Space Case: making a case for artist-run spaces
LABspace, Hillsdale, NY | February 16 – TBD, 2020
On February 16 LABspace in Hillsdale, NY opened the exhibition Space Case: making a case for artist-run spaces, which includes work by 40 artists and 18 artist-run spaces in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. I’ve long known that important art isn’t created exclusively in major cities like New York or Los Angeles, so this show was of particular interest to me. I’ve experienced local art scenes in smaller cities and towns across the United States and of course in the Hudson Valley. Clearly there was a good story behind this exhibition, and I wanted to learn more.
Space Case came about in November 2019 when LABspace co-directors Ellen Letcher and Julie Torres received an email from artist Christina Renfer Vogel, a professor of art at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga (UTC). Renfer Vogel invited Letcher and Torres to exhibit their work at Office Space, Vogel’s curatorial project in her faculty office at the university. Initially, Renfer Vogel suggested that the artists ship their work, but instead they decided to drive to Chattanooga. That way they could help install their work for the show and meet with faculty and students in person. Renfer Vogel acted quickly to secure a High-Impact Practices Development Grant from the University of Tennessee Chattanooga to help with travel expenses.
There was another reason to drive from New York to Tennessee. Letcher and Torres figured that a road trip would be a great opportunity to visit other artist-run spaces along the way. They posted on Instagram and Facebook to discover places in North Carolina and Tennessee to visit and received more than 100 responses. There is a large concentration of art spaces in the triangle area of North Carolina (Chapel Hill/Raleigh/Durham), so this region was the first destination on their trip. They set out in early January 2020 and were on the road for almost two weeks. In North Carolina Letcher and Torres visited LOG, Lump, My Room, Acid Rain, Drawing Room, The Concern Newsstand, Basement, Oneoneone, and Gutter Box.
The next stop was Chattanooga, where Letcher and Torres installed their work at Office Space at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, did studio visits with painting majors, and gave a public talk. They also toured two local spaces, VERSA and Stove Works, and visited Renfer Vogel’s studio. The last stop was Nashville, where they visited artist David Onri Anderson of Electric Shed, DADU, David Lusk Gallery, as well as galleries at The Packing Plant, where they met Chalet Comellas-Baker of Unrequited Leisure. It became clear to Letcher and Torres that there should be an exhibition at LABspace to showcase the work of the artists they met who are running these unusual spaces. They realized a bit too late that in order to curate the show they should have collected artwork along the way. Luckily they were able to take some paintings with them at the end of the trip, but more work still had to be transported to upstate New York.
After some deliberation, Letcher and Torres figured it was easier to pick up the work for Space Case in person, while also visiting some spaces in Virginia they had missed on the first trip. In early February they drove to Charlottesville to meet Allyson Mellberg Taylor and Jeremy Taylor, artists they had wanted to show for years. The Taylors are former members of Team Lump in Raleigh, NC and run an art space in Harrisonburg, VA called MITTEN. At the same time that Letcher and Torres arrived in Virginia, April Childers of LOG in Chapel Hill drove around to all the spaces in the Raleigh/Chapel Hill area to pick up artwork. She then drove her van six hours round trip to meet Letcher and Torres in Charlottesville. On Monday morning Letcher and Torres headed home with a car filled with art from North Carolina and Virginia. The rest of the work from Nashville and Chattanooga—including artwork from all the students they met at UTC—was quickly shipped to them by the artists.
Letcher and Torres received a large amount of work for Space Case, but instead of feeling overwhelmed they enjoyed the process of putting together the exhibition. Torres commented: “Installing the show was a pure pleasure and so much fun. In most cases we had no idea what artwork we were getting until we unpacked the car and opened all the packages. It was like Christmas morning, and actually a bit like our annual holiday shows. It’s an explosion of artwork and we love that. Somehow, a thread always appears throughout the work. In this case there is a thread of materiality via unusual, unexpected media and paint handling—and the representation of bananas!”
Unfortunately I haven’t seen Space Case in person, but some work stood out for me in the images online and I look forward to seeing more by these artists. I’m especially interested in the paintings by David Onri Anderson from Electric Shed in Nashville and the wall mounted fabric and paint pieces by Maria Britton from LOG in Chapel Hill. Other standouts include Jodi Hays (DADU, Nashville); Amanda Nolan Booker (UTC, Chattanooga); Allyson Mellberg Taylor and Jeremy Taylor (MITTEN, Harrisonburg); Sarah-Elizabeth Cornejo and Laura Little (Basement, Chapel Hill); and Christina Renfer Vogel (University of Tennessee Chattanooga). Hopefully this show will encourage artists in the Hudson Valley to take their own road trips when we can travel safely again, meet artists from different regions, and make new connections.
It’s remarkable that Space Case came together in just a few weeks. Torres says of the experience: “The artwork is great. The show is joyous. We are thrilled. It was a whirlwind… We are so lucky to have spent that time visiting these artists and their exceptional spaces situated in attics, basements, sheds, newsstands, and former meat packing plants. We are also indebted to our local community of artists who show, promote, and support fellow artists. This has been the mission of LABspace since Susan Jennings founded the gallery in 2014.” Torres adds: “And now… it sits empty” because the gallery closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. March 8 was the last day the gallery was open. LABspace has been sharing the exhibition through social media. They are also experimenting with different ways for people to see the show in person, on their own, safely. If you are interested in a private tour of Space Case, please send an email to Torres at julielabspace@gmail.com.
LABSPACE SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
http://labspaceart.blogspot.com
https://www.instagram.com/labspace_art/
https://m.facebook.com/labspaceart/
https://instagram.com/eletcher
https://www.instagram.com/julieatorres/
SPACES AND ARTISTS PARTICIPATING IN SPACE CASE
TENNESSEE
Office Space (UTC) Chattanooga: Christina Renfer Vogel
Stove Works, Chattanooga: Mike Calway-Fagen
University of Tennessee Chattanooga, Chattanooga: Amanda Nolan Booker, Larkin Cook, Claudia Hoffer, Caitlin Kelley, Shannon McAllister, Hilary McWilliams, Dionna Moore, Victoria Sauer, Olivia Tawzer, Summer Tomes
VERSA, Chattanooga: Mirel Crumb, Dana Ortega, Chloë Shupe, Stephanie Loggans, Dylan Pew, Kirby Miles
Unrequited Leisure, Nashville: Chalet Comellas-Baker, Clinton Sleeper
Electric Shed, Nashville: David Onri Anderson
DADU, Nashville: Jodi Hays
David Lusk Gallery, Nashville: Amelia Briggs
NORTH CAROLINA
LOG, Chapel Hill: Maria Britton, April Childers
My Room, Chapel Hill
Lump, Raleigh: Amanda Barr, John Bowman, Critter
Team Lump (older archived site), Raleigh
Drawing Room, Raleigh: Bill Thelen
Acid Rain, Chapel Hill: Jerstin Crosby
The Concern Newsstand, Raleigh & Chapel Hill: Orvokki Crosby
Basement, Chapel Hill: Laura Little, Mike Keaveney, Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo, Chieko Murasugi, John DeKemper II
Oneoneone, Chapel Hill
Gutter Box, Raleigh: Louis Watts
VIRGINIA
MITTEN, Harrisonburg VA: Allyson Mellberg Taylor and Jeremy Taylor
