Nancy M. Mitchnick: Curated by Polly Apfelbaum

USM

Modular Furniture THIS EXHIBITION WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY USM MODULAR FURNITURE

CURATOR'S STATEMENT Polly Apfelbaum

I like work that is idiosyncratic. or that has been given a raw deal, critically or otherwise. Nancy Mitchnick didn't start out that way, but today this work feels like a new discovery - something overlooked that's fresh again. I like her casualness. and her painting's insistent visual1ty. They are not there to be analyzed, but to be looked at She takes obvious and guilt-free pleasure 1n the act of painting, and she is good at it (these two may be related.) No nonsense, no hierarchy, no false history, Just painting and its many subjects She understands very well the emotional tug of her subjects: dresses, dogs, landscapes. and quirky narratives; but the experience of these paintings is also about color. pattern, flatness, weird points of view - things that have to do with painting and its problems. It's by putting these two together. or better, showing how they are always there together, that the paintings really jump. It's something you ¡could only do with paint For some people this is conservative, but for me, it's all about experimentation and taking risks. When the rules are well defined. it's harder.

In talking with Nancy I am struck again with the illogical logic that drives artists to do what they do. It's never direct. and 1n this case. a book called 700 Dresses gave her an excuse to loosen up, to try something new. Then there 1s the medium itself - after working always in oil paints, she decided to experiment with acrylic on paper, something faster and more direct maybe. So much art is process and the pleasure of the making. It's this openness to experimentation that can only come with confidence and a sense of where the work needs to go that becomes visible in the work itself, as a sort of record of visual thinking. I think that's finally what I like about this work, the sense of being along on the artist's own adventure.

I am so happy to see this work out 1n the world.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

100 Dresses

This body of work began as a group of studies, and though 1t has evolved nto a sequentia proiect of excessive proportions. the spirit of 'figuring something out' 1s still a real part of 1t.

I read this book as a child trat I always remembered: a g1r1 who wore the same tired dress to school everyday, n a moment of confidence. told the 'popular' girls that really she had-in her closet at home-one hundred dresses When they snide 1 y asked why she always wore the same old plaid school dress she exp1a1ned that the dresses were all party dresses. and not appropriate for weekdays.

As a child I had fancier dresses than the kids 1n my neighborhood because my mother's New York aunts liked to send party clothes and books on manners hoping to encourage a cultural shift. There are lots of ways to be an outsider. arid having ridiculously fancy dresses in a working class Polish neighborhood in Detroit 1s definitely one of them What happened in the book was that the little Po11sh g rl moved to Chicago with her Dad But. to the horror of the disdainful girls sre had entered and won THE drawing contest. Everyore was stupefied until they saw the pictures She had drawn one hundred dresses and they were wonderful. I know other women my age who remember reading this book as chi dren. It was surprising 1n its emotional actual-ness And Wanda Petronski was probably the first g rl artist I'd ever heard of So with a sense of hilarity and purposefulness I decided to see what would happen if I painted a hundred dresses.

I have a few rules. The pa1nt1ngs on paper are numbered. I don't mess with the sequence. 1f I paint another version of a dress 1t gets the same number with an a or b attached The paintings that use models always get started by looking at them standing there I often f 1 n sh using a photograph Where I am working at the t¡me can have an impact. like a part cular landscape or interior space. The paint ngs are acrylic on paper. and except for two early ones. they are 52 inches wide. The height varies. from 8 to 10 feet. I have painted one dress from a movie magazine. I feel free to use h storical art. I plan to make structurally abstract changes to a few dresses. I think sewing something odd might be 1nterest1ng.

For the most part I'm using dresses that I bought at the Beverly Hills Hadassah thrift shop in Santa Monica last year A painting intuition that affects me deeply and that I trust 1s how differently some beings fill the rectangle. Sometimes I don't get much past the knees; I hate that feeling of squashing someone in.

I'm painting men in dresses as well as young and older women and children.

If I really want to paint someone and they won't put a dress on for me. I have many skirted options. A chef 1n Ipswich is going to pose in his apron with work boots. I painted a guy in my dog group with decal dalmatian spots on a bathrobe.

A cabinet maker I know wants to wear a kilt. Judiciary robes will be good. as well as doctoral gowns. and I'm longing to paint a religious being 1n ecclesiastical garb.

Jt also turns out that I Just can't bear to paint 100 white people. I've decided to use the statistical break-down of the US census.

