Roving Project is a wandering creative proposition, founded in 2008 in rural Ireland by artists Erin Treacy, Chris Attenborough, and Sean Naftel. Its objective is to occupy slack spaces, transforming them into short-term sites of contemporary art.
Roving Project’s goal is to bring high quality, contemporary art to communities that may not have access otherwise; diffusing some of the fear and/or resentment towards contemporary art practice by creating a venue for conversation and education. Roving Project has held exhibitions in the United States and abroad.
Roving Project has become an open-source curatorial template for young curators, artists, and cultural producers that may not know how to go about building an exhibition or event. (i.e. press release, media contact, website, stable of artists, etc.)
TAPE (Mexico City, Mexico)
Ex-Arzobispado #36-a, Col. Observatorio, Mexico City
TAPE es una exhibición que se presenta dentro del marco de Roving Project. En su version México, organizada por Beka & Jobb se apropiará de un Video Centro, aún en operación, ubicado en la colonia Observatorio presentando el trabajo de 11 artistas de diversas nacionalidades y prácticas que se vinculan por un interés objetual, su carácter lúdico y el uso del absurdo.
La exhibición se configura a partir de una condición inicial: la palabra/objeto TAPE; a manera de juego los artistas responderán a ésta abordando las posibilidades que se disparan tanto física como conceptualmente.
El objetivo de el juego/exhibición en esta ocasión es explorar procesos de producción individuales y colectivos incorporando operaciones de azar.___________________________________________________________
Roving Project is pleased to present TAPE, an exhibition in Mexico City organized
by Beka&Jobb, which will appropriate an old video rental center still in operation.
TAPE features the work of several emerging artists from different nationalities and
diverse art practices whose work shares an exploration with objects, ludic qualities
and elements of the absurd.
Artists were invited to participate, in a game-like format, by creating a piece in
response to the word/object TAPE. The final result for the exhibition will be the
combination of the different points of view together in the same space.
The objective is to generate a game/exhibition that explores individual and collective
production proccesses that incorporate chance operations.
The game’s structure comes from an uncontrolled situation and the open physical
and conceptual possibilities that the initial condition triggers.
Artists:
ALLAN BREWER / MARLON DE AZAMBUJA / JOSHUA JOBB / ANTONY JOHNSON / ULRIK LÓPEZ / HALI MALSTBERGER / SEAN NAFTEL / MAURICIO ORDUÑA / BEKA PERALTA / JESSICA PÉREZ / CALIXTO RAMÍREZ
5 in 1 (Knoxville, USA)
The Historic Weigel House, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
5 Artists, 5 contemporary interpretations of traditional painting genres.
Craig Cully
Tim Clorius
Nathaniel Galka
Denise Stewart Sanabria
Erin Treacy
Curated by Hali Maltsberger
Feast and Famine (Ellicott City, USA)
Ellicott City, Maryland, USA
Held in the offices of Line of Sight, management consulting for government and industry, Feast and Famine features work by six artists from Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, Maine, and Ireland whose work explores the intersection of Minimalism and Maximalism. Feast and Famine is the ninth short-term art exhibition/event held by Roving Project. Curated by Erin Treacy, the exhibition focuses on similarities between art genres rather then differences. Minimalism researches how formal limitation can create in-depth investigation into perception, reducing substance and concept to the essentials. On the contrary, Maximalist allows process-driven work to result in dense, complex space, at once over indulgence yet still orderly.
Maximalism can often be related to excess and Minimalism to elimination, this exhibition focuses on how process and intent between these two fields share many similarities. Though Sean Naftel's Playgrounds depict empty space devoid of any reference to people and Ryan Walkers utilizes brightly colored plastics that intertwine into a punk-like monster, their process and conception both stem from the desire to activate space, control medium, and use process as a meditative practice. Similarly Erin Treacy's layered paintings are collections of objects from the everyday that result in a dense abstraction. Chris Attenborough's photographs take the everyday and through reduction abstract the objects we thought we knew to an unrecognizable surface. The end results may appear contradictory but the ambition and process is the same- methodical studio process that reflects upon and questions place. Roisin McGuigan's Minimalistic paintings reference landscape and memory, while questioning boundaries and form. The physical layers are soft, sometimes transparent, and effectively appear and disappear as you engage with the pieces. Rather then slow layers built up to create a whole, Mike Vance's illustrations are one-ups, single character paintings, but each piece interacts with the next blurring boundaries and creating an expansive conversation. Despite formal attributes all artist are creating arenas for discovery, inciting emotional responses, while working within their own process to highlight their comfort zone and natural inclinations.
Under One Roof (Ballyvaughan, Ireland)
The Fiddler, Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare, Ireland
We don't always choose who we live with and as-often-as-not we don't even know them in advance. Under One Roof is an uncensored presentation of an open call to everyone that curator Hali Maltsberger has ever lived with, from childhood to the present. Maltsberger has asked each person to send an item that relates to themselves, a self-portrait of sorts.
Featuring Work by: Hunter Maltsberger, Randy Maltsberger, Bobbi Maltsberger, Jessica Neil, Kiernan Dunn Duffy Goodman, Thane Lund, Amanda Dawson, Erinn Clancy, Ashley Cook, Brian Galderisi, Jon Rentler, Yannis Atsonios, Stefanie Ford, Ashley Moore, Tim Smith.
