NEW YORK, NY.- I met Joachim “Yoyo” Friedrich at a group exhibition Can I Get A Witness organized by Tisch Abelow, Jashin Friedrich, and Dakotah Savage, for ART BLOG ART BLOG, a pop up exhibition space in 2011. I saw these drawings on the wall on newspaper and on paper and upon seeing them I asked someone who they were by. They pointed to a man with white hair and an embroidered cap and I was introduced to him. He spoke with a German accent and he directed me to his daughter who he jovially called his “agent.” She wrote his name down and her name down and his email on a piece of paper. I emailed him the following day and asked to do a studio visit. I went to his studio and became enamored with his work and his person. I promised that day that soon, someday, I would do something with his work because it was so good and it seemed such a shame that it wasn’t being seen. I met Sam McKinniss at an opening. He was there with a friend who I briefly met before. We clicked instantaneously. We met for a drink. We had many drinks. We set up a studio visit. We kept in touch. We did more studio visits. We kissed “hellos” and hugged when we saw each other on the streets and parties of New York. I saw more of his work throughout the year. We ate meals together. I kept saying his name to people who asked who is making good art these days. I am pleased to be presenting the works of Joachim “Yoyo” Friedrich and Sam McKinniss at envoy enterprises. They are very different artists. They make very different work. They have very different lives lived and to live but they share something beyond the art they make and the people they are. They are a certain breed of artist who will always make art, their art, exactly the way they want and need to. There is something obvious to that but also rare. There are shared interests, considerations, and aesthetics that brought me to select these artists and their works. This can be seen in their connections of color and poetics of form. The works on view capture moods and tell short tales of a moment, a day, or a fantasy imagined. On view will be a selection of works on paper, newspaper and sculpture by Friedrich that range from the 1970s to 2013 and oil and canvas paintings by McKinniss from 2012 to 2013. - Jamie Sterns, June 2013
Joachim “Yoyo” Friedrich (b. 1941) Berlin Germany, lives and works in New York. Solo and group exhibitions include; Galerie Joanna Hofft, Pruisunic, Gestaltreforn, Dinter Fine Art, Galerie Brigitte Schenk, PS. 1, O.K. Harris Gallery, Egon Von Komeke Galerie, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, and Baltimore Museum of Art. His works have been reviewed in Flash Art, Moderne Kunst, Brooklyn Rail, Art Review.
Sam McKinniss (b. 1985) is a 2013 graduate of NYU Steinhardt's Studio Art MFA program. His work has been exhibited at Real Art Ways in Hartford, the New Britain Museum of American Art, Proof Gallery in Boston, DNA Gallery in Provincetown, Second Guest Projects, Ana Cristea Gallery, La Mama La Galleria and elsewhere.
Filibuster by Rachel Mason
The filibuster, a tactic for delaying a legislative vote by talking nonstop, has been around since Ancient Rome. In the past three months it has been used twice in the United States to disrupt legislative proceedings. Most recently, Texas State Senator Wendy Davis successfully spoke for 11 straight hours to fight massive changes to the state's abortion laws. In March, in the U.S. Senate, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul conducted a 13hour filibuster against the nomination of John Brennan as director of the CIA to showcase opposition to President Obama's drone strike policy.
In her new video work Filibuster, Rachel Mason performs the entirety of Rand Paul's filibuster, lip synching to the voices in the Senate employing her signature character FutureClown.
For all 13 hours, Mason mouths the words of Senator Paul as well as the other senators whose voices are raised during the filibuster proceedings. In Filibuster, Mason seeks to understand the experience of being in the Senate and also what it feels like to participate in a challenge from within. Highlighting the absurdity of present day politics, Mason also attempts to directly enter the political theater by uploading each hour of her 13 hour video in the exact same way the Senator does in a single Youtube playlist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBIe5NhkGw& list=PLLQQJBoN1bsUrPBgy3on4cRM8Gv1j15
Marking its screening debut, Mason's Filibuster will be presented in its entirety, as a single channel video projection in the performance space of envoy enterprises’s lower level from July 12August 2, 2013. The artist will present a special one hour live recreation on Wednesday evening July 24.
Filibuster is curated by Tim Goossens
Rachel Mason (1978) is from Los Angeles, California. She has presented work at the Queens Museum, Detroit Museum of Contemporary Art, Whitney Museum, School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Henry Gallery in Seattle, James Gallery at CUNY, University Art Museum in Buffalo, Sculpture Center, Hessel Museum of Art at Bard and Occidental College, Kunsthalle Zurich, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, The New Museum, Park Avenue Armory, Art in General, La Mama, Galapagos, Dixon Place, and Empac Center for Performance in Troy. Mason frequently performs in rock venues as well as in public places unannounced. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, Flash Art, Art in America, Art News, and Artforum. Mason has recorded 10 albums of songs including most recently with her band, Little Band of Sailors, and her musical feature film, The Lives of Hamilton Fish, will premiere in the U.S. in 2013.
