Past Residents
Past Resident2010: Danish Arts Foundation
Christian Schmidt Rasmussen
Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen (b. 1963 in Copenhagen, Denmark) lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. He graduated from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art in 1992.
In his most recent exhibition, Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen presents a series of new paintings installed upon black walls, upon which small texts are written. A diary written by a vampire, who is the artist himself, is also a part of the exhibition. Schmidt-Rasmussen presents us with stories from his own neighbourhood in Copenhagen, which represents a classic terrain vague, as well as the rest of Copenhagen and Denmark. The paintings communicate atmospheres in which the everyday and the trivial is illuminated by the poetic presence of color and glitter, but also by a melancholic darkness. In his work he addresses the relationship between the immediate and the distant world.
Christian Schmidt Rasmussen, Le Sacre du Printemps, 2010, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist. Photo courtesy of Anders Sune Berg.
Christian Schmidt Rasmussen, Le Sacre du Printemps, 2010, Installation view. Courtesy of the artist. Photo courtesy of Anders Sune Berg.
Christian Schmidt Rasmussen, Bubbles, 2009, Oil on canvas, 67 × 781/2 in. (170.18 × 199.39 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Christian Schmidt Rasmussen, Teat Tree, 2009, Oil on canvas, 67 × 781/2 in. (170.18 × 199.39 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Christian Schmidt Rasmussen, Migrant labor, 2009, Oil on canvas, 67 × 781/2 in. (170.18 × 199.39 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Residents from Denmark
Past Resident2010: Gallery Difference
Kyong Sim Jeong
Kyoung Sim Jeong was born in Korea in 1975. She has earned a B.A in Fine Arts at Seoul National University and a M.F.A in Fine Arts at Seoul National University. Her work revolves around fundamental questions of eating. Jeong was born in the seventies, a period in which Korea experienced rapid economic growth. Industrialization in Korea transformed a war torn country into a high-tech modern nation. “Modernization,” however, was synonymous with “westernization” in Korea. The seduction of material prosperity has resulted in a widespread belief that everything can be bought or sold for money. Necessity gave birth to avarice. This experience made Jeong understand instinctively that life is endlessly precarious and unstable without having to resort to concepts such as “survival of the fittest” and natural selection.
Kyong Sim Jeong, Man Eating a Cupcake, 2010, Acrylic on canvas, 36 × 36 in. (91.44 × 91.44 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Kyong Sim Jeong, The Western Feast, 2010, Mixed media on canvas, 51 × 63 in. (129.54 × 160.02 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Kyong Sim Jeong. Courtesy of the artist.
Past Resident2010: Artadia
Theaster Gates
If pressed to describe Theaster Gates’ work in one word, it would be ‘transformative.’ In his performances, installations and urban interventions, Gates—an artist, musician and ‘cultural planner’ as well as director of arts program development for the University of Chicago—transforms spaces, relationships, traditions and perceptions.
Exploring architecture as a tool for mediation and meditation, Gates draws from both urbanism and art to provide what he terms ‘moments of interstitial beauty’ in Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods. His most recent project, ‘Temple’, comprises two neighboring houses whose interiors he completely rebuilt of donated and repurposed materials to create spaces for workshops, exhibitions and other public events on topics of race, art and politics.
Gates’ work is funded by the Joyce Foundation, the Graham Foundation, and the African American Art Alliance. In 2010 alone, he has performed
and exhibited at the Whitney Biennial and the Armory Show in New York, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Brunno David Gallery and Pulitzer Museum of Art in St. Louis, and the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. He also completed residencies with the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wis., Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, Oregon, and Artadia New York. He is a Loeb Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design for 2010-11.
Theaster Gates, Single Structure and Foreclosure List, 2010, 96 × 48 × 120 in. (243.84 × 121.92 × 304.8 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Pulitzer Museum Project, St. Louis.
Theaster Gates, The Story of Yamaguchi, 2007, 960 × 72 in. (2438.4 × 182.88 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago.
Theaster Gates, To Speculate Darkly, 2010, 226 × 48 in. (574.04 × 121.92 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Milwaukee Art Museum.
Theaster Gates, Temple, 2010, 264 × 216 × 144 in. (670.56 × 548.64 × 365.76 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Whitney Biennial, New York.
