Opening reception, August 2th 6pm to 9pm
Closing party, August 25th, 7pm to 9pm

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SHOW

The Re Institute is pleased to present “Another Side”

Curated by the Artist Collaborative Team Ghost of a Dream.

Another Side is an exhibition exploring the artist and the alter-ego. Quite often, as artists, or even as people, we feel pigeon holed into making one style or signature body of work, and are discouraged from making work outside this trajectory. Through conversations with artists we realized that many people we know have other bodies of work in their heads that are either not being made, or are being made under pseudonyms. From these dialogues, we wanted to build an exhibition that discusses the notions of alter ego, pseudonym, and avatar, by showing a group of work that is made both by and about this other side that so many of us have.

In the exhibition will be the alter-egos Guadalupe Gonzalez, Paul Handler, Annie Grahm, Brian Allen, and Trent Xi, plus a few that choose to remain anonymous until the opening of the exhibition. Jonathan Shipper will be showing work that he is making as his partner Amelia Biewald, and artists Vikram Gandhi, Eric Zimmerman, Brent Birnbaum, Shana Moulton, Jennifer Sullivan, Meghan Gordon, Laura Albert and Jasmin Lim will be showing work with alter-ego as their subject.

Sri Kumaré the enlightened guru from India is the alter ego of New Jersey born filmmaker Vikram Gandhi. Vikram recently directed a feature length documentary about his transformation into Kumaré and the real people that become devoted to him and his spiritual teachings. Vikram's work explores notions of cultural and spiritual authenticity.

Guadalupe Gonzalez is the alter-ego photographer of a male painter that feels like Guadalupe’s work is so different that his own that it needed to be shown as another artist. He also created Guadalupe to explore how the viewers interpretation of the work shifts when the work is perceived to be made by someone who is the opposite sex and different cultural background from himself.

Breanne Trammell invented the artist Brian Allen after multiple times of people misreading her name and mistaking her for a male artist. She gave Brian her ex-husbands last name and created a character that makes "Dude Art", inspired by Chuck Norris, muscle cars and the often overlooked uses of vernacular typography.

Laura Albert is a writer, and author of the novels by her highly controversial avatar JT LeRoy. For this exhibition she collaborates with her assistant Jasmin Lim who is an artist that makes work about the plasticity of perception. Working with Albert, Lim witnessed the spectrum of media reactions to JT LeRoy/Laura Albert, which was often oversimplified and reactionary. For this exhibition she contributes a sculptural response to the sociocultural phenomenon of responding to ambiguity with intolerance.

Meghan Gordon, often through performance and video, becomes Edith Winston, a clueless “amateur docent”. As a narrator, Edith is credulous and uncritical. Edith claims her political agenda is to highlight the accomplishments of historical figures that have failed to make an impact on American history. Edith has graciously volunteered to lead a tour of the exhibition during the opening evening of the show. Another Side will also include Meghan’s video of Edith’s recent historical expedition to Utica, NY.

Ice Ice Maybe is an alter ego for artist Brent Birnbaum. Brent will be presenting documentation of his transformation from Brent into Ice in which he did for a No Longer Empty exhibition in New York’s, in the then recently closed, Tower Records.

Trent Xi is the sculptor pseudonym of a photographer that has trapped himself in a two dimensional dialog of work. Trent has been created by this photographer to force himself to breakout of this method of working and bring his ideas off the wall and into the creation of objects.

Paul Handler is an artist assistant who blogs constantly about his employer, artist Mara Sprafkin. Paul has been working for Mara since Graduate school, and Mara still has not been able to get a photograph of his face. An important part of Mara’s practice is her daily life and Paul makes sure to keep us abreast of what is going on so we can understand the present. Paul will continue to write and blog about his and Mara’s process and relationship as well as interview the other participants in the show.

Annie Grahm is a text based artist whose work comes from an artist collaborative when there are in disagreement. Whenever they cannot agree on an idea, but one of the two feels like the idea must be made, it becomes Annie’s. Much of Annie’s work involves political wordplay using palindromes and anagrams.

Jonathan Shipper and Amelia Biewald have been both business and art partners for years. At times they drive each other crazy, and other times, live in each others head. Quite often they have ideas on how they would make the work of the other if they were them. For this exhibition Jonathan is going to take those thoughts and go into the studio and make an installation as if he was Amelia.

Eric Zimmerman seeks to blend the lines between fact and myth. His work deals with looking at a figure or figures, quite often blending historical texts with photographs that he then draws and places in situational installations. For this exhibition Eric will be creating an installation that examines the operation of alter-ego.

Shana Moulton had been working with her alter-ego Cynthia for the past 10 years. Cynthia is a product of herself, her female relatives and the female senior citizens living in the mobile home park she grew up in, but Shana doesn't know exactly where Shana ends and Cynthia begins.

Jennifer Sullivan’s videos, performances, collaborations, and installations utilize a karaoke-like means of appropriation, blending personal narratives and various forms of portraiture, with popular sources from the art history, music, film, TV, fashion, dance, and literature. She is planning on doing a re-enactment of Madonna's 1984 performance of Like a Virgin at the MTV music awards, with an accompanying karaoke video featuring a Lolita-esque theme.