The Present Group Issues The contemporary artist editions released by The Present Group http://www.thepresentgroup.com en-us Copyright 2012, The Present Group Contemporary Art The Present Group Issues http://blog.thepresentgroup.com/wp-content/themes/simplelife-10/simplelife-10/img/package.jpg http://www.thepresentgroup.com http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=12:1 TPG20 by Julia Goodman (2012:1) http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=12:1 Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:00:00 -0800 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=11:3 TPG19 Audio/Visual by Joe Hardesty (2011:3) Frosted horse breath in the misty Belgian countryside, the morbidly obese enjoying KFC while taking in a centaur hunt, a lovingly rendered portrait of Jimmy Carter.  These are some of the images the listener is called to imagine in The Present Group’s nineteenth issue by Joe Hardesty.  Audio/Visual is an edition of 100 white vinyl records containing 44 spoken vignettes performed by the artist.  What began as immaculately executed text drawings are transformed  into an intimate auditory journey through the sublime, the grotesque, and the fantastical.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=11:3 Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=summer11 TPG18 5 improvisations within the mundane to affirm the present moment by Aaron GM (Summer 2011) by Aaron GM is The Present Group's eighteenth edition.  Each usb drive contains an interactive video of Aaron performing in 5 locations within a domestic interior.  Users may navigate through the 360 degree experience by moving their cursor back and forth and resting where ever they like.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=summer11 Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=winter11 TPG17 I want you to have this by Steve Lambert (Winter 2011)
“I want you to have this” by Steve Lambert is an edition of 80 birch boxes and 4 cardstock hang-tags silk-screened with the text “I want you to have this”.

It is a tool to facilitate giving.  Place it on your coffee table as a constant reminder that maybe you don’t need all the things you own, and that instead of throwing away that pair of earrings Grandma thought were so perfect for you, you might pass them on to a friend who would appreciate them in a way you never could.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=winter11 Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=fall10 TPG16 Lichen Books: On the Road by Rebecca Blakley (Fall 2010)

In the sixteenth issue of The Present Group, artist Rebecca Blakley sneaks a contemporary coming-of-age tale into “the novel that defined a generation”. “On the Road” is an edition of 70 copies of the classic novel by Jack Kerouac containing a parallel story told by Blakley via Post It notes hand drawn in Times New Roman.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=fall10 Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:00:00 -0800 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=summer10 TPG15 Old Tricks for New Monkeys by Nava Lubelski (Summer 2010) is an edition of 70 machine embroidered canvases. The work contrasts the accidental with the meticulous, depicting the chaos of a spill, delicately recreated with thread.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=summer10 Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=spring10 TPG14 Map(256+128) 3 by Matthew Cella (Spring 2010) http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=spring10 Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=winter10 TPG13 Center for Missed Connections Information Initiative by Ingrid Burrington (Winter 2010) is an edition of 100 booklet sets by artist Ingrid Burrington designed to help you better understand the loneliness and sexual tension that secretly govern city life through the lens of Missed Connections posts on Craigslist.

 

The Citizen's Field Guide presents a complete data analysis of Missed Connections. We learn not only about the demographics, but also the particulars of where MC's take place, who's making them, and the "Grey Area" - the posts of ultimate lonliness.

The second booklet, The Field Observation Workbook, encourages one to "Be Out and About!" and experience their own missed connections. Put to work as part of the CMC data collectors, participants are afforded a means to take down details about particular missed connections and have a perfect record should they decide to try to engage that special person online.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=winter10 Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=fall09 TPG12 DIY Survial Kit by Whitney Lynn (Fall 2009) “DIY Survival Kit” is an edition of 65 by artist Whitney Lynn designed to prepare you for the ultimate disaster. Whether an earthquake, tornado, or chemical weapon attack, Lynn provides you with the essentials: a barterable good, a weapon, and a means to keep your mind off the bleakness of your situation. Nothing in the kit, however, is complete. She gives you the materials and the inspiration, but if you are going to survive - you are going to have to Do it Yourself.

 

Lynn’s Kit draws inspiration equally from survivalist subcultures and more left leaning do-it-yourself (DIY) movements.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=fall09 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:00:00 -0800 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=summer09 TPG11 Phases of the Moon by Helena Keeffe (Summer 2009) is an edition of 50 framed sets of moon phase lapel pins. Each set is accompanied by a digital widget that displays the current lunar phase and it's corresponding pin. The fabric pins were created by applying discharge ink - which removes dye rather than adding ink - and the backing is printed with a placeholder image of each pin. The frame is designed to be rotated at every full and new moon.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=summer09 Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=spring09 TPG10 Still Life With Strawberries by Stephanie Dean (Spring 2009) is an edition of 50 archival photographs measuring 9.5"x14" and printed on Hannemuhle 308.

