on the road

I'm typing in this little box again, so that can only mean that we managed to open ON THE ROAD without incident. The AAC's current show features ten artists working away from the studio--in unconventional artist-created residencies; in public art projects meant to engage audiences on their own terms; and in derelict, remote, or informal public spaces that challenge our sense of how or where we should live. How about them apples?

The show has a catalog; come by and pick one up. We should have a pdf of it available on the website soon. In the meantime, read a little bit about the artists here.

I don't have a full set of installation shots yet, but I do want to give you a couple of highlights--like, for example, this giant 8' X 12' X 12' piece that we built onsite for Michael Ruglio-Misurell, an artist who splits his time between Berlin and NYC:


Ruglio-Misurell finds unexpected order in lots, alleys, and basements--and creates post-disaster chaos within the confines of pristine gallery and museum environments.

For ON THE ROAD, Ruglio-Misurell presents Project #15, a bulging, sagging, biomorphic tent structure jutting out of a crudely built staircase.



While the piece to a certain extent functions like traditional sculpture, playing free informal curves against rigid geometry, it also turns the gallery into a squalid, improvised shelter, festooned with rags.


The inside of the tent/sculpture is stocked with shopping bags filled with authentic found Arlington County garbage.


Here's a view of Michael's piece framed by Jess Perlitz's To Lie While Being Supported by Something (2011), a curving steel structure built around three air raid sirens.



The piece snakes in and out of the building's walls, appearing to become part of the infrastructure.



Perlitz has left one siren strapped to a furniture dolly, and a large bass drum plunked down in the middle of the gallery. She invited gallerygoers to move these components as needed, creating a militaristic cacophany on the go.



More images and more artists to come. Thanks to my intern Kristin Bruch for taking these pics.