Frank Shifreen
Encyclopedia
Frank Shifreen is an American
artist, curator, and teacher. Shifreen played a significant part in the art movement of New York City
in the early 1980s, organizing massive artist-run shows
that brought thousands of people to Gowanus, Brooklyn
. Since then, he has organized socially conscious art exhibitions across the United States and abroad, including From the Ashes, a massive exhibition organized in the aftermath of 9/11. A neo-expressionist
and social sculptor
, he is a graduate of the Pratt Institute
and Adelphi University
, he is currently finishing a doctorate
in art and art education at the Teachers College
at Columbia University
.
on February 29, 1948. He was raised in New York City
, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts
degree from Pratt Institute
in 1976.
, and Willem de Kooning
.
Starting after he graduated in 1976, Shifreen began designing sets and props for various theater and dance companies in the United States and Europe. He began advertising his own solo exhibitions in 1976 with distinctive black-and-white posters plastered throughout New York City. He later used the same tactics to advertise the larger artist-organized events he helped found. His work has been a staple in underground shows and galleries on the Lower East Side, Manhattan
and Brooklyn
since the 1970s. By Winter of 2001, he had already had more than 40 shows of his painting and sculpture in the U.S. and Europe. He has performed at venues such as Club 57
, Des Refusees, and the Boston Museum School. His work has appeared in the Brooklyn Museum
, the Museum of Modern Art
(MoMA), The City Museum of San Francisco, the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Vassar College
, and the Gallerie di Collosseo in Italy
.
, graduating with a masters degree in Science and Education (specifically special education
) in 1996. He started teaching homebound disabled students for the New York City Department of Education
in September 1996. He began attending Columbia University
in 2001, and he is currently finishing a doctorate in Art and Art Education at Teachers College, Columbia University
. His specific area of study is artist organized initiatives and non-institutional art. His mentor is Dr. Graeme Sullivan
, and his focus is on "art learning" in community settings.
studio, which was a nineteenth century munitions factory at 230 3rd Street, next to the Gowanus Canal
. There many artists began to network. Because his building was over 9,500 square feet, Shifreen asked his landlord to periodically use the un-rented space. Next to the property, on Smith and 5th Street in a "Public Site
", there was five acres of abandoned lot to be used as an art space.
He and artists Michael Keene and George Moore decided to plan an artshow with "monumental" art, which a group of artists began assembling. Six months before the show, Shifreen began putting out posters to call for entries, and with a $1500 grant from the Brooklyn Council on the Arts and help from Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation and Carroll Gardens Association, he and the organizers selected 150 artists out of the thousand proposals they received. The artists were each given a 20 by 20 foot space to create their art, which as "monumental" consisted of paintings, sculptures, mixed media, and anything one-and-a-half times normal size.
The participants included well-established artists such as Carl Andre
and Andy Warhol
-sponsored Keith Haring
. The show opened on May 16, 1981, and more than 4000 people visited just that first weekend to see the art and hear live music. As a result of the show, Shifreen's landlord had him arrested for allegedly stealing electricity, and the ensuing controversy increased the press the show was already receiving. On June 8, 1981, New York Magazine did an article on the show entitled "Gowanus Guerrillas", calling it "the event of the season." On June 15, 1981, Shifreen made the cover of the New York Daily News
.
. The space for the two indoor sites was donated by the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural Center, while sponsors included the Department of Parks and Recreation
, the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts
, The City of New York, Con Edison, the F.W. Woolworth Company, and the Organization of Independent Artists.
The stated theme of the exhibition was not size, but social responsibility. Thousands of artists again submitted entrees, and the co-curators selected 400 proposals, including works by well-known artists such as Carl Andre
, Christo, Vito Acconci
, Nancy Holt
, the controversial Chris Burden
, Dennis Oppenheim, Nancy Spero
, Leon Golub
, and Boaz Vaadia
. Some of Shifreen's co-jurors were Marcia Tucker
, the director of the New Museum, Henry Geldzahler
, the New York City Cultural Commissioner, and Mary Boone
, the gallery owner. As before, the show was a success, with multiple art publications publishing reviews. Three panel discussions were held at Cooper Union
, and artists as well as art critics took part. On October 3, 1982, there was a review in The New York Times
.
