Presented as part of the Workspace 2015 series, featuring the work of LES Studio Program artists-in-residence.
Borrowed from Chapter Seventeen of Edwin A. Abbott’s 1884 novel “Flatland,” How the sphere, having in vain tried words, resorted to deeds, introduces the work of four artists–Constantin Hartenstein, Kate Stone, Tuguldur Yondonjamts, Holly Veselka–whose practices both reveal and manipulate the tensions between concepts and realities, perception and imagination, objects and representation.
Constantin Hartenstein is a German artist based in New York. He studied “Art and Media” at University of the Arts Berlin; and graduated with honors in 2009. In 2010, he was awarded the Meisterschüler degree (post-graduate M.F.A.) at Braunschweig University of Art studying “Fine Arts“ with Candice Breitz. Hartenstein participated in several artist in residency programs such as Triangle Arts Association New York (USA), Geumcheon Art Space Seoul (KR), Grand Central Art Center Santa Ana (USA), Flux Factory New York (USA) and Künstlerdorf Schöppingen (GER). He is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards such as Kraft Prize for New Media (USA), IFA Künstlerkontakte project grant (GER/CN), Kunststiftung NRW (GER), video art prize BRAWO (GER), project grant Stichting Stokroos (NL) and the Karl Hofer Gesellschaft studio grant (GER). In 2012, he was selected to participate in the “VISIO emerging video artists” program in Florence, Italy. His works are included in public and private collections; and have been exhibited and screened at international galleries and institutions. Recent exhibitions and screenings include Anthology Film Archives (USA), Videonale.15 at Kunstmuseum Bonn (GER), Kino der Kunst Munich (GER), Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (AT), Museum of the Moving Image New York (USA), Bundeskunsthalle Bonn (GER), German Consulate New York (USA), Goethe Institute New York (USA), Grand Central Art Center Santa Ana (USA), transmediale, Berlin (D), Volksbühne, Berlin (D), Berlinische Galerie (D), Künstlerhaus Bethanien (D), Herzliya Biennale Israel (IL), and WRO Media Art Biennale, Wroclaw (PL). His works are reviewed and published in ARTFORUM, Hyperallergic, MONOPOL, art-Das Kunstmagazin, Track40, JPeople Magazine, qjubes, perisphere and VOGUE Germany.
Kate Stone is a Brooklyn-based artist. She received a BA in Photography from Bard College in 2009 and an MFA in Photography and Related Media from Parsons the New School for Design in 2013. Stone’s work is a response to the way we relate to space and it challenges associations we have with familiar architectural structures. Through repurposing and recontextualizing raw building materials, found objects and photography, Stone seeks new ways of organizing space. Her sculptures, drawings and photographs break space apart and rearrange the pieces to highlight the banal and the over-looked, revealing hidden substructures and questioning established functions of common objects. The work combines the abstract and the everyday in order to redefine them – to sever context and meaning, elevating form, color and material.
Tuguldur Yondonjamts is an artist from Mongolia living in New York City. He received a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the MFA program in Visual Art at Columbia University. He completed his undergraduate in Mongolian Traditional painting (Thanka) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in 1997 and graduated in 2004 in Visual Art at University of the Arts Berlin, Germany. Since 2010, he has attended different Artist-in-residency programs including Art Omi, Ghent, NY; ResidencyUnlimited, Brooklyn, NY; Djerassi Resident Artist program, CA; Cité International des Arts in Paris, France and Tropical Lab 8, Singapore. He is the recipient of awards including the Fulbright Scholarship (2013); the Arts Council of Mongolia/ Open Society Foundations (2012); Helen L.Bing Fellowship (2012) and the Karin-Abt-Straubinger Foundation (2009, 2011) and others. His work was a part of “2nd LAND ART BIENNIAL – Mongolia 360°. His works have been exhibited at the Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City; NY, LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York; Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York; The Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore (ICAS); Mongolian National Modern Art Gallery Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany; Werkraum Godula Buchholz in Denklingen, Germany; KunstvereinGraz, Regensburg, Germany.
Holly Veselka is an emerging, multi-media artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She received an MFA in painting from Boston University and a BFA in studio art from the University of Texas, Austin. Upcoming and past projects include The Inanimate Vastness of Sidereal Space, an environmental installation exploring 19th-century cosmology, Wave Hill, the Bronx, 2015; Mars Recruitment Center, an exhibition examining the proposed NASA colonization of Mars, Heliopolis, Brooklyn, 2014; and Contemplation Center, a naturally-lit alternative planetarium, DUMBO Arts Festival, Brooklyn, 2013.
Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space is FREE to the public and handicap accessible. Located inside Essex Street Market at the south end nearest Delancey. Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space is a program of Artists Alliance Inc., a 501c3 not for profit organization located on the Lower East Side of New York City within the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center. Cuchifritos is supported in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. This program is made possible by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. We thank the following for their generous support: Marie and John Zimmermann Fund, New York City Economic Development Corporation and individual supporters of Artists Alliance Inc. Special thanks go to our team of dedicated volunteers, without whom this program would not be possible.
LES Studio Program is a program of Artists Alliance Inc., a 501c3 not for profit organization located on the Lower East Side of New York City within the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center. LES-SP is supported in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. This program is made possible by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. We thank the following for their generous support: Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York City Economic Development Corporation, Hair of the Dog and individual supporters of Artists Alliance Inc.