Because I teach I know many really lovely young women and they abound 1n this series. I am very interested 1n depicting older women. I have renowned friends who I am thrilled to include. and I'm particularly interested 1n the carpenters who work in the warehouse space I'm painting 1n this summer. My father was a carpenter I think another reason I feel so compelled to do this work. now that I'm on the other side of 55. 1s that I notice I want my youthful body back. Painting can be a kind of wishful dreaming. I've avoided 'the fem1n1ne,' most of my life also. and am willing these days to tolerate my own vulnerability. it seems like a choice it probably isn't one. And dresses are a kind of equalizer. they contain shapes 1n surprising ways.

I have always disliked acrylic paint. but it is perfect for this particular work.

And it really 1s time for a metaphorical sea change. I adore the paint Nova Color makes on Black Welder Street; It is often called "the people's paint of Los Angeles." It 1s ready to go right out of the containers. It is matt and flat and fast.

And for all those turpentine years of soulful oil paint on linen primed with rabbit skin glue. that represented my true heart. I think I just needed a break from solvents and reverence.

Ipswich studio. 2003

j

NUMBER 45 Acrylic 0 n paper, 108" x 52" , 2003

J NUMBER 22 Acrylic on paper. 96" x 52". 2003

,NUMBER 21 Acrylic on pJp<er. 92' x 54·. 2002

NUMBER 56

Acrylic on paper 107" x 52" 2003

NUMBER 48 Acrylic on paper 106 x 52" 2003

ARTIST'S

BIOGRAPHY

Nancy Markiewicz M1tchn1ck was born in Detroit Michigan in 1947. She studied at Wayne State University and moved to New York in 1973. In the 80's she exhibited her work with Hirschi and Adler Modern. and has shown work nationally through­ out her career.

She was a full time member of the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts for ten years, and 1s currently the Rudolph Arnhe1m Lecturer on Studio Arts at Harvard University. Nancy Mitchnick has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Pollock Krasner foundation Grant. and a National Endowment for the Arts award. Most recently she she was a recipient of the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award. at Harvard College

CURATOR'S BIOGRAPHY

Polly Apfelbaum was born in 1955 1n Abington, Pennsylvania. She attended SUNY Purchase College 1n Purchase. New York and later earned her BFA at Tyler School of Art in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania 1n 1978. She lives and works 1n New York City.

Polly Apfelbaum has been exhib1t1ng internationally for nearly twenty years A maJor mid-career survey of her work debuted at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania in the summer of 2003. The exhibition will travel to the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. Ohio, and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri.

Apfelbaum¡s work is in many important public collections, including: The Museum of Modern Art. New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art. New York; The Henry Art Gallery 1n Seattle, Washington; The Dallas Museum of Art; The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, lll1no1s; and the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Pans.

The artist has received important grants and awards such as: the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award 1n Art; the Richard Diebenkorn Teaching Fellowship; the Joan Mitchell Grant; the Artist's Fellowship New York Foundation for the Arts; and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.

CUE ART FOUNDATION MISSION STATEMENT

CUE Art Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides deserving artists from around the country an opportunity for solo exhibition. Located 1n New York's Chelsea gallery district. the Foundation's 2.000 square foot ground floor exhib1t1on space affords these artists professional exposure comparable to that offered by neighboring commercial galleries. without the usual f1nanc1al restraints. CUE does not promote a particular school of artistic thought or practice. rather. the criteria for selection have been devised with the sole purpose in mind of exhibiting work by artists who have not had a solo exhib1t1on in a commercial venue. or have received minimal exposure in New York in the last ten years At the core of CUE's mission is th.e determination to foster an agenda­ free program of twelve exhibiting artists a year. each handpicked by a single curator. An on-site artist-in-residence program offers selected artists studio space in which to produce or finish work for their exhibition at CUE The respons1bil1ty to choose qualified ind1v1duals from the visual arts and beyond to act as exhibition curators rests with CUE's Advisory Council, an honorary group of artists and leading figures from the arts education. applied arts. art history, and literary communities. The curators. 1n turn. will play a role throughout the exhibition process. helping the artist catalogue his or her work for exhib1t1on. and part1cipat1ng 1n gallery lectures and programs.

Educational initiatives in the form of public programs and artists' dialogues will take advantage of the diverse community that part1c1pates in CUE's gallery and studio programming Foundation internships and stipends will help prepare the next generation of artists and art educators by prov1d1ng practical working knowledge of the art making and exh1bit1on process.

ARTWORK

NANCY M TCH'll(K

Al'ITWORK PHOTO,;RAP>1ED BY '11LES PAI<,£

CATA.OG DEC:,l(NED 8Y SPECK. BROOKLYN. N Y P!� "JTt D

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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 Hirsch Dana Hoey GALLERY DIRECTOR

Jeremy Adams

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