The artist-as-curator is a longstanding tradition that cuts out the middleman to bring an exhibition to its bare essentials: artists working with other artists while showing art. Dylan Kraus and Rose Salane, two young artists recently emerging from the depths of art school, take on the role of curators in the show TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING, exhibited at nonprofit art center, Basilica Hudson. The curating artist duo took the expansive industrial space on the bank of the Hudson River and filled it with artists who have affected their lives on some level.
TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING, installation view, 2016
“Dylan and I wanted to bring artists that have both influenced our practice and have been in our lives for reasons that extend beyond art,” Salane explains to The Creators Project.
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“The theme of the show has to do with principals we see in people’s works. I’m interested in art as it relates to the entire history of art and humanity, beginning with cave paintings all the way up to internet memes,” elaborates Kraus.
Ry Fyan
TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING is unrestrained yet calm. The works of each artist, ranging from Ry Fyan’s gentrification-condemning wall works, to William Stone’s lamps embedded with hieroglyphics, occupy their own territories throughout the enormous space, allowing for an individual contemplation somewhat unusual for a group exhibition. Taking a step backwards reveals a mass of works that feel almost akin to a graduating MFA class: disparately focused entities that come together with the shared end goal of condensing culture into a series of objects. These are not individual works finding different ways to say the same thing, but a cultural snapshot-at-large.
William Stone
Kraus, who was previously the artist-in-residence at Basilica Hudson, is no stranger to assuming the artist-as-curator role, having curated In Bloom, a group show in a defunct LES storefront, early last year. “I think curating is a great exercise. The artworks become part of a larger work; curating a show presents the opportunity to see beyond single works,” Kraus tells us. “One is searching for connections between things rather than just what they are in and of themselves. Curating is like writing a poem with works of art.”
Salane feels similarly: “I think we ultimately learn so much about what each piece means; its strengths and weaknesses in a space, how the dots connect through works that were never made with the intention to be shown together. When artists are curating you can feel the spirit more because there is a lot of weight taken off from the ego of curating. It feels like a huge dinner party where everyone has brought their own meal and traded it with someone they are sitting in front of.”
TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING, installation view, 2016
TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING, featuring Antonia Kuo, William Stone, Donad Baechler, Dylan Kraus, Elizabeth Jaeger, Haley Josephs, Joey Palermo, Kayla Guthrie, Keegan McHargue, Lance De Los Reyes, Marwan Makki, Patrick Higgins, Rita Ackermann, Rose Salane, Ry Fyan, Tauba Auerbach, Vanessa Leiva Santos, Wade Oates, curated by Dylan Kraus and Rose Salane, ended its two-week run on July 9th, but more information on the show can be found here.
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