Recession Art

Thanks to all the artists who submitted to What is the Where? A Recession Art Show.  Our jury is convening this week and decisions will be announced the first week of September.  The next round of submissions will open in December 2010.

Recession Art is thrilled to announce our complete jury line-up for What is the Where? What is the Where? A Recession Art Show will take place November 13-21, 2010 at the Invisible Dog Art Center.  Submissions are now open till August 20th.  See the SUBMIT page for more details.

The jury will be lead by Ani Katz, Art Director and Co-Founder of Recession Art and Risa Shoup, our Guest Curator.  Joining them will be Recession Art’s Design Director, Jane Van Cleef, Recession Art alumni Ian Trask and Catherine Gavriel, and arts professionals Jill Putterman and Veronica Kavass.

Ani Katz

Ani Katz is the Art Director and Co-Founder of Recession Art.  She is an 08 graduate of the Yale undergraduate photography department, where she spent four years writing very few papers.  When not in the lab waiting for her photographs to print, she could be found at the Yale Daily News, where she served as den mother of the Photo Desk.  She has toured as a rock band photographer and currently teaches 1st grade in Brooklyn Heights.

Risa Shoup

Risa Shoup is the Guest Curator for Recession Art’s What is the Where? She is currently the Residency Manager of Probable Fireworks, a new collaborative artists’ residency at BRIC Arts|Media|Bklyn in Downtown Brooklyn. Until 2009, she served as the Programming Director of chashama, an NYC-based not-for-profit artists’ services organization that transforms temporarily vacant real estate into artist workspace.  She is also working on an NYC exhibition of emerging Detroit-based visual artists and writing a book about the post-industrial, grassroots, contemporary arts scene in Detroit. Her overarching critical and curatorial interests are the development of localized, urban creative communities and the use of nontraditional art spaces.  She has spoken about these issues at Fred Torres Collaborations in NYC, Harvard University, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, and the CUNY Graduate Center as part of the Prelude Festival.  Risa is a contributing writer to the Huffington Post.

Jane Van Cleef

Jane Van Cleef is the Design Director of Recession Art, as well as a fashion designer, toy designer and captain of industry. Past artworks of note include her senior thesis show at Harvard, Climate Change Preparedness Center : a fully functioning clothing store which outfitted customers for a more aquatic future.  She is currently employed as a toy designer for the North American Bear Company where her responsibilities include maintaining the facebook page of Muffy Van Der Bear.   On the weekends she is a freelance seamstress and go-to brainstormer and designer for Recession Art.

Ian Trask

Ian Trask is a sculptor who lives and works in Brooklyn. He works as a picture framer for Axelle Fine Arts and has a studio at the Invisible Dog, where he has been the artist in residence since November 2009. In his artwork he explores the inherent aesthetics of waste, choosing trash as his primary medium because it reduces his own material demand on the environment. He is currently working on two larger projects, one is a permanent installation for the Invisible Dog while the other will be a three-month installation for the Coleman Burke gallery space in Portland, ME.

Catherine Gavriel

Catherine Gavriel was born in Chicago and currently lives and works in Brooklyn. Her work is informed by the sparse midwestern horizon and her now varied industrial landscape. She constructs her paintings, sculptures, and installations as sites for quiet contemplation in our otherwise chaotic visual landscape. She has recently exhibited work with Recession Art as part of No Money No Problems (October 2009) and with The Work Office.

Jill Ariela Putterman

Jill Ariela Putterman has worked extensively in the arts as an advocate, consultant, curator and sculptor. While pursuing a degree in political science, she co-founded a cultural center in the Hudson Valley at the ripe age of 20.  She has since worked as a teaching artist with the Mill Street Loft’s PASWORD and Project Aware programs in Poughkeepsie NY, and as Administrative Director and Events Coordinator for Eyes Infinite Films in Brooklyn and Israel/Palestine.  Jill has been an exhibiting artist as well as curator with Chashama Window Galleries. She currently holds a position as Arts Program Specialist at the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

Veronica Kavass

Veronica Kavass was raised in France, Ecuador, Columbia, Hawaii, and Tennesee. She received a masters in art history light and carpentry from Chelsea College of Art in London where she focused on the relationship between art and literature (which ended up falling under the category of ethnofiction). She is currently managing the chashama north artist residency in the Hudson River Valley.

Good news artists- you now have until August 20th at Midnight to submit your applications for What is the Where? Recession Art’s fall show.  The show will take place November 13-21, 2010 at the Invisible Dog Art Center.  Click SUBMIT to send in your application today!

Going to a concert at Webster Hall in Manhattan? Be sure to look up at the balcony to see a cardboard installation by Ian Trask. It was created for the venue’s Quarterly Art Soiree on July 11.  Although it was only a one-day show, they asked Trask to leave it up as an ongoing installation. It’s located high on a wall above the balcony in the Grand Ballroom and has rippling curves that remind us of music swirling from the stage.

Ian Trask exhibited in Recession Art’s No Money No Problem, Works Progress, and at the Bull & Bear Market. See more of his art on his website.

This week, Recession Art is spotlighting two alumni artists who have been hard at work with their needle and thread.  Textile artists Julie Floersch of Works Progress (April 2010) and Jane Van Cleef of the Inaugural (April 2009) have some gorgeous work now available for sale.

Head over to Anthropologie’s Chelsea location to find Floersch’s exclusive jewelry collection (breastplates pictured above).  Or check out SeekingDesigners.com where you can see her quilts, pillows, and fantastic wall hangings.  Jane Van Cleef is exploring the world of stuffed animals with her Hazel Village series available on Etsy.  One of Hazel Village’s most popular residents, Mortimer Mouse, is pictured below.

We are so proud of our alumni artists and all the great things they’ve been working on since being part of Recession Art.  We talked to Julie Floersch about what Recession Art has meant to her.  She says,

“Being part of Recession Art was a great experience. Not only did I meet tons of cool, interesting people, but I ended up being photographed & interviewed for a book that is being curated by Renaud Dutreil, the Chairman of LVMH North America.”

You too can be part of Recession Art by submitting work to our next show, What is the Where? (November 2010).  Click here to submit today.