Justin Randolph Thompson_ Project Director
Justin Randolph Thompson is a sculptor and new media artist born in Peekskill, NY in ’79. Living between Italy and the US since 2001, he has exhibited internationally and participated in numerous residencies in the US and in Europe. A recipient of the 2015 Franklin Furnace Fund Grant, a 2013 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, a 2013 Visual Art Grant from the Fundacion Marcelino Botin, a 2013 Emerging Artist Fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park , a Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant, the Open Studio Fellowship at Franconia Sculpture Park, a Jerome Fellow and a resident at the Taller of Jannis Kounellis at the Fundacion Marcelino Botin in Santander, Spain, Thompson has exhibited and performed at the Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum in San Antonio, at Villa Romana in Florence, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Reina Sofia in Madrid and the Fundacion Botin in Santander.
His work questions the implications of cultural relics and the mutability of their veneration within the context of displacement. Broadly collaborative and inherently interdisciplinary he relies upon the collective power of creative dialogue to provide platforms that envision communities as temporary monuments. Resisting a legacy of American triumph and problematizing aspirations towards Roman expansionist history, site-specific works engage community-oriented groups across disciplines in the creation of installations and sound-based performances utilizing gestures of labor as rhythmic structures. The work shifts the lens of legibility in African American history against the backdrop of a culture that uses monuments to forget.
www.justinrandolphthompson.com
Bradly Dever Treadaway_ Filmmaker and Audiovisual Director
Bradly Dever Treadaway is a Brooklyn based artist and teacher utilizing photography, video, film and installation to emphasize socially conscious themes and self- awareness. His work revolves around fleeting family histories visualized through domestic rituals, the loss of cultural tradition and aspires to reunite present and past through visual metaphors. Treadaway works with five generations of family archives from Southern Louisiana, deconstructing and re-contextualizing the archive to serve as form, medium and concept.
Treadaway is a Fulbright Scholar to Italy and works as both a Faculty member and the Digital Media Coordinator at The International Center of Photography in New York City. His work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of Art, Center for Photography at Woodstock, The International Center of Photography, The Mobile Museum of Art, The Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence, Italy, and the Lishui Museum of Photography in China. His film/video work has been screened at the Carnegie Museum of Art, the National Centre for Contemporary Art in Moscow, Russia, Union Docs, Anthology Film Archives, the Nashville Film Festival, the Coney Island Film Festival, and at the Brooklyn Arts Council’s Scene: Brooklyn.
Treadaway also remains engaged in a 17-year collaboration with internationally acclaimed and exhibited artist Justin Randolph Thompson.
www.bradtreadaway.com
Jason Thompson_ Sound Director and Composer
Jason Thompson is a third generation jazz musician from Peekskill, NY. He began his professional saxophone career in 1996 when he gave up a scholarship to the University of Tennessee and started a six year stint on the road with Knoxville-based, nine member rock/R&B group Gran Torino. The group toured nationally, made several recordings, and enjoyed some college radio success before disbanding. Thompson returned to the UTK to study jazz under many great professors including Jerry Coker, and Donald Brown. Thompson's choice of the baritone saxophone as his main voice puts him in a smaller circle of the saxophone family, but it's his bass saxophone playing that makes him truly unique. He recently founded the band Frog and Toad’s Dixie Quartet. Thompson performs and composes regularly and has collaborated with his younger brother on over 50 projects.
www.frogandtoadsdixiequartet.com
The 2017 Edition of Friskin' the Whiskers is in partnership with:
Jodi Waynburg from Artists Alliance curated Friskin' The Whiskers into the program of Art in Odd Places.
Founded in 1999, Artists Alliance Inc. (AAI) is an artist and curator-centered 501c3 non-profit organization committed to supporting emerging and underrepresented contemporary artists. Through innovative programming, experimentation and collaboration, AAI serves as a resource and forum to engage the community of the Lower East Side.
For more information about Artists Alliance, please visit:http://artistsallianceinc.org
Friskin' the Whiskers is a part of the 2017 Art in Odd Places program where the second edition of the projects will be performed next fall. Art in Odd Places aims to stretch the boundaries of communication in the public realm by presenting artworks in all disciplines outside the confines of traditional public space regulations. AiOP reminds us that public spaces function as the epicenter for diverse social interactions and the unfettered exchange of ideas.
For more information about Art in Odd Places, please visit:http://www.artinoddplaces.org
Fabriga is partnering with Friskin the Whiskers to provide a bicycle supported mobile sound system and generator. Designed for multi-modal mobility, Grazilla Bus is a longtail folding cargo bike that folds up in a few. When folded, it can stand up vertically on it’s own. Grazilla Bus meets the main industrial standards as it can be equipped with nearly every cargo solution. The bike is made in Italy with high-end features, like the all internal cable routing, disc brakes and CNC birch plywood decks and footrests. It is available both in traditional and mid drive e-bike versions.
For more information about Fabriga visit: http://www.grazilla.bike/
The 2016 Edition of Friskin' the Whiskers had numerous funders and partnerships:
Franklin Furnace Fund
The 2016 edition of the project was made possible, in part, by the Franklin Furnace Fund supported by The SHS Foundation, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and general operating support from the New York State Council on the Arts. Initiated in 1985 with the support of Jerome Foundation, Franklin Furnace has annually awarded grants to emerging artists selected by peer panel review to enable them to produce major performance art works in New York.
In the spring of 2008, Franklin Furnace combined the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art and The Future of the Present programs into one, entitled the Franklin Furnace Fund. Franklin Furnace made the decision to combine these programs because during the last decade, artists have created works on every point of the spectrum between the body of the artist and the circulatory network of the Internet in the creation of temporal work.
