Collectively Assembled: 28 Visits, One Show
9th Annual tART Exhibition, Curated by Yulia Tikhonova
January 26 – March 16, 2013
Opening Reception, Saturday January 26, 5-7pm
Participating artists:
damali abrams, Liz Ainslie, Julia Whitney Barnes, Suzanne Bennett, Suzanne Broughel, Monica Carrier, Sydney Chastain-Chapman, Ann deVere, Georgia Elrod, MaDora Frey, Rachael Gorchov, Clarity Haynes, Anna Lise Jensen, Elsie Kagan, Katherine Keltner, Katerina Lanfranco, Jess Levey, Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, Sandra Mack-Valencia, Deborah Pohl, Asya Reznikov, Susan Ross, Carrie Rubinstein, Nikki Schiro, Yasmin Spiro, Melissa Staiger, Aya Uekawa, Petra Valentova
Collectively Assembled: 28 Visits, One Show is rooted in the origins of tART: the studio-visit, and draws from the idea of the Surrealist game Exquisite Corpse. The studio visit was the original building block of tART and remains as an integral part of the collective. It acts as key to the communication, success and productivity of tART and our members. In the game Exquisite Corpse, a folded piece of paper is passed artist to artist for each to draw on, then fold and cover their work, and pass to the next artist. Unfolding the paper at the end reveals an unforeseen composition or Exquisite Corpse. Collectively Assembled is constructed in a similar manner to the game in which each creative decision sequentially influences the next.
Over one year, a chain of scheduled studio visits builds the exhibition. One member visits another’s studio and selects work for the show. The receiving member then interprets what she feels is central to her selected work. With that concept in mind, she goes on to visit another member’s studio to select work. The process continues until it circles through every member. The resulting exhibition features not only each member’s work, but also each member’s interpretation and response to another member’s choice of work, thus creating a gestalt – the show itself.
We have tracked the process via a blog, http://tartcollective.blogspot.com/. Each visiting member posts her selection and explains her selection process. The blog will complement the final show, giving the viewer intimate engagement with the process of creating the show. Consideration of the subjectivity of curating is witnessed through the roles of personal and collegial dynamics within the collective.
The final installation is overseen by visiting curator, Yulia Tikhonova, who will contribute to the aesthetic presentation of the show. This will be the final unfolding, the visiting curator’s presentation of the body of work selected from the studio visits.
tART Collective is a contemporary feminist artist collective in New York City. Members maintain their individual art practices and are committed to maintaining a close community through post-graduate studio visits and to offering support through the sharing of ideas, information and resources. In addition to an annual group exhibition, the collective also produces Zines, engages in collaborations and presents workshops and discussions. Recently, tART Collective has exhibited at the Verge Art Fair Miami Beach, and members have participated in the TINA B. Contemporary Art Festival in Prague and presented on the collective at the CAA conference in New York and at the Open Engagement conference in Portland.
Yulia Tikhonova is a Moscow-born, Brooklyn-based curator. A graduate of CCS, Bard College, she is the founder of the Brooklyn House of Kulture, a grass-roots, experimental curatorial model created to promote public awareness and practices that strengthen culture's central role in civic life.
Arts@Renaissance is an innovative 4,500 square foot arts space in the restored outpatient building of the Greenpoint Hospital that serves as a bridge between North Brooklyn’s vibrant long-term communities and the area’s emerging creative population through the development of new multi-disciplinary work, residencies, workshops, and collaborative neighborhood art projects.
St. Nicks Alliance is a nonprofit, nonsectarian community-based organization founded in 1975 with a mission to serve as a catalyst to improve the quality of life of Williamsburg-Greenpoint residents by addressing economic, educational, health, housing and social needs while preserving the vibrant and diverse character of the entire community, particularly for low- and moderate-income residents.
Further information: www.tartnyc.org, www.brooklynhouseofkulture.org or www.renaissancenbk.org; Questions: tartnewyork@gmail.com
For 20 years French photographer Jean Lebreton has been publicly known as a media news photographer. Privately, however, he has been investigating and experiencing photography outside its traditional form and function. Breaking from the "news" or documentary image into an aesthetic, emotional plain Jean has been experimenting with Vinyl (or Duratrans) transparency, finally arriving at an Encaustic, Mixed Media Photography. In A World Often Too Real is an exhibition featuring a selection of Lebreton's Encaustic and Vinyl artworks made in New York over the span of 5 years. 
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