~THE STATION/MIAMI !!
THE STATION/MIAMI – ELEANOR CAYRE’S debut project – was huge, ambitious and insightful !! Curated by SHAMIN M. MOMIN and NATE LOWMAN – a winning combo, if I ever did see one !! – it was the only show in the Miami Art Fair Weekend – that caught, not only the NEW WAVE !!, but the hard-edged vibe of the new times !!
was it: the best group show blow-out exhibition art extravaganza of 2008 ? you bet it was !!
hands down.
a large contemporary overview, with a personal take or point-of-view – that’s a good thing !! – THE STATION was truly c-o-n-t-e-m-p-or-a-r-y, (as opposed to Auction House/Museum blue-chip fake-modern-speak contemporary !!). Not only that – it had a sharp edge to it, in the work, and in the glorious rawness of the huge cavernous space itself. An alternative project – it blew away all of the museum surveys – of this past year, including the 2008 Whitney Biennial !! but, esp. those lame museum collector shows trumpeted as cutting edge in L.A. !!
put together in just a couple of months – it was not only museum quality – but THE STATION had a great fly-by-night feel. a difficult combo to pull off. Like a cold North Eastern wind – it swept in across the sunny beaches – and threw down the real hard-edged stake – the Miami art scene has recently been missing. its not all about mall-mentality art commerce, suntans and partying, anymore. give me hard-core art over decadence – anyday !! but, esp. today !! gimme me that NYC edge !!
THE STATION/MIAMI – a PROJECT DIRECTED & PRODUCED by ELEANOR CAYRE.
CO-CURATED by SHAMIM M. MOMIN and NATE LOWMAN.
with help from STACEY GOERGEN, the CURATORIAL DIRECTOR,
and MAXWELL WILLIAMS – who was also a part of THE STATION team, organizing the performances and instrumental in the nitty gritty part of the big show’s actual installing.
DECEMBER 2 thru DECEMBER 7, 2008
MIDBLOCK EAST, 3250 NE 1st Avenue/Midtown Boulevard at 32nd St, Miami, FLORIDA
a ‘found’ space – of 12,000 square feet, in an as yet, uncompleted, bare bones urban real estate development.
Spread out over 3 separate levels, the exhibition opened in a soaring ground-floor retail space, from where it then flowed to a second floor office space, and then onto a duplex residential apartment. THE STATION was open to the public from 12pm – 9pm. and featured truly cutting edge & more often than not, large & very large works, as well as site specific installations by an equally large (over 40 participants), and diverse group of artists, such as: RITA ACKERMANN, DIANA AL-HADID, LISA ANNE AUERBACH, LUTZ BACHER, JUSTIN BEAL, DIKE BLAIR, LIZZIE BOUGATSOS, JOE BRADLEY, OLAF BREUNING, TOM BURR, PETER COFFIN, GARDAR EIDE EINARSSON, MATIAS FALDBAKKEN, SYLVIE FLEURY, JONAH FREEMAN, MARTHA FRIEDMAN, TERENCE KOH, HANNA LIDEN, JUSTIN LOWE, IRENE MAMIYE, RYAN McGINLEY, BJARNE MELGAARD, MARTIN OPPEL, ROB PRUITT, RY ROCKLEN, TORBJORN RODLAND, STERLING RUBY, TOM SCICLUNA, HAIM STEINBACH, and more.
more than anything else, the one thing that draws us back to THE STATION – is how the exhibit comes across as so alive and dynamic – so raw and ‘with it’ – such a hard thing to carry off in such a big undertaking. As the photos below get across – THE STATION/MIAMI – really did mirror the ambitions and insight of its originator, ELEANOR CAYRE, who said in her mission statement that the show was about “the commitment and admiration I have for working artists. I felt it was important to produce an event that retains a sense of intimacy and urgency. THE STATION isn’t about yesterday or tomorrow – it’s about right now.”
it was hard-edged, raw & real – and, it looks like it was a lot of fun, too !!
opening night at THE STATION, MIAMI. DEC 2, 2008
STACEY GOERGEN, JEFFREY DEITCH, and ELEANOR CAYRE.
ELEANOR CAYRE, THE STATION’S originator/director/producer; SHAMIM M. MOMIN, the co-curator; and STACEY GOERGEN, the project’s curatorial director.
THE STATION/MIAMI co-curators: NATE LOWMAN and SHAMIM M. MOMIN.
SHAMIM M. MOMIN is an associate curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
ELEANOR CAYRE, MELISSA FELDMAN, IDA EKBLAD, MATIAS FALDBAKKEN, and SHAMIM M. MOMIN.
Melissa Feldman was the event planner for the STATION/MIAMI’S opening night.
MUNGO THOMSON, PETER COFFIN, MICHELE O’MARAH, and ELEANOR CAYRE.
Peter Coffin and Michele O’Marah had work in the show.
TAYLOR LIVINGSTON, JONAH FREEMAN, ELEANOR CAYRE, MIGUEL RANGEL, and a guest.
DANA SHUTZ and ROB PRUITT.
LA-based JUSTIN BEAL.
JUSTIN LOWE, JONAH FREEMAN, and a guest.
Justin Lowe and Jonah Freeman are the guys who brought you: Hello Meth Lab with a view !!
TOM BURR and JUSTIN BEAL.
RY ROCKLEN.
Ry Rocklen is an LA artist who had 2 very different pieces in the show. He did the pennies on the 2nd floor, which was basically 2,000 pennies thrown all over the floor – “it looked pretty rad and many people asked about it.”
He also did a work on the 1st floor which he called ‘health medallion’ – the medallion – a small colorful circle, hanging, high on the wall – was suspended from a thick rope that went on to surround – encircle – the entire first floor – an ambitious site specific installation that took almost an entire day to complete.
