PAUL BAUMANN
Taxonomy Works – General Statement
I think of the works as a skin, a non-flat surface whose geometry blooms and branches, the surface area elaborating, with each cubic inch, something of the whole that could not otherwise find a center or tangible physicality. Each collected and worked-on object becomes, like a holograph, a part that reflects the whole. Through its size and complex variety, the work contextualizes fragmented experience through a field of relationships within the piece, as well as between the surface and the viewer’s point of reference. Lean closer into one cabinet as you would to a child’s music box, or step back to witness the collaboration of objects in one heavy but relatable form.
The works have been on my mind in recent months as my father was in the late stages of ALS, and I made many trips, flying from New York to Nashville, to contribute to his care. I have used my iPhone to film the especially intense take off and landing sequences of each trip, watching as the single surface of our planet elaborates itself in rapid succession, while the viewer, strapped to his seat, can only witness the linear progression of this geography. The experience displaces our sense of who/what/where we are, as we see the manifestations of forms from above, yet cannot contain the experience in one instant or in a single, embodied object.
With these works, our attention turns instead towards the act of finding, to the progression and discovery of the world itself. Through a short-term memory, we relate the forms that approach us linearly, geographically, through a surface. By relating, by remembering, by holding the experience in our mind, we re-experience the surface present, and find that ‘completeness’ is a relationship to something specific, rather than containment of a whole.
Herewereyou Works – General Statement
Herewereyou consists of thousands of small Polaroid prints, taken and collected over thirty years. The project also includes multiple variations and modes of presentation, including the web-based art project, herewereyou.com, and the current proposal for exhibition of “sets,” each containing six distinct images, assembled and reproduced together as one.
Although the work originated from the promise of an immediate record of the elusive present moment, the project is not a record. The aim has always been that the result takes on a quality of a trace, or gateway, which wouldn't exist at all, apart from itself. The project aims at an augmentation of presence. In these collages, moments, subjectivities, and meanings are consistently altered, flipped, tossed, and questioned, based on the poetry of placement with other images.
CV
Exhibitions:
2014
My Muse, Brooklyn, group show ArtPhotoArt gallery
Brooklyn, NY
Drawing Salon, group show Greenpoint Gallery
Brooklyn, NY
OPEN, group show
Center for Fine Art Photography
Fort Collins, CO
Members Collective, group show 4Art Inc Gallery
Chicago, IL
Nartificial , group show Studio 109
Brooklyn, NY
2011
Man vs. Nature, group show Alliance Gallery, Narrowsburg, NY
Working in Wonder, group show
Walsh Gallery, Seton Hall University, NJ
2010
Translations From the Ubiquitous Largesse Two-person show with Shari Mendelson Sideshow, Brooklyn, NY
2009
The Unswerving Punctuality of Chance Solo show
Sullivan Street Frames, NY
Twelve Instances Heist Gallery, NY
2008
Yellow Taxonomy
for the Accumulation Project Chashama Space, NY
2007
The Dutch Barn Show
Clinton Corners, NY
Glass House Suite and Other Works Bushwick Open Studio Weekend
Williamsburg, NY
Taxonomy: Yellow Final State
The Accumulation Project , Brooklyn, NY
2005
Taxonomy: Yellow State 1
The Accumulation Project , New York, NY
Good Afternoon, Dr Canfield Drawings and performance Solo show
The Huron Club, New York, NY
2004
Detritus for Manufacture of Visible Breath Solo show
Virginia Lust Gallery, New York, NY
2000
Good Hair/Bad Hair
4 1/2 Projects, Brooklyn, NY
1994
Paper Chastened
J. Betancourt Fine Art, New York, NY
New York Artists
Gallery 68elf, Cologne, Germany
Inaugural Show
The Painting Center, New York, NY
1993
Subject, Perception, Paint Art Initiatives
New York, NY
1992
The Last Detail
Simon Watson Gallery, NY
1991
Summer Group Show
Viridian Gallery, New York, NY
1990
Musicians/Artists
Epoche Gallery, New York, NY
The Blue Moon Show
Bullet Space, New York, NY
1988
Summer Group Show
Lacuna Gallery, New York, NY
1987
Extrapolating Environment No Se No, New York, NY
Purgatorio
Cuando, New York, NY
Awards, Residencies, Publications:
2014
PRYME Magazine, Issue #1
Interview and spotlight on the herewereyou project
Studio Visit Magazine
Two art works reproduced
2006
Taxonomy:Yellow
Book published by Coherent Images and Paul Baumann
1994
Malereials Tanz der Farbe Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger
by Jurgen Kisters November 12, 1994
1992
Appearance Magazine Issue #19
Work reproduced November 19, 1992
1990
Vermont Studio Program Invited Artist
Johnson, VT
Education:
2008-09 Wonders and the Ecstatic workshop with Sean Slive 1988 Empire State Independent Studio Program
1987 The Studio School NYC
1986 The Art Students League NYC
1980-84 Bennington College BA Degree, Fine Arts
Taxonomy Works – General Statement
I think of the works as a skin, a non-flat surface whose geometry blooms and branches, the surface area elaborating, with each cubic inch, something of the whole that could not otherwise find a center or tangible physicality. Each collected and worked-on object becomes, like a holograph, a part that reflects the whole. Through its size and complex variety, the work contextualizes fragmented experience through a field of relationships within the piece, as well as between the surface and the viewer’s point of reference. Lean closer into one cabinet as you would to a child’s music box, or step back to witness the collaboration of objects in one heavy but relatable form.
