The Assignment Book by Luis Camnitzer
Wednesday, September 21, through Sunday, October 16, 2011
Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 21, 6:30-9:00 pm
Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons The New School for Design, 66 Fifth Avenue at 13th Street
In The Assignment Book, Luis Camnitzer presents unresolved conundrums and questions. The exhibition is intended to stimulate critical multidisciplinary thinking on the topic and prompt visitors to leave responses that serve as new stimuli for dialogue. Like the blog format, the exhibition offers a platform for the artist, curators, and visitors to enter into conversation as equal partners, thereby de-institutionalizing learning and challenging the traditional role of the artist/teacher.
A Conversation with the Artist & Curators
Tuesday, October 11, 6:30-8:30 pm
Sponsored by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics
Wollman Hall
65 West 11th St, 5th Floor
"In The Assignment Book I am trying to bridge the distance between artist and viewer, and start a dialogue and collective research instead of merely communicating by way of a monologue. I would like to share unresolved and sometimes ridiculous conundrums and questions that hopefully lead to critical inter- and multidisciplinary thinking, and unleash similar but collectively generated stimuli. Not unlike the blog format, answers and suggestions should enter the exhibition space so that the stage is shared with the visitors, leading to deinsitutionalized learning: Learning Without a School. In this I abandon the traditional declarative stance of the artist/teacher. Being accountable for how I deal with the assignments I become an unprotected artist/learner."
- Luis Camnitzer
Luis Camnitzer is an Uruguayan artist residing in the U.S. since 1964. He received a degree in sculpture from the Escuela Bellas Artes of the University of Uruguay, where he also studied architecture at the School of Architecture. A professor emeritus of the State University of New York, he is the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships (1961 and 1982) and the Frank Jewett Mather Award, College Art Association (2011). His work has been exhibited in several international exhibitions, among them the Venice Biennale (1988 when he represented Uruguay with a one-person show), the Whitney Biennial (2000), and Documenta XI (2002). His work is in over thirty museum collections, among them the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; and the Museo de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba. He presently is the pedagogical advisor for the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection. Among his books are New Art of Cuba, Conceptualism in Latin American Art: Didactics of Liberation and On Art, Artists, Latin America and Other Utopias, all published by University of Texas Press. His work is represented by Alexander Gray Associates in New York.
