Group Exhibition, New York

The Bank & Trust Show

March 18 to June 4, 2011

An Exhibition About the Economy, Trust, and Value in Today's Society 

Ray Beldner, Money Bags, 2011, sewn US currency, 16" x 14" x 12"

Opening Reception: Friday, March 18, 5:30-8pm
On View from Friday, March 18 - Saturday, June 4, 2011
Gallery Admission Free  •  Hours: Tue-Sat 12-5pm

Twenty-one contemporary artists comment on the economy, trust and value in today’s society through sculpture, drawing, photography, collage, video, installation, and performance art.  The exhibition takes place at the Arts Exchange, the historic People’s National Bank & Trust Company building in downtown White Plains, New York.

The Bank & Trust Show was conceived in part to mark the 10th Anniversary of The Arts Exchange’s adaptive re-use of a former bank into a cultural center for the residents of Westchester. It is curated by Dara Meyers-Kingsley, a former Director of Film and Video Collections at the Andy Warhol Foundation.

Participating artists include: Ray Beldner, Kim Beck, Jennifer Dalton, Chris Doyle, Joan Linder, Kambui Olujimi, Tom Otterness, Jean Shin, and Mark Wagner, among others.

The Bank & Trust Show
March 18 - June 4, 2011
31 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY
(914) 428-4220 x 330
www.artswestchester.org
boxoffice@artswestchester.org

Portraits of George Washington at the De Young Museum

Ray Beldner, E Pluribus Unum (after Rembrandt Peale, George Washington, ca. 1854), 2005, Sewn US currency

 From the De Young Museum blog:

"Next Monday, the United States will celebrate Presidents’ Day, which takes place every year on the third Monday of February. This federal holiday is intended to honor all American presidents, and especially George Washington (1732–1799).

On that occasion the De Young Museum is highlighting three portraits of the first president of the United States from their collection. The first is Rembrandt Peale’s George Washington was painted around 1850, more than 25 years after his most well-known masterpiece: Washington, the Patriae Pater.

Peale’s standardized image of Washington went on to inspire generations of artists to create their own portraits of the United States’ first president. Peale himself was inspired by Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of Washington (1795), which later served as the model for the portrait on the US one dollar bill. The mass-production of this bill has led to a more familiar and materialistic vision of the first president.

Ray Beldner, a native San Francisco artist, pointed out this duality—Washington as a symbol of American democracy and as a unit of national currency—in his piece named for the US national motto, E Pluribus Unum. Beldner created a facsimile of Rembrandt Peale’s portrait of George Washington (1854) by arranging 250 one dollar-bills. Therefore, he used bills, which are copies of Stuart’s portrait, in order to reproduce Peale’s copy of the same original. He kept in mind that copies make an original important. Thereby, the artist employed a common object from our daily life to refocus attention on a patriotic symbol."

For more information:

http://deyoung.famsf.org/blog/portraits-george-washington-presidents-day

Video Interview

 

As part of the Prebles:Artforms Art History textbook, I was interviewed about my work by the book's author, Patrick Frank. Check it out.