Several New York artists, including Shifreen and Julius Vitali, have theorized that the East Village, Manhattan
art movement in the 1980s may have resulted partly from the artist-organized and not-for-profit shows of the early 1980s, including The Monumental Show and Monument Redefined. The shows made it possible for galleries and dealers to find and support emerging artists. From 1985 to 1986, Shifreen had five one-person shows as a result of these events, and became a successful grant writer.
, over 550 artists assembled in what had previously been one of the largest buildings in the world.
Shifreen co-founded the Pan Aats group with Michael Curtin in 1984. For a time he served as editor of PanArts Magazine, which also served as a catalog for their Art and Ego show in 1984.
Shifreen helped organize the Art Against Apartheid exhibition in 1984, which was held at twenty six separate locations in New York. It was also coordinated by The Organization of Independent Artists, for whom Shifreen had written numerous grants.
He has been a member of Group Scud, a New York-based portable exhibition group, who park in front of New York museums and galleries to display work. The 22 Wooster Gallery gave him the paid position of Program Director for the Artists Talk on Art series, where he organized well-attended panels on diverse topics from 1986 to 1988.
From 1986 to 1989, he was involved with the international artists' organization Plexus, which created multicultural art environments. Some of these exhibitions traveled to Rome as well as other parts of Europe.
In early 2001 he began working with crayon, curating a traveling exhibition that winter called the Crayon Show. It displayed at the Open Space Gallery in Allentown, Pennsylvania
in June 2000.
Counting Coup (2001)
Shifreen found himself upset after the 2000 election of George W. Bush
as President of the United States, and he put out a call to artists to hold the exhibit Counting Coup in response. Shifreen found listings of artists on the internet and sent over fifty emails. The Museum of New Art (MONA) in Detroit, Michigan
had recently opened and was holding a beginning fundraiser, to which Shifreen donated some of his paintings. The director at the time, Jef Bourgeau, appreciated the donation and scheduled Counting Coup for exhibition at MONA. Shifreen co-curated the show with artist Scott Pfaffman, and it opened at the Scott Phaffman Gallery in New York City on January 21, 2001, the day after Bush officially became president. The show, which included artists Leon Golub
and Barbara Kruger
, traveled also to the Theater for a New City and the Center for Social Change in Northampton Massachusetts. However, the show attracted small crowds in some places, and the show ceased to travel when the events of 9/11 had cemented and legitimized George Bush's presidency.
From the Ashes (2001)
When 9/11 happened, Shifreen had been working on an art show called Witness. Shifreen, who lived less than a mile from the World Trade Center and saw the second plane go down, hurried to the site to volunteer, but was not allowed to help due to union rules about insurance. Shifreen then contacted Patricia Nicholson, a local activist and dancer, about using the CUANDO building gallery in Manhattan, which had been unoccupied but had non-profit status. He changed his show Witness, intended for October 1, to From the Ashes, and opened in the five-story building in the middle of October. The show included over 150 visual artists, 200 performing groups, and multiple video artists and site specific installations. There were five curators involved, including Willoughby Sharp
. The show received press in publications such the Los Angeles Times
, The Village Voice
, and The Villager
. As a result, $7000 were donated to the Fireman's Fund and five fire houses.
Casa del Sol (2001–2004)
Shifreen served as artistic director of Casa del Sol in the South Bronx from 2001 to 2004.
Ground Zero (2002)
New York City attempted to close the CUANDO building after From the Ashes, though the The Museum of New Art (MONA) was contacted, and Frank Shifreen, Julius Vitali, and Daniel Scheffer opened a second show in July 2002 in the same building. Ground Zero was an exhibition of post-9/11 art featuring the work of over 50 artists. After the initial premiere in Detroit at MONA, the artist-organized show traveled around the country. Among the artists that exhibited are Amy Shapiro, Francoise Doherty
and Robert Nielsen
.
Art Against War (2003)
From June to August in 2003 he curated the exhibition Art Against War: Posters and Multimedia, which was displayed originally on the internet and also at nine galleries and museums in different places around the world. It collected artwork reflecting American war in Iraq. It was partly sponsored by the Drinkink Collective, a group of artists and scholars at Teachers College, and the New York Arts Magazine.
