Art Metropole

15 Mar. 2017

ANNOUNCING THE ISLANDS SPRING 2017 ARTS WRITING RESIDENCY RECIPIENT: JOSEPH DEL PESCO

ANNOUNCING THE ISLANDS SPRING 2017 ARTS WRITING RESIDENCY RECIPIENT: JOSEPH DEL PESCO

March 17, 2017 (Fogo Island/Toronto) – Fogo Island Arts and Art Metropole are pleased to announce that Joseph del Pesco has been selected to participate in The Islands, a two-part residency that aims to encourage arts writing and criticism in contemporary art. Based in Baltimore, del Pesco is a curator, writer and publisher, and International Director of KADIST.

The Islands invites emerging and established arts writers and artists with a writing practice to think about the various roles of writing in the arts across two unique locations. Almost 100 applications were received for the Spring 2017 call, out of which ten outstanding candidates were shortlisted.

The jury was unanimous in selecting del Pesco for the residency, citing the strength of his writing and overall response to the context and theme of the program. “We are excited to welcome Joseph del Pesco as the first participant in The Islands. His experimental approach through speculative fiction seeks to expand traditional modes of curatorial interpretation and arts writing, one of the principle goals of The Islands residency,” said artist and jury member Silke Otto-Knapp.

Del Pesco will spend a month on Fogo Island as part of Fogo Island Arts residency program, followed by two weeks on Toronto Island at Artscape Gibraltar Point. The project will culminate in a small publication funded, published, and distributed by Art Metropole .

The Islands jury included Toronto-based artist Lili Huston Herterich; Los Angeles-based artist Silke Otto-Knapp; Nicolaus Schafhausen, Director of Kunsthalle Wien and Strategic Director, Fogo Island Arts; and Danielle St-Amour, Director of Art Metropole.

Joseph del Pesco is a curator, writer and publisher. Since 2009 he has been Director, and in 2016 became International Director of KADIST (Paris and San Francisco). At KADIST del Pesco established a fast-paced program of weekly events that position art as a vehicle for discussion about social and political issues internationally, and started the first residency for international art magazines. Previously he was adjunct curator at Artists Space, New York. As an independent curator he has organized exhibitions, projects and publications at The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Temple Contemporary, Philadelphia; CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; The Banff Centre; Articule, Montreal; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; and the UC Davis Museum among others. In 2015-16 he was in residence at SOMA in Mexico City, Beta-Local in Puerto Rico, The Luminary in St. Louis and ArtPort in Tel Aviv. His recent short stories about speculative museums have appeared in Art21 Magazine and White Fungus magazine. Previously, he has contributed writing to the catalogue for SFMOMA’s exhibition Six Lines of Flight, as well as Manifesta Journal, X-Tra, NERO, Fillip, and SFAQ.

The Islands is a residency partnership conceived and organized by Art Metropole and Fogo Island Arts, with support from Artscape. A call for applications for the second iteration of The Islands will be launched in July for a residency in November-December 2017.

ABOUT FOGO ISLAND ARTS
Fogo Island Arts is a residency-based contemporary art venue that supports research and production of new work for artists, filmmakers, writers, musicians, curators, designers and thinkers from around the world. Since 2008, FIA has brought some of the most exciting, emerging and renowned artists of today to Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada to take part in residencies and to present solo exhibitions at the Fogo Island Gallery. Combining contemporary art, iconic architecture and social innovation in a singular setting, FIA is a world-class institution that is uniquely rooted in community. Fogo Island Arts is an initiative of the Shorefast Foundation, a registered charity dedicated to improving the social, cultural and economic conditions on Fogo Island and other small places around the world.

ABOUT ART METROPOLE
Art Metropole is a not-for-profit organization with a focus on the production, distribution and contextualization of artist-initiated publication in any media, especially those formats and practices predisposed to sharing and circulation.

Art Metropole was founded in Toronto in 1974 by the artists’ group General Idea. Art Metropole is incorporated under the laws of the province of Ontario and a registered charitable organization.

ABOUT ARTSCAPE
Artscape is a not-for-profit urban development organization that makes space for creativity and transforms communities. Artscape Gibraltar Point is a secluded artist retreat nestled against the magnificent natural backdrop of Toronto Island, the largest urban car-free community in North America just a 10-minute ferry ride from downtown Toronto. Gibraltar Point hosts programmed artist residencies and provides studio rentals year-round and offers the opportunity to engage with the vibrant arts and events of the larger Artscape community.

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Media Information:
Alexandra McIntosh
Director of Programs and Exhibitions, Fogo Island Arts
alexandramcintosh@fogoislandarts.ca
+1 709-266-1248, ext. 111

Danielle St-Amour
Director, Art Metropole
danielle@artmetropole.com
+1 416 703 4400

Image

Joseph del Pesco presenting Michael Snow's So Is This at SOMA, Mexico City, 2016.

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