FLORENCE ANNOUNCE DIESEL COMMISSION

Art Company Florence Announce Major Commission for Artist Therese Stowell

Florence - the young, fresh new art company - is proud to announce that one of their main artists Therese Stowell, will undertake a major commission for Diesel Denim Gallery at London’s Fashion Week.

Diesel Denim Gallery is a new brand from the popular fashion label, and will be found within in the UK exclusively at Harvey Nichols and Selfridges.  Diesel chose Therese Stowell from a selection of talented young artists, believing that the politically and socially aware thought processes represented in her work through a unique blend of graphics, photography and text, best represent Diesel Denim Gallery’s ethos and one-off style.

Diesel has commissioned ten new works from Stowell, which will be presented on 8 ft. lightboxes.  The works center on themes of consumption, from capitalism to fashion to identity.  As Stowell says, “I am very excited to situate work on these themes in the midst of an event which embodies the themes. This kind of self-referentiality and humour is sympathetic with Diesel’s philosophy.”

Each lightbox will contain a pair of limited edition Diesel Denim Jeans with hand stitched detailing. The lightboxes will form a corridor of futuristic blue light at the exhibition, to be held at The Henry Moore Gallery in the Royal College of Art.  Stowell’s existing oeuvre will be displayed on the walls of the gallery.

There is only one exclusive opportunity to see these provocative works, at the opening party on 23^rd September. With limited, invite only places available it is already one of the most eagerly anticipated events of London Fashion Week, sure to attract some of the biggest names from the art and fashion world, including a rare appearance by the founder and owner of Diesel himself, Renzo Rosso.

“My work involves constructing systems of meaning through the presentation of text, often using the information presentation tools of science and business,” comments artist, Therese Stowell.”  These systems frequently take the form of arrowed diagrams which connect words or sentences to create networks of explanation.” As Tank magazine designated her, Stowell is a cultural cartographer of our times.

‘We are really excited for Therese to be chosen to work with Diesel on this project. We love seeing our artist’s elevated to new levels, and as this will be  Diesel’s biggest and most exclusive event this year. I don’t think we could have lifted her any higher! Therese’s work is perfect for a forward thinking brand like Diesel, her art looks at the world open mindedly with a totally tongue-in-cheek attitude, which fit’s perfectly with their ethos’ Carrie Neely, co-director and co-founder of Florence Fine Art.

Following the successful ARTIADE exhibition held in Atlanta in 1996 on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary Olympic Games, the "ARTIADE - Olympics of Visual Art" are now being held in Athens from 12 August to 29 September 2004. These are taking place in parallel to the Olympic Games being held in that city at the same time.

Six hundred artists from countries taking part in the Olympic Games will have their works exhibited. The ARTIADE will document a harmonious meeting of nations, using art as its means of communication.

There is an ever-increasing need to take a 'step back' in order to find a cultural counterbalance and a sense of transparency, in the face of the increasing commercialisation of the Olympic Games. This exhibition offers the ideal medium for documenting the 'feel' of any country - current events, emotions, and traditions. In short, it is a forum for world culture.

In other words, every Olympic nation will send not only its athletes, but also its artists, who will reflect the cultural identity of their countries of origin:

"…It is the artists' works that tell us about life in the countries from which they come..."
Gerhard Mack, ('art' Magazine, Germany)

In this way the ARTIADE will emphasise the positive, unifying nature of the sport Olympics. Through this exhibition the original meaning of the Olympic ideal will be revealed in the present time. Athletes and artists represent two sides of a common culture. The exhibiting artists will be able to express their opinions and emotions without restraint.

The exhibition is being organised by the "Kulturstiftung ARTIADE e.V." (Cultural Foundation ARTIADE), registered as a cultural organisation in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is supported by a number of prominent figures, most particularly by the German Federal President, Johannes Rau.

ARTIADE opening ceremony                              12.08.2004

Exhibition period                                             12.08.2004 - 29.09.2004

Closing ceremony     30.09.2004

temporarycontemporary

Press Release

FleaMarket

Exhibition and Artist Garage Sale

FleaMarket: May Day Bank Holiday Weekend

With the active participation of over 50 artists, events, bands & DIY catering

Saturday 1st May, Sunday 2nd May 2004, 12-6pm

20p admission

Exhibition: continues for 1 week

Tuesday 4^th – Sunday 9^th May 2004, open daily 12-6pm

admission free

We are pleased to present ‘FleaMarket’ a large exhibition and artist garage sale hosted in the 4000 sq ft covered temporarycontemporary space at The Old Seager Distillery, Deptford, London.  

The social-selling-swap-meet event will last for one weekend, with artists activities including exhibiting on rugs and blankets, making, exchanging, rehearsing, recording, demonstrating, curating and cooking. After the weekend, FleaMarket will transform into an exhibition open for one week – a large survey show documenting current modes of artistic production open daily until Sunday 9^th May. 

