MINUS SPACE

MINUS SPACE is a curatorial project located in Brooklyn, NY. It has gallery and web site devoted to reductive art.

History

MINUS SPACE began as an online curatorial and critical project presenting reductive and concept based art. Reductive art includes geometric abstraction, artwork that deals with repetition, monochrome or limited color, seriality. ["Neighborhood Beat": Profile on MINUS SPACE & Michael Brennan, BCAT / Brooklyn Community Access Television, Jan. 25, Feb. 14, Feb. 19 & Feb. 23, 2007, Episode 31] and minimalism. [Kalm, James. "A Boom Grows in Brooklyn", "The Brooklyn Rail", July 2004.] It was launched as a nonprofit, online curatorial project in August 2003 by Brooklyn artists Matthew Deleget and Rosanna Martinez, and gradually developed into a showcase for dozens of artists. [Maine, Stephen. “Dateline Brooklyn”, "Artnet Magazine", April 15, 2005.] They began by putting portfolios and curating exhibitions online. MINUS SPACE published interviews of artists, reviews and critical essays. At this point project was only online, literally "minus space". ["Neighborhood Beat": Profile on MINUS SPACE & Michael Brennan, BCAT / Brooklyn Community Access Television]

MINUS SPACE then started to produce physical exhibitions in their Brooklyn project space. ["Neighborhood Beat": Profile on MINUS SPACE & Michael Brennan, BCAT / Brooklyn Community Access Television] These included one person shows of abstract painting, installations and performance art. [MINUS SPACE, home page. 17 June 2008. ] In addition they began to curate exhibitions nationally and internationally at universities, galleries, artist-run spaces and nonprofit spaces located in Manhattan; St. Mary's City, Maryland; Sydney, Australia; ["Neighborhood Beat": Profile on MINUS SPACE & Michael Brennan, BCAT / Brooklyn Community Access Television] ; Houston, Texas ["Machine Learning", exhibition catalog, The Boyden Gallery of St. Mary's College of Maryland, The Painting Center, Gallery Sonja Roesch and Minus Space, 2007. inside cover.] ; Brussels, Belgium. [MINUS SPACE, home page. ]

Exhibitions and Curatorial Projects

In 2008 MINUS SPACE curated an exhibit to "re-present" abstract shaped canvas paintings as new, made by Mark Dagley first shown with Tony Shafrazi Gallery 20 years earlier in 1987. ["Mark Dagley", exhibition catalog, MINUS SPACE, Abaton Book Company, 2008. p. 2.] Most of the exhibition of was painted in William S. Burroughs Bunker in the Bowery in New York City. ["Mark Dagley", exhibition catalog, MINUS SPACE, Abaton Book Company, 2008. p. 13.]

They curated a traveling exhibition "Machine Learning" which was shown at the Boyden Gallery of St. Mary's College of Maryland, The Painting Center in New York City, Gallery Sonja Roesch in Houston, TX in 2007 and 2008. ["Machine Learning", exhibition catalog, The Boyden Gallery of St. Mary's College of Maryland, The Painting Center, Gallery Sonja Roesch and Minus Space, 2007. inside cover.] The title of the exhibition was inspired by a subfield of artificial intelligence concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to "learn". Machine learning algorithms recognize patterns within massive sets of data. Real world applications include the internet search engine. This exhibition examined new pattern painting in the information age. ["Machine Learning", exhibition catalog, The Boyden Gallery of St. Mary's College of Maryland, The Painting Center, Gallery Sonja Roesch and Minus Space, 2007. p. 2.]

In 2008, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center exhibited "MINUS SPACE", a survey of 54 artists from 14 countries affiliated with MINUS SPACE. The exhibition was curated by Phong Bui, publisher of the Brooklyn Rail and P.S.1. Curatorial Advisor. The exhibition marked the 5th anniversary of MINUS SPACE. [MINUS SPACE, home ]

Presence Online

MINUS SPACE has a space on the internet enabling it to collaborate with other institutions. [MacAdam, Barbara A. “Tilman”, "ARTnews", Jan 2008: 132.] The web site has an online log that functions as a web portal for information on exhibitions of reductive art internationally. There is also a comprehensive directory of related web sites for reductive art including galleries, museums and related publications, a directory of artists affiliated with MINUS SPACE, and also artist interviews. [MINUS SPACE: links, artists. 17 June 2008. ]

MINUS SPACE maintains a comprehensive Chronology of reductive and concept-based art. The chronology includes major events, exhibitions, and writings in the development of reductive and concept-based art in Europe, South and North America from 1800 to date. [MINUS SPACE, chronology. 17 June 2008. ]

Footnotes

References

* MacAdam, Barbara A. “Tilman”, "ARTnews", Jan 2008: 132.
* Maine, Stephen. “Dateline Brooklyn”, "Artnet Magazine", April 15, 2005.
* Kalm, James. "A Boom Grows in Brooklyn", "The Brooklyn Rail", July 2004.
* [http://www.briconline.org/bcat/popups/neighborhoodbeat/bococa/episode31.asp "Neighborhood Beat": Profile on MINUS SPACE & Michael Brennan] , BCAT / Brooklyn Community Access Television, Jan. 25, Feb. 14, Feb. 19 & Feb. 23, 2007, Episode 31
* "Machine Learning", exhibition catalog, The Boyden Gallery of St. Mary's College of Maryland, The Painting Center, Gallery Sonja Roesch and Minus Space, 2007. Essay by Matthew Deleget. ISBN 13:978-0-615-16391-8
* "Mark Dagley", exhibition catalog, MINUS SPACE, Abaton Book Company, 2008. Essays by Matthew Deleget and Nora Griffin, interview by Don Voisine. ISBN: 0-9677326-9-7
* MINUS SPACE. 17 June 2008.
* Wikipedia, Machine Learning. 17 June 2008.

External links

* [http://www.minusspace.com/ MINUS SPACE]