It takes adjustment to something that I must momentarily describe as a non-schedule. At least when I compare my current days with my days in Michigan over the past ten years. For example, I am usually a "studio runner", many times in a week for short sessions - maybe 2-3 hours, whenever I could eek out time - before (and after) courses I taught, after bringing and before picking up the son from school, after running errands, on weekends before preparing a meal and so on. It was mainly a triangular system - Rochester - Pontiac - Detroit; Family - Studio - Teaching. I'm sure, dear reader, you can relate to this.
And now? It is bi-polar now (no kidding). Teaching load is rather light and so I spend many mornings in the colony house where I also draw, read, and do things of uncertain purpose; afternoons, I drive to the old hospital area (mental hospital, I hear) in Coralville, where I paint. Time is suddenly available but my inner clock hasn't yet adjusted to the fact that I can spend an entire day in the studio if I wish to. Things. Still looking around. I went back to the river area on my bike - trails along the river, picnic and parking areas, baseball and soccer areas. The water levels are very low due to a very dry summer. But one still finds signs that it hasn't always been that low. Later, a walk around the Hickory Hill park. It is about 2 miles from where I live, an area where one can get lost among the old trees, strange noises that I don't hear in Michigan and ever changing landscape. Looking around. It's a strange feeling to be in a unfamiliar place trying to find something that is familiar. More so, the distance to home, that is in this case the Eastern Westphalia city that I grew up in, seems so much more farther away. Thinking about my mother who passed today twelve years ago.
A bicycle ride along the Iowa River and around the buildings that are part of the university campus and that were badly damaged during the flood of 2008.
After a one-day and one-night journey in an insanely large truck with tail (dolly for the car) I arrived safely in Iowa City and I'm blown away by the comfort and space and light and beauty of my accommodation for the next 10 months or so. It is a older spacious and lovingly renovated house in the central residential part of the city. Earlier, I was sitting at the table in my space looking out at a very large and old tree beyond which the original Grant Wood house is hidden from my view, and which is now occupied by the man who apparently initiated the Grant Wood Colony.
Grant Wood Fellowship in Painting and Drawing I am happy to announce that I will spend the coming academic year at the University of Iowa in Iowa City as the Grant Wood Fellow in Painting and Drawing. Beginning in late August, I will be teaching a total of two courses in the School of Art and Art History, participate in public programming and prepare for an exhibition of new work in the spring of 2013. The fellowship program, now in its second year, is part of the Grant Wood Colony, whose mission is to further the “Iowa Idea” of bringing artists and scholars together in an academic context. The Grant Wood Fellows, one in printmaking, the other in painting and drawing are selected through a national competition and provided with furnished living quarters at the Grant Wood Colony, a studio space and teaching salary. After roughly twelve years living in the Detroit area, I look forward to move my studio and residence temporarily to Iowa City and to be associated with this excellent university. However, for now, my family and I will also keep our residence in Michigan. I plan to use this "News" section more actively for updates, observations and thoughts about my time in Iowa. Please check back frequently. More info about the fellowship can be found HERE. The Butcher's Daughter is proud to be representing the work of artists Michael Anderson, Kevin Beasley, Marvin Shaouni and Hartmut Austen. Taking place May 3-6, 2012 at the Metropolitian Pavilion (125 W 18th btw 6/7th Avenue), PULSE Contemporary Art Fair will featuring 60 galleries from around the world. PASSENGER Presents:
LOST and FOUND: Belief and Doubt in Contemporary Pictures Curated by Brian Barr April 5- May 6, 2012 Temporary Project Space 1261 Woodward, Detroit, MI Opening reception April 5, 2012, 6-8pm LOST and FOUND: Belief and Doubt in Contemporary Pictures marks the public launch of programming for PASSENGER, which will be a residency program and project space in Detroit. This show announces the vision, goals and type of ideas that PASSENGER seeks to support while we work towards establishing a permanent location. Showcasing the best local artists in the context of top emerging practitioners from around the country, LOST and FOUND looks at artists engaging with the concept of pictures in the era after the "death and resurrection of painting" in which images in any traditional capacity have become impossible in a critical context. In light of this impossibility comes the demand for a fresh investigation. LOST and FOUND showcases a generation of artists that are aware of the historical critique of the language of painting/images. This awareness informs their practice and a traversal of the liminal space between belief/doubt structures their conceptual framework. The artists exhibited are Njideka Akunyili (New York, NY), Hartmut Austen (Detroit, MI), Jordan Buschur (Lincoln, NE), Tim Campbell (Washington, D.C.), Jesse Harrod (Chicago, IL), Yui Kugimiya (Brooklyn, NY), Doron Langberg (New Haven, CT), Nick Martin (Carbondale, IL), Ryan Parker (Philadelphia, PA), Lauren Rice (Detroit, MI), Amy Sacksteder (Ypsilanti, MI), Naomi Safran-Hon (Brooklyn, NY), Sharon Servillio (Queens, NY), SLINKO (Brooklyn, NY) More info HERE March 30 - June 22, 2012
Opening Reception: Friday, march 30, 5-8 PM Elaine L. Jacob Gallery, 480 W. Hancock, Detroit MI 48202 NO.TOWN beyond the wall Two decades after the fall of the wall - Berlin artists meet Detroit. Detroit’s creative community has long investigated the commonalities and differences between Detroit and Berlin. The most obvious commonality may be that both cities were the base of large industries that have drastically diminished or even vanished. In Detroit, the American automobile industry now shadows its former self in terms of size and influence. In Berlin, the loss of industry such as AEG is a consequence of National Socialism, war and separation. The two cities share physical characteristics as well. The Berlin Wall was a highly protected and dangerous border that cut the city and Europe into two parts. Detroit’s Eight Mile Road marks the economic divide between the impoverished city and its affluent suburbs. Both cities have been demarcated and divided with distinct populations in direct proximity while remaining separate, not only physically but psychically. In the recent past, however, after the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe and the election of a black President in the US, previously fixed borders have become more permeable, creating free spaces and open areas. Though welcome, this new phase is accompanied by an atmosphere of dreariness that has become the ground for new forms of cultural and social exploration by pioneers of contemporary culture. In Berlin and Detroit, many artists have moved into abandoned industrial buildings in the search of studio spaces to create art and to start small businesses. The rich but neglected architectonic legacy is often an added incentive for new kinds of uses. For example, in the early nineties the former vault of the department store Wertheim in Berlin became home to one of the most famous techno clubs in the world, called Tresor. The Tresor is strongly influenced by the roots of Detroit techno music. The changes over the past twenty years have been dramatic. The selected artworks reflect the personal experiences of fifteen artists, each with an idiosyncratic perspective. Urban environments and changing cultures are presented without any attempt to generate sanitized or homogenous pictures. No. Town stimulates visual experience, thought and conversation. The following artists are featured in the exhibition: Jonas Burgert, Uros Djurovic, Gerrit Engel, Fabian Fobbe, Philip Grözinger, Eberhard Havekost, Gregor Hildebrandt, Tilman Hornig, Michelle Jezierski, Daniel Kannenberg, Alicja Kwade, Achim Riethmann, Peter Scior, Wiebke Maria Wachmann and Marcus Wittmers. |
AuthorHartmut Austen is a painter and educator currently based in the Boston area. Archives
February 2023
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