Past Residents
Past Resident2012: Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Jean-Michel Ross
Jean-Michel Ross’s curatorial practice questions the spatial relationship and interaction between objects and subjects. He creates different contexts through fiction and narration to build dialogue with artists and interact with their works. His projects often reflect upon hierarchy, freedom, universality, neutrality, equivalence and value. He believes that both conceptual esthetics and formal esthetics are equally fundamental to curatorial research. For him curating is and will always be a collaborative effort. Recently he has started to question the issues and empirical impossibilities raised by the democratic ideal, linking this political theory to the art field and to his curatorial and editorial practice.
Jean-Michel Ross is a Montreal based curator, critic, writer and collector. He completed an art history degree at Université du Québec à Montreal in 2004. He was assistant editor of Espace Sculpture Magazine for six years where he directed several thematic issues. His writings on contemporary art have been published regularly in Espace and C Magazine. In 2010 he curated the exhibition and residency project La Colonie, Deschambault-Grondine, Canada. In recent years he has also acted as co-curator for projects such as The Waterpod Project in 2009, New York; Québec Gold in 2008, Reims, France; and Jumelages in 2007, Montreal, Canada. He is the founder of Free Pass and has been on the board of Optica Gallery in Montreal since 2004.
Events & Exhibitions
Salon: Kakyoung Lee and Jean-Michel Ross
January 24, 2012
Jean-Michel Ross, Press Pass Maquette, 2011.
Residents from Canada
Past Resident2012: Pola Art Foundation
Takahiro Iwasaki
Takahiro Iwasaki creates a unique world by combining a painstaking creative process with familiar materials. Close examination reveals miniature natural and urban landscapes, including towers created with threads pulled from fraying towels and socks, utility poles created with the lead from mechanical pencils, and mountain ranges made by carving erasers. The gap in scale and the displacement of perspective has the effect of surprising and delighting the observer. Although the scenes are so fragile that they could be destroyed by a simple touch, Iwasaki’s work emanates a powerful magnetic force that triggers people to ‘see,’ while the mountains and towns created with inorganic materials in fact appear organic, as though they have evolved naturally.
Takahiro Iwasaki is based in Hiroshima, Japan, and graduated from Hiroshima City University and Edinburgh College of Art MFA. Recent solo shows include Nichtlokalität, Nassauischer Kunstverein-Wiesbaden, Germany; Phenotypic Remodeling, ARATANIURANO, Tokyo. Group show include Our Magic Hour, Yokohama Triennale 2011,Yokohama; LUSTWARANDE`11,Tilburg, Netherlands; CONSTELLATIONS, Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK; everyday(s), Casino, Luxembourg; City-net Asia 2009, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea; The Spectacle of the Everyday, 10th Lyon Biennale 2009, Lyon, France.
Takahiro Iwasaki, Out of Disorder (Complex), 2009, Blankets and bath towels, 41/2 × 61/2 × 17/8 in. (11.43 × 16.51 × 4.76 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Takahiro Iwasaki, Differential / Integral Calculus, 2005, Pencil leads, rubber, vinyl tape, and thread, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.
Takahiro Iwasaki, Out of Disorder (Black Socks), 2009, Socks and table, 21/8 × 15/16 × 31/4 in. (5.4 × 3.39 × 8.25 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Takahiro Iwasaki, Out of Disorder (Cosmo World), 2011, Hair and dust, 51/2 × 77/8 × 51/8 in. (13.97 × 20 × 13.02 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Takahiro Iwasaki, Reflection Model, 2001, Japanese cypress and wire, 36 × 24 × 45 in. (91.44 × 60.96 × 114.3 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Past Resident2011: TMU - Trust For Mutual Understanding
Jadranka Kosorcic
Over the course of her two-month residency Kosorcic will invite willing participants into the studio through the means of an advertisement: “Artist is looking for people m/f willing to pose for a portrait. Time spent 1-3 hours. Send photo to kosorcic[at]hotmail.com.” They meet, sit and converse- Kosorcic behind a drawing table, the participant in an open chair. The resulting portrait is neither them nor she, neither fictitious nor truthful. The stark figures composed of acutely drawn lines seem, rather, to chart the one to three hours spent. Kosorcic’s portraits become a literal conversation piece where the voices of two and the hand of one meet, each revealing the subtle tendencies of the artist herself.
Jadranka Kosorcic lives and works in Berlin and has exhibited extensively in Europe including solo exhibitions at Galerie Bezirk Oberbayem, Munich; Bloomberg Space, London; Extended Media Gallery, Zagreb; Artothek, Munich; and the Essl Collection, Klosterneuburg. Blind Date: New York in June 2011 at the Jack Hanley Gallery was Kosorcic’s first solo exhibition in the United States. Most recently her work was represented at the Emerge Art Fair in Washinton DC.
Jadranka Kosorcic, Blind Date With Bloomberg Employees, 2009, Charcoal on paper, 22 × 161/2 in. (55.88 × 41.91 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Jadranka Kosorcic, Blind Date Munich, 2009. Courtesy of the artist and Kunst am Wittelsbacherplatz Munich.
Jadranka Kosorcic, Blind Date With Adam, New York, 2011, Charcoal on paper, 22 × 161/2 in. (55.88 × 41.91 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Jadranka Kosorcic, Blind Date With Gintare, Berlin, 2011, Charcoal on paper, 22 × 161/2 in. (55.88 × 41.91 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
Jadranka Kosorcic, Blind Date, BBK Munich, 2008, Oil on canvas, 8611/16 × 8211/16 in. (220.13 × 209.97 cm). Courtesy of the artist.
