Still, Life

Still, Life - j.frede - Solo Show

May 6 – August 13, 2017

Lyeberry #20

Lyeberry HQ
250 Greenpoint Avenue, 4th Fl. 
Brooklyn, NY 11222

Opening Reception
Saturday, May 6th
6pm - 9pm

lyeberry.com

This Land

This Land - j.frede & Amber Jean Young - A Two Person Show

April 22nd - May 13th 2017
Opening Reception - April 22nd, 7PM - 10pm

Monte Vista Projects
1206 Maple Avenue,
5th floor, #523,
Los Angeles, California

http://www.montevistaprojects.com

New Heirloom

I have posted an essay about my Heirlooms work and my latest piece in this series, Beginning at the End, on the Huffington Post. This piece will be featured in the group show SquigAlert that opens at Cordesa Fine Art in Los Angeles on March 11th, 2017. (More info on the group show below)

Huffington Post Article : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jfrede

SquigAlert : A Group Show

 

http://www.cordesafineart.com

A NEW YEAR

Many of my Fiction Landscape works found happy homes last year and I closed out 2016 completing a number of new pieces that are currently sleeping in my flat file awaiting framing.

OTHER THINGS... THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE

Other creative things I got up to include a full length video of my adventure sailing across the Bermuda Triangle leaving from Puerto Rico, that found us running to Bermuda itself to dodge a storm, then on to the Outer Banks, North Carolina. This video, as well as my other sailing films, can be seen at... youtube.com/c/sailorjames

SMITH JOURNAL : FEATURE

I started the year out with a wonderful feature in the exquisite publication Smith Journal. They were kind enough to include four pages of printed photos and the interview we did together. You can find printed copies or digital copies at smithjournal.com.au

GUARDIAN : FICTION LANDSCAPES

Thanks to the Guardian for the print feature and online article and interview. I feel very fortunate for all of the positive viral press that happened at the end of last year regarding my Fiction Landscape series. more of the features can be seen on my tumblr blog.

ONLINE: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/dec/12/fictional-landscapes-in-pictures-j-frede

TUMBLR: http://jfrede.tumblr.com

THREE DAY WEEKEND : PARTY IN BACK : Group Show - Blum & Poe

I will be showing Fiction Landscape no.014 for a group show of Preps at Blum & Poe. Come down to the opening or stop in during the exhibitions run. Thanks to Dave Muller for putting this together!

THREE DAY WEEKEND: PARTY IN BACK
November 20 — December 19, 2015
Opening Reception: Friday, November 20, 6-8pm

Blum & Poe is pleased to present Party in Back, the most recent iteration of Dave Muller's Three Day Weekend project. Presented as a companion exhibition to last July's TDW show Business in Front, Party in Back explores Muller's interest in the differences in form and function between the front and back offices at the gallery. Party in Back will be installed in the back office, a space not typically visible or accessible to the public. Each of the artists presented is or has been employed as a preparator or art handler at Blum & Poe. In turning the back workspace into an exhibition space and exhibiting the work of those employed "behind the scenes," Muller re-situates the back office as a site of inquiry and salutes those who work in it as cultural producers.

Three Day Weekend is a roving project space operated by Dave Muller. Exhibitions are generally three days long, occurring on holidays and their weekends (however, there are exceptions). While currently based in Los Angeles, TDW has organized shows in New York, Houston, Vienna, Tokyo, Malmo, and London. Three Day Weekend was established in early 1994 in downtown Los Angeles.

Party in Back is the latest in a series of TDW events held at Blum & Poe from Summer 2015 to Summer 2016. The exhibition will run on Fridays and Saturdays from November 20, 2015 - December 19, 2015. Blum & Poe will be closed over the Thanksgiving weekend.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, November 20, 2015 from 6-8pm. Coinciding with Argentinian National Sovereignty Day, the gallery will be serving empanadas, and Dave Muller will be spinning records.

http://www.blumandpoe.com

j.frede : of the sea

Selected Works from Russia & Scotland
curated by Alexis Hyde
May 22nd 2015
Opening Reception: May 22nd, 8-10 pm

Artshare LA
801 E. 4TH PLACE
LOS ANGELES, CA
90013

Exhibition Installation photos can be seen here:
http://jfrede.com/2015_exhibition_ofthesea.html

The digital version of the free zine made for the show can
be downloaded here: of the sea (zine)

j.frede : Selkie Songs - Stasisfield

http://www.stasisfield.com/releases/year13/sf-13002.html

I am pleased to announce a new album of my field recordings titled "Selkie Songs" made during my time on the sailboat of the same name last year sailing in the northern isles of Scotland. Available for free download from the online label Stasisfield with cover and booklet design by John Kannenberg. Thanks so much to John for making releasing this album.