MARTHA FRIEDMAN, next to her installation, ‘Banded’ !!
MARTHA FRIEDMAN – ‘Banded’.
installation by ROB FISCHER.
MARTIN OPPEL’S carpet made of sand !! known as the “sand .. wich” was meant to walked on !!
needless to say it completely disappeared by the end of the opening !!
another view of MARTIN OPPEL’S carpet. BAJRNE MELGRAAD’S couch, GARY SIMMONS red painting and a JENNIFER WEST video at right.
(g-r-e-a-t !!) couch by BJARNE MELGRAAD. ROB PRUITT’S ‘ANNA NICOLE SMITH’ – it up – tombstone, at far right.
at left work by LUTZ BACHER, and at right, HAIM STEINBACH.
LISA ANNE AUERBACH !!
video by JENNIFER WEST.
COSIMA VON BONIN.
a site specific work, built right then and there. by brothers, OSCAR TUAZON and ELI HANSON.
check out this little article: OSCAR TUAZON wins prize !!
this piece by DIANA AL-HADID generated a lot of attention.
chain – site specific piece by TOM SCICLUNA.
HANNA LIDEN.
(very striking !!) photographs mounted on aluminum by IRENE MAMIYE !!
another piece by HAIM STEINBACH.
crate by DIKE BLAIR. DAN COLLEN tricked out the inside. NATE LOWMAN and JOE BRADLEY did the other 2 sides.
NATE’S CRATE / DIKE BLAIR !!
ROB PRUITT’S i-Photos.
YOSHUA OKON’S video in the stairwell !!
STERLING RUBY’S huge piece generated buzz, that traveled all the way back here, in NYC !!
. . . looking through STERLING RUBY’S huge installation/sculpture
the stairway leading down to: Hello Meth Lab with a view !!
detail. JUSTIN LOWE, JONAH FREEMAN – Hello Meth Lab with a view !!
JUSTIN LOWE in his, and JONAH FREEMAN’S – Hello Meth Lab with a view.
the exterior – THE STATION/MIAMI !!
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY/THE STATION
ALL PHOTOS BY: CLINT SPAULDING & NICK HUNT/PatrickMcMullan.com
see: artlovers first – THE STATION MIAMI/POST !!
as well, STACEY GOERGEN, Curatorial Director of THE STATION/MIAMI was kind enough to contribute some background:
The Station Miami
The Station was made possible by a small group of extraordinarily committed art professionals who were determined to bring a free, museum quality exhibition to the public during the 2008 Miami Basel fair. An organic process, the show was organized in under three months, and was installed by curators, art handlers and interns working for reduced rates or for free. Installed in a large, new development in mid-town Miami, the show encompassed approximately 14,000 square feet of unoccupied space, including a soaring first floor commercial area with dirt floors, an unfinished second floor office space, and a duplex apartment.
The concept, originating with Eleanor Cayre, was to utilize these raw, incomplete construction spaces, and offer artists the opportunity to either create new site specific work, or lend objects to the show. Shamim M. Momin and Nate Lowman co-curated the show, either suggesting to artists certain bodies of work in which they were interested, or asking for proposals. The artists were selected in part because their practices investigate architecture and urban landscape, intersections between public and private, notions of design as constructed lifestyle, and, above all, the sense of “in-betweeness†so fleetingly embodied by these exhibition spaces. To give artists a sense of the space, they were sent extensive site images, or in certain cases were invited to visit, so that they could react to the specific architecture, light and feel.
Response to the concept was overwhelmingly enthusiastic– The Station eventually included 48 artists, with 77 works and 3 performances. Almost 60% of the artists made new pieces for the exhibition, reacting to various underlying currents inherent in the exhibition architecture. The availability of this vacant, cavernous space, in a newly built complex reflects the current difficulties in the Miami real estate business, but it also points to the overbuilding of area over the past decade. Diana Al-Hadid’s Untitled (2008), a toppled tower, delicately composed of colored honeycombs has the sense of a fallen nation, where buildings have fallen into decay. Miami based artist Martin Oppel’s Untitled (Strata Fiction F) (2008) consists of precariously stacked Styrofoam cinderblocks, painted on one side in bright florescent colors, perhaps referring to the fragility of building in his hometown. Midtown Miami’s constructed living environment, and the various manners in which people decide to live and furnish their homes, was also explored by artists. Eli Hanson and Oscar Tuazon’s Beer Bottle Test Column (2008) questioned the changing context materials and environment through an empty beer bottle tower, attached with cement and wood to a structural column in the building. In Hello Meth Lab with a View (2008), Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe transformed a shiny, white duplex apartment into a labyrinth of rooms, in which occupants have been producing crystal meth. The grimy interior includes a laboratory, a burnt out kitchen, and the detritus and accumulation of a world falling into itself. The transitory sense of the space was reflected in Martha Friedman’s Banded (2008), a work consisting of 90 oversized rubber bands. The bands were tied in threes, and then installed in a 15 by 15 grid, anchored from floor to ceiling. Encouraging the viewer to walk between the bands, they fluctuated with movement, as the knots found their equilibrium.
The project was also unusual because the entire team stayed on site in apartments above the installation space. This not only included The Station team, but also many of the artists who installed for the show– leading more than one person to compare it to “art campâ€. Given that we were all there, everyone helped in many aspects of the installation and opening, and we all got to know each other very well. We are currently working on a publication which will not only include installation shots, but also outline the curatorial process leading up to the show, as well as the installation and opening.
For more information on the The Station, please visit our website TheStationMiami.org.
Stacey Goergen
Curatorial Director
