Auto Italia, London, 13 December 2014

As more and more exhibitions are seen through on-screen documentation rather than through physical encounter, how are art’s publicity formats being transformed? HIGH VISIBILITY is a new series examining how hybrid advertising-based business models have shaped the circulation of art and what the accelerated development of media technology might mean for the relationship between art, its markets and its publics.

The programme begins on Saturday 13th December with an afternoon workshop and group discussion to ask what role the gallery really plays as the circulation of its image supersedes its physical site.

Have recent shifts in thought toward understanding art in circulation lived up to the radical potential of reconceptualising the site of the gallery as just a node in the network of distribution? Or has the gallery actually been reaffirmed by the Internet as contemporary art’s primary site of spectatorship, now with its marketing reach simply extended through the proliferation of its documentation? What’s at stake in the increasing dominance of these distribution formats and could art’s very ontology be transformed? Join artists Ed Fornieles, Artie Vierkant and Christopher Kulendran Thomas in a roundtable discussion introduced by Annika Kuhlmann on the potentials and limitations of art’s exhibition infrastructure.

Ed Fornieles (based in Los Angeles) participated in the 12th Biennale de Lyon (FR) and has done solo exhibitions and projects at Chisenhale Gallery (UK), Carlos/Ishikawa (UK), Mihai Nicodim Gallery (US), Serpentine Gallery (UK), Frieze Art Fair (UK) and Theater Basel (CH), as well as performances for Rhizome at the New Museum (US) and for MOCAtv (US). 

Artie Vierkant (based in New York) has had recent solo exhibitions at UNTITLED (US), Higher Pictures (US), New Galerie (FR) and Exile (DE) and and has been included in group exhibitions at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (CN), Fonds M-Arco (FR), Institute of Contemporary Art (UK), and Carlos/Ishikawa (UK).

Christopher Kulendran Thomas (based in London) has had recent solo exhibitions at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler (DE), the Centre for Contemporary Art (IL) and Mercer Union (CA). Group shows include Tate’s historical survey ‘Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making 1789-2013′ (UK) and ‘Dark Velocity’ at CCS Bard (US).

Annika Kuhlmann (based in Berlin) is part of two art groups, Special Service and Brace Brace, has exhibited at Auto Italia (UK), KM Temporär (DE) and for DIS (US) and has written on art and organised exhibitions for institutions including C/O Berlin (DE) and Haus der Kulturen der Welt (DE).

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Art/ Work Association (A/WA) is an association of artists and creative workers and a self-generated programme of talks, screenings, seminars, reading groups, workshops and critical feedback sessions, conceived as a forum for peer exchange. A/WA offers a support network for associates and enables self-organised learning, professional development and critical dialogue.