FleaMarket is a unique opportunity to sift and rummage through a treasure trove of group displays, artist’s wares, collections, cast-offs and garage junk. Showcasing works from over 50 prominent and emerging artists and galleries, FleaMarket offers a chance to see and buy rare and affordable artworks as well as engage personally with artists, curators and their participatory projects.

temporarycontemporary

2nd Floor, Atlantic House

The Old Seager Distillery

Deptford Bridge

London SE8 4JT

Right next to Deptford Bridge DLR

Entrance on Brookmill Road / Deptford Bridge.

www.tempcontemp.co.uk for map

info@tempcontemp.co.uk for further information or call 07971 292 817

Curated by Anthony Gross

“…one formal system has been substituted for another: since the early nineties, the dominant visual model is closer to the open-air market, the bazaar, the souk, a temporary and nomadic gathering of precarious materials and products of various provenances. Recycling (a method) and chaotic arrangement (an aesthetic) have supplanted shopping, store windows, and shelving in the role of formal matrices.”  Nicolas Bourriaud, ‘Postproduction’

Hightstown, New Jersey, March 8, 2004

(below: Therese Stowell, About Belief, Inkjet on Paper, 24” x 18”, 2002)

 

The Community Arts Partnership at the Peddie School (CAPPS) closes its 2003-2004 Mariboe Gallery Season with a theme show entitled, ‘Contemporary Directions in New Media.’ The exhibit will highlight the work of three artists: Heather Freeman, Eric Hadley and Therese Stowell. The exhibit will open with a reception and talk by the artists on Friday, April 2, 2004 from 6:30 – 9 p.m., and the will run through April 18. The Gallery is located in the Swig Arts Center at the Peddie School. Gallery hours are 9-3 daily, Monday through Friday.  

These three up and coming artists working in new media will participate in a group show and visiting artists lecture at the Mariboe Gallery.  Heather Freeman explores idiosyncratic and surreal connections between art, science, pop culture and her own autobiographical experiences through digital imagery and video.  Eric Hadley is an animator, musician, educator, technician, DJ, and designer.  He employs a vast array of digital media to produce vibrant sensory experiences at the cutting edge of underground culture.  Therese Stowell is an American artist currently working in London.  She produces digital images that use the visual language of scientific and corporate diagrams to explore personal and subjective content concerning omnipresent but elusive issues such as anxiety, sex, and war.  These diagrammatic systems are contrasted with lush emotional and aesthetic imagery.  All three artists have shown extensively and have been written about in a variety of publications.

‘My fellow Americans, hear this. The empire crumbles. The backlash against our financial and cultural expansion swells. The military is overextended, the economy is faltering. Corporations and a powerful elite run the government, taking action we would never conscience and provoking widespread enmity. Over-consumption and carelessness destroy our environment. Science is running amok in the name of progress. The widening gap between rich and poor brews resentment, which bubbles over in acts of desperation. Something has to give, and will’.

Therese Stowell marries the bombast of the Baptist preacher and George Lucas with the rationality of science and business to create works advertising promise and doom.  Working within the language of business and technology, she creates slick, seductive manufactured objects that both critique and embody the American dream.

Stowell’s idiosyncratic work resists literal interpretation. In fact, it should be viewed as an unsolvable puzzle or even a riddle without a discernable answer.  It is the constructed systems of meaning through textual exploration and the presentation of the information using the tools of science and business that makes Therese’s work so intriguing and multi-faceted.   These systems frequently take the form of arrowed diagrams, which connect words or sentences to create networks of explanation.

Whilst appearing complete and authoritative, each work ultimately proves inclusive and therefore, ultimately enigmatic.  It is part of the human condition to rationalise our personal and social existence and yet, fundamentally we understand the futility of this endeavour.  Stowell’s work exists between the uneasy realm of post-modern scepticism and a meta-narrative yearning for truth and belief.

10th October – 1^st November 2003 at Catto Contemporary

Private View: 6-9pm 9th October

PRESS RELEASE I N F O M A T I C
a priori
61-63 Cudworth St
London E1 5QU
www.apriori.tv
Underground: Bethnal Green

Friday 6 June – Sunday 29 June 2003
 

a priori presents INFOMATIC, an exhibition that explores the presentation of information and its impact on society and the individual. The show features the work of Abigail Reynolds, which begins with information and allows it to self-generate a form, and the work of Therese Stowell, which uses the information tools of science and business to map the social and the personal.

Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.
- Ronald Reagan

Parallel to the physical world exists an information ether. It is made tangible through statistics, the Internet, advertisements, news reporting... These conscious acts of framing shape our world view – this information becomes our internal landscape. Despite our awareness of the partial view, we place our faith in the information; it becomes our truth and a source of comfort.

Marrying quasi or pseudo scientific principles and methods with a radically unscientific content or form, Reynolds and Stowell create hybrid forms to probe a disjointed reality.