IN RETROSPECT: An Essay by Cindy Stockton Moore
IN RETROSPECT
An Essay by Cindy Stockton Moore
Grizzly Grizzly is proud to celebrate our 10th anniversary with a two-month show featuring the works of former Grizzly Grizzly members: Ruth Scott Blackson, Michael Ellyson, Michael Konrad, Jacque Liu, Cindy Stockton Moore, Joshua Weiss + Jacob Lunderby, and Bruce Wilhelm.
Cindy Stockton Moore’s essay overviews the exhibit, In Retrospect, applying her institutional memory to celebrate and contextualize the artist members whose work and curation have shaped the identity of Grizzly Grizzly over the past 10 years.
Through a generous grant from the Velocity Fund, we hired writers to create critical and creative essays for each of the ten shows produced since September 2018. On Friday, September 6, 2019, we launched a print publication which features these essays, along with photographic documentation of the shows, and an introductory essay by Roberta Fallon.
This project was supported in part by The Velocity Fund administered by Temple Contemporary with generous funding from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
In recognition of Grizzly Grizzly’s 10th anniversary, In Retrospect brings together former gallery members in a summer group show. Being a former Grizzly myself, I am very familiar with the physical and conceptual obstacles this exhibition premise presents. First, August is a suboptimal month to plan in our small, un-air-conditioned space.[1] Second, Grizzly Grizzly members are (by design) a divergent blend of artist/makers; a group show can be an eclectic jumble unless we impose a theme.[2] And third, Grizzly Grizzly members never show their own work in the space.[3] In Retrospect is problematic, but overcoming conceptual and material obstructions may be Grizzly Grizzly’s specialty. A rigorous spirit of risk-taking is the constant in the experimental gallery, even as membership shifts over time. At one point, we defined ourselves as “a collection of sharp edges”; consensus is not the goal.[4]
Artist Jacque Liu recalls the dynamic as “a sometimes perfect blend of organization, chaos, assertion, generosity, and communication.”[5] For In Retrospect, Liu is showing Lilt-L, a quiet sculpture that is indicative of his nuanced and minimal approach to imagery. His highly refined surfaces distill architectural elements into abstractions of light and site. In contrast to these subtle shifts, a cartoonish sculpture—perhaps best described as an ex-voto hotdog—sits on a shelf across the gallery. Its pink cylindrical form is inscribed with a hand-painted gambler’s plea.[6] The humorous sculpture—on loan from Jacque Liu’s personal collection—is by Mike Ellyson, one of the founding members of the space.
Ellyson, now living in Beijing, was originally going to use Grizzly Grizzly’s second floor home in the 319 Building as a studio space but decided it was too hot in the summer. He reached out to some friends from VCU—Bruce Wilhelm, Dennis Williams, Vincent Colvin, and Steven Little—and together they opened the gallery in 2009. “The name Grizzly Grizzly was my dream band name that was never formed,” mostly because he doesn’t play an instrument, admits Ellyson.[7]
Jacque Liu and fiber artist Mary Smull both knew the charismatic and quirky Ellyson from Cranbrook. They joined the gallery in 2010, as did I, forming the second wave of members. My connection was through the painter Bruce Wilhelm, who left Philadelphia to return to Richmond, where he continues to enjoy “a hermit lifestyle.”[8] For In Retrospect, Wilhelm is showing two small paintings that reflect his responsive, process-oriented approach to mark-making and color. His proposed name for the gallery was Win-Win, which (ironically) lost to Grizzly Grizzly in a vote.
Our new group of five met monthly to discuss possible shows, introduce artists’ work, and program the space. Although we each presented artists in rotation, proposed exhibitions rarely remained intact, with input from the group jostling concepts into something unforeseen. In 2011, we decided to pair Josh Weiss’s densely layered paintings with an organic, encaustic installation by Laura Moriarty.[9] The show was visually striking—one large painting in conversation with a singular floor sculpture—but the two artists’ work blended into one shared experience, a curatorial tightness we actively avoided by the time Weiss came on board later that year.
