Artist Organized Art Non-Profit Works With Artists & Institutions To Support Artist Organized Media, Events & Cultural Education By Strategic, Collaborative & Financial Means

»watch the video

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: FINDME.NY.SF@GMAIL.COM

An art project by GEMA ALAVA (gemaalava.com) with the participation of LARS CHELLBERG, BARBARA HOLUB, PAUL KOS, ESTER PARTEGÁS, ROBERT RYMAN, ARNE SVENSON, MERRILL WAGNER, LAWRENCE WEINER and MARIA YOON

When Gema Alava asked nine other artists, some of them with current shows at major museums, to create an artwork so that she could hide it in public spaces, one might think these artists would wonder if there was an institution behind the project, a date for an official presentation or a curator who could help let people know about the new art pieces, which would be placed in San Francisco, Tenderloin District, and in New York City. Instead, the artists handed Alava their work and encouraged her to keep going.

Artworks, in the form of installation, sculpture, painting, photography, an audio piece and an artist’s book, have been placed in June 2009 (in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco), and in September 2009 (in suitable locations in New York City). Detailed information about each hidden piece will be released during a one-time event at CUE Art Foundation, New York, with participant artists in attendance.

In a globalized world where we can reach almost any place on earth digitally, have access to a great amount of information, and are surrounded by security systems which record our daily movements; could an artist leave behind artworks as she walks without being noticed?

Gema Alava b. 1973, Madrid, Spain

Alava holds a BFA from the Universidad Complutense, Madrid, and the Chelsea College of Art&Design, London, and a MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, New Genres, 2000. She moved to New York in 2001, where she was admitted to the emerging programs: AIM-Bronx Museum of the Arts, and EMERGE-Aljira. Selected solo shows include the Diego Rivera Gallery at the San Francisco Art Institute, CA, and the Juan Carlos I Center at New York University, NY. Her work has been shown at the Queens Museum of Art, NY; Jersey City Museum, NJ: Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY; and Rana Museum in Norway. Her project A Dialogue took place at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2008 thanks to Cai Guo-Qiang’s collaboration. She lives and works in New York City.

Lars Chellberg b. 1962, Detroit, Michigan, USA

Chellberg received a BFA from William James College, Allendale, Michigan, in 1986, and a MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan, in 1992. His work has been shown at the Bronx Museum of Fine Arts, New York; Ssamzie Space, Seoul, Korea; Paradise Wood Sculpture Park, Santa Rosa, California; Titanik Gallery, Turku, Finland; Urban Institute For Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, Michigan; and in outdoor projects such as Wonderland, San Francisco, curated by Lance Fung. In Insecta Magnifica (2002), Chellberg explored the complex relationship between people and insects by enlisting insects as collaborators. He lives in New York and teaches at Parsons School of Design, New York.

Barbara Holub b. 1959, Stuttgart, Germany

Holub studied architecture at the University of Technology in Stuttgart. She co-founded “transparadiso” in 1999, a “platform for intended and non-calculated interventions between art, architecture, and urbanism with regular excursions to border zones.” Former President of Secession in Vienna, her projects, exhibitions, urban interventions and publications have been presented at the Eastside Projects, Birmingham; Austrian Cultural Forum, New York; Secession, Vienna; the International Symposium on Architecture, Valparaíso, Chile; the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, and the Symposium Urban Drift, Berlin, among others. She lives and works in Vienna.

Paul Kos b. 1942, Rock Springs, Wyoming, USA

Kos attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where he received his MFA in 1967, and has taught in the New Genres Department for 25 years. His work early on evolved in the direction of video and sculptural installations. Selected solo exhibitions and retrospectives of his work include the Berkeley Art Museum, California; the Grey Art Gallery at New York University and the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, California. His work has been shown at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon S. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He lives and works in San Francisco.

Ester Partegás b. 1972, La Garriga, Barcelona, Spain

Partegás holds a BFA from the Universitat de Barcelona and has completed postgraduate studies in Multimedia at Hochschule der Kunste, Berlin. Selected solo exhibitions of her work include the Aldrich Museum, Connecticut; Rice University Art Gallery, Houston, Texas; Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; CajaMadrid, Barcelona, and her work has been shown at the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina; the Walker’s Point Center for the Arts, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Sculpture Center, New York; the Queens Museum of Art, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria, New York. She lives and works in New York City.

Robert Ryman b. 1930, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Ryman made his first paintings in 1952 while working as a security guard at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His first solo exhibition was held in 1967. Selected solo exhibitions and retrospectives of his work include the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; the Tate Gallery, London; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. He is a recipient of a Skowhegan Medal for Painting, a Guggenheim Fellowship, among many other s awards, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives and works in New York City.

Arne Svenson b. 1952, Santa Monica, California, USA

Svenson is a photographer who has engaged himself and his audience in numerous serial projects and five published books of his work. Selected solo exhibitions include White Columns, NYC; the Grey Art Gallery at New York University, and the Laband Art Gallery, LMU, Los Angeles, CA. His work has been shown at SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA; the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA; the Oxford Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England; Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany; the National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, Denmark; PICA, Portland, OR; and the Mutter Museum, Philadelphia, PA. He has been the recipient of a James D. Phelan Art Award and a Nancy Graves Foundation for Visual Arts Grant. He lives and works in New York City.

Maria Yoon b. 1971, Seoul, Korea

Yoon has been a New York resident for the last thirty years. She received a BFA from Cooper Union in 1994. In 2001 she began working on a multi-media performance series entitled Maria the Korean Bride designed to bring attention to the social pressure that Yoon endured as a first generation Korean-American unmarried woman. Her performances have been funded in part by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, NYC Cultural Affairs, Asian Women Giving Circle and Franklin Furnace. She has performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and her work is included in major art collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She lives and works in New York City.

Merrill Wagner b.1935, Seattle, Washington, USA

Wagner graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1957 and studied at the Art Students League in New York. Her paintings have been shown at the Islip Museum, Islip, New York; the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; the Center of Contemporary Art, Seattle; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Grey Art Gallery at New York University; P.S. 1, Long Island City, New York; Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT; and is included in major art collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. She has been the recipient of a Hassam Purchase Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She lives and works in New York City.

Lawrence Weiner

At CUE ART FOUNDATION (cueartfoundation.org)
511 West 25th Street
New York City

On THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009, from 6 to 8PM
Detailed information about each hidden piece, as well as their general location, will be released at 6PM with the participant artists in attendance. Be part of a gathering with artists of various backgrounds–from artists who don’t yet have gallery representation to artists who have had retrospectives of their work in major art museums.

THIS IS A ONE TIME EVENT

FIND ME’s PRESENTATION HAS BEEN MADE POSSIBLE IN PART THANKS TO THE SUPPORT OF CUE ART FOUNDATION, NEW YORK, AND ARTISTS ORGANIZED ART, INC.