Karen Schifano
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Resonant Space at Mono Practice, curated by Patricia Zarate
8/19/2023
MONO PRACTICE is pleased to announce Resonant Space, a group exhibition featuring the work of Jacob Cartwright, Joanne Freeman, Karen Schifano, Jim Osman, and Melissa Staiger.
The distinct two and three-dimensional work of the artists in Resonant Space is enriched by the reverberant tone they invoke in each other. The affinity of these artists—Jacob Cartwright, Joanne Freeman, Jim Osman, Karen Schifano, and Melissa Staiger—can be seen in a lexicon of marks: lines, scribbles, scratches, smudges, dots, dashes, patterns, geometric and organic forms, textures and color, even as each stands firmly and uniquely in their approaches to art making.
Reaching beyond the boundaries of form, these works call out and comment on each other's ideas about the ongoing exploration of abstraction. Joanne Freeman does this in the way saturated color shapes overlap, converge and angle for footage within the edges and surface area of the raw linen canvas, while Melissa Staiger’s organic shapes of radiant and trippy color combinations jostle between foreground and background. Jacob Cartwright's highly organized compositions of geometric forms, combined with dense patterns, solid and translucent color, allude to an architectural space, man-made or natural. Like a theater set, Karen Schifano populates the stage with simple, provocative shapes and solid expanses of color that come in and out of the picture plane. And Jim Osman's ideas, with the addition of a third dimension, flow throughout the spaces and colors of his carefully constructed multi-leveled abstract tableaux of cut-out, exposed, and painted wood.
The artists in Resonant Space are all current members of the American Abstract Artists (AAA). AAA was founded in 1936 in New York City at a time when American abstract art was met with vigorous critical and popular resistance. AAA is a democratic, artist-run organization that promotes and fosters understanding of abstract and non-objective art.
Everyone We Know is Here, curated by Heidi Hahn
8/19/2023
Installation view, photo by Daniel G. Hill
Curatorial Statement
When I was first asked to curate the summer show for the Fine Arts Work Center, I felt grateful for the opportunity to explore the scope of the program. To go back in and involve myself in a different way then how I participated in it. I was a Fellow starting in 2014 and did my second year right after the first. I was able to experience being there for two different cycles and seeing the dynamics of two very disparate groups. To see how the Work Center has been operating for all these years, bringing together groups of writers and artists consistently was humbling. While searching through the whole of the FAWC artist registry to get an idea for the show, I was struck by the infinite lives of all the artists that have participated over the years—all that potential and what came from it. What did it translate into years after? I was struck by this endless making. The frustration at the inspiration that was expected to come and the heartache when it left too soon. Of concentrated time and conversations all situated around the fact that we were there in Provincetown at the Fine Arts Work Center. I thought of the show not just as an idea to fit artists into but more of a philosophy or mood about this place and what it does.
This is a curatorial effort to bring together the essence of making in a very particular environment. An amalgamation of years formed by many different practices shaped by landscape, solitude, and community. This is about sustained rigor of practice, an eclectic mix that defines the core principles of the Fine Arts Work Center. I wanted to bring all different kinds of artists together in honor of a place so devoted to its artists. A sort of love letter if you will. The show Everyone We Know is Here will speak to this proposed dedication. I have included Fellows from past years up to the present. Choosing artists whose practice resonated with me and what I felt would represent the program in a way to honor it. Above is the list of artists I have chosen—not an easy thing with the abundance of talent that the Work Center has produced over the years.
Heidi Hahn
Visual Arts Fellow 2014-2015, 2015-2016
Evergreen Review: A Holding Pattern for Living: Christ Costan interviewed by Karen Schifano
3/9/2023
Karen Schifano: Ever since Chris Costan began making her series of art interventions—hand-painted and lettered posters inserted into urban and suburban landscapes—I’ve been impressed by her dogged persistence and focus; she seems to harbor little thought of reward or approbation. And I wanted to know why she began this project during, of all times, the start of the pandemic when most of us were isolating in our homes and studios. We are now in year three of Covid, and still “she persists” with subject matter that spans Greek mythology, climate change, apocalypse, female anatomy, and anything that strikes her curious mind. She posts her pieces in odd places, like on the side of a gas station or in an abandoned shop window, where anyone can stop and ponder them. Her beautiful (and not-always-identifiable) imagery and intriguing short narratives are at the very least attention grabbing. She later posts photos of these interventions on Instagram, sometimes with video or sound. Hers is a dedicated and disciplined practice, insistent and educational, admirable at a time when talk about art tends to gravitate to the marketplace and career. So I decided to ask her a few questions . . .
MONO PRACTICE is pleased to announce Resonant Space, a group exhibition featuring the work of Jacob Cartwright, Joanne Freeman, Karen Schifano, Jim Osman, and Melissa Staiger. 
