contact Lorelei Stewart at (415) 626-5416.