THE GALLERY

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CURATOR’S STATEMENT

When considering ideas for the theme of this exhibition, I kept returning to the above quote from Christopher Bardt’s book, Material and Mind. There is so much written about artists and their practice in the studio, but this phrase seems to capture the core of what takes place there. The private world of an art practice is very personal and no two are alike. Ask ten different artists how they decide that a piece is art or scrap, we might get ten different answers. This exhibition honors  that  space inhabited by an artist’s  mind  and  body as they research, work, and think. “The Space for Maybe” tells a story of Fountain Street’s creative community of Core Members, illuminating pivotal moments in artistic creation and celebrating their half-formed aspirations as well as their art.

Artists are pushed and pulled by their practice in directions that they don’t always aspire to, triggering  imaginative new ideas and new work. As Assistant Curator Miller Opie said, the “…voice in the back of our heads that makes us pick up this and not that...” often determines the course of making. “The Space for Maybe” is the place and the object, the medium and the message, the thought and the action, the materials and the process in an art practice. It is a state of reverie, the origin of the artist’s ideas, and the way in which those ideas and the path to creating a painting, experience, sculpture, film, installation, poem, play, whatever – evolve into realization. As artist Denise Driscoll wrote, we are often “walking the fine line between being in charge and simply being present” as the work unfolds. And for Lior Neiger, “every shape that I cut, the negative and the positive can have an equal impact on me and each opens the way to a different creative opportunity.” Artists are always seeing possibilities because, as the late Virgil Abloh said, “You can't mentally stay still. You can't not challenge yourself.” 

Fountain Street Core Member artists have generously shared their stories of creating, giving us a peek into  the studio, where any course of action or reaction can extend the mind to wildly different approaches. Some of our artists have offered actual artifacts of their process, others shared photographs of works in progress or idea catalysts:  photos of spent fireworks, scraps of painted paper gifted by friends, the simple printing plate image that spawned an entire body of work. A few have revisited earlier work in a new light. One artist created new work, inspired by the theme to realize ideas existing only in a sketchbook until now. The power, in this revelation of our “Space for Maybe,” is that opening oneself to such observation can inspire further reflection, and may well generate possibilities unforeseen.

I am indebted to our Director, Marie Craig, and our Co-director, Tatiana Flis, for their support and their faith in my ideas.  Miller Opie, Assistant Curator, has created the beautiful catalog and enthusiastically embraced the theme, contributing her keen eye and insight to our work. My thanks to them and to all Core Members for your confidence and your spirit of cooperation!

– VIRGINIA MAHONEY, CURATOR

PROCESS REVEALED: ARTIFACTS OF PRACTICE

A Curator’s Request

Uncover… the unique dialogue between maker and experience, in which action within the process of creating inspires thinking, envisioning, and new ideas. Reveal… a simple, unexpected alteration in working that shifts thinking and inspires possibilities. Is it following the lead of the work, exposure to a new space, experience, process or material? Share… sketches, writing, and/or process artifacts such as an object encountered, poetry read or written, a photo viewed, the story of a trip or experience that initiated the change in approach and/or new work. Perhaps it was an old sketchbook page that created the spark.

– VIRGINIA MAHONEY, CURATOR

Share Your Space for Maybe on Instagram with #thespaceformaybe

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

“Maybe is the place where “What now?” becomes “What if?” 

Testing limits is at the core of studio practice. The studio is messy, an incubator where risk and doubt abound until suddenly things begin to make sense. “The Space for Maybe” explores that in-between place where ideas start to bubble up, when possibility starts to become real.   

As the pandemic coursed through its second year, artists continued to find themselves facing change and limits, adrift. How did constraints catalyze curiosity, experimentation and discovery? Curators Virginia Mahoney and Miller Opie encouraged artists to reach into this nebulous place in their creative practice and selected works that exemplify their embrace of innovation. As you can see in this exhibition, each artist took on the challenge in their own way and forged a path into and through uncertainty.  

In response to shutdowns and shifting health and safety regulations, Fountain Street has likewise needed to adapt to bring art to people without a traditional in-person experience. Live-streaming events and building virtual experiences brought art to people near and far. Our Sidewalk video gallery, which exhibits cutting-edge video art on monitors facing street, came about to bring art to passers-by without requiring entry to the gallery. These tools started as experiments born out of restriction, and continue now as standard practice, enabling us to fill needs and reach audiences that were previously unknown and underserved. 

In this time of change, both artists and Fountain Street will continue to tinker and toil, discovering new avenues for creation and connection. I would like to thank curators Virginia Mahoney and Miller Opie for their vision and thoughtful direction throughout the process of bringing forth “The Space for Maybe,” and am grateful for the opportunity to work with all the artists of Fountain Street, whose creativity and spirit of community continue to inspire me.”

– MARIE CRAIG, DIRECTOR + FOUNTAIN STREET CO-FOUNDER

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