Under the Influence

collaborate. cross-pollinate. connect.
an exhibition in two parts.

Opening reception: Friday, Oct 24, 2008, 6 – 9 pm
Exhibition runs through Jan 4, 2009

Girls’ Club opening reception: Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008, 7–10 pm

Assembled by the curatorial team of artists Francie Bishop Good, Jane Hart, and Michelle Weinberg, Under the Influence explores how the art-making and art-presenting process is affected by others. A collaborative effort on every level, this exhibition opens concurrently at the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood and the Girls’ Club exhibition space in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

An alternative space presenting curated exhibitions of contemporary art, Girls’ Club is a private foundation established in 2006 by Francie Bishop Good and David Horvitz. The work on view for Under the Influence is selected primarily from the Girls’ Club collection of works by contemporary women artists as well as on loan from other artists and collections.

Artists can influence each other through local social networks and collaborations, through mentor/student relationships, or by similar approaches or conceptions of art. Several types of art will be highlighted in Under the Influence. Painters Amy Sillman and Claire Rojas work in a mode reminiscent of folkloric and illustrational or narrative styles. Alison Elizabeth Taylor who works in wood inlay, and Frances Trombly and Ghada Amer who work in needlework, re-invent conventional craft media. Abstraction in which repetitive motifs and drawing methods create eccentric and visionary environments describes the works of Joanne Greenbaum, Lynn Gelfman, Elisabeth Condon, and Lisa Sanditz. Artists Wangechi Mutu and Quisqueya Henriquez use the photographic image of the female body to explore its elasticity and capacity for shapeshifting. The video program for Under the Influence features work by Ann Hamilton, Mariko Mori and Pipilotti Rist. Local artist Jen Stark’s “Streaming Gradient” will be projected onto the exterior of the Girls’ Club building, layering a hypnotic, moving image onto the architecture itself.

Under the Influence demonstrates the vital influence artists wield upon the contemporary art scene as well as posterity when they act as curators. The three curator/artists organizing the exhibition will place their own works in the context of the other exhibiting artists, and they will each discuss their own aesthetic and conceptual leanings.

Web projects for Under the Influence found at www.girlsclubcollection.org are in development and will include essays by the exhibition’s three curator/artists; creative writing by Denise Delgado; a visual project by Felice Grodin; and the commentary of writers such as Claire Breukel, director of Locust Projects in Miami, and Elisa Turner, longtime Miami Herald arts correspondent and columnist for Arts Circuits. Relevant discussions and further public programming are planned during this year-long exhibition.

Click thumbnail of exhibition flyer to enlarge:

Under the Influence artists include:
TJ Ahearn	Annette Messager
Ghada Amer	Melissa Meyer
Lisa Anne Auerbach	Moriko Mori
Cindy Bernard	Elizabeth Murray
Rakel Bernie	Wangechi Mutu
Francie Bishop Good	Rivane Neuenschwander
Sophie Calle	Julia Orschatz
Petah Coyne	Pipiloti Rist
Gregory Crewdson	Alyson Shotz
Julie Davidow	Shazia Sikander
Tara Donovan	Amy Sillman
Inka Essenhigh	Nancy Spero
Joanne Greenbaum	Jen Stark
Quisqueya Henriquez	Frances Trombly
Louise Lawler	Michelle Weinberg
Suzanne McLellaand	Pae White
Julie Mehretu	Zing Magazine/Devon Dikeou

The 08/09 visual arts season is supported by Francie Bishop Good and David Horvitz; and the John C. Graves Charitable Fund.

Funding Acknowledgements

The Art and Culture Center of Hollywood is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization supported in part by its members, admissions, private entities, the City of Hollywood, the Broward County Board of County Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; and the Kresge Foundation. We welcome donations from all members of the community who wish to support our work.