NORTH ADAMS, MA—The Video Lounge, operated by MCLA’s Gallery 51, opens on the kick off of DownStreet Art Thursday, June 25. Curated by Lana Z Caplan, four programs of video works confronting contemporary and age-old issues with fresh voices will be exhibited throughout the run of DownStreet Art. The Video Lounge will be open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 33 Main Street.
Lana Z Caplan is a Boston-based film/videomaker, photographer, and installation artist using Super 8 film, found footage, video, interactive projections, and alterative processes photography to explore relationships, mortality, and social issues. She was an artist in residence as part of Woodshed I and II at Gallery 51, and her work has been screened and shown in many countries, including MadCat Women’s International Film Festival (San Francisco, CA), "FICCO"(Festival Internacional de Cine Contemporáneo), Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, (Mexico City), Festival Cap Sembrat 3, (Barcelona, Spain), Danforth Museum of Art, (MA), Gallery NAGA, (Boston), John Stevenson Gallery, (New York City); and William Benton Museum of Art, (Storrs, CT).
Most recently Caplan has been working on a new film in conjunction with residency support from Wexner Center for the Arts. Caplan also teaches at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston.
On June 25, the first work, “Performing for the Camera,” will be screened here. In each of the videos in this program, the artist uses themselves in the video to create works that play with authorship and consumption, cultural taboos, desire and repulsion. Artists whose work is included are Katrine Burkitt,
Lana Z Caplan, Goatsilk, Michelle Handelman, Julianna Schley, Liz Nofziger, Marisa Olson, Adie Russell.
New programs will open on DownStreet Art Thursdays, the last Thursday of every month, through September. DownStreet Art, a downtown-wide celebration with exhibits at 27 locations, is a program of MCLA’s Berkshire Cultural Resource Center and its partners, MASS MoCA, the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, Scarafoni Reality, and the City of North Adams.
July 30 is the opening of Video Portraits, a show that defines portraiture through tender and seething reminiscences, a rockumentary, fictional Antiques Roadshow-style storytelling and a look at popular culture icons. Artists included in this program are Saul Levine, Liz Nofziger, Suara Welitoff, Michelle Handelman, Katrine Burkitt, and Goatsilk.
“Re/Use,” which opens August 27, uses appropriated imagery from archival footage, MTV, YouTube, 1980s aerobics tapes, and more to examine current issues and ideas, recycling to create a contemporary statement. Artists included in this program are Natalie Bookchin, Lana Z Caplan, Goatsilk, Liz Nofziger, Mike Olenick, Rich Remsberg, Suara Welitoff, and Anabel Vázquez Rodríguez.
The final program, Video Music, will open September 24. Video Music is a twist on music videos. These works all use music to drive their imagery, subverting the original intention of the music or of the experience of listening to with these videos. Artists included in this program are Katrine Burkitt, Lana Z Caplan, Goatsilk, Marisa Olson, and Ben Russell.
DownStreet Art is made possible through lead sponsorship support provided by Greylock Federal Credit Union. Additional support is provided by: Adams Co-Operative Bank, Berkshire Bank, Edward Jones Investments, Gramercy Bistro, Papyri Books, Photoworks and The Porches Inn at MASS MoCA.
For more information visit www.mcla.edu/Gallery51.
Comments