‘I was very touched to have been approached earlier this year and asked to join the board of Triangle Arts Association – a 30-year old organization devoted to hosting workshop and residency programs for international artists. My first encounter with Triangle was in 2006, when I worked as a workshop facilitator and helped to assist artists, run errands and pitch-in, along with a number of board members, to wrap-up at the end of lively dinners each night. I was assisting Sarah Walko at that time, then a newcomer like me and now (the exceptional!) Executive Director of the organization.

‘Over the past six years, as I have begun to find my footing as a painter and writer, Triangle has been a peculiarly constant presence in my life. This is due in part to the fact that as an organization Triangle is a naturally social entity, one that welcomes visitors warmly and often to events such as open studios, exhibitions and lectures. Always well-attended, these gatherings are held with a minimum of fuss. I think, however, that the sort of connection so many feel towards Triangle, representing as it does a kind of very extended family, is related to the sincerely shared interest that the association sparks and supports. I have found that those involved with this fluid organization – artists, alumni, staff and trustees – are, almost without exception and despite their many differences, deeply committed individuals. They are all, in some way or another, actively engaged with the pursuit of better understanding the nature and potential of visual art being made today.

‘Having been able to follow many of the artists through and after the workshop and residency program over the years, I can say – on the occasion of the workshop’s 30th anniversary – that it is not only a truly unique program of its kind, but in the fragmented context of contemporary art, an increasingly important one. Read the rest of this entry →

Images courtesy the artist

Triangle Arts Association is a not-for-profit arts organisation located in Brooklyn, New York, which seeks to support emerging and mid-career international and national visual artists, encouraging dialogue and experimentation through workshops, residencies and exhibition opportunities.

The annual Triangle Artists’ Workshop offers a unique occasion for artists to meet and exchange ideas, not simply through talking, but by making art side by side for a concentrated period in a self-contained location. Confronted by new ideas and new points of view, detached from familiar surroundings and entrenched habits, artists often find the courage to deepen established lines of inquiry or to explore fresh possibilities.  Studio spaces are designed to be open and in a communal setting therefore discussion with peers and visitors is considered an important part of the experience.

Triangle Arts Association will be contributing to the Networked blog with a series of posts, building up to and during this year’s workshop, scheduled for 15-30 September. To read a diary of the workshop read on. Read the rest of this entry →

Triangle Artists’ Workshop is about to celebrate its 30th Anniversary! Artists’ who participated in past years have contributed written memories of their experience from their two week stay which we will be sharing in the weeks preceding the residency this September.

‘I was at Triangle workshop at it’s 10th anniversary 1991. It was wonderful to have the time and space to work, think and share with like-minded people. I was exhausted, filled to the brim and shook up by the whole experience – hard work in sweltering heat, dancing in the barns, dips in the pool, engaging talks and exchanges, great people I’d like to meet again.’

- Sheila Vollmer

‘…working in the open space in Dumbo with artists working alongside, with many people walking by, crossing the window, wandering in…it opened a door to a new understaning of what I wanted art practice to be: a drawing installation…between the intimate and public, between 2 and 3 dimensions, between premeditation and improvisation.’

-Maya Attoun

‘I am an English artist and I attended the workshop in 1986. Although this was some while ago I have excellent memories of it. At the time I was juggling my painting practice with caring for our three small children. It was a fantastic opportunity to spend two weeks concentrating on my work and meeting and sharing ideas with the other participants. It was stimulating to leave the familiarity and isolation of one’s own studio and work in a completely different environment. Everything was done for us even the lunch was brought to the barns where we worked. There was a such an atmosphere of experimentation and positive energy. This left a lasting impression on my painting and method of working.’

- Belinda Ellis Read the rest of this entry →

Joseph Perez performance

People’s Biennial, initiated by Independent Curators International and curated by Harrell Fletcher and Jens Hoffmann, presents work by artists based in five cities considered outside of the mainstream art world – Portland, Oregon; Rapid City, South Dakota; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Haverford, Pennsylvania. During a year of curatorial research, Fletcher and Hoffmann have traveled the United States with ICI, meeting with hundred of artists and participating in numerous open calls and public events. They have collaborated with curators at art institutions in each city to find the best examples of artistic expression present in these communities. One of the primary goals of the project is to question the often exclusionary and insular process of selecting art, as well as to propose an alternative to the standard contemporary art biennial, which frequently focuses on art from a few select cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami or San Francisco). Read the rest of this entry →

Independent Curators International (ICI) takes up the Triangle conference’s discussion of networks via a long history of initiating projects that investigate the very nature of this term in contemporary culture. The question of how to define a network, raised in a previous Dispatch on this blog, can perhaps be clarified through consideration of projects that confront the most elemental aspects of exhibition-making: the work itself, and the roles of the artist and curator. Here, we will be posting periodic thoughts on ICI’s activities within networks of various kinds, incorporating input from practitioners with whom we have collaborated recently.

We begin with FAX, an evolving exhibition that began in New York in 2009, and continues to be reconfigured, expanded, and localized as it is presented—often simultaneously—in venues worldwide. FAX invites artists, architects, designers, scientists, and filmmakers to think of the fax machine as a drawing tool, resulting in an exhibition concerned with ideas of reproduction, obsolescence, distribution, and mediation.

The first iteration of the exhibition, held at The Drawing Center in New York, featured a core of works by nearly 100 artists, including seminal examples of early telecommunications art. With every new incarnation, the hosting institutions are encouraged to invite additional artists to submit works, which are then permanently added to the show. New participants submit faxes throughout the duration of the presentation using a specially designed cover sheet by Dexter Sinister. Visitors view the collection of faxes on the walls or flip through archival binders to see over 500 pages of works. Read the rest of this entry →