Martine Syms

Martine Syms
Born 1988
Los Angeles
Nationality American
Education School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Known for artist, critic, publisher
Website http://martinesyms.com/

Martine Syms (born 1988) is an American artist based in Los Angeles who works in publishing, video, and performance. In 2007, she coined the term "conceptual entrepreneur" to characterize her practice.[1] Her self-identified title sustains one of her main ideas: self-determination through a sustainable institution, which stems from her interest in independent music and black-owned businesses.[2][3] Her artwork has been exhibited and screened at venues including Human Resources, Bridget Donahue Gallery, the New Museum, Kunsthalle Bern, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Index Stockholm, MOCA Los Angeles, and MCA Chicago.[4][5]

Life

In 2007, Syms received a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) in Film, Video, and New Media at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2009, Syms graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.[6]From 2007-2011 Syms ran Golden Age, an artist-run space in Chicago. Her work often explores contemporary black identity, queer theory, and the power of language through video, performance, writing and other media.[7] Syms is the founder of Dominica Publishing, an artists' press dedicated to exploring blackness in contemporary art and visual culture.[8]

In 2011, Syms published "Implications and Distinctions,"[9] an exploration of the performance of blackness in contemporary cinema, as part of the Future Plan and Program project created by Steffani Jemison.[10]

In 2013, Syms published “The Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto” through Rhizome.[11] In her manifesto Syms calls for black diasporic artistic producers to create culture that focuses on a more realistic future on earth. Syms writes:

"The imaginative challenge that awaits any Mundane Afrofuturist author who accepts that this is it: Earth is all we have. What will we do with it? The chastening but hopefully enlivening effect of imagining a world without fantasy bolt-holes: no portals to the Egyptian kingdoms, no deep dives to Drexciya, no flying Africans to whisk us off to the Promised Land...The understanding that our "twoness" is inherently contemporary, even futuristic. DuBois asks how it feels to be a problem. Ol’ Dirty Bastard says "If I got a problem, a problem's got a problem 'til it’s gone."[12]

In 2014, Syms released Most Days, which consisted of table read of Syms screenplay about an average day looks like for a young black woman in 2050 Los Angeles. The score for the album was composed by Neal Reinalda.[13]

In 2015, Syms was included in the New Museum Triennial Surround Audience.[14] Her 2015 video Notes on Gesture, exhibited at Bridget Donahue Gallery in New York City and the Machine Project in Los Angeles, explores the role of seemingly insignificant bodily gestures in the creation of identity.[15]

In 2016, Syms presented the performance "Misdirected Kiss" at the Storm King Art Center in New York's Hudson Valley, and the Broad Museum in Los Angeles. The work takes the title from the 1904 film "The Misdirected Kiss". At times resembling a TED talk, the work picks apart issues of language and representation.[16][17]

Syms is the recipient of the 2017 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant[18] and is a 2018 Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts fellow.[19]

Lectures and exhibitions

Lectures

Solo exhibitions

  • Museum of Modern Art (New York), Projects 106: Martine Syms, 2017[20]
  • Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), Martine Syms: Fact & Trouble, 2016[21]
  • Karma International (Beverly Hills, California), Martine Syms: com port ment, 2016
  • Human Resources (Los Angeles), Martine Syms: Black Box, 2016[22]
  • Locust Projects (Miami), Art on the Move: Martine Syms, 2015[23]
  • Bridget Donahue (New York), Martine Syms: Vertical Elevated Oblique, 2015[24]
  • White Flag Projects (Saint Louis, Missouri), Martine Syms, 2015[25]
  • Armory Center for the Arts (Pasadena, CA), Martine Syms, The Queen's English, 2014[26]

Group exhibitions

References

  1. ↑ "Information". martinesyms.com. March 6, 2016.
  2. ↑ "The Unreliable Narrator".
  3. ↑ "'YOU MAKE PUBLICS AROUND THE IDEAS': MARTINE SYMS ON PUBLISHING, SELF-HELP, ZINE CULTURE, AND MORE".
  4. ↑ "Information". martinesyms.com. March 6, 2016.
  5. ↑ http://artforum.com/picks/id=55228
  6. ↑ "Martine Syms". www.interviewmagazine.com. Retrieved March 6, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Martine Syms, The Queen's English » Armory Center for the Arts". www.armoryarts.org. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  8. ↑ "Rhizome - Black by Distribution: A Conversation with Martine Syms". rhizome.org.
  9. ↑ Syms, Martine (2011-01-01). Implications & distinctions: format, content and context in contemporary race film : a text. United States?: Future Plan and Program. ISBN 9780983381518.
  10. ↑ "IMPLICATIONS AND DISTINCTIONS | Future Plan and Program". futureplanandprogram.com. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  11. ↑ "Martine Syms and the 'Mundane Afrofuturist Manifesto'". www.kcet.org. March 6, 2016.
  12. ↑ Syms, Martine (December 17, 2013). "Rhizome". Rhizome.org. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Black to the Future". Bitchmagazine.org. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Review: New Museum Triennial Casts a Wary Eye on the Future". The New York Times. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  15. ↑ Toro, Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso, Nick Scholl, David. "Notes on Gesture | Martine Syms". DIS Magazine. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  16. ↑ Miranda, Carolina A. "White suitor, black maid: Martine Syms takes on black women representations in 'Misdirected Kiss'". Los Angeles TImes. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  17. ↑ Walser, Adrienne (February 18, 2016). "Martine Syms Misdirected Kiss at the Broad Museum". Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  18. ↑ Russeth, Andrew (2018-02-15). "Here Are the 2017 Tiffany Foundation Grant Recipients". ARTnews. Retrieved 2018-03-03.
  19. ↑ "Graham Foundation Announces Inaugural Fellows". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  20. ↑ "Projects 106: Martine Syms". www.moma.org/. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
  21. ↑ "Martine Syms: Fact & Trouble". www.ica.org.uk. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  22. ↑ "Human Resources Chinatown Los Angeles - Event Details - 2.6.2016 - 2.27.2016 Martine Syms "Black Box"". humanresourcesla.com. Archived from the original on March 20, 2016. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  23. ↑ "locust projects / current exhibition / art on the move". www.locustprojects.org. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  24. ↑ "Martine Syms: Vertical Elevated Oblique | Exhibitions | Bridget Donahue". www.bridgetdonahue.nyc. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  25. ↑ "White Flag Projects". whiteflagprojects.org. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  26. ↑ "Martine Syms, The Queen's English » Armory Center for the Arts". www.armoryarts.org. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  27. ↑ "2015 Triennial: Surround Audience". www.newmuseum.org. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  28. ↑ "Speaking of People | The Studio Museum in Harlem". www.studiomuseum.org. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  29. ↑ "MCA – We Are Here: Art & Design Out of Context". mcachicago.org. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  30. ↑ "west - The Green Gallery". www.thegreengallery.biz. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
  31. ↑ HARDEN, ESSENCE (February 23, 2016). "EDIFICATION OF THE BOX: MARTINE SYMS AT HUMAN RESOURCES LA". SFAQ. Retrieved March 10, 2016.

Further reading

  • Hunt, Amanda. "Martine Syms." aperture: The Magazine of Photography and Ideas. Ed. Michael Famighetti. New York: Aperture Foundation, 2016. 132-137.
  • Sargent, Antwaun (May 31, 2017). "At MoMA, Martine Syms Puts Black Female Identity under the Lens". Artsy. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
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