For Immediate Release-

SNOWLCLONES

INNA BABAEVA DREW BEATTIE SUSAN BRICKER DAVID DEUTSCH MICHAEL DOPP EJ HAUSER PAM JORDEN RACHEL LIEBER BENJAMIN KING LAUREN LULOFF MICHAEL MAHALCHICK ROB NADEAU JULIA OLDHAM JOHN PEARSON CLINTEL STEED JACKIE SACCOCCIO HOLLY ZAUSNER

ART BLOG ART BLOG is extremely pleased to announce the opening of “Snowclones” curated by Benjamin King (HKJB) and Rob Nadeau. This show is the fifth in a series of exhibitions ART BLOG ART BLOG is presenting at a temporary location in Chelsea, NY on the 11th floor of 508 West 26th St. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, August 4th from 6 – 9pm. The exhibition runs through Saturday, August 13th. Open hours are Tuesday – Saturday, Noon – 6pm and by appointment.

The tendency toward artists employing a multi-disciplinarian approach seems today more prevalent than ever. In the spirit of Alan Kaprow, Buckminster Fuller, Stewart Brand, happenings, liquid light shows, shamans, tricksters, wits, oracles and so on, we have invited a group of 17 artists to come together in a collaborative effort entitled Snowclones.

It could be argued that many visual artists work within culturally identifiable visual templates, such as sculpture, painting, video, installation, performance, etc. Similarly, a snowclone takes a linguistic template ( as in “X is the new Y,” or “if by X, you mean Y,” and “X2: Electric Boogaloo,” and so on) where the substitution of the variables change the meaning of the statement while still retaining the original form.

Drawing upon this concept, the form of the group show could be considered just such another timeworn template with endless possibilities for customization. In Snowclones, the organizers seek to foster an experiential environment in which each person, or artwork, plays off one another, generating meaning through the juxtaposition, presentation and re-presentation of interwoven layers of artistic content. The resulting event will ideally affect a shift in focus from that seemingly well-known format to something surprising, improvisational and unique.

The artists involved represent a wide spectrum of visual templates, disciplines and conceptual practices. Everyone is free to experiment and alter their own work as they see fit throughout the run of the show. Whether each artist contributes an already existing piece or chooses to work site specifically in the gallery, the continually evolving show seeks to be collaborative, fluid and open. Boundaries become blurred between disciplines and authorship, while content bleeds from one source to another, thereby altering and subdividing the existing space to reveal some underlying and intuitive logic.

*A snowclone is a type of cliché and phrasal template originally defined as “a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different variants”. An example of a snowclone is “grey is the new black”, a version of the template “X is the new Y” where X and Y may be replaced with different words or phrases. Snowclones are related to both memes and clichés. . . In the study of folklore, snowclones are a form of what are usually described as a proverbial phrase which have a long history of description and analysis. There are many kinds of such wordplay, as described in a variety of studies of written and oral sources. The term was coined by Glen Whitman on January 15, 2004. (Wikipedia)

Benjamin King and Rob Nadeau HKJB.org [email protected]

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