24 Hour Artist Cage Fight

Tammi Lynn Brazee, Bison Traffic Jam,

Alkyd on wood, 2010, 48” x 71”

Dan Ellier Chapman,  Joe and Chris, 2010, oil on canvas,60" x 48"

Theresa A. Anderson, Colonization and Exodus, 2009- 10, charcoal, gesso, acrylic on linen. 48” x 96"

Veronica V. R. Franklin, Gitangali, 2010, oil on canvas, 48" x 60"

WHERE: Pirate: Contemporary Art

3655 Navajo St
Denver, CO 80211-3038

www.pirateartonline.org/

WHEN: July 1- July 17, 2011

OPENING RECEPTION: Friday July 1, 6-10pm

GALLERY HOURS: Friday 6-10 pm, Sat- Sun 12-5pm

Free and Open to the public

24 hour artist cage fight

An interview with the artist, Theresa Anderson:

Why this project?

“When I decided to curate this exhibit of figurative paintings and a raucous performance art piece I was intrigued by the dynamic interaction of the different players involved in Group 3759. We had started a small exclusive group of painters back in school to discuss, plan and exhibit our works together. We seemed to be united by similarities in artistic aesthetic and yet the group had eventually imploded socially. In fact a few of us temperamental people spent most of our time at the end yelling at each other while the others tried to maintain some kind of neutrality.

Coming back- some years later and meeting again- I was mostly fascinated by our group’s dynamics and the possibilities that exists for each of us to use this project as a metaphor for our personal family. As a conceptual realist whose work is concerned with layers of ambiguous autobiographical documentation, I knew that doing a performance art project held layers of meaning that was just ripe to be picked apart. Each of us could attempt to use the project in ways to push into their own selves. Also-in an art historical context of other artist groups being exciting idea generators, I wanted to push all that excitement into a marriage with contemporary reality television and performance art. “

Why a 24 hour cage fight ?

“Each of us address some level of social discomfort in our work. I wanted our project to actually push our group, each individual out of our comfort zones as an artist, as a part of this group. The space at Pirate where we will living and creating our performance art project feels intimate, but part of the space has ceilings that are pretty low and can be discomfiting after a period of time. Our starting point, the only things we’ve actually agreed upon to start the 24 hour work cycle is that there will be no privacy, we will document as much as possible of the performance art piece, we are putting up an 18 foot piece of linen on the back wall, and that each of us needs to be thoughtful about what we bring into the space. Everything that is brought in has to be left in some way as part of the final exhibit.

Each of our work takes some element of delicate and aggressive beauty and kind of mixes it up with the nastiness of life. And our painting collective, Group 3759, is a bit of that. Seductive and rich, nasty, delicate, and aggressive. Yeah, and beautiful too. The mirror to the performance art piece will be the 40 biographical paintings installed on the opposite wall that the group will complete before the performance art piece.

We already know how difficult it was just to agree on a few simple things to exhibit together, but we love and want the same things. Sort of similar to the tension of a sling shot our group is pulling and pushing against each other that when released has an insistent trajectory.”

Veronica V. R. Franklin uses her interest in the metaphysical to charge her painting compositions with meaning while playfully summoning the abstract and representational.  First Place recipient of the 2007 Colorado Aids Project Emerging Artist Award, University of Colorado at Denver's Outstanding Graduate Award and graduating summa cum laude, Franklin has big plans for exploring other art mediums before attending graduate school.

Dan Chapman became disabled in 1996 at the age of 36. Now 51, he has graduated with honors with a BFA in painting from the University of Colorado Denver. Chapman was named one of ten artists who left their mark on Denver in 2010 by Michael Paglia, attracting the attention of the Huffington Post as well. The Westword called him "one of the best contemporary realists working in our fair city" by Denver's Westword, where his solo show Memory Trips was also featured. His work often presents forgotten men befriended over his life’s decades.

Tammi Brazee will finish her MFA in painting this spring (2011) at Colorado State University. Her current work addresses the tensions that exist between people and the natural environment, particularly the tensions between observation and immersion, the natural and the artificial, and conservation and consumption. Her subject matter usually consists of idiosyncratic vacationers in peculiar, noxious landscapes.

Theresa Anderson’s work is part of private collections and has won grants, international contests, awards, and been included in publications such as the New York Journal of Arts and Design under “new talent”, Denver Post Fine Art Critic, Kyle MacMillan wrote “she is quickly distinguishing herself as one of the region's most promising emerging artists”, and Westword Fine Art Critic, Michael Paglia wrote “With this show, and others I've seen by her, Anderson proves she's one of the city's up-and-coming talents.” Currently the director and an exhibiting artist at Ice Cube Gallery, an associate member at Pirate: Contemporary Art and Anderson also has a large painting in the London based Saatchi Gallery archives for view on rotational exhibit as part of the Showdown program. Having been part of the Feminist Interrogations exhibit at ARC Gallery in Chicago, Anderson recently completed an internationally juried artist residency at Platteforum and a master artist demonstration on collage and exploratory drawing at the Denver Art Museum.