Since 1985, the Fund has helped launch the careers of Jo Andres, Tanya Barfield, Jibz Cameron aka Dynasty Handbag, Lenora Champagne, Patty Chang, Papo Colo, Brody Condon, Nicolás Dumit Estévez, Karen Finley, John Fleck, Coco Fusco, Kate Gilmore, Pablo Helguera, Donna Henes, Murray Hill, Holly Hughes, Liz Magic Laser, Taylor Mac, Robbie McCauley, Jennifer Miller, Naeem Mohaiemen, Rashaad Newsome, Clifford Owens, Pope.L, Dread Scott, Pamela Sneed, Fiona Templeton and Diane Torr, among 260 other fund recipients.
For more information about The Franklin Furnace Fund, please visit:
http://franklinfurnace.org/artists/funded_projects/the_franklin_furnace_fund/fundwinners15_16/thompson.php
Friskin' the Whiskers 2016 was promoted in partnership with Savona Bailey-McClane and the West Harlem Art Fund. The West Harlem Art Fund, Inc. is an eighteen year old, public arts organization. WHAF offers exhibition opportunities for artists and creative professionals wishing to share their talent with residents uptown and around the city. The West Harlem Art Fund, Inc. showcases art and culture in open, public spaces to add aesthetic interest to our part of the city; promote historical and cultural heritage; and support community involvement in local development. Our heritage symbol is the double crocodile from West Africa which means unity in diversity.
For more information about The West Harlem Fund, please visit:https://westharlemartfund.wordpress.com
Friskin' the Whiskers 2016 was promoted in partnership with a wonderful NYC organization called City Lore. Founded in 1986, City Lore’s mission is to foster New York City – and America’s – living cultural heritage through education and public programs. We document, present, and advocate for New York City’s grassroots cultures to ensure their living legacy in stories and histories, places and traditions. We work in four cultural domains: urban folklore and history; preservation; arts education; and grassroots poetry traditions. In each of these realms, we see ourselves as furthering cultural equity and modeling a better world with projects as dynamic and diverse as New York City itself.
For more information about City Lore, please visit:http://citylore.org/
Friskin' the Whiskers 2016 was a recipient of a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant. Since its inception in 1963, the mission of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts has been to encourage, sponsor, and promote innovative work in the arts created and presented by individuals, groups, and organizations. Its legacy continues today with unrestricted, by-nomination grants supporting pioneering work across the fields of dance, music/sound, performance art/theater, poetry, and the visual arts. A fund is also maintained to assist artists with emergencies and unexpected opportunities related to their work. To date, over 900 artists have made these grants possible by contributing paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, and photographs to fourteen fund-raising exhibitions held over the years.
For more information about the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grants, please visit:
http://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/grants/emergency-grants
Tikhonova and Wintner Fine Art Gallery partnered with Friskin the Whiskers providing a thier space for a post performance gathering where conversations on Jazz and art in Harlem are to be had. Tikhonova Wintner Gallery was founded October 2013 and focuses on artists and interests of the African Diaspora and the Greater Harlem community.
For more information about Tikhonova and Wintner Fine Art Gallery, please visit:http://colophon.com/tikhonovawintner/
Socrates Sculpture Park partnered with Friskin' the Whiskers providing a location for a pre-performance gathering. Founded in 1986, Socrates Sculpture Park is the only site in the New York Metropolitan area specifically dedicated to providing artists with opportunities to create and exhibit large-scale sculpture and multi-media installations in a unique outdoor environment that encourages strong interaction between artists, artworks and the public. The park’s existence is based on the belief that reclamation, revitalization and creative expression are essential to the survival, humanity and improvement of our urban environment.
For more information about Socrates Sculpture Park, please visit: http://socratessculpturepark.org/
The Abrons Art Center partnered with Friskin' the Whiskers providing a location for a inter-performance gathering.The Abrons Arts Center supports the presentation of innovative, multi-disciplinary work; cultivates artists in all stages of their creative development through educational programs and residencies; and serves as an intersection of cultural engagement for local, national, and international audiences and art-workers.
For more information about the Abrons Arts Center, please visit: http://www.abronsartscenter.org/
Momenta Art partnered with Friskin' the Whiskers providing a location for a pre-performance gathering.Founded in 1986 by a group of artists, Momenta Art is an artist-run 501c3 not-for-profit organization that provides an engaging forum for public dialog through critical art projects by emerging and underrepresented artists. Through our programming, including exhibitions, public events, publications and educational series, we encourage urgent contemporary issues to be addressed through aesthetically sophisticated forms. Art-making and art-viewing provide special access to learning about the world we live in and ourselves, and to transforming them. Momenta Art is interested in art’s potential to facilitate a variety of opportunities that the public can share experiences, exchange ideas, and dream, in hopes of contributing to a positive transformation of our society.
For more information about Momenta Art, please visit:http://www.momentaart.org/
The International Center for Photography partnered with Friskin' the Whiskers with the entire film crew as part of ICP's staff and Faculty. ICP is the world’s leading institution dedicated to photography and visual culture. Through our exhibitions, school, public programs, and community outreach, we offer an open forum for dialogue about the role images play in our culture. Since our founding, we have presented more than 700 exhibitions and offered thousands of classes, providing instruction at every level. ICP is a center where photographers and artists, students, and scholars can create and interpret the world of the image, exploring photography and visual culture as mediums of empowerment, and catalysts for wide-reaching social change.
For more information about ICP, please visit: https://www.icp.org/