The show featured works on paper, digitally printed, painted or drawn, and had a strong multimedia component. Over 40 artists from the United States and 13 other countries displayed artwork protesting or analyzing the war in Iraq. The exhibit traveled to Social Forum IV in Mumbai, India. There the Majlis Cultural Center printed over 100 posters the size of giant advertising banners, of which 12 were Shifreen's work. In June 2003 it also diplayed at the Macy Gallery at the Columbia University Teachers College and the university's Lubelski Gallery. He also exhibited at the E.H. Stone Gallery at Presbyterian College
in Clinton, South Carolina
. The show featured several of Shifreen's works, as well as work by Graeme Sullivian, Sherry Mayo, and David Garfinkel.
Artlot (2004–2005)
Along with sculptor Danny Scheffer, Shifreen spent a large amount of time between 2004 and 2005 adding sculpture to the Brooklyn Artlot in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, an outdoor space with a thin narrow fenced area easily viewed by passerby.
in May and June 2008. The show contained work from international and national artists, including a live-action "painting battle" between Shifreen and Dr. Barnaby Ruhe.
Shifreen was in a show in 2008 at Harvard University
called Speech Acts: Art Responding Language, Rhetoric and Politics. His steel sculptures began as the collaboration with Danny Scheffer for the Brooklyn Artlot.
Shifreen and Gila Paris, organized a series of exhibitions in June 2009 along with Luxembroug group "cultureinside.com", the first one entitled ROOTED - the premiere.
In September and October 2009, Shifreen co-produced the A Bailout for the Rest of Us: Recession Art Sale in Manhattan with Elanit Kayne and Mia Feroleto. It featured thirty artists and thirty out-of-work professional artists. Shifreen hosted the online gallery on www.cultureinside.com.
In December 2009, he participated in the Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project at the John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art in New Haven. His work was an audio take on prayer chants and ritual songs in Jewish culture.
On July 28, 2010, Shifreen worked with Cultureinside.com to premiere an art exhibition entitled EUtopia - Artistic Visions of Europe at the Centre Culturel de Recontre Abbaye de Neumunster in Luxembourg
. The dual theme was centered around the name and the context of "poverty and social exclusion" in Europe. CultureInside first organized the show using its base of 3100 online members. 70 pieces of diverse media, including paining, photography, sculpture, digital, video, and performance, were then chosen by a curatorial committee. The works came from 13 different countries.
Guy de Muyser, President du Conseil d'Administration du CCRN, the organization that runs the Abbaye, as well as the Culture Minister of Luxembourg Octavie Modert
, both spoke at the opening ceremony.
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist, curator, and teacher. Shifreen played a significant part in the art movement of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in the early 1980s, organizing massive artist-run shows
Gowanus Memorial Artyard
The Gowanus Memorial Artyard was a non-profit, artist-organized group that organized massive outdoor and indoor art exhibitions in Gowanus, Brooklyn in the early 1980's. Founded by artists and curators Michael Keene, Frank Shifreen, and George Moore, the shows featured monumental sculpture parks...
that brought thousands of people to Gowanus, Brooklyn
Gowanus, Brooklyn
Gowanus is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 6.The Gowanus area has been an active center of industrial and shipping activity since the 1860s...
. Since then, he has organized socially conscious art exhibitions across the United States and abroad, including From the Ashes, a massive exhibition organized in the aftermath of 9/11. A neo-expressionist
Neo-expressionism
Neo-expressionism is a style of modern painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s and dominated the art market until the mid-1980s...
and social sculptor
Social sculpture
Social sculpture is a specific example of the extended concept of art, that was advocated by the conceptual artist and politician Joseph Beuys. Beuys created the term Social Sculpture to illustrate his idea of art's potential to transform society. As an artwork it includes human activity, that...
, he is a graduate of the Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
and Adelphi University
Adelphi University
Adelphi University is a private, nonsectarian university located in Garden City, in Nassau County, New York, United States. It is the oldest institution of higher education on Long Island. For the sixth year, Adelphi University has been named a “Best Buy” in higher education by the Fiske Guide to...
, he is currently finishing a doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in art and art education at the Teachers College
Teachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College, Columbia University is a graduate school of education located in New York City, New York...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Early life
Shifreen was born in New London, ConnecticutNew London, Connecticut
New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States.It is located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, southeastern Connecticut....
on February 29, 1948. He was raised in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
degree from Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
in 1976.
Artistic background
Shifreen is a mixed-media artist who has worked in painting, sculpture, digital photography, live performance, landscape painting, and massive installations. His early inspiration included the work of the great abstract expressionists, such as Clifford Still, Philip GustonPhilip Guston
Philip Guston was a notable painter and printmaker in the New York School, which included many of the Abstract expressionists, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning...