The Small (Seggiano, Italy)
Villa Gaia, Seggiano, Tuscany, Italy
The Small, an exhibition focusing on life at a reduced scale. The theme was left completely open to the artist's interpretation and runs the gamut from life according to a child's perspective to the micro-monumental.This event took place during the 1° simposio d'Arte a Seggiano in the heart of Tuscany.
Artists included in the exhibition are: Ryan Walker (USA), Angelica Tulimiero (Italy), Maura McGurk (USA), Jasper Ryan (Ireland), Alberto Mariani (Italy), Hali Maltsberger (USA)
Pressing Play (Huntly, Scotland)
Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
To press, to press the issue, forcing a difficult or controversial subject that may be willfully ignored. To put weight on something, to stress importance, Pressing Play is a critical exploration of film and video work that uses play to address weighty issues such as sexuality, oppression, identity, desire and memory. Spontaneous and joyful, subersive or amusing, Roving Projects is pleased to present an energetic and dynamic showcase of film and video work.
Pressing Play assembles a formidable group of international and national artists who are making a significant impact in film and video work. Featured artists are: Jessica Artman (US), Richard Bell (Australia), Azin Seraj (Iran/Canada), Clea Wallis and Paul Rous (UK), Sean Naftel (US), and Ash Branston (UK).
Invest (Kansas City, USA)
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Symbolization is the practice of investing 'things' with symbolic meaning. For Invest we invited a group of 5 female artists who, actively or passively, explore the act of symbolization. Artists featured: Sonja Koczula(Germany), Lauren Hacker(USA), Stefanie Ford(Canada), Emily Wolf(USA), Loren Siems(USA).
Sonja Koczula paintings reveal her interest in the specific dynamics of the different self-developed character shapes and symbols. Her paintings convey impressions of movement and thus of space and of time. Lauren Naftel Hacker’s ceramic works are frilly renditions of your grandma’s household tabletop wear, which mock popular culture and embrace stereotypes. Gossip is a powerful part of our culture; it is what keeps some communities afloat and what destroys others. Stephanie Ford’s drawings are filled with characters that become modern archetypes, fulfilling the needs to have a hero, the victim, a Madonna. Emily Wolf’s work has been exploring relationships for years personal relations with her past, as well as universal external relationships. She unabashedly forms an emotional connection with her work, which is given to the audience as a labor of love. Loren Siems has the power to make the audience feel as if they are playmates in her colorful world of reflection, only to find out that they are an observer privileged to read her diary. The end results are a visual presentation of an internal struggle beneath a saccharin surface.
You Deserve a Break Today (Ballyvaughan, Ireland)
The Diving Pig, Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare, Ireland
Chosen work explores the idea that communities need a respite from the barrage of everyday life. Larry Thomas (USA) through the meditative act of precision linework has created intimate, yet epic, portraits of the glacial erratics that have come to define the landscape in the Burren. Thomas' drawings capture the ephemeral nature of these majestic relics of the Ice Age.
Robert Ellis (Ireland) slows the viewer’s gaze by photographing the empty homes of a local immigrant community. As we examine the photographs of unoccupied rooms, we begin to find portraits of life. The lack of individuals presents the home and its artifacts as the life giving entity.
Co-curated by Chris Attenborough, Erin Treacy, & Sean Naftel
Open Space (Ballyvaughan, Ireland)
The Diving Pig, Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare, Ireland
Open Space was the first exhibition for Roving Project. The theme Open Space came from out of numerous conversations about the vacant strip of building on the main intersection in Ballyvaughan, a once bussling village in the west of Ireland. Open Space was an attempt to reinvigorate this small community.
Open Sapce assembled a diverse group artists who have a connection to the village. Featured artists included: Erin Treacy, Joe & Jasper Ryan, Chris Attenborough, Sean Naftel, Zach Nash, and PEACOCK.
Co-curated by Sean Naftel, Erin Treacy, & Chris Attenborough
Plywood (Baltimore, USA)
Plywood was a flexible white cube project site located in North Baltimore's Belvedere Square. As part of Roving Project, Plywood occupied a once unused space, transforming it into a space for creative practice. Plywood only occupied the location until another tenant leased the available storefront. Utilizing the blank form of the white cube aims to differentiate and highlight the work that is showcased. Plywood welcomed artists, designers and curators who wish to get involved by volunteering their help and sending in proposals for exhibitions/projects. All exhibition proposals were reviewed by a committee of artists, collectors and local business owners. During its six month existence, Plywood had four month-long exhibitions, a film event and a food and art event featuring Woodberry kitchen and numerous other local artists.
Plywood is Roving Project's longest held space and hosted multiple exhibitions and events.
Strip- Jim Lucio (September 2011)
Teparu- Ian Umlauf (October 2011)
Baggerladder- Hali Maltsberger (November 2011)
Holiday Bizarre: food and art event (December 2011)
Sight Specific- Rachel Sitkin & Erin Treacy (February 2012)
Films: film event featuring works by 4 experimental filmmakers (February 2012)
All exhibitions curated by Attenborough Naftel
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