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CREATE Traveling Exhibition Project Description

Evelyn Reyes, Carrots, 2009

Create is a major group exhibition presenting a selection of the most important works created over the past twenty years by artists involved with three pioneering non-profit organizations: Creativity Explored, Creative Growth Art Center, and the National Institute for Art and Disabilities Art Center (NIAD). These organizations were founded with the belief that exceptional creativity can emerge in anyone and they support the work of artists with developmental disabilities through a unique and highly successful approach to group studio practice. In individual and group shows, participating artists have challenged assumptions about the quality, character, and significance of work created by artists with disabilities. This major survey exhibition will bring well-deserved attention to this compelling work, sharing it with a broad audience and expanding on its impact on a range of renowned international artists. The exhibition will spark critical dialogue concerning the categories of contemporary art practice, especially the notion of “outsider art,” and challenge audiences to rethink the limitations of such categories. It will be clear why works by these artists have been increasingly recognized as a significant contribution to the field of contemporary art, both nationally and internationally, among artists,

John Patrick Mckenzie, Repetition I, 2009

Independent Curators International, 799 Broadway, Suite 205, New York, NY 10003 www.ici-exhibitions.org

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curators, critics, and collectors, as well as the broader cultural community, and are now in the permanent collections of prominent institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Create will present a range of exceptional works in diverse media by twenty artists who have created art works at these centers over the past twenty years. Among the artists to be included are Judith Scott, William Scott, John Patrick McKenzie, Evelyn Reyes, and Dan Miller. Each artist has sustained an art-making practice at the highest level for many years, and the range of their work is extraordinary: Judith Scott’s visceral sculpture utilizes found materials wrapped in knotted yarn or sting; William Scott’s humorous paintings incorporate sardonic urban motifs; John Patrick McKenzie’s lyrical work employs the repetition of text drawn from pop culture, current events, and his immediate surroundings; Evelyn Reyes’s pastel drawings feature bold, minimalistic shapes; and Dan Miller’s intricate work includes drawings and paintings incorporating layered text.

About the curators, Lawrence Rinder, with Matthew Higgs: Lawrence Rinder is Director of the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, having previously held the position of Dean of the California College of the Arts and been the contemporary art curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He is also a writer of art criticism, poetry, drama and fiction. Matthew Higgs is the director/chief curator of White Columns, New York. From 2001 to 2004 he was Curator at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco. Prior to that he was an Associate Director of Exhibitions at the ICA, London. Since 1992 Higgs has organized more than 200 exhibitions and projects with artists. He has contributed essays and interviews to more than 50 publications and art magazines including Artforum, Frieze, Art Monthly and Afterall.

Judith Scott, Untitled, 2004

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Artists in exhibition: Mary Belknap Jeremy Burleson Attilio Crescenti Daniel Green Willie Harris Carl Hendrickson Michael Bernard Loggins Dwight Mackintosh John Patrick McKenzie James Miles Dan Miller James Montgomery Marlon Mullen Bertha Otoya Aurie Ramirez Evelyn Reyes Lance Rivers Judith Scott William Scott William Tyler Basic facts: Participation fee: $12,000, for 10 weeks, plus incoming shipping Number of artists: 20 Number of works: 103 Space required: 4,500 - 5,000 square feet Tour dates: May 2011 through May 2013 In addition to the artworks on the checklist, wall texts, press, and four education videos about the artists will be included with the tour. A fully illustrated publication will also accompany the exhibition. The exhibition catalogue will feature images of the art, an essay by Lawrence Rinder, and texts on each of the artists by well-known poet, author, and playwright Kevin Killian. This publication will serve as an impressive record of the exhibition and offer thoughtful insights about the significance and compelling history of these organizations, which deserve to be shared with audiences around the world.

Bertha Otoya, Serpiente, 2010