, and Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....
.
Starting after he graduated in 1976, Shifreen began designing sets and props for various theater and dance companies in the United States and Europe. He began advertising his own solo exhibitions in 1976 with distinctive black-and-white posters plastered throughout New York City. He later used the same tactics to advertise the larger artist-organized events he helped found. His work has been a staple in underground shows and galleries on the Lower East Side, Manhattan
Lower East Side, Manhattan
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
and Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
since the 1970s. By Winter of 2001, he had already had more than 40 shows of his painting and sculpture in the U.S. and Europe. He has performed at venues such as Club 57
Club 57
Club 57 was a nightclub located at 57 St. Mark's Place in the East Village, New York City during the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was a hangout and venue for performance- and visual-artists and musicians, including Madonna, Keith Haring, Cyndi Lauper, Charles Busch, Klaus Nomi, The B-52s, Futura...
, Des Refusees, and the Boston Museum School. His work has appeared in the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
, the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
(MoMA), The City Museum of San Francisco, the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
, and the Gallerie di Collosseo in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Teaching background
In 1993 began attending Adelphi UniversityAdelphi University
Adelphi University is a private, nonsectarian university located in Garden City, in Nassau County, New York, United States. It is the oldest institution of higher education on Long Island. For the sixth year, Adelphi University has been named a “Best Buy” in higher education by the Fiske Guide to...
, graduating with a masters degree in Science and Education (specifically special education
Special education
Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...
) in 1996. He started teaching homebound disabled students for the New York City Department of Education
New York City Department of Education
The New York City Department of Education is the branch of municipal government in New York City that manages the city's public school system. It is the largest school system in the United States, with over 1.1 million students taught in more than 1,700 separate schools...
in September 1996. He began attending Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 2001, and he is currently finishing a doctorate in Art and Art Education at Teachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College, Columbia University is a graduate school of education located in New York City, New York...
. His specific area of study is artist organized initiatives and non-institutional art. His mentor is Dr. Graeme Sullivan
Graeme Sullivan
Graeme Sullivan is an American artist, author, art theorist, and educator. He has contributed work to numerous exhibitions and events and is known for his international "Streetworks" project that plants public art in unusual urban locales. He authored the books Art Practice as Research and Seeing...
, and his focus is on "art learning" in community settings.
The Monumental Show (1981)
In 1979 Shifreen began to have open-studio party shows at his Gowanus, BrooklynGowanus, Brooklyn
Gowanus is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 6.The Gowanus area has been an active center of industrial and shipping activity since the 1860s...
studio, which was a nineteenth century munitions factory at 230 3rd Street, next to the Gowanus Canal
Gowanus Canal
The Gowanus Canal, also known as the Gowanus Creek Canal, is a canal in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, geographically on the westernmost portion of Long Island...
. There many artists began to network. Because his building was over 9,500 square feet, Shifreen asked his landlord to periodically use the un-rented space. Next to the property, on Smith and 5th Street in a "Public Site
Urban open space
In land use planning, urban open space is open space areas for “parks”, “green spaces”, and other open areas. The landscape of urban open spaces can range from playing fields to highly maintained environments to relatively natural landscapes. They are commonly open to public access, however, urban...
", there was five acres of abandoned lot to be used as an art space.
He and artists Michael Keene and George Moore decided to plan an artshow with "monumental" art, which a group of artists began assembling. Six months before the show, Shifreen began putting out posters to call for entries, and with a $1500 grant from the Brooklyn Council on the Arts and help from Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation and Carroll Gardens Association, he and the organizers selected 150 artists out of the thousand proposals they received. The artists were each given a 20 by 20 foot space to create their art, which as "monumental" consisted of paintings, sculptures, mixed media, and anything one-and-a-half times normal size.
The participants included well-established artists such as Carl Andre
Carl Andre
Carl Andre is an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear format and grid format sculptures. His sculptures range from large public artworks to more intimate tile patterns arranged on the floor of an exhibition space Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) is an American...
and Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
-sponsored Keith Haring
Keith Haring
Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...
. The show opened on May 16, 1981, and more than 4000 people visited just that first weekend to see the art and hear live music. As a result of the show, Shifreen's landlord had him arrested for allegedly stealing electricity, and the ensuing controversy increased the press the show was already receiving. On June 8, 1981, New York Magazine did an article on the show entitled "Gowanus Guerrillas", calling it "the event of the season." On June 15, 1981, Shifreen made the cover of the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
.
