VOLTA NY Curated Section 2018

“Our proposal for this exhibition is to present a group of artists who explore ideologies of collage within their practice as a constructive mode through material, language, text, cultural and personal concepts,” states Thomas and Chevremont. “The exhibition is entitled The Aesthetics of Matter, in relation to collage as a construct or mode in various disciplines, referencing a broad definition of matter — from the physical substance, that which occupies space and possesses mass, to the written material, substance or content of a text. A randomness, perhaps risk, notions of the sublime, elements of constructive forms and materiality.”

Thomas and Chevremont will assemble The Aesthetics of Matter across a 2,600-square-foot space in the heart of PIER 90, an array of freestanding museum-style walls that afford and encourage dialogue between artists, as well as a specific focus in contrast to the traditional booth architecture and solo projects surrounding it. “This exhibition will include paintings, sculpture, photography, video, text, and printed matter,” notes the co-curators. “The artists’ works are social and political through the form of collage, which has always been thought of as ‘a moment of crisis in consciousness’.” Participating artists, as well as related programming, will be announced soon.

“We have achieved something marvelous with this Curated Section: it taps into some deep cultural consciousness and lays bare timely social issues, whilst hearkening back to our formative, ‘hands-on’ years working directly with artists and emerging galleries to conceive early VOLTA shows,” says Amanda Coulson, Artistic Director of the VOLTA art fairs. “I have been a fan of Mickalene’s and Racquel’s for years, and I am proud for this opportunity to work with them. Their creative prowess and thoughtful worldview will translate into a very special event for the participating artists and fair visitors alike. We are honored to have them!”

VOLTA NY 2018 at PIER 90 runs from March 7 – 11, 2018. The venue may be reached by public transportation via the Eighth Avenue line (E or C trains to 50 St), as well as direct shuttle between VOLTA NY and Pier 94: The Armory Show. Additionally, PIER 90 is connected by an elevated, covered and heated passageway to Pier 92: The Armory Show.

VOLTA was founded in Basel in 2005 by dealers Kavi Gupta (Chicago), Friedrich Loock (Berlin), and Ulrich Voges (Frankfurt/Main). VOLTA14 in Basel will coincide with Art Basel Week from June 13 – 18, 2018.

Curator Biographies:

Racquel Chevremont was born and raised in New York City. Two years into her studies at NYU in 1991, she was discovered by photographer and Elite model management scout Steve Landis at the HMV on 86th Street. That chance meeting led to a 20-year career as a model for Elite model management and Wilhelmina models. From 1998 until 2003, Chevremont ran Crux Candles, Inc., a high-end candle company carried in stores around the world as well as QVC. In 2003 she joined the acquisitions committees at both the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Guggenheim Museum. Concurrently, she began building a contemporary art collection and ran the State Street Salon,  platform for artists, curators and collectors designed to help cultivate a new generation of collectors, out of her townhouse in Brooklyn. Chevremont currently runs an art consulting business working closely with artists, corporations, and collectors.

Mickalene Thomas is a 2015 United States Artists Francie Bishop Good & David Horvitz Fellow, distinguished visual artist, filmmaker and curator who has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. She is known for paintings that combine art-historical, political and pop-cultural references. Her work introduces complex notions of femininity and challenges common definitions of beauty and aesthetic representations of women. Thomas holds a MFA from Yale University and a BFA from Pratt Institute. She’s held solo museum exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum and L’Ecole des Beaux Arts, Monaco. Recent solo exhibitions include Mickalene Thomas: Do I Look Like a Lady? at MOCA Grand, Los Angeles and North Carolina Museum of Art; Mickalene Thomas: Mentors, Muses and Celebrities at Aspen Art Museum, Spelman and CAM St. Louis; and Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs at Aperture Foundation, New York, which is scheduled to travel to several venues across the United States through 2018, featuring her notably curated exhibition tête-à-tête. Her upcoming exhibitions include several museum shows; Figuring History with Robert Colescott and Kerry James Marshall; I Cant See You Without Me at the Wexner Center for the Arts and a show at The AGO in Toronto. Her work continues to travel in the acclaimed 30 Americans at Rubell Family Collection, Miami and exhibited at Hara Museum, Tokyo; Greater New York, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York; National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; and Saatchi Gallery, London. Thomas’s work is in the permanent collections of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Whitney Museum of American Art. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Seattle Art Museum; and Smithsonian American Art Museum, among many others.  Mickalene Thomas is represented by Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong; Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago; and Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris and Brussels. She lives and works in New York.