About

21ST.PROJECTS – Originally stood for 21 Street Projects – but given the ambiguity of these terms also have proliferated it has also come to stand as a reference to the 21st Century. As such this locates this program in both time and space. Subsequently, 21ST.PROJECTS offers informal Presentations of an artist’s works or Collections (curatorial/research projects). These move the encounter with art and cultural artifacts away from the white cube as the normative space for cultural consumption and brings art, artists, and audiences into a domestic setting. Each project is initiated with a Viewing, an invitation only event.

Viewing – is the term used to designate the evening event that 21ST.PROJECT sponsor’s on in accord with its program of artist presentations. CPI prefers this term to that of opening, primarily because the installation of work at 21St. are not exhibitions as that word is conventionally understood relative to an artist work.  CPI also chose this word because it makes looking to be the principle activity at these events rather it being a commencement.  As such our Viewing continue the tradition of the vernissage (varnishing, from French) where guests are served cheese and wine as they discuss with artists and others the works in that are presented. Like the vernissage 21ST.PROJECTS Viewings are not open to the public, but are only for invited guests, which is often referred to as a private view.

Presentations – CPI refers to the works displayed at 21ST.PROJECTS as presentation as opposed to a show or exhibition because they are intended to be an informale occasion that permits the presenter to review their recent endeavors or inquiries. That this takes place within a domestic setting is of the utmost importance – for it removes their production from the familiar surroundings of the studio and the neutrality of the gallery. Also what makes Presentations different is that being in this environment the normal the manner in which something is shown, expressed, or laid out for other people to see is questioned.

Collections – This term is used instead of that of group or curated showing.  The implications of this word being that of a compilation or something assembled brought together, both of which bring us to the idea that these Presentations are composed relative to a particular concern.  Consequently, these a Collection, which are often heterogeneous in terms of the materials that might be included, should be understood as constituting a document, or a report.

Recent Viewings

Henrietta Mantooth

Thursday April 6, 2017

This show at Critical Practices is a mock-up of the displaced. Who are they? The undocumented, the refugees, the migrants, the arrested and jailed, the raped and sold girls, the threatened. Bringing their images through paintings and drawings into a lived in space in our city, among the tables and chairs, the sofas and books, the stoves and kitchen sinks of our daily lives might make them and their plight more real to us. It is a place to tell their stories and our own.

As an artist, Henrietta Mantooth serves as witness. Her 18 years in Latin America as journalist and painter resonate with her childhood in the Missouri depression years of dust storms and foreclosures, poverty and racism. For art, there were the dime stores. Theater work as designer and performer expanded her vision. Though subjects may be dire, her paintings and installations are often improvised and playful. Paraphrasing the poet Jack Gilbert: “with slaughter and sorrow everywhere, we still must risk delight.” She has received grants from the American Academy of Arts, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Pollack Krasner, and New York Foundation for the Arts. www.henriettamantooth.com.

Lindsay Walt

Thursday October 20, 2016

In recent oil and watercolor paintings from the Constellation series, fields of luminous color merge with delicate patterns of stars and webs to depict a floating sensorial space. Fluid paint, hand and breath work in tandem to serve as a meditation on the passage of time. In my studio, to recast a mantra, “out of paint grows a flower.” Ideas begin first with watercolor on paper where flows of liquid paint force spontaneous decisions and quick moves. Gravity helps, too, where resulting colored starbursts record gesture stopped. Working with oil is a slower process. Image is revealed by layering, erasing, and rebuilding. The atmospheric
grounds of the paintings generate a denser more immersive space where visual dualities coexist: delicate line/hovering mass, stillness/gesture, cool blue/warm red transforms the physical to describe the ephemeral. In the end, I make paintings I want to look at. To shift the border from what is known to a kind of gossamer state of being.

Walt was born in Rochester Minnesota. She received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago as well as attending the Skowhegan
School of Painting and Sculpture. Selected exhibitions include Barbara Toll Fine Arts, NY, Metaphor Gallery, Brooklyn, The George Gallery, Laguna, 1285 Gallery of Americas, Gallery, NY, Newtonbarry House, Wexford Ireland and Norte Maar, Brooklyn.

www.lindsaywalt.com/

Elaine Byrne

Cold Rush. The Arctic, which is believed to contain as much as one-quarter of Earth’s undiscovered oil and gas, is part of a territorial dispute involving Russia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and the United States. Under a 1982 United Nations convention, the Law of the Sea, a nation may claim an exclusive economic zone over the continental shelf abutting its shores. In 2016 Russia presented its claim to 1.2 million square kilometers of Arctic sea shelf to the United Nations. Canada, Norway and Denmark filed similar claims and, though the Arctic has traditionally been a low military priority, these countries have all stepped up their military activity, reopening Cold War-era bases and building new ones.

Byrne was born in Dublin, Ireland, Elaine Byrne now lives and works in Brooklyn. She received a B.A. and Masters degree from University College of Dublin, and an M.A in Visual Arts Practices from IADT, Dublin (2009). She completed the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art (2015). She has had solo shows at Kevin Kavanagh Gallery (Dublin), Montoro12 (Rome), Limerick City Gallery, Oonagh Young Gallery (Dublin), Atrio Cultura Space (Mexico) and ISCP (New York). Her work has been screened at Crawford Gallery of Art (Cork), the Slought (Philadelphia) and UAM (Mexico).

http://www.elainebyrne.net/

21ST. PROJECTS Rules of the Game

1. Artists are invited by the Board to participate in 21ST.PROJECTS.
    
2. Artist projects are self-curated. The artists choose the works to be presented and determine how they are to be installed.
    
3. This project is about experiencing work within a domestic space. Certain furnishings are to remain in place unless otherwise negotiated.
    
4. Nothing can be done physically to the space that the artist is not prepared to restore to its previous condition, which must be in a timely fashion with consideration for the viewing schedule. There is no storage space, so work must be collected after the closing.
    
5. The Viewing is by invitation only. The guest list consists of approximately 50 guests invited by the artist and another 20 invited by CPI. A formal invitation is sent by CPI,  Attendance is by RSVP.
    
6. The Viewing invitation has a standard format, which includes a brief statement on the work, an image (1-3 mbs), and a short narrative bio. The artist must supply these materials six weeks in advance. A second version announcing the artist’s participation in 21ST.PROJECTS will be made available for the artist’s personal use. The artist’s works, bio and text are posted on our website.
    
7. Viewings are generally scheduled for a Thursday night from 6 to 8PM.
    
8. Because 21ST.PROJECTS is a domestic space the artist is free (within reason) to bring people by to see the work by appointment.
    
9. It is our intention that during the period of your project that the artist will use the space: for viewings, meetings,  discussions, or performances as is appropriate. Appointments can be scheduled between 12 and 7 PM, other times will be considered upon request. Visits without an appointment cannot be accommodated.
    
10. We are not responsible for showing the work in the absence of the artist.
     
11. 21ST.PROJECTS in conjunction with CPInPrint, invites the artist to produce an issue of 21ST.Documents an accordion-fold publication in an edition of 100 signed copies. The edition will be divided equally between CPI and the Artist.
     
12. At present, no commission is charged on any sales that might result from presenting works at 21ST.PROJECTS. Donations are readily accepted and they are tax deductible.