Monument Redefined (1982)
After the success of the first, Shifren began organizing a second show with artist Scott Siken. Entitled The Monument Redefined, the 1982 show was held in three locations. The outdoor site covered twelve acres with artwork visible from the window of Brooklyn's F subwayF (New York City Subway service)
The F Sixth Avenue Local is a rapid transit service of the New York City Subway. It is colored orange on route signs, station signs, and the official subway map, since it runs on the IND Sixth Avenue Line through Manhattan....
. The space for the two indoor sites was donated by the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural Center, while sponsors included the Department of Parks and Recreation
New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
The City of New York Department of Parks & Recreation is the department of government of the City of New York responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecological diversity of the city's natural areas, and furnishing recreational opportunities for city's...
, the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts
New York State Council on the Arts
The New York State Council on the Arts is an arts council serving the U.S. state of New York. It was established in 1960 through a bill introduced in the New York State Legislature by New York State Senator MacNeil Mitchell , with backing from Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and began its work in 1961...
, The City of New York, Con Edison, the F.W. Woolworth Company, and the Organization of Independent Artists.
The stated theme of the exhibition was not size, but social responsibility. Thousands of artists again submitted entrees, and the co-curators selected 400 proposals, including works by well-known artists such as Carl Andre
Carl Andre
Carl Andre is an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear format and grid format sculptures. His sculptures range from large public artworks to more intimate tile patterns arranged on the floor of an exhibition space Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) is an American...
, Christo, Vito Acconci
Vito Acconci
Vito Hannibal Acconci is a Bronx, New York-born, Brooklyn-based designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist.-Education:...
, Nancy Holt
Nancy Holt
Nancy Holt is an American artist famous for her public sculpture, installation art and land art. Throughout her career, Holt has also produced works in other mediums, including film, photography, and writing artist’s books.-Biography:...
, the controversial Chris Burden
Chris Burden
Christopher "Chris" Burden is an American artist working in performance, sculpture, and installation art.-Education:Burden studied for his B.A...
, Dennis Oppenheim, Nancy Spero
Nancy Spero
Nancy Spero was an American visual artist.-Life and work:Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Spero lived for much of her life in New York City. She was married to, and collaborated with artist Leon Golub....
, Leon Golub
Leon Golub
Leon Golub was an American painter. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he also studied, receiving his BA at the University of Chicago in 1942, his BFA and MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1949 and 1950, respectively.He was married to and collaborated with the artist Nancy Spero...
, and Boaz Vaadia
Boaz Vaadia
Boaz Vaadia is an American/Israeli figurative art sculptor known for working with bluestone slate.-Early life and education:...
. Some of Shifreen's co-jurors were Marcia Tucker
Marcia Tucker
Marcia Tucker was the founding director of the New Museum of Contemporary Art from 1977 to 1999, a museum located in New York City, dedicated to innovative art and artistic practice...
, the director of the New Museum, Henry Geldzahler
Henry Geldzahler
Henry Geldzahler was a curator of contemporary art in the late 20th century, as well as a modern art art historian and art critic...
, the New York City Cultural Commissioner, and Mary Boone
Mary Boone
Mary Boone is the owner and director of the Mary Boone Gallery and was instrumental in the New York art market of the 1980s...
, the gallery owner. As before, the show was a success, with multiple art publications publishing reviews. Three panel discussions were held at Cooper Union
Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...
, and artists as well as art critics took part. On October 3, 1982, there was a review in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.
Several New York artists, including Shifreen and Julius Vitali, have theorized that the East Village, Manhattan
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
art movement in the 1980s may have resulted partly from the artist-organized and not-for-profit shows of the early 1980s, including The Monumental Show and Monument Redefined. The shows made it possible for galleries and dealers to find and support emerging artists. From 1985 to 1986, Shifreen had five one-person shows as a result of these events, and became a successful grant writer.
1983-1989
In September 1983, he co-organized and exhibited in the Brooklyn Terminal Show with AAAArt committee. Held at the Brooklyn Navy YardBrooklyn Navy Yard
The United States Navy Yard, New York–better known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard or the New York Naval Shipyard –was an American shipyard located in Brooklyn, northeast of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlear's Hook in Manhattan...
