Launch F18 is delighted to present Kiosk. A group exhibition produced by Chicago based artist and curator Dan Devening. The exhibition features work from Dan Devening, Ron Ewert, Sterling Lawrence, Christy Matson and Michael Pfisterer. The exhibition will open Saturday, November 3 and continue through Saturday, December 1, 2012.

Kiosk is a social and interactive meeting point between ideation, declaration and audience. Like advertising kiosks and proclamatory banners used to promote events or consumer products—or seen historically in political contexts—Kiosk is a presentational array designed for both display and proposition. Riffing off exhibition and presentation theory, Dan Devening designed the focal point of the exhibition to scrutinize the disclosure and exposition of the works in the exhibition. The 7’ tall support structure features a central, vertical axis from which perpendicular arms project from each side. From those horizontal supports, works by 5 artists are attached and offered up for display and consideration. In most cases, the manifestation of an idea through a work of art is the primary intention of the artist; in this context it can only happen nearby, on top of and in close proximity to every other work in its proximity. As a result, the visual noise emanating from those other statements is continually in play with each work. There is specific and effective information communicated in the hanging pieces, but it’s experienced and contextualized within the concerns of several other, often conflicting positions. The shifting perspective that comes from walking around and through the Kiosk feels familiar—the media experience each of us encounter daily as we make our way through the world is a clear and direct referent. We see it on the streets: signage, billboards, traffic signals, walls plastered with graffiti and old handbills, all vie for our attention. With its own complex ability to distract and confuse, it also exists in a highly successful form in digital and television media. How we filter, focus and ultimately connect with just about any information—be it visual or otherwise—is a central concern of the exhibition and its particular system of presentation.

As a point of comparison, the exhibition includes a selection of works by each artist installed more traditionally on each wall. Using this opportunity to add complexity and clarity to the Kiosk selections, the work here stands on its own, detached from the structure and free of the constraints of its neighbors. The explicability of the wall works helps us recognize the privilege of autonomy, singularity and individuation.

Dan Devening is an artist, educator and curator living in Chicago. He’s currently Adjunct Professor in the Department of Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and recently completed a 15-year position as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University. In the US his work has been featured at the Roy Boyd Gallery, the Chicago Cultural Center, Terra Museum of American Art, ebersmoore gallery, and Julius Caesar in Chicago; Kinkead Contemporary in LA and Printed Matter, Inc. in NY. Other projects include exhibitions at the Kunsterverein Recklinghausen, Museum Kurhaus in Kleve, galerie oqbo and Renate Schroeder Gallery in Germany; Art Metropole in Toronto; De Appel in Amsterdam; Secession in Vienna and Galerie des Multiples in Paris. In 2007 he inaugurated and currently directs devening projects + editions, a gallery project featuring exhibitions and site-specific installations by emerging and established international artists.

Ron Ewert is an artist currently living and working in Chicago IL. He received his MFA from the Painting and Drawing dept. at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago this May and has exhibited extensively throughout the midwest. Recent exhibitions include The Green Gallery and American Fantasy Classics in Milwaukee, The Freies Museum in Berlin, as well as Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Autumn Space and Peregrine Program in Chicago. In November Ron will be showing at Monya Rowe Gallery, NY in a show curated by Phillip Vanderhyden and at Circuit 12 Contemporary in Dallas. Ron Ewert is Co-Director of The Hills Esthetic Center, an exhibition space in Chicago dedicated to emerging local and international artists.

Sterling Lawrence lives and works in Chicago; he received his MFA in 2011 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Sterling is currently an instructor in the Print Media Department at SAIC and is adjunct faculty at Carthage University in WI. He has exhibited in Chicago with Tony Wight Gallery, devening projects + editions and Carrousel Space Projects. Sterling has also exhibited at Half/Dozen Gallery in Portland OR and Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Christy Matson is an artist living and working in Los Angeles. She received her B.F.A in Studio Art from the University of Washington in 2001 and her M.F.A. in Textiles from CCA in 2005. Recent and current exhibitions include the Smithsonian Museum of Ameican Art’s Renwick Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Arts Houston, The Milwaukee Art Museum, The Knoxville Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR, and The San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design. In 2011, Matson was an artist in residence at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, OR and in 2006, she was an artist in residence at the Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago and Harvestworks Digital Media Arts in New York City. Her work is in the collection of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art’s Renwick Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Craft Portland, OR.

Michael Pfisterer studied in Mainz and Hamburg, Germany; since 1998 he has shown his work in solo and group exhibitions in Shanghai, Chicago, Boston, Hamburg, Cologne, Leipzig, Paris, Vienna and many other cities. Michael Pfisterer is currently Professor of Visual Communication at the Akademie Mode and Design in Hamburg where he also lives and works. In preparation for In the Garden of Cyrus, his recent solo exhibition at devening projects + editions, Michael Pfisterer completed a month-long residency at Document in Chicago. Michael Pfisterer lives and works in Hamburg, Germany.