Locust Projects is pleased to present Sunday in the Park, New York-based artist Sarah Crowner’s first exhibition in Miami. Crowner is known for her abstract paintings, which she creates by sewing together panels of raw and painted canvas. In the main exhibition space, Crowner will create her largest work to date a playfully immersive installation that doubles as a theatrical stage. Hung with colorful voile curtains and painted backdrops alluding to park-like landscapes, the installation takes its cues from stage design. While the title refers to a fictional work of theater, Crowner’s work focuses on the material aspects of stagecraft rather than performance itself.
The installation builds on Crowner’s tendency to incorporate aspects of 20th century design history into her work. For Sunday in the Park, she mines the midcentury French journal Art Enfantin, with its contributions by Jean Dubuffet and Jean Cocteau, for graphic imagery, which in turn inspired the design of her poster (doubling as a playbill), painted stage and backdrops. Facsimile copies of issues of Art Enfantin will be available for review during the exhibition.
Crowner has assembled a group of collaborators who will contribute to the theatricality of the installation, including a group of children who will paint the floor of the stage. Brooklyn-based multimedia artist Sari Carel will create a surround sound collage that will occupy center stage in place of actors, and artist Amanda Keeley will collaborate on a set of experimental prints akin to playbills. Keeley’s new pop-up artist’s book store EXILE Books will set up shop in Locust Projects’ storefront for the duration of the exhibition. The Peter London Global Dance Company will perform a site-responsive piece on October 9 at a closing reception.
Sunday in the Park was made possible with support from the Funding Arts Network.
Special thanks: Michelle & Jeffrey Eisenberg and Laura Depasquale & Ceasar Basurto
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Sarah Crowner (b. 1974, Philadelphia) currently lives and works in New York City. Selected exhibitions include Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Nicelle Beauchene Gallery; Catherine Bastide, Brussels, and Whitney Museum of Art, New York. She has also created sets and back-drops for an interpretation of a Robert Ashley opera, Vidas Perfectas, directed by Alex Waterman, which traveled to The Serpentine Gallery in London in 2012 and Ballroom Marfa in 2014, among other venues.
Sari Carel (b.1975, Israel) is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York. She works primarily with video and sound, focusing on theinterplay between the visual and the auditory. Carel’s work has been exhibited internationally in venues such as Artists Space, Dumbo Arts Festival, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, and Gavin Brown’s Enterprise in New York; LAX Art and Young Projects in Los Angeles; and Tavi Dresdner, Contemporary by Golconda, and the Heder Gallery in Tel Aviv.
Amanda Keeley (b.1973, Connecticut) is a Miami-based visual artist who will premier her project EXILE Books at Locust Projects. Keeley has partnered with Printed Matter, Inc., to create a mobile artist's bookstore installation, which will migrate throughout several locations in Miami and will feature a large selection of local and international artist's books and related publications. The mission of EXILE books is to educate the public about print culture and to serve as a platform for exchange, grounded in the spirit of collaboration. Keeley recently completed her Artist-in-Residence at Kala Art Institute in California, was the recipient of the 2013 Blackburn Printmaking SIP fellowship, and has exhibited in galleries and art fairs worldwide.
Peter London Global Dance Company is currently in residence at Little Haiti Cultural Center. A native of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, Peter London is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Peter London Global Dance Company. Regarded by the Miami Herald as “a revered and beloved dance teacher,” London is an honors graduate of The Julliard School and serves as a professor of dance at Miami-Dade College / New World School of the Arts. He is also an active mentor to some of the biggest stars in professional dance such as principal dancer Jamar Roberts of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Lloyd Knight and Mariya Dashkina Maddux of the historic Martha Graham Dance Company, and La Michael Leonard of New York City’s Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company.
ABOUT LOCUST PROJECTS
Locust Projects is a not-for-profit exhibition space founded by three Miami artists in order to provide contemporary visual artists the freedom to experiment with new ideas and methods without the limitations of conventional exhibition spaces. Artists are encouraged to create site-specific installations as an extension of their representative work, and Locust Projects offers them a vibrant Miami experience to develop their ideas. Locust Projects is committed to offering an approachable and inviting venue for the Miami and international art community to experience the work and meet the artists.
Locust Projects’ exhibitions and programming are made possible with the support from: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; Cowles Charitable Trust; The State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; Foundation for Contemporary Arts; Funding Arts Network; Galt & Skye Mikesell; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; The National Endowment for the Arts Art Works Grant.
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