Talk

From iconic museums to contemporary galleries, works of art are often conceived and presented in dialogue with the exhibition spaces where they are shown. While invisible, the history of that context shapes the way we come to see and understand art. Within the dizzying visual backdrop of buildings, people, streets, advertising, and the broader landscape, the public sphere offers a densely layered and complex history. An ever-changing public realm has little regard for the conventions of art history and the white cube, and calls on artworks to communicate beyond the traditional exhibition space.

For the Fall 2013 Talks at The New School, Public Art Fund invites artists whose diverse practices have encompassed significant work in gallery and museum contexts, as well as in the public sphere, to share their experiences of working in both the white cube and the public realm.

Mark Manders’ distinctive multidisciplinary practice encompasses installation, sculpture, drawing and projected imagery. With carefully constructed assemblages of furniture, human and animal figures, newspapers, welded metal piping, light bulbs, and the ephemera of daily life, Manders’ enigmatic installations reflect an ongoing interest in creating a metaphorical self-portrait. To create his work, he fabricates each individual element in the studio, recreating everyday objects like newspapers, wood beams, or milled screws that, while familiar, are stripped of real-world references. As part of his working process, Manders “tests a work” by imagining it in a supermarket “to see if it can survive there, without being labeled as an artwork.” Manders’ talk will focus on his interest in public space and the dialogue between between life and art.

Mark Manders (b. 1968, Volkel, the Netherlands) lives and works in Arnhem, the Netherlands, and Ronse, Belgium. He attended the School of Graphic Design in Arnhem and the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design. Solo exhibitions of his work have been presented at the Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy (2012); Musée Carré d’Art, Nîmes, France (2012); Carillo Gil Museum of Art, Mexico City (2011); Berkeley Art Museum, California (2005); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2005); Art Institute of Chicago and Renaissance Society, Chicago (2003); and Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands (2002) and among others. He has exhibited at the Sao Paulo, Berlin and Venice Biennales and at Documenta in Kassel. In 2010 Manders’ first American exhibition traveled from the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles to the Aspen Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Dallas Museum of Art. In 2013 he represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale. He is represented by Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York.

Public Art Fund Talks at The New School are organized by the Public Art Fund in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School.