Mark Milloff: Curated by Debra Bricker Balken

MARK MILLOFF 09.04.2003-10.11.2003

J Curated by Debra Br cker Ba ker'

PATRIOT CAPI'IAL THIS EXHIBITION WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY PATRIOT CAPITAL

FORWARD

We are honored to host this exh1b1tion of the work of Rhode Island artist Mark Mllloff. which has been generously curated by Ms. Debra Bricker Balken For the inaugural season of the CUE gallery, Ms. Balken has chosen a single piece presenting a major American narrative imagery. Were 1t not for the opportunity that the CUE gallery affords. it is unlikely that a multiple-media work on such a scale would be available for public v1ew1ng, whether in a commercial venue or not. in New York or 1n good time.

We appreciate that artists. 1nterm1ttently in their careers, feel compelled to explore and transform their means of expression We wish to encourage such exploration by showing their work and celebrating their efforts.

CURATOR'S STATEMENT Debra Bricker Balken

I have known Mark Milloff's work and ongoing interest in Moby-Oick for more than two decades. In this mid-nineteenth century American epic narrative- with all its reverberant drama and profuse imagery - Milloff has found much to mine, locating in the story's descriptive abundance fathomless possibilities for visual representation. His approach to the tale of Captain Ahab, and his tragic encounter with the whale, Moby-Dick, has taken various forms, alternatively scenic and

episodic, as witnessed in his large-scale pastels, and visceral and microscopic, in his thickly painted abstractions that evoke the skin of the whale. While seemingly stylistically distinct, opposed languages even, the two bodies of work remain not only thematically unified, but elaborations of the same general idea. How to convey the intricacy of rich visual material? How to distill specific sections of a novel without capitulating to illustration and literal detail?

Revealingly, Milloff's abstractions are the most well known and exhibited of his work. And even they remain under-recognized. But the pastels - ironically, perhaps because of their size - remain for the most part overlooked, almost invisible. Notwithstanding their panoramic proportions, is there still something in our culture that is desirous of consistency, that gravitates, moreover, toward the sparer artistic statement? When the CUE Art Foundation invited me to nominate an artist for its inaugural series of exhibitions of under-recognized figures, I immediately thought of Mark Milloff. The twin formal means he always employed in his work, with their resulting one-sided and tilted reception, seemed to offer a way to consider some of the ingredients which contribute to the whole phenomenon of under-appreciation. But more importantly, his latest pastel which comprises this installation -Drawn Up Toward Heaven By Invisible Wiresnow with its integration of film and theatrical framing devices, is a potent and beautifully executed morality tale, one in which the viewer will surely recognize aspects of our current historic predicament.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

When I began the pastels after a considerable hiatus. it was with no thought of showing them. I would like to thank Debra Bricker Balken and the CUE Art Foundation for giving me the opportunity to do so I have been reading the book Moby-D1ck since high school. maybe 25-30 times by now. and having grown up 1n South F orida during the 50s and 60s. spending all of my time fishing. sitting on docks and piers. peering into the watE. r that was more often than not thick and dark like coffee h1d1ng south Atlantic horrors from a curious and cowardly boy. the book 1mmed1ately represented tre best story 1mag1nable. Also. while growing up I was a constant movie goer. worried and wa1t1ng every Saturday morning compressed w th,n a herd of k d<s at the Hollywood Cinema: and then 1n college I becarre devoted to E ,senste1n¡s .

"Alexander Nevsky" and Kurosawa's "The Seven Samurai . In particular I wc1s enthralled by the battle scenes. and when I began the arge paste 1 s n tre rT 1d 80s. 1t was my intent to emulate these movies: 1n fact to freeze frame the ar t1or sequence at the ultimate moment I'm also a fan of advert...ire pa1nt1ngs The idea of s1tt1ng 1n a theatre and wa1t1ng for the curtairs to pc1rt revealinq Frederick Church's latest on his return from the Andes. 1s tre same trr1 I l'IT' trying to impart here. I want the viewer to witness what Ive witnessed while adventuring in the book.