Here are my liner notes from the booklet:

" These recordings were made aboard the sailboat Selkie in Scotland’s Orkney Islands where we spent three weeks sailing under the direction of the Clipperton Project. I was an Artist in Residence and my main focus during the voyage was completing a series of drawings titled Drawn At Sea using a drawing machine to record the ship’s movements on the water. At night I would climb into my bunk that was in the bow of the ship on the starboard side and lay listening to these sounds. I couldn’t believe how incredible it sounded and was certain someone must be playing music in another part of the ship and maybe it was resonating through the water. I asked the Skipper about the sounds I had heard and she said it was likely the sound of the mast and rigging singing in the wind.

The first recordings I made were at night during a storm while we were tied up in Kirkwall Harbor. The sounds were so angelic it made me think of mermaids and their songs luring sailors to their end. Even more fitting that our vessel was named Selkie and that she was indeed the one singing me to sleep each night."

- j.frede, 2014

j.frede : Fiction Landscapes - Abend Gallery, Denver

Dynamic Mapping
A Group Show curated by Mark Sink & Connor Serr
Mar 20 - Apr 17, 2015
Opening Reception: Mar 20, 6-9 pm

Abend Gallery
2260 E Colfax Ave,
Denver, Colorado 80206

Exhibition preview can be seen here:
http://abendgallery.com/html_shows/15-dynamic-mapping

More about the Fiction Landscapes series can be found here: jfrede.com/fiction_landscapes.html

j.frede : Parallel Migrations - re:sound series, SF

j.frede : Parallel Migrations (Video Installation)
February 14th-15th 2015
re:sound series
San Francisco, CA

About the Series: re:sound is an experimental music series curated by Jen Boyd focusing on exploring the relationship between forgotten spaces and the natural environment. The series takes place on the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve, a 215-acre park that formerly served as one of the first Naval Ammunition Depots.

The event is held in a concrete munitions storage magazine measuring 55'x100' with ceilings over 15'. The architecture of the building traps sound resulting in a prolonged reverberation.

The series will launch its first show in February 2015 as part of the San Francisco Bay Flyway Festival, celebrating the annual bird migration to the Bay.

re-sound.net | https://vimeo.com/113118205

j.frede : Passage- Savernack Street Gallery, SF

Savernack Street presents our first show of 2015:

j.frede : Passage
January 17-March 11
Opening: January 17, 5-7pm

Savernack Street
2411 24th St, San Francisco, California 94110

A collection of Twenty-Four time-lapses featuring an hourglass as the subject changing locations with each new beginning, our constant makes its way through a full days time before beginning again. The complete film lasts one hour. Upon viewing time accelerate past we cant help but contemplate our perception of our own time and its pace.

About the gallery:
Savernack Street is a in the Mission district of San Francisco that exhibits site-specific works experienced as the encounter/event of one peering through a reversed peephole. Outside looking in: a voyeuristic lens.

This gallery functions as a floating facade of collapsible binaries; both marked and unmarked, interior and exterior, Savernack Street is accessible to anyone on the street 24 hours a day and yet rigidly boundaried-- rejecting entrance, forcing limited perspective. The peephole, an analog live security camera originally invented to create a wider view for assessing the safety of strangers, here, when activated, renders the gallery itself as insecure.

Savernack Street is created/curated/directed by Carrie Sinclair Katz.

savernackstreet.com

Read the essay about the work at : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jfrede

 

j.frede : Post Post - Huffington Post

My newest article is up on the Huffington Post. This one is about my "Post Post" body of work and includes photographs taken earlier this year.