The works have been on my mind in recent months as my father was in the late stages of ALS, and I made many trips, flying from New York to Nashville, to contribute to his care. I have used my iPhone to film the especially intense take off and landing sequences of each trip, watching as the single surface of our planet elaborates itself in rapid succession, while the viewer, strapped to his seat, can only witness the linear progression of this geography. The experience displaces our sense of who/what/where we are, as we see the manifestations of forms from above, yet cannot contain the experience in one instant or in a single, embodied object.
With these works, our attention turns instead towards the act of finding, to the progression and discovery of the world itself. Through a short-term memory, we relate the forms that approach us linearly, geographically, through a surface. By relating, by remembering, by holding the experience in our mind, we re-experience the surface present, and find that ‘completeness’ is a relationship to something specific, rather than containment of a whole.
Herewereyou Works – General Statement
Herewereyou consists of thousands of small Polaroid prints, taken and collected over thirty years. The project also includes multiple variations and modes of presentation, including the web-based art project, herewereyou.com, and the current proposal for exhibition of “sets,” each containing six distinct images, assembled and reproduced together as one.
Although the work originated from the promise of an immediate record of the elusive present moment, the project is not a record. The aim has always been that the result takes on a quality of a trace, or gateway, which wouldn't exist at all, apart from itself. The project aims at an augmentation of presence. In these collages, moments, subjectivities, and meanings are consistently altered, flipped, tossed, and questioned, based on the poetry of placement with other images.
CV
Exhibitions:
2014
My Muse, Brooklyn, group show ArtPhotoArt gallery
Brooklyn, NY
Drawing Salon, group show Greenpoint Gallery
Brooklyn, NY
OPEN, group show
Center for Fine Art Photography
Fort Collins, CO
Members Collective, group show 4Art Inc Gallery
Chicago, IL
Nartificial , group show Studio 109
Brooklyn, NY
2011
Man vs. Nature, group show Alliance Gallery, Narrowsburg, NY
Working in Wonder, group show
Walsh Gallery, Seton Hall University, NJ
2010
Translations From the Ubiquitous Largesse Two-person show with Shari Mendelson Sideshow, Brooklyn, NY
2009
The Unswerving Punctuality of Chance Solo show
Sullivan Street Frames, NY
Twelve Instances Heist Gallery, NY
2008
Yellow Taxonomy
for the Accumulation Project Chashama Space, NY
2007
The Dutch Barn Show
Clinton Corners, NY
Glass House Suite and Other Works Bushwick Open Studio Weekend
Williamsburg, NY
Taxonomy: Yellow Final State
The Accumulation Project , Brooklyn, NY
2005
Taxonomy: Yellow State 1
The Accumulation Project , New York, NY
Good Afternoon, Dr Canfield Drawings and performance Solo show
The Huron Club, New York, NY
2004
Detritus for Manufacture of Visible Breath Solo show
Virginia Lust Gallery, New York, NY
2000
Good Hair/Bad Hair
4 1/2 Projects, Brooklyn, NY
1994
Paper Chastened
J. Betancourt Fine Art, New York, NY
New York Artists
Gallery 68elf, Cologne, Germany
Inaugural Show
The Painting Center, New York, NY
1993
Subject, Perception, Paint Art Initiatives
New York, NY
1992
The Last Detail
Simon Watson Gallery, NY
1991
Summer Group Show
Viridian Gallery, New York, NY
1990
Musicians/Artists
Epoche Gallery, New York, NY
The Blue Moon Show
Bullet Space, New York, NY
1988
Summer Group Show
Lacuna Gallery, New York, NY
1987
Extrapolating Environment No Se No, New York, NY
Purgatorio
Cuando, New York, NY
Awards, Residencies, Publications:
2014
PRYME Magazine, Issue #1
Interview and spotlight on the herewereyou project
Studio Visit Magazine
Two art works reproduced
2006
Taxonomy:Yellow
Book published by Coherent Images and Paul Baumann
1994
Malereials Tanz der Farbe Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger
by Jurgen Kisters November 12, 1994
1992
Appearance Magazine Issue #19
Work reproduced November 19, 1992
1990
Vermont Studio Program Invited Artist
Johnson, VT
Education:
2008-09 Wonders and the Ecstatic workshop with Sean Slive 1988 Empire State Independent Studio Program
1987 The Studio School NYC
1986 The Art Students League NYC
1980-84 Bennington College BA Degree, Fine Arts
