Staging over Manipulation

January 27, 2012- March 3, 2012 

Curated by: Heather Loughran and Rod Malin

Staging over Manipulation is a group exhibition which brings together four artists whose works transcend traditional processes of manipulation. The exhibition explores roles in which artists set and shape the organizational context.  These artists’ works reflect on attributes of a culture that demonstrates a malignant conscience in exposing an excessively branded society. While employing methods typically used for staging, the artists challenge not only the contextual framework of branding, they also expose the arena from which works are seen, i.e., the art branding syndicate.

Works By:   Julie Benoit   Eric Doeringer   Jenny Drumgoole   Kim Llerena

These engineered practices high light the tension between Fact and the ideas surrounding the America’s cultural need to orchestrate.

Julie Benoit was born in Gambrills, Maryland in 1975 and currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland.  She received her MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art.. Through wandering about the city she has developed an interest in all of the small, unnoticed moments that surround her.  Benoit has shown her work in galleries in Baltimore, DC, New York, Oregon, Los Angeles, and other cities.  She also writes an occasional art review for local blogs and has in the past written for other local magazines.

Eric Doeringer is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY.  Much of his artwork involves re-making the work of other artists.  Doeringer has exhibited at institutions including MoMA PS1, The Whitney Museum, La Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, MUSAC, The Bruce Museum, and The Currier Museum.  In 2011, he curated the exhibition “I Like the Art World and the Art World Likes Me” at EFA Project Space in New York and had solo shows at Another Year In LA (Los Angeles) and Plush Gallery (Dallas)

Kim Llerena is currently earning her MFA in Photographic & Electronic Media at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She was and raised in Gaithersburg, Maryland before attending New York University, where she received dual BA degrees in Journalism and Spanish. Between her undergraduate and graduate studies, she interned at Jeff Harris Photography Studio, shot freelance photography work, and worked full-time as Assistant to the Director at CITYarts, a public art non-profit organization in Manhattan. Llerena has exhibited in Maryland and New York.

Philadelphia artist Jenny Drumgoole inserts herself into marginal spaces for pseudo-celebrity within popular culture—most recently, by entering absurdly humorous videos of herself in a “Real Women of Philadelphia” online video recipe contest sponsored by Kraft. Her most recent video-based performance work involves the artist physically and virtually infiltrating competitive events with subversive art actions which question our obsessions with celebrity, desire, and the limits and illusions of individuality in popular culture.  Drumgoole received her MFA in photography from the Yale School of Art  in 2006.

Curator

Heather Loughran was born in Baltimore, MD and currently lives and works in New York City.  She is earning her BFA in Photography from Parsons the New School for Design. Loughran began working at Guest Spot as a Curatorial Assistant,  starting when the Gallery opened in June. This is her first official collaboration working with professional artists.