Buzz Spector

The proverbial scent of paper is in the air!

I am delighted to be showing in two exhibitions focussed on PAPER in the months of February and March.

First up is the exhibition “PAPER” is presented online February 13, 2025 – March 13, 2025 by Site: Brooklyn

SEE THE SHOW HERE!

The 20th century marked the peak, and subsequent decline, of paper’s dominance over everyday life. “Paperwork” is still a near-universal experience, but like everything else, has taken a more-and-more virtual form. Paper, unlike most artistic mediums, is a substrate first and artistic medium second. Created from textile waste, paper is woven very deeply into the fabric of modern life. It can be equally associated with the transformation of work, easy replication, industriousness, disposability, creativity, and experimentation. Since its invention, these qualities have encouraged artists to prepare, design, and experiment on paper. Ironically, it was in the later part of the 20th century when artists like Dorothea Rockburne. Ed Ruscha, and Robert Rauschenberg took the investigations of the Cubists into papier collé and developed paper as both a physical object, and a subject. Site:Brooklyn is looking for works that continue and expand this tradition.

Exhibition Juror, Rachel Gladfelter is the Director at Pace Paper. Previously, she was the gallery director for the Pace Prints NYC, a fine art print gallery specializing in original, limited-edition prints in collaboration with printmaking affiliates, Pace Editions and Pace Paper. Before that, Gadfelter held the position of Studio Director for Dieu Donne Paper.

I am deighted to show “Excavation of the Interior”, 2021, 12 x 28 x 12.5″, wood, paper, cloth, hemp cord, linen thread

Curatorial Statement: Rachel Gladfelter
Paper is an exhibition that brings together 42 artists working within this versatile medium. Ranging from intimate collaged ink drawings like Christopher Miller’s Dog Sitting to Svetlana Grigoryeva’s earthy and tactile Breathing of Bark, paper promotes ideas as expansive as its material capability.

Ancient and versatile, paper has historically acted as a carrier, allowing the sharing of ideas, image and word. With the advent of exploratory papermaking studios and residency spaces in the mid to late 20th century, artists began creating work within the medium itself, bringing new energy and innovation. Paper’s potential is infinite as both substrate and essential substance.

As a substrate, it is luring. To quote Ellsworth Kelly, “When I see a white piece of paper, I feel I’ve got to draw. And drawing, for me, is the beginning of everything.” As a medium in and of itself, the ability to create new ideas from the raw materials of fiber and water has a romantic tactility. Paper can be additive: poured, painted and brushed. It can be constructed into a new form. It can be a lightweight shell of an object, or it can be a solidly cast shape. It can be wrapped around an armature, and it can be cut, torn or shredded. Paper can be painted on, photographed, crumpled up, eaten, heard, touched, twisted, drawn on, printed on and carried in protest. It is fragile yet resilient. It transports history, stories and secrets. It moves as easily in a systematic mail system as in the unpredictable wind. Paper is responsive. It is historical and present, bringing life and purpose to ideas. Paper is an analogue in a digital age. The works in Paper share the significance of this medium’s intimacy and clear purpose in its utilization; albeit shown in a digital exhibition. The artists exhibited create works where paper is intrinsic to their ideas around themes of pattern, nature, politics, structure, and memory. Each wall highlights one of these motifs. – Rachel Gladfelter

Site:Brooklyn Gallery is dedicated to exhibiting the current practice of contemporary artists. We are taking Site:Brooklyn online with a new series of interactive exhibitions. Our goal remains the same, to connect artists with an expert and diverse set of jurors through the open call format. Our new program focuses on online open call exhibitions, selected by a cast of new jurors, solo artist features, and spotlights.

SEE THE “PAPER” SHOW HERE!

In March I will be showing in the exhibition CUT/FOLD/PRESS, presented at Craft Alliance, and juried by the renowned Buzz Spector. More to come on this in another post!

I am thrilled to participate in “Cut/Fold/Press” juried by artist and educator Buzz Spector at Craft Alliance showing “Burning Bush”

7.5 x 11 x 5.5″, board, mulberry paper, sewing thread, linen thread

“At times, paper is often thought as a vehicle for other artistic practices. This exhibit embraces the transformational quality of paper and the art created using paper as a primary material. Juried by Craft Alliance’s inaugural Visiting Artist, Buzz Spector, this exhibition brings together compelling work on a seemingly simple material and craft form. CUT/FOLD/PRESS asks paper artists to explore and consider the many forms that paper art takes—books, sculpture, and sheet.

The exhibition presents artists who use paper as their primary medium or create artworks made on, of, or about paper including cut paper, folded paper, woven paper, glued paper, drawings, paintings, pastels, printmaking, photographs, paper sculpture, 3D, bound books, collage, or as the subject of a video and installation.”

Buzz Spector is an artist, writer and emeritus professor of art at Washington University in St. Louis. His academic career includes five years’ service as dean of the College and Graduate School of Art in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts (2009–2013). Spector has also taught at Cornell University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a full professor and at numerous institutions as visiting or adjunct faculty.

Spector’s art practice makes frequent use of the book, both as subject and object, and focuses on relationships between public history, individual memory and perception. He has had numerous exhibits in private and institutional galleries and museums in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and his solo or two-person museum exhibits have taken place at the Saint Louis Art Museum; Art Institute of Chicago; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Huntington Museum of Art, West Virginia; Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and most recently, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL.

Spector has also published two books, Buzzwords (Sara Ranchouse Publishing, 2012) and The Book Maker’s Desire (Umbrella Editions, 1994). He has also written numerous exhibition catalog essays, including for exhibits by Luis Camnitzer, Ann Hamilton, Dan Ramirez and Dieter Roth. Additionally, Spector received the College Art Association’s Distinguished Teaching of Art award in 2013.

Craft Alliance is located in The Maker District of St. Louis, is a hub for artists, enthusiasts, and students to explore, learn, and celebrate the world of contemporary craft. We offer studios for ceramics, print and paper arts, metals, fibers, glass, wood, an artists-in-residence program, robust community programs, and an exhibition program.