Pat Steir at Contemporary Arts Center, May 22- August 22, 2010

My good friend Pat Steir shot me this awesome heads-up on the panoramic installation that's about to rock Cincinnati's Contemporary Arts Center from late-May to late August, bracketing summer with its Niagara-tudinous thunder. Find it in its entirety below.

People, you have to get to the Midwest once in a while, and now's a great time. Those people know how to cook, OK? Barbecue like you wouldn't believe, hipster enclaves that rock 'til dawn, and art to splatter your soul and recongeal it again in better more energized form.

Here's an itinerary for you: First, Escape From New York to Paterson, New Jersey. Then swing West and stop by Pittsburgh for a few days to dig on the scene John Morris, Susan Constanse and the other wild happening artists keep blazing day and night. Then swing North and get thee to Cincinnati for the big Pat Steir installation.

Along the way are some crazy amusement parks and wild roadside attractions to help you keep it real. There, I just set up your best summer road trip. Make it happen, people! Thanks Pat Steir, great hearing from you and good luck with this awesome installation!
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PAT STEIR CREATES PANORAMIC INSTALLATION FOR CINCINNATI

AT THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER DESIGNED BY ZAHA HADID


Pat Steir will transform a vast trapezoidal gallery within the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) into an immersive environment of her famous poured paint. The work will be on view from May 22 through August 22, 2010.

In Water & Stone, Steir treats the over 1800 square-foot gallery space at the CAC, located in the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art designed by Zaha Hadid, as if it were a canvas, painting the surfaces and creating one of her signature waterfalls directly on a 24-ft. tall wall at the end of the gallery. The project allows Steir to interact with a singular architectural space for the first time. The result is envisioned by the artist to be a dark, mysterious work of complex interplay between wall paintings, conventionally hung paintings, paintings conceived as three-dimensional objects, diaphanous scrim paintings, and film.

Immediately upon entering the installation, visitors encounter a wall-sized, concavely curved panoramic waterfall painting which leads them into a windowless space of blue and black. Amid the darkness, light animates three diaphanous scrims of waterfalls. On other surfaces the shifting light will reveal shapes and marks such as rectangles, moons, frets and scratches. "I hope the space becomes visually confusing," says Steir, "as visitors see images appear and disappear into a fluctuating darkness, it will be like a nocturnal underwater experience."

Water & Stone is the culmination of a long line of inquiry by Steir. Among the predecessors to this project are works such as Panorama at the Newcastle Biennale, Newcastle, England (1990); her installation at Documenta IX, Kassel, Germany (1992); and Likity Split at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1998).

Press Inquiries:
Molly O'Toole motoole@contemporaryartscenter.org 513.345.8404
LeAnne Anklan lanklan@contemporaryartscenter.org 513.345.8421

Contemporary Arts Center
Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art
44 East 6th Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
www.contemporaryartscenter.org
(513) 345.8400

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