Lee Walton

Momentary Performances and Things That Last Longer

Dates:

September 18-December 13, 2009

Gallery:

Olson Gallery

Show events:

The Charcoal Chess Tournament
Thursday, September 17, 6:30 p.m. in the Olson Gallery
An official chess tournament hosted by the Minnesota Chess Club will take place the evening before the official opening of the exhibition. The players will draw and erase their chess pieces with each move. These drawings will later be on display in the Olson Gallery as part of the exhibition. Spectators welcome.

Artist Talk
Friday, September 18, 5 p.m. in the Eastlund Room, CLC 2nd floor
Opening reception in the Olson Gallery following the talk

Exhibition Description:

This exhibition includes video, drawing, installation, and a performance in the Olson Gallery as well as several off-site Momentary Performances taking place around the Twin Cities listed at www.leewalton.com and www.bethel.edu/galleries.

About the Momentary Performances: A series of Momentary Performances will be taking place around the Twin Cities September - November. Each performance is a simple action that in everyday life would be overlooked. By giving this action or "performance" a time, date, and location, Lee Walton’s intention is to highlight the subtleties and beauties of everyday people and actions--considering these mundane micro-gestures as spectacular.

From a spectators’ viewpoint, the idea of anticipation becomes a key part of each performance.  Walton explains, “if a spectator plans a day around being at a specific location at a specific time to see - ‘a woman with a red scarf stop to pick up a penny’ - it becomes really exciting.” That moment is real and without prior knowledge, it would blur seamlessly with the rest of the environment, thus being lost as if it never existed. Only the anticipating spectator can make it a reality through witnessing it.

Artist Bio: Often regarded as an Experientialist, Walton's work takes many forms including drawings, video, net-art, public performances, social architectures and more.

Walton has received many accolades:

• Museum funded projects: Reykjavik Art Museum of Iceland, ICA Boston, Rhizome at The New Museum of Contemporary Art (N.Y.)
• Public commissions: Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Art in General, Socrates Sculpture Park
• National and international exhibitions: The Powerplant Gallery, Performa ’05, Island 6 (Shanghai, China), The City Museum of Ljubljana
• Honors: CAA Centennial, S.J. Truman Award, 8th Havana Biennial of Cuba and the Headlands Center for the Arts · Collections: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Martin Z. Margulies Warehouse, Columbus Museum, (GA).

Walton also curates exhibitions and events (Weatherspoon Art Museum, N.C. and Conflux, N.Y.) and lectures extensively on his practice. Walton’s work is represented by Krashaur Galleries, N.Y. His work can be viewed at www.leewalton.com)