The 2008 Foster Prize at the ICA, Adel Abdessemed at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center
By EVAN J. GARZA | November 26, 2008
Adel Abdessemed, Practice Zero Tolerance Retournûe |
“Artist Talk: James and Audry Foster Prize Finalists” at Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave, Boston | December 7 at 1 pm | 617.478.3100
“The 2008 James and Audry Foster Prize” at Institute of Contemporary Art | Through March 1 | 617.478.3100
“Gallery Talk With Mark Linga” at MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames St, Building E15, Cambridge | December 10 at 12:30 pm | 617.253.4680
“Algeria in France” at Bartos Theatre at the MIT List Visual Arts Center | December 11 at 7 pm | 617.253.4680
“Adel Abdessemed: Situation and Practice” at MIT List Visual Arts Center | Through January 4 | 617.253.4680 |
Although it's no stretch to say that contemporary artists are eager to say something, the art world has seen its fair share of awkwardly shitty gallery talks. Apart from a few bad apples, however, the opportunity to hear an artist speak about his/her work can be as rewarding as seeing it in the flesh (as long as the work is good to begin with). If the quality of the "2008 James and Audry Foster Prize" exhibition at the ICA is any indication, the discussion will be well worth your time. On Sunday December 7, the quartet of featured artists — Catherine D'Ignazio, Rania Matar, Andrew Witkin, and Joe Zane — will verbalize their points of view in "ARTIST TALK: JAMES AND AUDRY FOSTER PRIZE FINALISTS" (while implicitly making their case for the $25,000 award, which gets announced in January). The annual exhibit, which seeks to acknowledge locally based early-career artists "of exceptional promise," is divided among four galleries, one space for each artist, and the truly diverse assortment of media includes photography, video, neon, painting, sculpture, and installation.If that doesn't slake your thirst for art chat, the following two talks at the MIT List Visual Arts Center are sure to quench. On Wednesday December 10, "GALLERY TALK WITH MARK LINGA" will find the LVAC educator addressing the work in "ADEL ABDESSEMED: SITUATION AND PRACTICE." Abdessemed has lived in Paris since 1999, but he was born in Algeria, and that leads right into the next evening's lecture. "ALGERIA IN FRANCE," with Paul A. Silverstein, Carnegie Scholar and associate professor of anthropology at Reed College, will address the Algerian relationship to France and its impact on Algerian immigrants in contemporary French culture. For those who haven't seen it: Abdessemed's show is a profound collection of photographs of the artist introducing wild North African animals (among them a pack of boars and a full-grown lion) to the streets of Paris, large-scaled looped video projections, the life-size terra cotta mold of an overturned and incinerated car, and a monumental 16x24 foot black-charcoal drawing created while the artist was suspended from a helicopter by his feet. Why on Earth does any of this require an explanation? Your guess is as good as mine.
On the Web
Institute of Contemporary Art: www.icaboston.org
MIT List Visual Arts Center: www.listart.mit.edu
Related:
The Apocalypse versus stupid human tricks, Photos: Prefuse 73 at ICA, Pottery, Potter, mummies, and a 'Rare Bird', More 
- The Apocalypse versus stupid human tricks
Among the most poetic and moving artwork to come out of 9/11 is Paul Chan’s series of videos The 7 Lights .
- Photos: Prefuse 73 at ICA
Photos of Prefuse 73 playing at the Institute of Contemporary Art
- Pottery, Potter, mummies, and a 'Rare Bird'
The art of 2000 BC Egypt, visions from the Iraq War and AIDS activism, and the magic of a digital technology and Harry Potter make up the highlights of Boston's autumn art calendar.
- Review: Shepard Fairey + Z-Trip + Chuck D
So Shepard Fairey actually made it this time. No insane, last-minute sting operations by Boston cops lurking just off the ICA’s property line. But also: no grand dramatics, either. (Like, he totally could have parachuted through a shattered skylight. In slow motion.) Fairey just showed up and did his thing.
- Growing Maine art
Long ago an art critic of my acquaintance remarked that New York was a border town to Europe, and until fairly recently that was true. Artistic ideas would be born in Europe, often France, and migrate slowly across the Atlantic and take root.
- Photos: Shepard Fairey, Z-Trip, Chuck D at the ICA
Shepard Fairey spins at Obey Experiment REDUX at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston
- Summer buffet
"Nature/Artifice" at the RISD Museum (224 Benefit Street, Providence, through February 2010) feels summery, but it's not like lite beach reading. I think it has to do with the one-room show's crisp, fresh feel and the platform full of flip-flops.
- More than words
What are we to make of Robert Indiana? His is generally considered part of the Pop art group of artists who came into prominence in the late '60s, along with Andy Warhol, James Rosenquist, and Roy Lichtenstein, and though he is not perhaps as highly regarded in the art world, he has a wider popular following than any of them.
- Photos: 'Seeing Songs' at MFA
Contemporary Outlook: Seeing Songs at the MFA
- More than a feeling
The centerpiece of the Museum of Fine Arts' "Contemporary Outlook: Seeing Songs" is Candice Breitz's 2005 Queen (A Portrait of Madonna), a wall of 30 televisions, each showing a different Madonna fan singing a cappella to her 1990 greatest-hits compilation, The Immaculate Collection. They wear headphones, bob their heads, sing aloud to music we can't hear.
- Slideshow: Bike cover art contest 2009
Several students from Bob Maloney's Experimental Illustration Class at MassArt competed in the contest and Allison Bamcat won.
- Less
Topics:
Museum And Gallery
, Swearing and Invective, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Visual Arts, More
, Swearing and Invective, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Visual Arts, Institute of Contemporary Art, Cultural Institutions and Parks, Museums, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Reed College, Joe Zane, Evan Garza, Less
