First ever travelling retrospective of a NZ-based artist to be organized by an American museum

Sue Crockford Gallery

Midwestern Unlike You and Me
New Zealand's Julian Dashper

August 6 ­ November 6, 2005

Sioux City, Iowa, U.S.A. ­ The Sioux City Art Center is pleased to announce its exhibition Midwestern Unlike You and Me: New Zealand¹s Julian Dashper. On view August 6 through November 6, this is the first ever travelling retrospective of a New Zealand-based artist to be organized by an American museum.

Born in New Zealand in 1960, Julian Dashper has maintained a prolific, international art career from his home base in Auckland since the early 1980s, having participated in over 100 solo exhibitions worldwide (but only twice previously in the United States, both in recent years). His art is in the renowned collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia, the Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in Aachen, Germany, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and all the major public and private collections in his native country.

Spanning the past 25 years of Dashper¹s art, this ambitious exhibition features over 30 works, including paintings, photography, sound recordings, videos, and readymade objects. Through a concept-based art, which focuses on both the formal and conceptual elements of the artwork, Dashper explores the global exchange of ideas about so-called international styles (such as American Modernism); the reception and dissemination of visual culture; and the subversion and re-positioning of what is often considered marginal elements of the artworld, such as its institutional framework.

LOOK FOR A NEW ARTWORK BY DASHPER PRINTED IN THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF ARTFORUM!

NO OPENING RECEPTION!

As the artist requested, there will be no formal opening reception for his 25 year retrospective. Instead, he asks that you commit the hours from 5 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, August 6, when you would have otherwise been attending the reception, to developing a more intimate relationship with a friend or loved one.

GALLERY TALK: Sunday, August 7, 2 p.m.

Join exhibition curators Christopher Cook and David Raskin in an informal discussion with artist Julian Dashper on the occasion of this important exhibition at the Sioux City Art Center.

PARTICIPATING MUSEUMS

Organized by the Sioux City Art Center and co-curated by Christopher Cook, curator, Sioux City Art Center, and David Raskin, associate professor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the exhibition will travel to the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, in Lincoln, Nebraska (January 14 ­ March 26, 2006) and the Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University, in Wichita, Kansas (August 24 ­ October 15, 2006).

CATALOG

Since 2005 marks twenty-five years of exhibiting for Dashper, an extensive catalog will be published on the occasion of this mid-career retrospective, including full-color illustrations, an essay by David Raskin, an interview with the artist by Christopher Cook, a statement from Dashper written expressly for the exhibition, and an extensive artist¹s chronology.

ARTIST¹S MULTIPLE AVAILABLE

To celebrate this momentous exhibition, Dashper has produced a new 12'' record entitled Driving to Auckland Airport. In an edition size of 20, each record features a letterpress handmade cover and is available in the Sioux City Art Center¹s Atrium Gift Gallery.

CURATORS

Christopher Cook is Curator at the Sioux City Art Center, where he has organized many exhibitions focusing on contemporary art in the Greater Midwest. His latest projects include a survey exhibition of work by late American sculptor Fred Sandback and a commissioned outdoor sculpture by artist Patrick Dougherty.

David Raskin is Associate Professor of modern art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and has published widely on contemporary art. His most recent essay is ³Judd¹s Moral Art² for Donald Judd, the catalog that accompanied the Tate Modern¹s Judd retrospective and which opened in February 2004 and travelled to Germany and Switzerland.

SUPPORT

The Sioux City Art Center¹s showing of the exhibition is generously funded, in part, by Dr. Quentin and Susan Durward. Hotel accommodations provided by Holiday Inn-Downtown.

For more information on the artist visit http://www.suecrockford.com/artists/biography.asp?aid=28

ENDS