FOREVER & TODAY, INC. PRESENTS OFFICE HOURS PROGRAM FEATURING IAN PEDIGO

Curated by Ingrid Chu and Savannah Gorton Office Hours: February 3-27, 2011; Thursday-Sunday, 12-6pm Happy Hours: Friday, February 4, 11, 18, & 25, 6-7pm Subway: F to East Broadway

FOREVER & TODAY, INC. presents the new program series Office Hours, initiated in the spirit of a shared office. Forever & Today, Inc. co-directors Ingrid Chu and Savannah Gorton conduct the daily activities of running a non-profit organization and their curatorial work alongside an invited artist. Ian Pedigo inaugurates the periodic program with an evolving month-long “office” installation. Visitors are welcome to engage in discussion during Office Hours.

Office Hours takes the concept of the small office as inspiration, defined as “an enclosed work space for two or three people, suitable for semi-concentrated work and collaborative work in small groups.” Expanding on Forever & Today, Inc.’s 100-square-foot storefront as a site for the commission and production of new work, Office Hours exposes the curatorial process while highlighting the pervasiveness of the “curatorial office” as a current international model of practice.

In addition, the process of the invited artists’ work is also revealed through their creation of and intervention into an office space where the flow of ideas between curators and artist takes place. Ultimately, the interaction between the physical territories of curatorial office and artist studio that are traditionally separated from each other and the general public lies at the heart of the Office Hours program.

Ian Pedigo’s interdisciplinary work encompasses sculpture, photography, and drawing. Frequently the result of process-based exploration, Pedigo’s carefully considered arrangements of found objects and ephemera often serve as a site-specific response to existing architectural environments. During Office Hours, he creates new work that considers the everyday materials present within a typical office, utilizing found items such as carpet, office supplies and furniture, and lighting. This overtly human-made methodology seeks to unite the disparate elements of natural and industrial, dually taking into account Forever & Today, Inc.’s interior/office and exterior/urban storefront space.

In recognition of the universal office custom, Forever & Today, Inc. hosts informal Happy Hours on Fridays from 6-7pm throughout February. An Exit Interview will take place between Forever & Today, Inc. and Pedigo upon the close of Office Hours to further highlight the working process.

IAN PEDIGO (b. 1973, Anchorage, Alaska) received his MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Texas at Austin (2002). Based in New York, he has an upcoming solo exhibition at Cress Gallery of Art, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN (2011), and solo exhibitions include: Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York, NY (2006; 2008; 2010); Cardenas Bellanger, Paris, France (2009); Rokeby, London, UK (2009); Southern Alberta Art Gallery (SAAG), Alberta, Canada (2009); and others. His group exhibitions include: Espace EDF Electra Foundation, Paris, France (2010); IdeoBox Artspace, Miami, FL (2010); Visual Arts Center, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (2010); Peter Blum, New York, NY (2007); D’Amelio Terras, New York, NY (2007); Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY (2006); Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY (2005); Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY (2004); and Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX (2002). Pedigo received an artist fellowship from Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY (2006) and an award from Bronx Museum of the Arts’ AIM Program, Bronx, NY (2005). His work has been featured in publications including Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, ArtReview, frieze, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Time Out New York, and The Village Voice, among others.

FOREVER & TODAY, INC. is a non-profit that is a sponsored organization of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), a 501©(3). Currently inhabiting a 100-square-foot storefront on the cusp between New York’s Lower East Side and Chinatown, Forever & Today, Inc. is a mere thumbprint on the ever-expanding demographic of contemporary art, offering a unique set of circumstances for artists to create new work and engage the public. As an organization with no fixed identity and a playful sensibility, curated and commissioned projects may take the form of exhibitions, site-specific installations, publications, editions, and public programs that focus on a collaboration with a single artist, collective, or collaborative entity. www.foreverandtoday.org

SPECIAL THANKS to Materials for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs for support of Office Hours: Ian Pedigo.