Our collective tendency for unlikely pairings in the gallery led to equally unexpected collaborations between members, influencing our respective studio practices. Josh Weiss is now working with Jacob Lunderby (a painter who showed with the gallery in 2016)—their highly patterned construction for In Retrospect is one prototype for their new, scalable, interior design concepts that:
...strive to be the glam rock of visual arts: beautiful, visual ballads saturated with cheesy undertones of excess. Exactly what you want—designs that seek to destroy bullshit interiors that rely on mirrors, shiplap, vapid polyhedron paperweights and the lifeless grey wall.[10]
Weiss’ bombastic declarations—both visual and verbal—provide counterpoint to the contemplative stillness of Ruth Scott Blackson’s works on paper. Yet, with a shared attention to pattern, repetition, and structure, Blackson’s deconstructed concertina book resonates with Weiss/Lunderby’s installation. Literally weaving images of Persian and Middle Eastern rugs together, Blackson’s reframing of an interior, domestic aesthetic results in “an explosion of paper.”[11] The dialog between artwork occurs at disparate volumes—some voices are louder than others—but each is an important part of the conversation. Likewise, at meetings, our viewpoints were often contested, but the end result was always interesting. It was—and still is—a dynamic built on respect for what each artist brings to the group.
Ruth Scott Blackson joined Grizzly Grizzly in 2011 after “dating” the gallery for several months (we ask potential members to sit in for a while to make sure it’s a good fit.)[12] She had recently moved to Philadelphia from England, so one incentive was to get to know the Philadelphia art scene, and another was to curate shows. She recalls the 2013 exhibition, Interruptions, as one of her favorite—and most challenging—experiences with the gallery. Working with the British artist Victoria Lucas, the two had only 10 days to scout and shoot photographs for the exhibition and then design and print an accompanying catalog. Within this tight timeframe, Blackson served as host, urban guide, and publication designer while Liu penned the accompanying text.
The magic is in the madness of these ambitious projects—and the total lack of a working budget. We each (by necessity) play a variety of roles, working closely with invited artists, defraying costs by hosting them in our homes, sourcing their materials, and providing the install support. Each month is a new set of problems to solve, so duties shift and new partnerships form based on the skills needed for the exhibition at hand. We could each name many instances of all-night installs, crazy deadlines, hilarious house guests, and last-minute workarounds, but since the roles are constantly changing all of our lists would be different.
“Making all this stuff happen” excited Michael Konrad about the gallery, but it was also the smaller, inter-gallery connections he enjoyed, “like working the beer table with Peter Morgan… just hanging out.”[13] His interactive sculpture created for In Retrospect reframes that experience. Fabricating an exterior facade of a rowhome, Konrad creates an iconic Philadelphia stoop moment, including a spigot that will freely dispense his home-brew beer, a Ballantine-style IPA. Despite his depth of experience brewing beer, Konrad had a particularly hard time with this batch.[14] The resulting ale is uncharacteristically cloudy but enjoyable, its unfiltered appearance an unwanted but apt metaphor for the Grizzly Grizzly experience.
Konrad’s constructed facade includes his hand-made DIYvek, melded plastic bags meticulously cut to recreate the industrial wrap. The material itself has been repurposed, not just from the original single-use bags but from previous exhibitions. In 2017, it was a part of Konrad’s construction at Arlington Arts Center for a different Grizzy Grizzly group exhibition.[15] Slated to have site-specific pieces on the same wall, Konrad and I decided to scrap our original plans and collaborate; the resulting artwork Variance—and the research and conversations it generated—led me to a completely new series of work. The wall drawing in Arlington morphed into a two-year investigation of an evolving city block. It’s one of many instances where Grizzly Grizzly pushed me outside of my practice, creating a necessary disruption of my studio feedback loop.
For In Retrospect, I am contributing a new wall drawing, another questionable decision: it’s a hot month to work in the space, and it’s a tangent from my current research. Deadlines loom, but that gallery wall—a wall I’ve prepped countless times for others—is too good to pass up. It is a chance to leave a temporary mark, and then to be painted over to make space for the next artist.
All of us in the exhibition are no longer Grizzly Grizzly members; each of us leaving for our own reason, often to pursue new goals or simply reclaim time. For me, it was a difficult decision, but near the end I wondered if my time at the space was holding it back…if the institutional memory that I embodied (being the longest-serving member) could be an impediment to moving forward. The act of forgetting might be essential for an evolving collective. On the event of this anniversary, In Retrospect looks back to acknowledge a history but not to reside in the past. A new membership moves forward—necessarily confronting a fresh set of risks and rewards, meeting each task with renewed conceptual rigor, guided by an ongoing trust in the artists they support. In Retrospect, we glance back only to see how far we’ve traveled together.
[1] The default for many years was to turn August into a single night of performance or video.
[2] Member Mary Smull came up with some notable ones: an obscure handwriting manual that served as the framework for our show in Detroit, titled Writing Lessons, and the hotel-themed exhibition at Public Fiction in Los Angeles, Wish You Were Here.
[3] Since this show only includes former members, they are not breaking with mission. On the event of our 5th anniversary we hosted To All the Girls We’ve Loved Before, which reunited the early members, also.
