press release

Tom Burr
Anne Collier
Shannon Ebner
Daniel Gustav Cramer
& Haris Epaminonda
Wade Guyton
Richard Hawkins
Matthew Higgs
Judy Linn
Sara MacKillop
Michalis Pichler
Nick Relph
Tim Rollins & K.O.S.
Paul Sietsema
Frances Stark
Dirk Stewen
John Stezaker
Rirkrit Tiravanija

“The use of the page in artists‘s books or for projects within the context of art magazines, for example, is an established genre. However, it is only rarely in this history that these uses of the page have become reflections on the nature of the book, the page or the manuscript itself, or on the particularity of a subjective encounter with this familiar –doubled - space.
“The Page” gathers together a number of recent artists’ works that constitute just such a reflection on both the use and the nature of the page – in its myriad forms. In these works, the page is not only a conduit of an image or an idea; it is also a mysterious object of attention in and of itself.

Perhaps it is only at this moment in history, when the page itself seems to be rendered potentially obsolete by the screen that artists have begun to find a renewed fascination for the physical particularities of the page or book form. Perhaps it is only this context of redundancy that has encouraged artists to dwell on these qualities overlooked in the ordinary passing encounter. There is pathos in this encounter with the stilled page. There is often a seemingly nostalgic, even lamenting quality, as if the book, magazine, newspaper, or musical score had already passed out of use and existed as a physical trace left behind in the process of dematerialization. Against a background of the potentially lost or endangered physicality of communication, much of the work in the exhibition can be seen as forms of resistance to this process. The page, the pre-eminent site of appropriation and collage - one might say the space of origination of such practices - is foregrounded here as the site for a return of these practices to their origins.”
– John Stezaker, 2010

John Stezaker (b. 1949) is a British artist who lives and works in London, England. His work has been shown internationally since 1970. He had solo exhibitions in New York at White Columns (2006), and Friedrich Petzel Gallery (2009.) He had solo exhibitions at Galerie Dennis Kimmerich, Düsseldorf in 2006 and 2008. A survey of his work will open at London’s Whitechapel Gallery in 2011.

Matthew Higgs (b.1964) is an artist, curator and writer based in New York. He is currently the Director of White Columns, New York’s oldest alternative space, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary. In 1996 he organized John Stezaker’s solo exhibition ‘Garden’ at London’s Cubitt Gallery, and his solo exhibition at White Columns in 2006.