The Exhibitionists at A.I.R. Gallery June 26-July 21, 2007

installation, opening night, Emily Bicht with topic sticker
Gallery III: WISH YOU WERE HERE 6, A.I.R. Gallery benefit exhibition
incorporated an installation and interactive project by “the EXHIBITIONISTS”
On view June 26, 2007 to July 21, 2007

YES, I AM an exhibitionist and have been for roughly 4-5 years… but memory is as fickle as fate. With that said, it was great to be part of this interesting collaborative project. If you have seen the show, I welcome your comments. If you haven’t, please drop by.

WISH YOU WERE HERE 6 includes original works by over 400 artists. The 4 x 6 artworks are created and donated by A.I.R. Gallery Artists, Founders and Fellowship Artists as well as hundreds of other national and international artists. These cards range widely in style and media and encompass a broad spectrum of themes. Postcards will be priced at $40 each.

As a special addition to this year’s benefit exhibition A.I.R. Gallery offered a series of 10 dot drawings by Yoko Ono & 15 wooden postcards by Jenny Holzer. The ten new works by Yoko Ono were produced for the occasion of the exhibition. Jenny Holzer's works on wood included selections of text from the Truisms series (1977-1979) and the Survival Series (1983-1985). These were almost sold out immediately!

Much to my misfortune the postcard piece's I had my eye on by artists, Carolee Schneeman and Phyllis Ewen were both quickly snapped up. Allow yourself a good amount of time to wander through the entire exhibition. It's worth every minute.

THE EXHIBITIONISTS, is a New York City-based group of professional women artists, working in a variety of disciplines, who host monthly salons in pursuit of fresh dialogue about the arts. Using the postcard format, "the exhibitionists" visually address an array of important and pertinent issues surrounding the state of the art world and women artists past, present and future. The topics are culled from their meetings over the last 6 years.

The interactive part of the project took on a life of it’s own during the opening. Printed stickers with an assortment of topics worn on random body parts instigated quite a number of responses. Everything from interest in the group, open discussion on the topics to the obvious…
Personally, I had a bit of fun with this part. An artist from the show informed me she was the “pecker” lady as she painted a lot of "peckers". Taking my arm she proceeded to point out her work and others addressing the representation of the female body, which led into discussions on feminism, the gap between the generations, art history, women’s rights, understanding where we’ve been and where do we go from here. Naturally I then introduced her to fellow exhibitionist, Alexandra Jacoby who has been working on a photographic book, Vagina Verite for the past five years. And so - the night’s discourse that began with the topic The nude in art successfully opened dialogue to a wide range of ideas and thoughts.

25 topics were written on the left side of a large wall, painted sea green cellular bubbles, which seemed in the process of moving in a strange silent rhythm past the confines of the green band (which contained the rest of the shows hundreds of postcards) slide around the wall at 2 points. Each varied sized bubble contained postcards addressing the correlating topics.

The work ranged from the humorous to the very disturbing. Genius vs. mental illness, don’t quit your day job to the portrayal of violence in art, eroticism and beauty, the self as portrait, personal and national identity are a few of the issues explored. There are many interesting pieces to choose from, of note were Nikki Johnson’s, Street fight, photograph which haunts me in a wonderfully disturbing way, Mor Erlich’s skillfull and humorous pen drawing, V- day, Brynna Tuckers creepy yet also humorous fake sparkly pink toenail piece and Robyn Desposito's Shame pieces which struck a nerve. I may need to seek professional help after contemplating that one....

exhibitionist artists included: Dianne Bowen, Brynna Tucker, Emily Bicht, Nikki Johnson, Robyn Desposito, Alexandra Jacoby, Jane Kratchovil, Jenny Walty, Christa Toole, Agni Zotis, Kathrine Dolgy, Barbara Monoian and Mor Erlich.

Current Exhibitions at A.I.R. Gallery also include;
Gallery I; WOMEN TOUCH: CERAMICS
curated by Sylvia Netzer and in collaboration with Loveed Fine Arts
Gallery II; SIGNS OF DESIRE an exhibition of new work by Nancy Morrow

for information about “the EXHIBITIONISTS’ go to the website;
http://www.exhibitionists-nyc.com/
or For more information about these exhibitions or A.I.R. Gallery contact; the director, Kat Griefen at 212.255.6651 or kgriefen@airgallery.org. A.I.R. Gallery is located at 511 West 25th Street, NYC. website; http://airnyc.org/ Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11am-6pm. A.I.R. Gallery was founded in 1972 as the first artist run, not for profit gallery for women artists in the United States. These exhibitions are part of the year-long calendar of events.

It was my pleasure to work on this project with the A.I.R. Gallery staff, and all my fellow “Exhibitionists” in particular Brynna Tucker, the Exhibitionists installation crew, Emily Bicht, Robyn Desposito, Alexandra Jacoby. Special thanks to A.I.R. Gallery Kat Griefen, Director and Emily Harris, Assistant Director