[4] Grizzly Grizzly mission circa 2011.
[5] From email interview, July 4, 2019. Jacque Liu was a member of the gallery from 2010-2014.
[6] The painted bun shows the artist is hedging his spiritual bet, addressing two different versions of Jesus.
[7] Mike Ellyson is currently teaching acting and writing in Beijing, saving up to open a restaurant. Quote from email interview, July 2. Mike was a Grizzly Grizzly member from 2009 -2013.
[8] Quote from July 8th email. More about Bruce’s process can be found in this recent article.
https://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/artist-bruce-wilhelm-talks-about-his-playful-process/ Content?oid=6676365.
[9] After the exhibition Strike Slip in 2011, Weiss joined Grizzly Grizzly as a member, where he remained until 2017.
[10] From Weiss/Lunderby artist statement, 2019.
[11] From conversation with Ruth Scott Blackson, July 9, 2019.
[12] Ruth Scott Blackson was a member from 2011-2014.
[13] Michael Konrad joined Grizzly Grizzly in 2013 and was a member until earlier this year. We used to share floor duties (like manning the beer table and handling trash) with Practice and Tiger Strikes Asteroid and now split gallery hours with Practice.
[14] Michael Konrad is an award-winning home brewer.
[15] The show title Future Imperfect Continuous references the imposed theme of uncertain time, but could also describe Grizzly Grizzly.
CINDY STOCKTON MOORE is a Philadelphia-based artist. Recent solo projects include An openness to all things lovely at Glen Foerd on the Delaware, Narrowed Plot at Arlington Arts Center, Consciousness and Revolt at Moore College of Art and Design, and Other Absences on view at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. She received her MFA in Painting from Syracuse University in 2001. Her writing on art has appeared in ArtNews, NYArts Magazine, SciArt Magazine, The New York Sun, and Title Magazine in addition to university and web publications; she was a member of Grizzly Grizzly from 2010–2017.
RUTH SCOTT BLACKSON is a British-born artist who has resided in Philadelphia for the past eight years. Blackson utilizes process and research-based practices to create drawings, sculptures, and projects that highlight the subtleties around us. She created an installation for the 2015 Eastern State Penitentiary exhibition series and in 2018 she created an interactive work for West Park Arts Fest. Blackson was a member of Grizzly Grizzly from 2011–2014.
MICHAEL ELLYSON currently resides in Beijing, China. He received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, and his MA from Virginia Commonwealth University. He has shown his work nationally, and attended a residency at Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. Ellyson is a co-founding member of Grizzly Grizzly, and was a member from 2009–2013.
MICHAEL KONRAD is an artist and educator currently working as Lead Teaching Artist with Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program. He regularly exhibits work throughout the Philadelphia region and beyond, frequently outside of traditional exhibition spaces, including as Recycling-Artist-in-Residence at Revolution Recovery; with Neighborhood Bike Works while in residence at the 40th Street AIR Program; and on the Schuylkill Banks with Art in the Open Philadelphia. Konrad was a member of Grizzly Grizzly from 2013–2019.
JACQUE LIU is a Philadelphia-based artist and arts administrator. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, he received a BFA from Alfred University, an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, and a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. Liu’s work is widely exhibited and he is the recipient of numerous awards and grants. His projects have been reviewed in the New York Times, Newsweek, National Public Radio, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Artblog, and elsewhere. Liu was a member from 2010–2014.
JOSHUA WEISS received his MFA from Yale University and his BFA from Savannah College of Art and Design. He moved to the Philadelphia area in 2007. He is a working artist and teacher whose paintings have been shown regionally and nationally. Joshua is a full-time Associate Teaching Professor in the Art and Art History Department at Drexel University’s Westphal College of Media Arts and Design. Weiss was a member from 2011–2017.
JACOB LUNDERBY is an artist and educator based in Philadelphia. He earned an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Minnesota and a BFA in Painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. His work has been exhibited internationally including Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Miami, Hawaii, Greece, South Korea and Japan. Lunderby is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Drawing in the Art and Art History Department, Westphal College of Media Arts and Design at Drexel University.
BRUCE WILHELM was born in and is currently working in Richmond, VA. He earned his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Wilhelm has exhibited in galleries and art fairs from coast to coast, and was featured in Miami’s “Untitled” Art Fair in December 2017. He was a recipient of the VMFA Professional Fellowship for painting in both 2004 and 2006, and is represented by ADA Gallery in Richmond, VA. Formerly based in Philadelphia, PA, Wilhelm is a co-founder of Grizzly Grizzly and was a member from 2009–2011.