, over 550 artists assembled in what had previously been one of the largest buildings in the world.
Shifreen co-founded the Pan Aats group with Michael Curtin in 1984. For a time he served as editor of PanArts Magazine, which also served as a catalog for their Art and Ego show in 1984.
Shifreen helped organize the Art Against Apartheid exhibition in 1984, which was held at twenty six separate locations in New York. It was also coordinated by The Organization of Independent Artists, for whom Shifreen had written numerous grants.
He has been a member of Group Scud, a New York-based portable exhibition group, who park in front of New York museums and galleries to display work. The 22 Wooster Gallery gave him the paid position of Program Director for the Artists Talk on Art series, where he organized well-attended panels on diverse topics from 1986 to 1988.
From 1986 to 1989, he was involved with the international artists' organization Plexus, which created multicultural art environments. Some of these exhibitions traveled to Rome as well as other parts of Europe.
2000-2005
Crayon Show (2001)In early 2001 he began working with crayon, curating a traveling exhibition that winter called the Crayon Show. It displayed at the Open Space Gallery in Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...
in June 2000.
Counting Coup (2001)
Shifreen found himself upset after the 2000 election of George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
as President of the United States, and he put out a call to artists to hold the exhibit Counting Coup in response. Shifreen found listings of artists on the internet and sent over fifty emails. The Museum of New Art (MONA) in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
had recently opened and was holding a beginning fundraiser, to which Shifreen donated some of his paintings. The director at the time, Jef Bourgeau, appreciated the donation and scheduled Counting Coup for exhibition at MONA. Shifreen co-curated the show with artist Scott Pfaffman, and it opened at the Scott Phaffman Gallery in New York City on January 21, 2001, the day after Bush officially became president. The show, which included artists Leon Golub
Leon Golub
Leon Golub was an American painter. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he also studied, receiving his BA at the University of Chicago in 1942, his BFA and MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1949 and 1950, respectively.He was married to and collaborated with the artist Nancy Spero...
and Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual artist. Much of her work consists of black-and-white photographs overlaid with declarative captions—in white-on-red Futura Bold Oblique or Helvetica Ultra Condensed...
, traveled also to the Theater for a New City and the Center for Social Change in Northampton Massachusetts. However, the show attracted small crowds in some places, and the show ceased to travel when the events of 9/11 had cemented and legitimized George Bush's presidency.
From the Ashes (2001)
When 9/11 happened, Shifreen had been working on an art show called Witness. Shifreen, who lived less than a mile from the World Trade Center and saw the second plane go down, hurried to the site to volunteer, but was not allowed to help due to union rules about insurance. Shifreen then contacted Patricia Nicholson, a local activist and dancer, about using the CUANDO building gallery in Manhattan, which had been unoccupied but had non-profit status. He changed his show Witness, intended for October 1, to From the Ashes, and opened in the five-story building in the middle of October. The show included over 150 visual artists, 200 performing groups, and multiple video artists and site specific installations. There were five curators involved, including Willoughby Sharp
Willoughby Sharp
Willoughby Sharp was an internationally known artist, independent curator, independent publisher, gallerist, teacher, author, and telecom activist. In 1968, Sharp co-founded Avalanche magazine with writer/filmmaker Liza Béar...
. The show received press in publications such the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
, and The Villager
The Villager
The Villager is a weekly newspaper serving Downtown Manhattan. It was founded in 1933 by Walter and Isabel Bryan. In 2001, 2004 and 2005, The Villager won the Stuart Dorman Award, honoring New York State's best weekly newspaper, in the New York Press Association's Better Newspaper Contest.The...
. As a result, $7000 were donated to the Fireman's Fund and five fire houses.
Casa del Sol (2001–2004)
Shifreen served as artistic director of Casa del Sol in the South Bronx from 2001 to 2004.
Ground Zero (2002)
New York City attempted to close the CUANDO building after From the Ashes, though the The Museum of New Art (MONA) was contacted, and Frank Shifreen, Julius Vitali, and Daniel Scheffer opened a second show in July 2002 in the same building. Ground Zero was an exhibition of post-9/11 art featuring the work of over 50 artists. After the initial premiere in Detroit at MONA, the artist-organized show traveled around the country. Among the artists that exhibited are Amy Shapiro, Francoise Doherty
Françoise Doherty
Françoise Doherty is a Canadian filmmaker, songwriter and media artist. Noted for being a trailblazer in queer activism with a stop-motion animated series for children. She garnered Audience Choice Awards at Cineffable in Paris France and Festival Image + Nation in Montreal. To date the Girl...
and Robert Nielsen
Robert Nielsen
Robert Nielsen is a journalist who is known for his time with the Toronto Star. Nielsen was employed by the newspaper for 33 years and served in several capacities, including as a correspondent, foreign correspondent, chief editorial writer, editorial page editor, investigative reporter and...
