microFloraFantastic
exhibition proposal
"Chaos is the order of nature and order is the nature of man."
For as long as humans have walked this earth, they've attempted to make order of it. Stone walls, simple tools, farming, celestial mythology and on and on. For just about as long, artists have looked to nature for inspiration and symbols of human existence, and also: for raw materials.
"microFloraFantastic" will bring together 6-10 artists at a particular venue (a museum or gallery with nearby natural splendor) and they will work on the grounds or nearby for one week to create 6-10 pieces of art each. The institution's curator would select, say, 4 to 6 pieces from each artist to be printed up as archival computer prints for an exhibition of 24-60 pieces total.
Wall space needs for the exhibition are flexible.
Below is the first draft with potential participating artists; the final list is in formation.
(School group information at bottom of this proposal.)
(click on any image to make it bigger)
possible installation view
PROPOSED ARTISTS
(list in formation)
Eric Cline
(not yet confirmed)
Eric Cline
website unknown
Kanichi Fujiwara
(confirmed - can participate)
Kanichi Fujiwara
Norm Magnusson
(confirmed - can participate)
Norm Magnusson
Walter Mason
(confirmed - can participate)
Walter Mason
Tanya Marcuse
(approached - waiting to hear)
Tanya Marcuse
http://tanyamarcuse.com
http://tanyamarcuse.com
Kristen Meyer
(confirmed - can participate)
Kristen Meyer
http://www.salvagedesign.net
Portia Munson
(confirmed - can participate)
Imke Rust
(confirmed - can participate)
Imke Rust
Roy Staab
(confirmed - can participate)
Roy Staab
LOCAL SCHOOLS MAKE ART AT MICROFLORAFANTASTIC EXHIBITION
School groups will be invited to visit artists in their temporary studios and to try their hands at making their own art from objects found in the natural world. These creations will be shared on the institution's website and social media channels (#microFloraFantastic(institution name)) and will, no doubt, garner a lot of local press and interest.
About the organizer:
Norm Magnusson is mildly renowned all over the world.
He’s received a NYFA Fellowship (2014-2015) for sculpture, Pollock-Krasner Foundation grants for sculpture (2016-2017) and for painting (1998-1999), and a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council grant (2008-2009) and a NYSCA grant (through the Center for Sustainable Rural Communities - 2014), both for public art installation and, in 2017 received the Ulster County Executive's award for art in public places.
As a visual artist, he has shown in galleries and museums in New York and New Zealand, London and Paris and all over the United States. His work is in private and museum collections around the world, including NY’s MoMA (Franklin Furnace Artist’s Book Collection) and he’s been reviewed everywhere from the NY Times to the Washington Post to the Utne Reader, the “Center for Sustainable Practices in the Arts” magazine, Sculpture magazine, TrendHunter.com and many other national and international magazines, websites and blogs.
As a curator, he has brought together exhibitions such as “FU”, which examined and illustrated U.S. fair use laws as they pertain to visual artists; “The Museum of Controversial Art”, which re-created some of the most controversial art through the ages; “Beautiful nonsense”, which consists of objects and art meant to challenge the intellectual sure-footedness with which we move through our everyday lives; and “abc@WFG”, a survey of text-based art.
As an educator, he’s taught art to under-privileged kids in NYC and over-privileged kids in Woodstock, NY. He created a 12-class curriculum entitled “Art that’s changed the way I see the world around me” in which artists and gallerists and rock stars and film makers and authors and academics came and spoke on that topic with visual and audio aids.
For the last 6 years, on August 29, the date of its world premier in Woodstock, NY, Magnusson has produced an anniversary concert of John Cage’s 4’33” at the WAAM Museum in that town.
Recently, he’s returned to his first creative love, acting; starring in community theater productions of plays by David Mamet and David Ives, and as Pozzo in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.” Most recently, he performed in the The Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck’s production of Eve Ensler’s “A memory, a monologue, a rant, and a prayer.” He wrote his first ever words and images monologue “The signs in our lives” and performed it at the Hudson Literary Festival in 2014 and reprised it in the summer of 2015; in November, 2016, he debuted his "Swipe right" monologue at the Coccoon Theater in Poughkeepsie.
He is the co-founder of FISHtheMOUSEmedia, a developer of educational apps for iOS; where his “Animal alphabet” app was widely acclaimed and honored with a prestigious Gold award from the Parents’ Choice Foundation.
He serves on the board of directors of two 501(c)3 organizations, Young Rhinebeck and GoodJTDeeds and is the father of 3 wonderful kids, all of whom are especially talented at seeing the world around them with appreciative eyes and a grateful heart. He reckons this is his proudest accomplishment.
