VNY Special Projects

VOLTA NY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT
Brian Fee
press@voltashow.com
VOLTA NY
MARCH 6-9, 2014
NEW YORK (February 25, 2014). VOLTA NY
enhances its second year downtown with a wealth
of special programming beyond the constraints of
traditional fair booths. Two artists will stage
performances during the fair. On Thursday and
Saturday, Wilmer
Wilson
IV (CONNERSMITH.,
Washington DC) enacts From My Paper Bag Colored
Heart, a durational performance and 'living sculpture'
of inflated paper bags and his own body. Wilson
references the skin-tone politics of the paper bag test
and discrimination based on color, utilizing this
historical lens in a meditation on skin, objecthood, and
liminality. In
addition
to
booth
artist Alicia
DeBrincat's Durrantman silkscreened
paintings, Kianga
Ellis
Projects (New
York)
presents Sweet Grace, a performance by recent
Columbia University MFA graduate Pamela Council.
Council struts the fair floor on Thursday and Sunday
in dedication to the spirit, fortitude, and ingenuity of
Bishop Charles Manuel "Sweet Daddy" Grace, the
original charismatic prosperity preacher and James
Brown's childhood idol. Council sees Grace's
signature snazzy style as symbolic of Americana and
as elements of 'Blaxidermy', her word for those
exuberant embodiments of Soul that are stiffened by
history and exploitation.
Wilmer Wilson IV, Untitled (Back), 2012-14
pigment print, 45 x 29 inches, edition of 7
Chicago-based graffiti alchemist Pose (Jonathan
Copyright Wilmer Wilson IV
LeVine Gallery, New York) will create a unique public
Courtesy CONNERSMITH. (Washington DC) mural, through the support of The L.I.S.A. Project
NYC, at 188 Lafayette (between Broome and Grand Streets), a few blocks from VOLTA NY. The wide
thoroughfare provides clear visibility for the five-story tall mural, which will be based on Pose's
central painting in his gallery booth. Pose has painted murals all over the world, most recently in
Johannesburg for the 2013 City of Gold Urban Art Festival, as well as the illustrious Houston/Bowery
wall last summer with kindred Los Angeles-based Mad Society Kings artist REVOK.
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VOLTA NY
At the fair, critically acclaimed artist-run podcast Bad
At Sports coordinates Bedside Chats, a dynamic
installation and interview snuggle-fest. Co-founders
and hosts Amanda Browder, Richard Holland,
and Duncan
MacKenzie transport
Browder's
Brooklyn bedroom to 82MERCER, inviting guest
artists, critics, and curators to conversate under the
covers, and fair visitors are welcome to partake in
some pillow-talk as well. For the full lineup of
scheduled Bedside
Chats,
please
visit
the
VOLTA website. VOLTA
NY's
Official
Media
Partner GalleryLOG returns with a media lounge,
featuring interviews ahead of VOLTA's 10-year
anniversary in Basel this June, a range of
GalleryLOG's artist video-interviews, and ever elusive
cell-phone
charging
stations. Plus, Culture
Shock presents ULTRA VOLTA: The Spectrum of Ultra
Violet, a curated environment honoring the cultural
icon's transmedia spectrum: from film and music
works, to Ultra Violet's memoir Famous for 15
Minutes: My Years with Andy Warhol and her
Instagram-able
baroque
mirror
series Self
Portrait and Selfie. Playing on themes of mirrors and
mylar to celebrate Ultra Violet, Culture Shock also
features
two
new
works
by
represented
artist Alexander Reben, including an interactive audio
Ultra Violet, Self Portrait, 2011
piece that responds to your reflection in the hall's baroque frame in transparent acrylic with mirror and mirrored
self-portrait letters, 25 x 25 inches
adjacent bathroom mirrors and an oscillating mylar
balloon sculpture.