Lastly, it was while making short narrative movies myself over the last five years I got the terrible urge to return to pastels and the big story

DRAWN UP TOWARDS HEAVEN

BY INVISIBLE WIRES Pastel on paper, 108" x 200", 2002 (CUE lnstal/at!On)

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,--A hah's yet unstricken boat see1ned drawn up towards Heaven by invisible wires

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Video stills from the CUE 1nstallat1on, 2003

FASTA MORGANA

Pastel on paper. 87" x 150", 2002

AN AMERICAN WHALER CAUGHT WHILE BALING THE CASE BY PIRATICAL MALAYS IN THE STRAITS OF SUNOA DURING A SQUALL O, or panel 36 x 48" 2003

ATTACKING THE POD OR THE LIVING WALL

AND THE GREAT SHROUD OF THE SEA ROLLED ON lV, S. 36 X 86' X £ 20)2

ARTIST'S

BIOGRAPHY

Mark M1 loff. born in Miami. Florida 1n 1953. has been making art his entire life.

He currently lives 1n Providence. RI with his wife Christine. daughter Alexandra and son Harry He received a Master's degree from the Maryland Institute. Baltimore. and a BA from Connecticut College He has shown his work in the United States and abroad

CURATOR'S BIOGRAPHY Deb�a Bricker Balken 1s an independent curator and writer who works on aspects of modern and contemporary art. Some of her most recent curatorial pro1ects include.

Arthur Dove: A Retrospective which appeared at the Whitney Museum of American Art 1n 1998 and Alfredo Jaar: Lament of the Images which was organized by the MIT List Visual Arts Center 1n 1999. In add1t1on. she has recently published a book titled Phd1p Guston's Poor Richard (2001) with the University of Chicago Press. the images of which subse¡ quently traveled as an exhib1t1on to MASS MoCA and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Ms. Balken. who has taught at the Institute of Fine Arts. New York Un1vers1ty. was an Inaugural Clark Fellow at the Clark Art Institute. Williamstown in 2001 and was the 2002 recipient of a Senior Fellowship from the Dedalus Foundation and a grant from the Getty Research Institute for a book underway on Harold Rosenberg. In January 2003.

three of her new curatorial proiects opened including, The Park Avenue Cubists at the Grey Art Gallery, New York University and Debatmg Amencan Modermsm: Stieglttz.

Duchamp and the New York Avant-Garde at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

CUE ART FOUNDATION MISSION STATEMENT CUE Art Foundation is a non-prof,t organizat on that provides deserving artists from around the country an opportunity for solo exh1b1tion. Located 1n New York's Chelsea gallery district. the Foundat,on¡s 2.000 sq ft ground floor exh1bit1on space affords these artists profess1ona1 exposure comparable to that offered by neighboring commerc1a1 galleries. without the usual financial restraints. CUE does not promote a particular school of art1st1c thought or practice; rather. the criteria for selection have been devised with the so1e purpose 1n mind of exh1b1ting work by artists who have not had a solo exh1b1t1on 1n a commercial venue. or have rece 1 ved m1n1mal exposure 1n New York in the last ten years.

At the core of CUE's mission s the determination to foster an agenda-free program of twelve exh1b1t1ng artists a year. eacr handpicked by a single curator. An on-s,te artist n-res1dence program offers selected artists studio space 1n which to produce or finish work for their exh1b1t1on at CUE The respons,b1l1ty to choose qualified ind v1duals from the visual arts and beyond

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Gregory Amenoff Thomas G. Devine Thomas K. Y Hsu Brian D Starer ADVISORY COUNCIL

Gregory Amenoff Vicky A Clark William Corbett Petah Coyne James Drake Bruce Ferguson Sanford H rsch Dana Hoey

to act as exhibition curators rests with CUE's Advisory Council. an honorary group of artists and leading fgures from the arts educ.at on, appl ed arts. art history. and literary commun1t1es. The curators. 1n turn, will play a role throughout the exh1b1t on process. helping the artist cata,ogue his or her work for exh b1t1on. and participating 1n gallery lectures and programs.

Educational in1tiat1ves in the form of public programs and artists¡ dialogues will take advantage of the diverse community that participates in CUE's gallery and studio programming. Foundation 1nternsh1ps and stipends will help prepare the next generation of artists and art educators by providing practical working knowledge of the art making and exhibit on process.

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Jeremy Adams

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