Sue Chenoweth: Real and Applied
Organized by Phoenix Institute of Contemporary Art (phICA) and Largo das Artes
Co-Curated by Martha Pagy and Ted G. Decker
Largo das Artes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
August 4 – September 22, 2012
Modified Arts, Phoenix, Arizona USA
November 16 – December 31, 2012
Artist’s Residency at Largo das Artes in Rio de Janeiro, July – August, 2012
The second season for Phoenix Institute of Contemporary Art (phICA) (http://phica.org) focus on a 6-week artist residency and subsequent solo exhibition in Rio de Janeiro by Phoenix-based artist Sue Chenoweth in an international collaboration with Largo das Artes (http://www.largodasartes.com.br), a gallery in Downtown Rio de Janeiro. The exhibition Sue Chenoweth: Real and Applied opens August 4th and runs through September 22nd, and is being co-curated by Largo das Artes gallery director Martha Pagy and by phICA co-director/curator Ted G. Decker. Significantly, this is the first international exhibition for Chenoweth. Within the time frame of the exhibit, the global art world will be focused on Brazil because of two major events, the São Paulo Bienal (opens Sept. 7) and ArtRio 2012 (opens Sept. 12), which occur in early September. Chenoweth and phICA (and Phoenix) will be featured during the Rio de Janeiro art fair which drew almost 50,000 people and recorded US$70+ million in art sales during just 5 days in September, 2011. This will be phICA’s first residency project and third exhibition.
Chenoweth earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Arizona State University and currently teaches painting, drawing, and art history at Metropolitan Art Institute, Phoenix. She was awarded a Contemporary Forum/Phoenix Art Museum Artist Materials Grant and was a featured artist in New American City: Artists Look Forward at ASU Art Museum. She has been active in the vibrant Downtown Phoenix art scene, her work has been included in numerous exhibitions regionally, a solo exhibition in New York, a 2010 solo exhibition at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, and in 2011 inclusion in an exhibition in at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and in phICA’s highly-acclaimed Declaring Independence exhibition. Chenoweth’s artwork is being actively acquired by an increasing number of enthusiastic collectors and by well-known museums.
In referring to her upcoming Rio de Janeiro exhibit, Chenoweth explains, “I use the term ‘Real and Applied’ to explain how I paint conceptually. I paint ‘pre-memories’ (now painting ‘pre-memories’ of Rio) of what it would be like to go on an adventure. Then I paint the actual experience of the adventure after or during having it.” Self-described as a “process oriented intuitive painter”, she allows her subconscious to connect things during the painting process. “I never quite know how all the things will tie together in the end, but they always do. Painting is a spiritual process for me, and I have to fall into an abyss of unknowing to get to a new place of understanding.”
Sue Chenoweth: Real and Applied is being organized by Phoenix Institute of Contemporary Art (phICA) in collaboration with Largo das Artes, Rio de Janeiro, and is being co-curated by Martha Pagy and Ted G. Decker. Exhibition marketing is being made possible in part by a mini-grant from Ted Decker Catalyst Fund.
