The Exchange Artist

KAMENSKY/EXCHANGE ARTIST

The Exchange project started in 2005, with just six participants from different areas of the United States. Today, the group includes thirty three members worldwide. The participants of The Exchange pair up with other artists from the group, trading names, outlines and personal styles with one another. One artist draws a sketch in the other artists name, scans it and sends it via email for the other artist to print out and execute. This procedure is repeated as the participating artists change, the idea being that all artists will have the opportunity to exchange artwork with everyone in the group at some point in time. The process aims to draw attention to distinct lettering styles and trends. The goal for the individual artist is to become more versatile and open minded through attempts at graffiti styles out of their personal comfort zone. As they rise to the challenge and push through old limitations the artists learn new techniques, ideas and compositions that they can take back into their own work. A fun project with positive outcomes for all collaborating artists, it is no wonder that it has become a worldwide trend as unaffiliated but similar projects start to appear on the scene.

This book presents and analyzes artistic interactions both within the Soviet bloc and with the West between 1945 and 1989. During the Cold War the exchange of artistic ideas and products united Europe’s avant-garde in a most remarkable way. Despite the Iron Curtain and national and political borders there existed a constant flow of artists, artworks, artistic ideas and practices. The geographic borders of these exchanges have yet to be clearly defined. How were networks, centers, peripheries (local, national and international), scales, and distances constructed? How did (neo)avant-garde tendencies relate with officially sanctioned socialist realism? The literature on the art of Eastern Europe provides a great deal of factual knowledge about a vast cultural space, but mostly through the prism of stereotypes and national preoccupations. By discussing artworks, studying the writings on art, observing artistic evolution and artists’ strategies, as well as the influence of political authorities, art dealers and art critics, the essays in Art beyond Borders compose a transnational history of arts in the Soviet satellite countries in the post war period.

Can cultural exchange be understood as a mutual act of translation? Or are elements of a country’s cultural identity inevitably lost in the act of exchange? Brazil and Great Britain, although unlikely collaborators, have shared an artistic dialogue that can be traced back some 500 years. This publication, arising from the namesake research project funded by the United Kingdom’s Arts and Humanities Research Council, seeks to understand and raise awareness of the present practices of cultural exchange between Brazil and Great Britain in relation to their historical legacy. Presenting five case studies and eight position papers, this research-based project investigates how artists interpret, transmit and circulate ideas, ideologies and forms of knowledge with specific reference to the production of new ‘translations’ produced from and, where possible, between peripheral territories. Written in accessible language, the case studies describe the experience of artists, managers and cultural leaders dealing with important challenges in the creative sector regarding the translation of creative and learning arts methodologies. Projects investigated are at the forefront of social arts collaborative practice, representing internationally influential initiatives that have had a demonstrable impact not only in urban centres and peripheries but also in isolated areas of central Brazil and the north of England. The position papers commissioned by the research from Brazilian and British academics and cultural leaders provide a remarkable variety of social, political, anthropological, historic and artistic perspectives of cultural exchange projects offering valuable experiences for those working in research, policy and for creative practitioners.

Travel, Art and Collecting in South Asia questions what are ideas of vertiginous collecting, art-making and museums as expanded fields, including wonder houses and missionary museums (or museobuses) in Britain and South Asia. If the historiography of British India has privileged photography and the 'Imperial Picturesque', the emphasis here is on the formation of a creole modernity, one that considers the relationship between art and labour, including pearlescence and pearl fishing in Sri Lanka, and the iconoclastic/fetish debates and forms of collecting amongst missionaries. Eaton explores these themes alongside the genealogies and modernities of white(ness) in contemporary curating and amateur female practice, and how the museobus or museum as a unique object has informed the work of contemporary artist group Raqs Media Collective. This book will be of interest to scholars in art history, Asian history, and imperial and colonial history.

Winner of: Gourmand Magazine Best US wine book translation Slate Cartoonist Studio Award nominee A graphic novel that explores the nature of one’s vocation, this book offers a look at the daily devotion to craft in two dissimilar professions. Étienne Davodeau is a comic artist—he doesn’t know much about the world of winemaking. Richard Leroy is a winemaker—he’s rarely even read comics. But filled with good will and curiosity, the two men exchange professions, and Étienne goes to work in Richard’s vineyards and cellar, while Richard, in return, leaps into the world of comics. Providing a true-life representation of how both professions work, this insightful book investigates two fascinating fields, exploring each man’s motivations and ultimately revealing that their endeavors and aspirations are not much different.

Examines the way recent artists have incorporated concepts of generosity into their work.

Dramatizes the birth of modern money culture in the first decades of the American republic through the story of financial pioneer-turned-confidence-man Andrew Dexter, Jr., and the skyscraper he erected through financial legerdemain. Dexter embarked on a wild career in real estate speculation, all financed by the string of banks he commandeered and the millions of dollars they printed. Upon this paper pyramid he built the tallest building in the U.S. -- the Exchange Coffee House, a 7-story colossus in Boston. But in early 1809, just as the Exchange was ready for unveiling, the financial pyramid collapsed and Dexter absconded to Canada. The building was finally destroyed in a spectacular fire. ¿A riveting historical narrative of the birth of speculative capitalism.¿ Illus.