Stephanie on the Modern Groceries Series:
I am creating a series of still life photographs focusing on the way our purchased food is packaged and consumed. By setting common foods in their packaging and labeling direct from the grocery store into traditional nature mort compositions, our most common and necessary items of life – food – are jolted into historical focus. The viewers’ various degrees of knowledge of Dutch still life paintings will be the measure by which the photographs will either found or further the perceived rift between ourselves and nature, and ourselves and our food sources.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=spring09 Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=winter09 TPG9 Hermosa Beach, CA by David Horvitz (Winter 2009) is an edition of viewmaster reels and viewers accompanied by a text written by the artist, David Horvitz. The reels depict a lone figure, the artist's mother, with her back turned to the viewer as the waves of the sea crash endlessly in the background.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=winter09 Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=fall08 TPG8 State of the Arts by Joesph Del Pesco (Fall 2008) is an unconventional exhibition project, facilitated by Artists Space curator Joseph del Pesco, where the medium is the message. The four enclosed letterpress posters are the result of two think-tank style conversations between groups of artists living and working in San Francisco and Oakland. During a series of follow-up emails with the curator, major points were identified and distilled into arguments, demands, and observations about the conditions for artists. As part of the project, the posters will be delivered to elected officials in the Bay Area.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=fall08 Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:00:00 -0800 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=summer08 TPG7 Text/ile by Maggie Leininger (Summer 2008) - "A white plastic box inscribed with a colorful legend, anonymously medical or scientific in origin, opens to reveal a woven textile, folded upon itself, black and white threads that merge into a shifting pattern of gray rectangles. . .

For this project, scientific diagrams of chromosomes–8 of the 23 found in human cells–have been reduced to grayscale patterns composed of black and white thread and woven on a Jacquard Loom into textiles."

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=summer08 Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=spring08 TPG6 A Message For You by Aaron Cedolia (Spring 2008) consists of individual videos, one for each subscriber, in which a stranger says the words “I love you, I miss you, I wish you were here."

We've set aside the last few pieces in this edition for non-TPG subscribers. If you would like to be part of this project or know someone who needs some video love, Aaron will happily make one.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=spring08 Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=winter08 TPG5 "You were there, too" by Davin Youngs (Winter 2008) is a three booklet set. Youngs uses photographic portraits and answers to “relationship defining questions” to create these individual depictions of his relationships with three close friends.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=winter08 Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=fall07 TPG4 Conversation by Brian Stuparyk (Fall 2007) is a signed and numbered 6 color silkscreen print. "In Conversation, the two popsicles are, as suggested, conversing. However, they are only talking in vague terms to each other, and only about themselves with their thoughts meeting in the middle of the page. Each is so wholly involved in worrying about their problems, they have neglected everything else that is happening, including the fact that each is slowly melting into a puddle." -Brian Stuparyk

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=fall07 Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:00:00 -0800 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=summer07 TPG3 "I began building on a piece of land" by Christine Kesler (Summer 2007) is part landscape painting, part collage. The surfaces of some pieces are heavily built up from found bits of paper and debris, while others are delicately rendered in pencil and thin washes. Each describes a specific topography that Kesler encountered on her recent drive across the United States.

** View the remaining pieces in this series here **

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=summer07 Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=spring07 TPG2 Earth-Kiln-Bay-Kiln-Bay by Presley Martin (Spring 2007) was created during the spring of 2007 by Martin and the San Francisco Bay. Martin discovered a beach in Berkeley, CA strewn with weathered bricks. He collected these cast-off bricks and brought them to his studio where he glazed and fired them white. He then returned them to the beach where he made a simple circular arrangement. As the tide rose and fell, the waves of the Bay covered and re-distributed the bricks throughout the beach. With the help of The Present Group and the United States Postal System, the bricks continue their journey around the country, each stage collected and re-presented to new homes.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=spring07 Wed, 20 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=winter07 TPG1 Anthroptic by Ethan Ham and Benjamin Rosenbaum (Winter 2007) is a hand-made artist book that contains 8 folios pairing one image with one “chapter” of the story. The images were taken from Ham’s online project “Self-Portraits” in which he trained a facial recognition program to his face before unleashing it onto the internet photo service Flickr. While searching the millions of photos on Flickr for its creator, the computer program sometimes made mistakes, identifying inanimate objects as the artist. These mistake images became the starting point for Rosenbaum’s short short story that can be read in any order.

]]> http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?project=winter07 Wed, 21 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0700