Melvin Charney

New York, May 1st 2008, will open a major exhibition on Melvin Charney, one of Canada’s foremost contemporary artists. Between Observation and Intervention: the Painted Photographs of Melvin Charney, organized in collaboration with the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, continues the Americas Society’s tradition of presenting timely and compelling exhibitions of contemporary artists from across the hemisphere to the New York public. This exhibition marks Melvin Charney’s first solo show in a New York Cultural Institution since his P.S.1 installation in 1979.

According to guest curator, Gwendolyn Owens: “Artist/architect Melvin Charney has focused his eye upon the city. The art resulting from his careful study includes photographs, sculpture, installations, monuments, and urban plans; among the most arresting works are his painted photographs in which bold images in pastel and paint are overlaid on printed mass media images”. These large scale layered works, which challenge our understanding of cities and their components, will be the focus of the exhibition at Americas Society

First begun in 1989, the painted photographs grew out of an ongoing project, Un Dictionnaire, for which the artist has—since 1970—been collecting images of buildings reproduced in newspapers, and then painting over them with semi-transparent gray wash and mounting them together to create a ever-expanding work of individual panels that focus on buildings and the ways in our society sees and uses them.

Public Programs The exhibition will be an occasion not only for the audience to get to know the work of one of Canada’s most celebrated artists, but also will provide an opportunity for challenging public discussions about the city in the 21st century. The free public programs will begin on Thursday, May 1 at 6:30 p.m. with a curatorial dialogue between the guest curator, Gwendolyn Owens, and Gabriela Rangel, Director of the Americas Society’s Visual Arts Department. The series continues on June 11 with a panel discussion about the city in the 21st century with Anthony Kiendl, (Director of Plug In ICA, Winnipeg), Carlos Brillembourg (Architecture Editor of Bomb magazine), Saul Ostrow (Chair, Visual Arts, The Cleveland Institute of Art) and Gwendolyn Owens; and on June 24 with another panel discussion held at Storefront for Art and Architecture featuring panelists Susan Herrington (University of British Columbia), Dan Graham (Artist), and Yasmeen Siddiqui (curator at Storefront), who wil l examine the intersection of art and architecture, and discuss the development and transformation of public spaces and cities.

Melvin Charney
Between Observation and Intervention:
The Painted photographs of Melvin Charney

Gastkurator: Gwendolyn Owen