LINKAGE, ARTISTS SELECT ARTISTS
Throughout the history of art, mentoring, influence, appropriation and personal relationships between artists have been crucial to the creation of artworks. Linkage, Artists Select Artists explores the broad and seemingly unrelated influences between a chain of nine artists originated by the creator of the graphic novel, Art Spiegelman.
PAST EXHIBITIONS
LINKAGE, ARTISTS SELECT ARTISTS
MAY 29 – JULY 26, 2009
Throughout the history of art, mentoring, influence, appropriation and personal relationships between artists have been crucial to the creation of artworks. Linkage, Artists Select Artists explores the broad and seemingly unrelated influences between a chain of nine artists originated by the creator of the graphic novel, Art Spiegelman.
Each of the artists in the exhibition suggested a fellow artist and also personally selected one or several works of art to represent them in the show, creating through this process a unique network that encompasses diverse generations, approaches, artistic practices and mediums.
The exhibition aims to highlight the strong, functional and enriching relationships, as well as the informal support structures that exist within the artistic community, raising the question not only of who an artist looks at and supports, but also whose work an artist thinks and dialogues with.
The artists in Linkage, Artists Select Artists are bound by friendships, common interests and explicit and/or subtle connections in the works they create, providing the unexpected juxtapositions, the freshness and the free-flowing narrative of exhibitions that are more often found outside institutional frameworks.
Art Spiegelman selects Gary Panter; Gary Panter selects Bob Zoell; Bob Zoell selects Roger Herman; Roger Herman selects Eli Langer; Eli Langer selects Michael Rashkow; Michael Rashkow selects Nancy De Holl; Nancy De Holl selects Jesse Chapman; Jesse Chapman selects Michael Delucia.
Linkage, Artists Select Artists is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. The artworks included were personally selected by the artists in the exhibition. MOCAD is grateful to all those who made this exhibition possible, especially the artists, Art Spiegelman, Gary Panter, Bob Zoell, Roger Herman, Eli Langer, Michael Rashkow, Nancy de Holl, Jesse Chapman and Michael Delucia, whose work and commitment to the show have been crucial to see it realized. We also acknowledge Marsha Miro, Board President and Founding Director, Burt Aaron, the MOCAD Exhibitions and Programming Committee and Chris Byrne for contacting the artists and for the initial ideas that helped to shape this show. Thanks also to Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, Alan Koppel Gallery, Chicago, Jason and Leslie Pickleman and the Harkey Family Collection for their generous loans to the exhibition.
