UNTITLED Art, San Francisco Announces Special Projects and Programming

Special projects are selected by Untitled Art’s Executive Director Manuela Mozo, along with guest curator Juana Berrío and are presented in collaboration with exhibitors. This year’s special projects explore themes such as intimacy as seen through craft-like processes and the use of domestic materials, self-care and awareness, and environmental concerns such as waste and recycling. The curatorial approach to Untitled Art, Special Project’s transpired from the artists and artworks presented by exhibitors.

Special Projects

Marc Camille Chaimowicz’s work raises questions about public/private dichotomies, art/design boundaries, and identifications based on gender, and it recasts the artist as an art director and stage designer. His work Autumn 2015, 2015, a large-scale sculptural collage consisting of panels of plywood collaged with wallpaper, is presented by Andrew Kreps (New York).

Table, 2013 – 2014, a video work by Ann Hamilton consists of footage of low-resolution mini surveillance cameras following the hands of percussionists and instruments. The camerawork occupies the gap between hearing and seeing, and the edit generates a counter rhythm, revealing many subtle actions that bring forth musical virtuosity. Hamilton’s installation is presented by Anglim Gilbert Gallery (San Francisco).

Miguel Arzabe’s Last Weaving, 2018, is constructed from paper ephemera (flyers, posters, etc.) that he has collected from art exhibitions and other events. Glued together and cut into strips, the artist wove these materials together by hand, and created motifs inspired by the textile tradition of his Andean heritage (Bolivia). The source material comes from posters given away for free at the second edition of Untitled Art, San Francisco in 2018 and other exhibition materials from museums, galleries, and non-profit venues throughout the country. Last Weaving is presented by Minnesota Street Projects Studio Program (San Francisco).

Presented by MAKASIINI CONTEMPORARY (Turku), IC-98 has created a contemporary millefleurs tapestry (a pattern of thousands of flowers) entitled A World in Waiting (78°14'08.4"N 15°29'28.7"E), 2017. The tapestry imagines the site where the Svalbard Global Seed Vault once stood. Here, seeds from around the world, forecasted to thrive in the tropical climate of the future, have sprouted into a lush forest. The actual seeds of depicted plants are woven into the fabric of the carpet, which becomes a path reclaimed by nature.

Postcommodity is an interdisciplinary arts collective composed of Cristóbal Martínez and Kade L. Twist whose art functions as a shared indigenous lens and voice to engage the assaultive manifestations of the global market and its supporting institutions, public perceptions, beliefs, and individual actions. The Emergency Has Been Everyday, 2018, presented by the San Francisco Art Institute, looks at the mismanagement of nuclear waste; the non-consensual testing of radioactive materials; and the forceful displacement of people’s vitality.

Geoffrey Pugen’s Workstation (Four Winds), 2018, presented by MKG127 (Toronto), is an electronic sculpture that masquerades as a science fictional wellness workstation. Six synchronized video monitors display fictional advertisements, documentaries, and meditation guides that construct a psychedelic wellness propaganda machine.

Placed throughout the third edition of Untitled Art, San Francisco, visitors will encounter Kuang-Yu Tsui’s Exercise Living, 2017 – 2018, video series. In this series of performance videos, Tsui transforms quotidian scenes we are familiar with into sites of performance through his actions. Whether it is the name brand display windows or the electronic media, they have produced a channel for us to convey our “daily performances,” making any living experience seems like a performance. Tsui’s Exercise Living is presented by the Chinese Culture Center San Francisco.

Additionally, Berrío has conceived Untitled Art, Books & Editions, a new section of the fair that will feature a group of exhibitors from around the world who will offer a curated selection of art books, artists publications, and limited editions. Details about Untitled Art, San Francisco’s Books & Editions will be announced shortly