.
Art Against War (2003)
From June to August in 2003 he curated the exhibition Art Against War: Posters and Multimedia, which was displayed originally on the internet and also at nine galleries and museums in different places around the world. It collected artwork reflecting American war in Iraq. It was partly sponsored by the Drinkink Collective, a group of artists and scholars at Teachers College, and the New York Arts Magazine.
The show featured works on paper, digitally printed, painted or drawn, and had a strong multimedia component. Over 40 artists from the United States and 13 other countries displayed artwork protesting or analyzing the war in Iraq. The exhibit traveled to Social Forum IV in Mumbai, India. There the Majlis Cultural Center printed over 100 posters the size of giant advertising banners, of which 12 were Shifreen's work. In June 2003 it also diplayed at the Macy Gallery at the Columbia University Teachers College and the university's Lubelski Gallery. He also exhibited at the E.H. Stone Gallery at Presbyterian College
Presbyterian College
Presbyterian College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, South Carolina, USA. Presbyterian College, or PC, is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church USA. PC was founded in 1880 by William Plumer Jacobs, a prominent Presbyterian minister who also founded the nearby Thornwell Home and...
in Clinton, South Carolina
Clinton, South Carolina
Clinton is a city in Laurens County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 8,091 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Greenville–Mauldin–Easley Metropolitan Statistical Area. Clinton was first settled by Scots-Irish immigrants two decades before the American Revolutionary...
. The show featured several of Shifreen's works, as well as work by Graeme Sullivian, Sherry Mayo, and David Garfinkel.
Artlot (2004–2005)
Along with sculptor Danny Scheffer, Shifreen spent a large amount of time between 2004 and 2005 adding sculpture to the Brooklyn Artlot in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, an outdoor space with a thin narrow fenced area easily viewed by passerby.
2008-present
Shifreen was a curator and artist for the exhibition Souped-up Pontiac at the Museum of New Art in Detroit, MichiganDetroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
in May and June 2008. The show contained work from international and national artists, including a live-action "painting battle" between Shifreen and Dr. Barnaby Ruhe.
Shifreen was in a show in 2008 at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
called Speech Acts: Art Responding Language, Rhetoric and Politics. His steel sculptures began as the collaboration with Danny Scheffer for the Brooklyn Artlot.
Shifreen and Gila Paris, organized a series of exhibitions in June 2009 along with Luxembroug group "cultureinside.com", the first one entitled ROOTED - the premiere.
In September and October 2009, Shifreen co-produced the A Bailout for the Rest of Us: Recession Art Sale in Manhattan with Elanit Kayne and Mia Feroleto. It featured thirty artists and thirty out-of-work professional artists. Shifreen hosted the online gallery on www.cultureinside.com.
In December 2009, he participated in the Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project at the John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art in New Haven. His work was an audio take on prayer chants and ritual songs in Jewish culture.
On July 28, 2010, Shifreen worked with Cultureinside.com to premiere an art exhibition entitled EUtopia - Artistic Visions of Europe at the Centre Culturel de Recontre Abbaye de Neumunster in Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
. The dual theme was centered around the name and the context of "poverty and social exclusion" in Europe. CultureInside first organized the show using its base of 3100 online members. 70 pieces of diverse media, including paining, photography, sculpture, digital, video, and performance, were then chosen by a curatorial committee. The works came from 13 different countries.
Guy de Muyser, President du Conseil d'Administration du CCRN, the organization that runs the Abbaye, as well as the Culture Minister of Luxembourg Octavie Modert
Octavie Modert
Octavie Modert is a politician from Luxembourg.She was born in Grevenmacher, and she studied in Strasbourg and Reading....
, both spoke at the opening ceremony.
Personal life
Shifreen continues to teach homebound disabled students for the New York City Department of Education. He is a practitioner of shamanismShamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
.
External links
- Frank Shifreen at FacebookFacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...