R Ferris

2011-05-06T15:28:00.008-05:00

R Ferris – C.V.

PERSONAL

St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (MBA)
Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio (Cont.Ed.)

DISTINCTIONS
2004 - Chosen for Nesnadny + Schwartz Visiting Critics Program (MOCA Cleveland) studio visit by Dominic Molon, Associate Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

PUBLICATIONS
2005 – Artist Review Today, Nov/Dec Issue, Featured Artist
2006 – CoolCleveland.com, 3.15.06, Gallery Ü-Haul "don’t look back: site-specific works"

SHOWS
2004
• Gallery U, Buddha Project with Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio
• Gallery U, Cleveland, Ohio (one-person show)
2005
• subdivision (one person show and participation), ARTcade, Cleveland, Ohio
• the lab at b side, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
• Playing with the Light Within (collaboration with Karen van de Vliet & Alexis Marie Savon), Gallery U, Cleveland, Ohio
2006
• “don’t look back: site-specific works”, Gallery Ü-Haul, Cleveland, Ohio
• Arts Collinwood, Annual Juried Members’ Show, Cleveland, Ohio
2008
• Asterisk Gallery, (Tremont) Cleveland, Ohio, triumvirate 3-person group show
• Vision Art Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio, Paradigm Shift
• Brandt Gallery, (Tremont) Cleveland, Ohio, At The Cellular Level
2009
• The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, Ohio, After the Pedestal, an exhibition juried by Paola Morsiani, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art. “Full Moon over Hot Springs” – a participation involving the hospitality of bread & wine, coupled with the ancient communion of the hot springs under the full moon.
• Zygote Press, Cleveland, Ohio, WIP Exhibition. “Live Chat NonArt Art” – the dynamic stripping of technology to reveal the mystery of being present
• Asterisk Gallery at the Ingenuity Fest, Cleveland, Ohio, Asterisk@Ingenuity. Participation Conversation –after “The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art” ~ Tom Marioni
• Berlin, Germany – “VolksArt at the Waschcafé” – based upon the social architecture ideas of Joseph Beuys, combines social intervention, hospitality & the everyday to create a new interaction.
• Berlin, Germay – “Free Store Beer Piece” - the drop off of new, virgin goods with a near universal value, especially a commodity associated with good times in group, to a “free store”.
• Berlin, Germany – “Convivium Berlin, a small start” - To continue a rich history of meeting, sharing alcoholic beverage & bread: from sitting around a fire several thousand years ago, to the great banquets of learning and friendship started by Marsilio Ficino’s Conviviums of the 15th Century in Florence and carrying on to the art “Happenings” of the 1960s!
• Convivium Kirtland, the longest (almost) night – organized around the ancient winter solstice observation
2010
• “Drinking Beer [& breaking bread] with Friends”, homage to Tom Marioni - “Live Video” presented at "Referential – Homage, Montage, Sabotage" curated by Cynthia Penter Asterisk Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio
• “Tea & Chat: touching” – inviting participation in the ancient ritual of everyday tea drinking combined with in-person chat, where the result may be a verbal and/or energetic touching. Presented at Zygote Press, WIP session.
2011
• “Crockpot Convivium – CLE”, to continue a rich history of gathering, sharing conversation, food & beverage. We will share our own “21st Century Expressions of the Second Sex” as we prepare our meals and serve each other in this glorious domestic dining ritual presented at Josaphat Arts Hall & Convivium33 Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio

2011-05-06T15:17:00.010-05:00

R Ferris - Artist Statement

I happened upon a Tom Marioni Salon at SFMOMA in early 2009. Who would have dreamed that an august art museum would sponsor an evening of beer drinking & talking and call it art?

Connections were made. Art was distilled, torn apart and birthed. I was changed. It had as much effect on my artistic vision as any other experience that I had ever had.

My interest in participations was urged to grow. Exploring the disintermediation of artist and viewer. Throwing both into a joint experience of art creation. Cutting out the middle man; cutting out the art object.

May we engage.

Namaste.

R Ferris
Rick Ferris
FourFourZero.667.7571
thistleoffersATyahooDOTcom
RFerris.com

*Participation Art – an art form where the active participation of those in attendance is both integral & required, and the work cannot exist without it; where an “audience” is impossible; and where one emerges, changed by the experience.

2010-03-27T09:13:00.003-05:00

Drinking Beer [& breaking bread] with Friends, homage to Tom Marioni
“Live Video” by R Ferris 2010

Presented at Asterisk Gallery Show: "Referential – Homage, Montage, Sabotage" curated by Cynthia Penter

I happened upon a Tom Marioni Salon at SFMOMA in early 2009. Who would have dreamed that an august art museum would sponsor an evening of beer drinking & talking and call it art?

Connections were made. Art was distilled, torn apart and birthed. I was changed.

My interest in participations was urged to grow. Exploring the disintermediation of artist and viewer. Throwing both into a joint experience of art creation. Cutting out the middle man; cutting out the art object.

May we engage.

Asterisk Gallery Presents: "Referential – Homage, Montage, Sabotage"

2009-09-13T11:58:00.004-05:00

Live Chat NonArt Art

Presented at Zygote Press

Cleveland, Ohio, WIP Exhibition (6/19/2009)

This participation represents the dynamic stripping away of technology to reveal the mystery of being present.

2009-09-07T15:59:00.004-05:00

Participation Art

My latest body of work is in Participation Art. I define this as an art form where the active participation of those in attendance is both integral & required, and the work cannot exist without it; where an “audience” is impossible; and where one emerges, changed by the experience.

photos by Briana Rindfleisch

The first piece as presented at The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, Ohio, After the Pedestal, an exhibition juried by Paola Morsiani, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art) on June 5, 2009. It was entitled Full Moon over Hot Springs – a participation involving the hospitality of bread & wine, coupled with the ancient communion of the hot springs under the full moon.

