Curator’s Statement

BIG Ideas

2008 – 2010

By Kathleen Laziza

When I was about 15 years old, I knew I was going to be an artist. I was living and soon working in Texas where there is a rich legacy for modern painting, sculpture and conceptual art. It was a time when quadrillions of artists were graduating from universities and numerous alternative spaces were born because many of the traditional art outlets were over saturated. I was a part of that national trend, from the sidelines, as I am old-school trained, I apprenticed with older artists. Then something radical happened…. I got bitten by the performing arts bug and began to explore video, form partnerships, make collaborations and built new works of my own design. All of this experience helped to launch Micro Museum --- an alternative art space that reaches across genres. All the while I was amazed by the BIG ideas that creativity supported. In 2008 – 2010 Micro Museum will focus on that contemporary efforts through a series of themed exhibitions. Staring with the theme OPPOSITES ATTRACT, we introduced ourselves to hundreds of new artists through the open call system and selected a range of work that was strongly suggestible.

In THE TEENY TINY SHOW we will explore something that has long amused us at Micro Museum because not infrequently people wonder out loud, “Is this a museum for tiny things?” “Come find out!” is the reply. Of course, Micro Museum is being metaphoric and people are frequently literal but for spring 2008 we get to say yes, it is an exhibit for small things. ANIMALS IN YOUR KINGDOM brings a solid batch of work from USA Artists who express a rich fantasy life, empathy and union with nature. There are veins of work that arrived at our doorstep that we had to strong attractions to. Influenced by the current events that surround global warming and the radical changes in Earth’s habitat that affect animals ---- including our selves or the sheer fancy we project onto animals, we were hooked on how artists expressed themselves.

RAGING AGAINST THE …… will fill in the blank for our collective experience. An election year, 2008 will forever be filled with angst, yearning and debate as America decides who will be the leader of the “free world”. Artists are no slouches when it comes to opinions, they can project commentary in color, shape and form no matter how literal or how abstract. There are many ways to discover America, one of them is to discuss fully how democracy works and prepare to vote! TWINS - SETS OF 2, in the fall of 2008, humorously pairs objects. Indispensable as yin and yang, this show will bring double the impact because repetition is a key component to critical thinking as in “Is it the same or is it different?”

2008 Concludes with METAPHORIC: SUNRISE SUNSET --- this timeless classic is meant to break apart the iconic because it is not literal. There is power in being vague, poetic and open ended. These artists are intensely portraying that approach. The curatorial process is unique because it is both rejecting and advocating. By nature, artists are fully entrepreneurial because essentially no one puts a gun to their heads and says “CREATE or die!” Yet that is what they are telling themselves routinely. There is a total urgency about self- expression. Some artists simply have to do or die. For better or worse it shows up in the work. While in politics they frequently refer to the pursuit of higher office as “fire in the belly” the same holds true for artists. While artists may not be suited to elected public service, they still use the irrational forces of passion to communicate and survive day to day. 2008 BIG IDEAS leads into 2009 + 2010 as Micro Museum continues to evolve through free association and synergy.