"When something is removed sometimes there can be trace evidence of its presence. The outline on a bare wall where a painting hung for decades, the impression left in a rug where a chair has sat for weeks, a blurred circle on a tabletop where a glass stood for moments. For this instance that which is left behind are thumbtacks upon the surface of telephone poles on any given street....."

Read Complete Article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jfrede/post-portraiture....

 

Drawn At Sea - Artist in Residence; The Clipperton Project, Orkney Islands, Scotland

While aboard the sailboat Selkie I completed 6 Drawn At Sea drawings, A pendulum drawing during the crossing of Pentland Firth, 10 small notebook pendulum drawings, countless photographs, seven articles posted on the Huffington Post and a number of video works.

(You can see many of these works here)

Drawing no.01 - Orkney Mainland, Sanday - Orkney Islands, Scotland

"...Checking on the drawing machine I observed a single steady line that had been drawing, almost tracking our course out of Shapinsay Sound and its calm quiet waters. It had been interrupted by our turn into the wind to hoist the mainsail and our change of course....."

(Read the complete article here)

Drawing no.02 - Sanday, North Ronaldsay, Papa Westray - Orkney Islands, Scotland.

"... Selkie began to float at around 8:45 and at 10:00 we hoisted the anchor and were off. Traveling out of the bay by iron sail we held a bearing of 24. North Ronaldsay was due North of us. It was a beautiful clear day with sunshine. The drawing machine slowly worked marking our movements and responding to the sea.

(Read the complete article here)

Drawing no.03 - Circumnavigation of Papa Westray - Orkney Islands, Scotland.

"...Sailing up the East Coast we passed by the island of Holm and could see the Neolithic communal burial tomb on its highest hill. Soon we came to a string of sea caves carved out of the cliff face that is made up of flagstone...."

(Read the complete article here)

Drawing no.04 - Pierowall, Westray to Stromness, Orkney Mainland

"...We were sailing in seas with waves swelling more than 2 meters high to our starboard side before gently flowing beneath Selkie and continuing on towards land. The large but gentle seas were slowly traced as thin blue lines by the drawing machine, which held its post as we took turns on watch...."

(Read the complete article here)

Drawing no.05 - Stromness, Orkney Mainland - Wick, Scotland Mainland by way of Pentland Firth.

"...Our bearing was taking us straight through the Pentland Firth and the dangerous tidal race known as the "Merry Men of Mey." Pentland Firth is one of the more dangerous places to sail in this area and has some of the fasted tidal races in the world...."

(Read the complete article here)

Drawing no.06 - Wick to Inverness

"...Leaving at first light with the dew covered drawing machine lashed to the cabins roof we motoring out of Wick Harbor. Soon we were sailing under full sail south bound with an incredible sunrise off our portside..."

(Read the complete article here)

Drawn At Sea : The Test Sail

The Test Sail: 33.76116° N , 118.19073° W | 74° F | 16:30

On August 20th we set out to test the drawing machine aboard the 34’ sailboat Sea Dragon captained by Taylor Zepeda..... Once aboard the Sea Dragon myself, Melody Koerber and Taylor motored out of Long Beach Harbor beyond the breakwater and into the open sea.... Read the complete article on The Huffington Post (huffingtonpost.com/jfrede/drawn-at-sea...)

Drawn At Sea :Artist in Residence - The Clipperton Project - Kirkwall, Scotland

I have been invited to be an Artist in Residence aboard the ship Selkie and sail through the Northern Isles of Scotland with the Clipperton Project. I will be making work with a simple Drawing Machine I have designed and am building that will create drawings using the movement of the Sea.

Text assocated with the video:

Since man learned how to capture the wind he has sat out across the open seas,,,, chasing the horizon,,,, looking for new lands and all things unknown. A great deal of what we know about the Natural world came from the early explorers and naturalists that sailed around the globe documenting new species and recording their travels in journals which were later published for others to read spawning new expeditions or at the very least spawned dreams in landlocked citizens of their home port.

