Residual Benefits: Artists Employing Residencies in Professional Practice

Phoenix Institute of Contemporary Art (phICA)
Modified Arts, Phoenix, Arizona USA
Curated for phICA by Ted G. Decker with Vicki Stouffer
November 16 – December 31, 2012

Phoenix Institute of Contemporary Art (phICA) inaugurates its fifth exhibition project Residual Benefits: Artists Employing Residencies in Professional Practice at Modified Arts, Phoenix, in conjunction with the Phoenix presentation of Sue Chenoweth: Real and Applied. The exhibition is being curated for phICA by Ted G. Decker with Vicki Stouffer.

Residual Benefits: Artists Employing Residencies in Professional Practice includes a small, but impactful and richly diverse selection of works by professional visual artists who have attended artist residencies. Artist residencies emphasize community dynamic, mutual respect, cooperation, and understanding. These environments offer an artist the luxury of time to make new work, to conceptualize and experiment with new ideas, to be immersed in a culture or place other than where the artist is based, and to be a contributing member of a diverse, creative community of artists, often resulting in new trajectories in art making practice.

Artists in the exhibition reside in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Brazil, Cuba, and Portugal. They have attended artist residencies in their own countries as well as in some international locations. Participating artists include:

Wanderson Alves (São Paulo, Brazil) Melinda Bergman (Phoenix) Fernanda Chieco (São Paulo, Brazil) Finishing School + Joseph G. Cruz (Los Angeles, CA) Carolyn Lavender (Phoenix) Miguel Palma (Lisbon, Portugal) Fábia Schnoor (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) Karolina Sussland (Phoenix) José Angel Toirac (Havana, Cuba)

Accompanying educational programming focuses on the value of including artist residencies as a strategy in artists’ professional careers. It will feature a community-building roundtable discussion on Saturday, December 1st, 2012 at Modified Arts starting at 2:00 pm. This lively discussion for the Phoenix Creative Community will be focused on the experiences of artists who have attended artist residencies and on the value of including artist residencies as a strategy in artists’ professional careers. Participants include the members of Los Angeles-based artist group Finishing School, Erin Sotak (lives, works in Tempe), Sue Chenoweth, and others. Refreshments provided by Tertio.

In addition, phICA has compiled a listing of artist residencies that will be distributed at the panel discussion event and will be downloadable from the phICA website.

This exhibition was organized by Phoenix Institute of Contemporary Art (phICA) in collaboration with Modified Arts, Phoenix, and was curated by Ted G. Decker with Vicki Stouffer. This exhibition was made possible by generous funding support from Macy’s and Tana and Ridge Smidt/Arizona Home Care. Exhibition marketing was made possible in part by a mini-grant from Ted Decker Catalyst Fund. Additional community collaboration and in-kind support provided by Cindy Dach and Greg Esser, Bill Fielder/Bill’s Custom Frames, Brent Bond, Lisa MacCollum/LisaMac Studio, Tim Richard/Studio G Brand, Virginia Senior/Tertio Wine Bar, and Ellyce and Eddie Shea.