FAX / Contemporary Museum

Exploring the Intersection of Art and Technology with FAX
Real-time Fax Submissions from Artists, Creative Thinkers, Students Contribute to Evolving Exhibition

Matt Sheridan Smith, Untitled (contrast test) (detail), 2008.
Courtesy of the artist and Lisa Cooley Fine Art.

Saturday, September 12 through Sunday, December 20, 2009

Contemporary Museum
100 West Centre Street
Baltimore, MD 21201

The Contemporary Museum will explore the potential of the fax machine as a device for creating, transmitting, and distributing an artist’s ideas and images with FAX, announced Contemporary Museum executive director, Irene Hofmann. The exhibition will feature more than 120 fax-based works, on view from September 12 through December 20, 2009. The Contemporary is the first institution to host FAX during its national tour

In FAX, the exhibition’s dedicated fax machine will continually receive and print incoming communications by artists from around the world. As faxed artworks arrive, they will be added to the gallery walls. In addition to the hundreds of faxed images, the exhibition will include the inevitable transmission errors and junk faxes received during the run of the show.

The exhibition invites visitors to explore artists’ creative expression through their drawings and to consider ideas of reproduction, originality and distribution.

FAX will feature works created by more than 120 international artists, designers, architects, scientists, and filmmakers who utilize the fax machine as a thinking and drawing tool. Visitors will see drawings, text, and collage works from contributors including Joseph Grigley, John Armleder, Fia Backstrom, Barbara Bloom, Liam Gillick, Glenn Ligon, and Kay Rosen. Included in the diverse roster of contributing artists are 20 Baltimore-based artists including Hugh Pocock, Leslie Furlong and Soledad Salamé.

FAX is co-organized by The Drawing Center, New York and iCI (Independent Curators International). The exhibition is curated by Joäo Ribas, curator of The Drawing Center, and is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue co-published by iCI and The Drawing Center. Following its run at the Contemporary, the show will next travel to California. FAX will be on tour through August 2012.