VOLTA NY Talks Programming reflects myriad current trends and concerns in the arts. ARC
Magazine, the not-for-profit pan-Caribbean visual arts and culture publication, returns this year with
roundtable 'Metanoia: Practices of Exhaustion'. ARC's Editor-in-Chief Holly Bynoe (St. Vincent and
the Grenadines) and Junior Editor/Curator Blake Daniels (USA) lead a panel on Caribbean and
Diaspora-based artists whose practices intersect various disciplines including New Media,
Performance Art, and Socially Engaged Practices. This informal discussion - featuring 2013 Trinidad
and Tobago Film Festival 'Best New Media' artist Olivia McGilchrist (Jamaica), social activist,
educator and artist Ian Deleón (Cuba/Boston), artist Jayson Keeling (Jamaica/New York), artist Joiri
Minaya (Dominican Republic), and Baha Mar Creative Arts Director John Cox (Bahamas, exhibiting
with Popopstudios, Nassau) - will highlight critical concerns in the development of visual language
through the examination of private and public realities of contemporary Caribbean society.
Concurrent with their selection in this year's Whitney Biennial, New York's Critical Practices
Inc. host an unmoderated conversation prompted by Curator Omar Lopez-Chahoud on the death
(and future) of the gallery show. CPI's Public Interface: LaTableRonde format brings together 30
participants (some invited, some not) to engage in a public discussion concerning contemporary
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VOLTA NY
cultural conditions. This conversation will be audio recorded and a transcription will be made
available to all participants. Please RSVP to rsvp@voltashow.com as space is limited, no plus-ones
permitted. Participants are encouraged to read Saltz on the Death of the Gallery Show by Jerry
Saltz (New York Magazine, April 8, 2013). The New York Performance Artists Collective (NYPAC)
presents 'Concept/Icon: Performance Art in Popular Culture', a consideration of contemporary
performance art within popular culture, moderated by Kate Sutton (Artforum contributor) and
featuring Carl Swanson (New York Magazine Culture Editor), NYPAC members, and others.
Additionally, Kurt Beers (Director of Beers Contemporary, London) moderates a discussion
exploring emerging trends in the future of painting, following the recent worldwide open-call toward
the selection of painters to be included in 100 Painters of Tomorrow (Thames & Hudson, fall 2014).
Panelists include Blake Daniels (American, based in Savannah, GA and Johannesburg) and Andrew
Salgado (Canadian, based in London), both selected for the forthcoming publication, who offer their
insights into painting within new contexts.
A total of five subway lines provide easy access to VOLTA NY: six blocks east from Spring Street
Station (C/E Trains); three blocks west from Spring Street Station (6 Train); or two blocks south from
Prince Street Station (N/R Trains). Plus, a regular shuttle bus service will run to and from The Armory
Show and VOLTA NY, from Thursday, March 6, through Sunday, March 9, during fair hours.
In addition, visitors can purchase a one-day combination ticket for both VOLTA NY (regular $15) and
our sister fair The Armory Show (regular $40) online for a discounted price of $50. VIP attendees
enjoy shared VIP access with VOLTA NY and The Armory Show. This year's edition coincides with
the opening of the 2014 Whitney Biennial.VOLTA NY gratefully acknowledges its 2014 Official
Partner Hotel, Mondrian SoHo.
VOLTA was founded in Basel in 2005 by dealers Kavi Gupta (Chicago), Ulrich Voges (Frankfurt),
and Friedrich Loock (Berlin). The tenth edition in Basel, VOLTA10, will coincide with Basel Art Week
and will be held from June 16-21, 2014.
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VOLTA NY
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION 2014:
DATES:
Thursday, March 6 –
Sunday, March 9, 2014
PRESS PREVIEW:
Thursday, March 6, 2–5 pm
PUBLIC VERNISSAGE:
Thursday, March 6, 6–9 pm
sponsored by AVERNA
PUBLIC HOURS:
Friday – Saturday, March 7–8, 10 am – 8 pm
Sunday, March 9, 10 am - 5 pm
LOCATION:
82MERCER / SoHo, New York
between Spring & Broome Streets
SHUTTLES:
A complimentary shuttle bus will run
between VOLTA NY and The Armory Show
from Thursday through Sunday daily.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT:
C and E trains to Spring Street
6 train to Spring Street
N and R trains to Prince Street
ADMISSION:
General Admission $15
Students
$10
Groups (10+)
$10
VOLTA NY + The Armory Show
Dual Pass
$50
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