In 2014 very little remains unseen, few if any waters are uncharted and most anyone, landlocked or not, can spend hours on Google maps exploring far of islands from a birds eye view, following the coastlines, scrolling from one continent to another.
But like the earliest sailors, scientists and artists that boarded the large ships during the age of sail, WE have yet to see everything, many waters remain uncharted to US. Now such discoveries exist purely on a personal level, for those willing to leave behind comfort and ease and search out destinations we have only read about or seen as images in books.

Long past is the time since Hadley and Godfrey each invited the octant half a world apart or when Charles Darwin marveled at the mysterious life on the Galapagos Islands. Their instrument remains on naval ships even today and his discoveries forever changed the way we perceive life. Yet there are still things to be discovered,,,

If only just for us.

During the first week of September I will set sail aboard the Selkie through the Northern Isles of Scotland as an Artist in Residence with The Clipperton Project. I have designed and created a simple drawing machine inspired by the Harmonograph drawing machines of the 19th century. My machine, titled Drawn At Sea, will create drawings of and by the Sea. Each drawing will last 24 hours and will be a journal of the days movements. We will sail from Kirkwall Scotland to Papa Westray and back. By the end of the voyage we will have a complete record of the ships movement on sea for everyday I was aboard. 

I will also be keeping written journals, taking photographs and making videos during the voyage, these will be published regularly to my blog on The Huffington Post allowing anyone around the world a glimpse at the expedition. Upon arriving in Papa Westray we will work with the organization Landart Papay Westray before returning to the Selkie to sail south returning to Kirkwall

Many of us see the romance in chasing the past even as the world moves forward and us with it. There is life to live even if in old ways.

Let us always be amazed.

http://www.clippertonproject.com

Joy Syringe : A Group Show - 321 Gallery, NYC

June 28 – August 2, 2014 | Opening Reception: June 28th

321 Gallery - 321 Washington Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11205

Rheims Alkadhi
Nancy Barton
Sofi Brazzeal
j.frede
lyeberry
Taro Masushio
Antje Rieck

Curated by Joseph Imhauser.

Joy Syringe is a Pollination show of the London Biennale.


For the Joy Syringe exhibition I will be presenting my “After Malevich” works consisting of the finished photograph printed and mounted to the exact dimensions of the original Black Square painting as well as the complete Action video of its creation.

More information about the work I am showing can be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jfrede/ncca-kronstadt....

There are some great installation photographs up online now that can be seen at the 321 Gallery website: http://321gallery.org

Piedras Blancas Lighthouse : Live Audio Performance - Trans Pecos, NYC

I will be playing my first live set in many moons next week at Trans Pecos in Queens, NY. I will be processing a field recording made inside the lens housing of the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse of the lens’ original clockwork in motion.


Thursday, June 26th - 8PM

Sick Feeling
Sporting Life
Certain Creatures
On a Clear Day
J. Frede

Trans Pecos
915 Wyckoff St. (Halsey L Train Stop)
Ridgeway Queens, NYC
$7

THE HOT 100 : Benefit Auction - the Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation

THE HOT 100 features 100 top, international, emerging artists with artworks priced under $10,000. Proceeds from THE HOT 100 auction will go to environmental and humanitarian charities supported by the Leonardo Dicaprio Foundation, aimed at raising awareness for climate change and environmental issues, dedicated to protecting Earth’s last wild places and fostering a harmonious relationship between humanity and the natural world.
paddle8.com/auctions/hot100

My work available for purchase in the auction is Fiction Landscape no.06.

more about this series here:
The Fiction Landscapes are a continuation in my interest in memories, both secure and lost within objects, which I first addressed with my Heirlooms body of work in 2012. The Fiction Landscapes are made with banal photographs of landscapes I purchase at flea markets then arranging them into new landscapes by aligning in such a way that the scene continues from photo to photo spanning wide geographic locations and decades. I feel that with a photograph that is lacking a focal point such as a family member or specific location IE: the destination of the trip, then the photo is something of a placeholder for what was happening in the photographers life at that moment. For instance that point and shoot photo of a hill side on a road trip, which we have all taken at some point, will call back the trip as a whole and memories of the trip or that time in your life that are completely unassociated with the uninteresting and un related hillside that happened to fly past you as you rode in the car or stopped at a rest stop. Once these photos with no discernable direction have found themselves in a bin at the flea market these ambiguous photographs and their secret associations with memories are lost forever. Arranging these into new landscapes that never existed speaks to the stitching together of human behavior and how we relate to time and the past: How many people have stopped at that rest stop and taken nearly the same photo of the plain hillside? All locking their own associations into the view, first road trip with a new love; last road trip to see grandma; one of many road trips alone.