2008-02-17T10:15:00.003-06:00

War AND Peace

The Video:

Copyright 2008 by R Ferris

2008-02-10T15:35:00.001-06:00

3 new works in the series:
Nude Descending Staircase 2008 (after Richter 1992 & 1966, after Duchamp 1912, after Muybridge 1884/85)

R Ferris

2006-05-29T15:38:00.000-05:00

race

Preview of “race” video piece – 1:44 (continuous loop) – as shown at "Gallery Ü-Haul "don’t look back: site-specific works." Low-res version. Copyright R Ferris 2005.

2006-05-05T07:36:00.000-05:00

home

Preview of “home” video piece – 0:30 (continuous loop) – as shown at "Gallery Ü-Haul "don’t look back: site-specific works." Low-res version (240x 160). Copyright R Ferris 2005.

2006-04-15T10:16:00.000-05:00

R Ferris - Artist Statement

A limiting of the extraneous, a focusing into one aspect of everyday stimuli, informs the work to reveal transcendent material. The discipline of the camera lens and the editing of days into hours into minutes—the compression and manipulation of experience—to create and potentize the simulacra I create.

Informed by Buddhist experience and spiritual mysticism I navigate among the everyday routines, deadlines and responsibilities to capture momentary revelations. For example, the noticing of a thistle at the side of the road—its simplicity, beauty and ordinariness—reveals an opportunity for reflection and celebration.

By highlighting, focusing, distorting, isolating and juxtaposing moving images + audio I find release and expression of feelings. To labor with the sacrosanct, to scoop up the primordial and shape it, to play with the sacred, this is what I am interested in sharing.

Namaste.

R Ferris
440.256.2564
r*AT*r-ferris.com

2006-04-15T10:01:00.000-05:00

CoolCleveland.com

3.15-3.22.06

Instant Karma
Quick reviews of recent events

Gallery Ü Haul in front of Inside Outside Gallery, Tremont, 3/10 I visited five galleries and one small film festival distributing call for entry flyers for the upcoming Hessler 2006 Poetry & Prose Annual on Friday night.

As I was driving south on W. 14th St. in Tremont past the Inside Outside Gallery there was a parked U-haul with the big door open to a video showing inside.

I parked and visited Inside Outside for a while. Per usual, Inside Outside was intriguing. I placed five flyers for the Hessler 2006 Poetry & Prose Invitational on the front desk and after I looked around I found only one flyer left. I put three more flyers down. There will be a story about this show by Douglas Max Utter in some local publication because he was taking notes about individual pieces during the opening.

Then I visited the U-haul truck outside. I was surprised to find Patsy Kline, owner of Gallery Ü in the Artcade Downtown presenting " Gallery Ü-Haul "don’t look back: site-specific works".

There were several pieces of ethereal sculptures and paintings along one wall of the well-lit cargo space. The main work was a video projected on the front wall of the cargo space in a way I was unable to determine at my passing glance. The video was a maniacal loop taken from the view out the windshield of an automobile traveling the loops of the I-271-Mayfield Road interchange in Mayfield Heights. Having gone through this interchange many times I readily recognized apartment buildings and signs as they whizzed by.

The video installation by R Ferris, oil paintings by Michael McNamara, and sculpture installation by Steven B. Smith.

Ms. Kline said that Gallery Ü in the Artcade has been replaced with a sports bar type place. I can imaging the fun Patsy will have taking art to people with Gallery Ü Haul this summer.
From Cool Cleveland contributor Lee Batdorff lbatdorff*AT*adva.com

2006-04-02T20:23:00.000-05:00

Video Frame from piece "home" (0 min. 30 sec.) copyright 2005. Showing at Arts Collinwood on April 8 and in Tremont on April 14, outside the Brandt Gallery. Both at Gallery Uhaul, see press release below.

2006-04-02T20:07:00.000-05:00

Video Frame from piece "race" (1 min. 45 sec.) copyright 2005. Showing at Arts Collinwood on April 8 and in Tremont on April 14, outside the Brandt Gallery. Both at Gallery Uhaul, see press release below.

2006-04-01T14:04:00.000-06:00

The image of the thistle at the side of the road.

2006-04-01T09:47:00.000-06:00

"don't look back: site-specific works" - A Moving Show appearing in Cleveland Neighborhoods on March 10th, April 8th and April 14th, 2006

Press Release from GALLERY Ü CLEVELAND-
February 1, 2006, Cleveland, Ohio — “don’t look back: site-specific works” is an experimental exhibit held inside the back of a 17' U-haul moving van. The exhibit will focus on the difficulties and necessity of moving forward featuring work by R Ferris, video installation; Michael McNamara, oil paintings; and Steven B. Smith, sculpture installation. Curated by Patsy Kline. Opening night is Friday, March 10, 2006, 6 - 10 p.m. and will be in conjunction with Tremont Artwalk. Gallery Ühaul will be parked in front of Inside-Outside Art Gallery at 2688 W. 14th Street, Cleveland, Ohio.
Two more dates have been scheduled for the "don't look back" show: Saturday, April 8, 5 - 10 p.m., at Arts Collinwood (they are having a closing, Joan of Art is opening a gallery, and Dan Tranburg has a second saturday coffee house open in a local church) and Friday, April 14, 6 - 10 p.m., at Brandt Gallery on the corner of Kenilworth and West 11th St. in Tremont (it's also the Tremont Artwalk, the closing of Steve Smith's show at the Inside-Outside Gallery and Brandt is having a closing).