New York, February 22nd, 2005 – NURTUREart Non-Profit, Inc. is pleased to present

It was here a minute ago, a multi-media group exhibition showcasing the work of eleven artists who explore the concept of ephemeral art, curated by Veronica Mijelshon. It includes sculpture, video installation, prints, painting and photography. The artists work with materials that transform during the life span of the exhibition, while others disappeared just before the completion of the work; they definitely challenge the imprints of time.

The works here evoke the natural processes of birth, growth and eventual decay and dissolution. All of them invite an on-going dialogue with the viewer and engage our innate fascination with the spectacle of change and transformation. The artworks rely on the role of consciousness in establishing the distinction between that which persists in the world and that which persists in the mind’s eye.

In conjunction with this exhibition, NURTUREart presents The Tapes Project: In-Dialogue with artist Jaime Davidovich on Saturday, May 14th at 5 pm at NURTUREart Gallery. Mr. Davidovich will talk about the genesis of the ephemeral art movement in New York in the 70’s (see more information about Jaime Davidovich and this enrichment event at the end of the press release).

Exhibiting artists are: Susan Bowen, Nell Breyer, Irene Chan, Jenny Krasner, Katy Martin, David Meyer, Heidi Neilson, Susan Rowland & Marina Ancona, Lucy Norman Spencer, Katrin Spiess and Debra Weisberg.

  In the i:move performance piece/video installation, Nell Breyer explores the perception of movement through motor and visual memory. i:move captures and processes the movement patterns of the visitors-participants,  imbedding them into a video projection and transforming them into 2-dimensional shadow play.

Using thought to create art is not unusual, but using thought as the created element certainly is. Katrin Spiess presents for the first time her Thinking Box. Viewers are invited to enter the Thinking Box, sit down, close the door and t h i n k. Changing the typical equation in the creative process, the Thinking Box is the medium and thought, unique and ever changing, is the artwork.

Susan Bowen, Heidi Neilson and Katy Martin catch the moment and document that experience using different ways of photographing. Susan Bowen overlaps images created by only partially advancing film between exposures.

  Katy Martin instead uses a fixed camera to photograph her painted body as part of a private performance in her studio. With a different approach Heidi Neilson documents the results of her public Push for Luck art project based on an article she read in the New York Times in 2004.

David Meyer, Lucy Norman Spencer, Debra Weisberg and Irene Chan present site specific projects utilizing organic materials which will react to the intervention of the viewers, the weather conditions and the gallery space.

In the intersection between documentation and the use of organic materials, Susan Rowland & Marina Ancona work in collaboration to produce their monoprints: visual records of the ephemeral elements they have chosen to work with, such as weeds and snow. For this exhibition, they work with elements found at NURTUREart Gallery’s geographical coordinates - 40◦ 42’ 48” N/ 73◦ 57’ 7” W. Space and time, as pure concepts, are evoked by the precise spatial localization conjoined with the documentation of brief life spans.

Using her characteristic collage technique, Jenny Krasner takes personal experiences and converts them into mixed-media wall reliefs, Krasner’s works explore the outrageous, humorous and sometimes dark facets of the modern “Relationship”, based on ephemeral connections typified by internet dating, e-mail intimacy and IM’d emotions.

The Tapes Project: In-Dialogue with Jaime Davidovich in a video and slide presentation along with a discussion moderated by Veronica Mijelshon, Mr. Davidovich will present a history of his pioneering solo works from the 70’s to the present and collaborations in the New York arts scene with artists Gordon Matta Clark, Bill Viola, Robert Rauschenberg, among others. Jaime Davidovich was one of the founders of the New York-based Artists Television Network (ATN), a non-profit organization committed to the development of television as an artistic medium and Jaime himself has developed and produced other television projects as well. The Fales Collection at NYU’s Elmer Holmes Bobst Library recently announced the acquisition of a large portion of Davidovich’s works comprised of some 5000 linear feet of archives and over 10,000 printed items documenting the downtown New York City arts scene from 1974 to the present.

Veronica Mijelshon is NURTUREart’s Gallery Director and an independent curator. She earned her Architectural degree from Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she was born. Veronica Mijelshon’s current projects include: GACHU, a public art project for hospitalized children, and a Bedford-Stuyvesant glass mosaic mural project for the façade of the Marcy Ave. Building, a residency for the mentally ill.

Illustrations: Nell Breyer, Still from i:move/dimensions variable/2004; Katy Martin, Untitled/ 16” 24”/color photograph/2003

David Meyer, Affect or Effect/Flour and painted wood base/23” x 29” x 29”, 2003

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Directions to:
NURTUREart Gallery and Emerging Curators’ Resource Center:
475 Keap Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It is near the intersection of Union and Metropolitan Avenues, and is just steps from the L train Lorimer station or the G train Metropolitan Ave. station. The gallery is open to the public Fridays noon-9 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 6PM, and by appointment. 718-782-7755.

NURTUREart is a New York State licensed, federally tax-exempt charitable fine art services organization founded in 1997 by George J. Robinson and run completely by volunteer professionals. Founded on the conviction that success in the visual arts is the result of collaboration not exclusion, NURTUREart is committed to nurturing emerging artists and curators through exposure, enrichment and opportunity. NURTUREart has mounted numerous exhibitions of its Registry Artists' and Curators' work and presented a wide variety of enrichment events and Muse Fuse gatherings at its Williamsburg Brooklyn gallery and at host venues throughout the New York Metropolitan area.

The NURTUREart Gallery & Emerging Curators’ Resource Center is funded in part by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council, Inc. BAC, the Leibowitz Foundation, and the Michael Weinstein Foundation. NURTUREart appreciates their support.