Seattle Art Fair 2019: Programming

Talks

Artificial Intelligence / Artificial Life

Saturday, August 3 | 3:30pm

This talk puts into conversation two artists, Richard Pell andStephanie Dinkins, whose work questions and interrogates the assumptions of what is natural as well as what the political underpinnings of the technological shifts in shaping what constitutes life. Whether the logical of capitalism or the fault-lines of race, the construction of the natural as well as what constitutes intelligence are foregrounded in an important critique of the technological revolutions occurring daily.

Contemporary Curating

Friday, August 2 | 1:30pm

Hear from three experts on the field of curating as they discuss models for exhibitions and institutions that they find interesting, and what this means for the future. Larry Ossei-Mensah, senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Paula Marincola, executive director of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, and Rita Gonzalez, head of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Stillness & Liveness in Choreography

Sunday, August 4 | 11:30am, Co-presented by Base and On the Boards

This talk will center around Morgan Thorson’s workStill Life that uses the gallery space as a container for an endurance-based dance work that at times functions like a slow moving still life and at other times resembles an ensemble dance installation. Thorson will be in conversation with On the Boards’ Artistic Director and Curator, Rachel Cook and Base co-founder and Choreographer, Dayna Hanson.

The Kids Panel

Sunday, August 4 | 1:30pm

This experimental panel allows the audience to receive a report back from the Seattle Art Fair from the mouths of the next generation of art enthusiasts. Moderated by Frye Art Museum Director/CEO Joseph Rosa, this panel will feature children ages 9-12 who arrive at the panel equipped with their favorite art works ready for discussion.

Projects

Bigert & Bergström | Incubator for Earthquakes

Bigert & Bergström is an artist duo living and working in Stockholm, Sweden. Through their career, Bigert & Bergström have produced and created art ranging from large-scale installations to public works, sculptures and film projects. Often with a conceptual edge, the core of their work is at the intersection between humanity, nature and technology. Incubator for Earthquakes is a kinetic dinner table sculpture and vibrating motor. From time to time the dinner table is subjected to an earthquake and the china begins to rattle even more vigorously.

Bread Face | Self Facing

Bread Face is the international social media sensation known for smashing her face in bread. Performance art for the social media age, her sensuous bizarre actions have become a touchstone for a fast growing culture genre on the internet known as Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR). Her interactive installation, Self Facing, will feature baked goods created for the Seattle Art Fair. The public will be encouraged to play with the bread in whatever tactile way they feel compelled. The altered baked good will then be on display. This installation touches on themes ongoing in the evolving oeuvre of the ASMR internet sensation including somatic materials, domesticity and of course, voyeurism.

Center for Post Natural History

In 2008 artist Richard Pell opened The Center for PostNatural History(CPNH) an alternative museum located in Pittsburgh. The museum’s focus is to

1. Study the origins, habitats and evolution of organisms that have been intentionally and heritablyaltered by humans.
2. Record the influence of human culture on evolution.

For the presentation at the fair, the CPNH presents a series of stereoscopic anaglyph photographs of specimens from their collection. These creatures are a collection of specimens whose genetic material have been altered by humans. Three-dimensional glasses will be available for you to view the works.

Gregory Blackstock | Banners, Presented with Greg Kucera Gallery

Gregory Blackstock is a self-taught autistic artist who made his living washing dishes at Seattle’s Washington Athletic Club for decades. Now at 72, he has become an international figure in art, known for his time-consuming drawings ranging from canines to planes to historic homes. The four banners that will be displayed at Seattle Art Fair demonstrate Blackstock’s ongoing interest in the categorization and depiction of a range of folkloric, vernacular, and natural history subjects.

Hironaka & Suib | Vanitas MMXVIII

Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib employ the tools and conventions of moving-image culture to offer counter-mythical visions of our contemporary world. Hironaka & Suib continue the centuries-old genre of still life painting, vanitas, in their massive video projectionVanitas MMXVlll. Here, common still-life motifs are completely unmoored from their tabletop arrangement. Bruised, molding and half-eaten fruit, broken glass and mirror, wilting flowers and skulls tumble slowly upwards.Vanitas MMXVlll destabilizes the traditional still-life subjects to reflect our current cultural moment, where formerly stable institutions that once embodied shared values are undermined while pride and avarice have been elevated to virtues.

Live Editions | Featuring artists Mark Gibson and Molly Crabapple

The Seattle Art Fair will present Live Editions, a pop-up printing facility within the fair. Two national artists, Mark Gibson and Molly Crabapple, and two local artists who will be announced at a later date will have their artwork printed on-site for a limited edition giveaway available exclusively during Seattle Art Fair.

Patricia Piccinini | The Bond and The Loafers, Presented with Hosfelt Gallery

Patricia Piccinini is an Australian artist who works in a variety of media including painting, video, sounds and predominately sculpture. She is interested in the relationship between the artificial and the natural environment, as well as relationships within families and between strangers. As part of Seattle Art Fair, Piccinini will be presenting two anthropomorphic sculptures made predominately of silicone and hair.

Stephanie Dinkins | Not The Only One (N'TOO)

Stephanie Dinkins is a transmedia artist who creates platforms for dialogue about artificial intelligence (AI) as it intersects race, gender, aging, and our future histories. She is particularly driven to work with communities of color to co-create more inclusive, fair and ethical artificial intelligent ecosystems.

For the Seattle Art Fair, Dinkins will present Not The Only One (N’TOO), a multigenerational memoir of one black American family told from the “mind” of an artificial intelligence with evolving intellect. It is a voice-interactive AI designed, trained, and aligned with the needs and ideals of black and brown people who are drastically underrepresented in the tech sector. The AI storyteller is trained on data supplied by three generations of women from one family, but the story is told from the first person perspective of the AI. Fair visitors are invited to talk to the sculpture and participate in its evolving knowledge.