Artist-Curators Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska present

From Capital to Enthusiasm at York University

 

TORONTO, January 26, 2007 --The British artist-curator team of Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska will present the 2007 Goldfarb Lecture in Visual Arts — From Capital to Enthusiasm — at York University on February 2.

 

Well-known in European art circles, Cummings and Lewandowska have worked collaboratively at the intersection of art, curatorial practice, design and film since 1995. They will give an illustrated talk about their distinctive projects, which often transcend the traditional realm of the art world to focus on the relationships between cultural production and the political, social and economic spheres that regulate everyday life.

 

Central to Cummings’ and Lewandowska’s practice is their collaborative, cross-disciplinary approach in exploring how institutions mediate the exchange of values between art and its public. This is reflected in their creative work, which may take the form of an exhibition, video installation, radio program, collection, publication, conference or series of guided walks. Each project is meticulously researched, utilizing methodologies and languages derived from non-artistic fields, such as finance, the law, ethnography or history.

 

Recent projects include Capital (2001) at the Tate Modern, London; Free Trade (2002-03), commissioned for the re-opening of Manchester Art Gallery; and The Commons (2004) at the Liverpool Biennial. Building on their production Enthusiasts - “films of love, longing and labour”, which launched at Warsaw’s Centre for Contemporary Art in 2004, their latest project is the exhibition Enthusiasm, presented 2005-06 at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, Kunst-Werke Berlin, and the Tapies Foundation, Barcelona. Enthusiasm makes its North American debut February 8 – April 1 at the Liane and Danny Taran Gallery in the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts in Montreal.

 

Cummings is professor of the theory and practice of art at Chelsea College of Art & Design in London, England. Lewandowska is professor of art at Konstfack University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm, Sweden. They are based in London.

 

Cummings and Lewandowska will present From Capital to Enthusiasm on Fri. Feb. 2 at 2:00 pm in Room 004, Accolade West Building at York University, 4700 Keele Street.

 

This free public lecture generously supported by Joan and Martin Goldfarb.

 

For more information, call 416.736.5187.

 

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Media Contact:

Mary-Lou Schagena, Communications, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University
416-736-2100, ext. 20421  /   schagena@yorku.ca