j.frede / joshua petker : Support Systems - 2A Gallery, Los Angeles

I have a new show opening this month with old friend and collaborator Joshua Petker. This exhibition features a number of Petker’s “Chair” portraits, both intact and broken alongside a few of my Reductions sculptures of chairs and a collaborative work titled “Rocky” which combines both of our bodies of work.

The structures we relay on to support us often breakdown. Sometimes it is a slow progression of failure; cracks appear and the seams begin to separate. As we try to force them back together they continue a path towards their end and without intervention the final result will indeed be the end.

By this I am of course speaking of furniture. Objects made by man to make his life easier or more comfortable; utilitarian objects that separate us from animals. Some cherished as valuables, some overlooked for decades, many used daily to assist us often have the shortest lifespans.

j.frede / Joshua Petker : Support Systems

March 23, 2014 – April 23, 2014
Opening Reception: Sunday, March 23, 7-10 PM

2A Gallery
400 S. Main St. #2A
Los Angeles, CA 90013

More info: 2agallery.com | facebook.com/2AGallery | joshuapetker.com

 

j.frede : music for ice ports - Album

Pleased to announce my first album in 10 years; music for ice ports. Recorded and composed during my time at the National Center for Contemporary Arts in Kronstadt, Russia. This album is a collection of the field recordings I made with a Sony PCM-50 recorder and compositions made using an old Russian piano that was at the NCCA Residency studio and a vintage toy accordion I purchased at a flea market in Saint Petersburg.

There is also a PDF booklet with descriptions of each tracks origins and photos assocated with the recording.

download here - j.frede : music for ice ports (46:51)

 

National Center for Contemporary Arts - Kronstadt, Russia - Artist in Residence

Hello Friends, I have completed my Residency in Russia. Russia is a beautiful, mysterious, frozen land and I feel blessed that I have had the chance to spend time there. I have been keeping up with my regular posts on the Huffington Post and I have also been posting journal entries on my tumblr page that are maybe more personal adventure than artistically driven.You can “follow” me on the Huffington Post or on Twitter to keep up to date on when the posts go up.

Here are links all of the articles posted:

	NCCA Kronstadt: Final Portraits (On Huffpost) "I walk to the end of the island, returning to the public beach and pier I had visited on my first day. Where the road meets its end, two very strange lighthouses stand. More appropriately they might be called light towers, but who am I to rob them of their class. The Kronshtadt Fairway No. 15 (Summer Harbor) Front Range lighthouses are modular in design they are made up of cement rings that have been stacked to a determined height. When they were still in use a flame burned inside their square lantern housings...." (Read the complete article with photos and video here)
	NCCA Kronstadt: A Roaming Stone (On Huffpost) "I have created two works based on my interest in lodestones. The first piece is a sculpture titled "Navigation." I have taken the above quoted book, Small Boat Navigation (F.W. Sterling, 1916) and turned it into a working compass. By cutting through each page to the required depth, and fixing the pieces of an old Russian compass into the void, I have destroyed the very guide of which could have been used for proper navigation, creating the very tool the guide called for. The result is and wealth of knowledge that has been eliminated leaving only the ever-changing position of magnetic north as our guide, along with whatever knowledge of navigation we may already possesses...." (Read the complete article with photos and video here)
	NCCA Kronstadt: After Malevich (On Huffpost) " Just across the waters of the Baltic Sea from where I sit now writing this, the art world was changed forever. In 1915, The Last Futurist Exhibition 0,10 took place in Petrograd (Saint Petersburg) that included 36 of Kazimir Malevich's minimal paintings. Almost at the ceiling, backed into the corner hung one of his most important works, "Black Square." With this exhibition, and his published Manifesto, From Cubism to Suprematism Malevich had, likely unbeknownst to him, changed art and possibility indefinitely. He paved the way for Constructivism and eventually to the Minimalist movement of the 1960s...." (Read the complete article with photos and video here)
	NCCA Kronstadt: All Ways But Still (On Huffpost) "For centuries, man has placed his faith in an invisible force. Something that could be felt, feared even, but which remains unseen. Civilizations expanded and advanced around the world, in part due to the wind, or more aptly, because man learned how to secure canvas and sail around the world on this mysterious force. The wind can leave as quickly as it had arrived, leaving sailors sitting quietly on a vast glassy sea, their sails reduced to loose canvas lying in wait. Since ancient Egypt, men across the globe have been grasping at the wind. Gradually their ships grew larger with additional sails, until the picturesque ships of the Age of Sails were a common site in harbors around the world...." (Read the complete article with photos and video here)
	NCCA Kronstadt: The Flame That Burns Twice as Bright (On Huffpost) “Walking up to the shattered door I step inside. To my left is a large charred chamber, and before me is what appears to be steps, now buried with rubble, leading down into the basement. Upon reaching the bottom, I see what could easily be the gates of Hell (or at least the foyer of Hell). Every inch of the ceiling is covered with black stalactites. The walls and ceiling have melted, dripping and oozing from exposure to an unimaginable inferno….” (Read the complete article with photos and video here)
	NCCA Kronstadt: Still Light (On Huffpost) “The lighthouse is silent. Its beacon lies still and logically so, considering the ice is working tirelessly at arresting the bay. Crows standing on its surface, which is covered in snow, could easily be mistaken for land if it were not for the massive ships resting both above and below its expanding solidity. A short time later a large ship sails into the harbor from the open sea crushing and displacing the ice and its efforts, its steel hull listless to the ice's attempts….” (Read the complete article with photos and video here)
	NCCA Kronstadt: From the Frozen Sea to the Iron That Meets its Bed (On Huffpost) “As I get to the land's end, I see one of Krontstadt's many lighthouses standing before me across the water. Suddenly, I hear a slow creaking sound, and I hurry to get out my audio recorder, placing it on the walls edge I sit still and listen to the ice slowly moan, it is both beautiful and unnerving. I assume it was the tide going out and the ice not yet having the strength to support itself, due to the unseasonably warm weather Kronstadt has seen so far this winter. Sitting silently listening to it quietly bellow a foghorn blast came from a near by factory noting it was noon. I looked to see the sun lazily hanging low in the sky. After some time, I retrieved my recorder and started walking back towards the city center….” (Read the complete article with photos and audio here)
	Fort Alexander (On Tumblr) "The fort was used as a Plague research center from 1894-1917, after the discovery of the plague pathogen by Alexandre Yersin in 1894. Converting the fort into a bacteriology research facility the scientists took a structure that had previously been designed to keep the enemy out, and brought the threat to mankind inside of the fort, which essentially created something of a deliberate Trojan Horse. The tests resulted in three pneumonic and bubonic plague cases amongst the staff, which resulted in the death of two scientists (and countless animals which they tested on including one camel)...." (Read the complete article with photos and audio here)
	The Ice Field (On Tumblr) "Both ships will be passing within a kilometer or two of us. Suddenly we hear a very unusual sound between the shore and us a beautiful, quick, strange and eerie sound. Within seconds there are very unnerving sounds all around us. The only thing I can really compare the sound to is that of 100 hammers striking a large water silo in chaotic intervals or a something that sounds the way lightening looks (not the way lightening sounds mind you). The sound was everywhere, the ice field to our left was screaming with tension." (Read the complete article with photos and audio here)
	The Wild Side (On Tumblr) "Reaching an opening we walk north out to the sea. Its vast water now residing as ice looks like an alien plain. Large mounds seem to grow from its surface where rocks below the water crushed the ice with its rise and fall. Cracks in the ice can be seen as if drawn from below the snow that has settled on its surface." (Read the complete article with photos here)
	The Blue Light (On Tumblr) "I climbed the wall and stayed low once on top (as there were a number of other Battleships at a pier not far way. Sitting on the edge behind a pile of smashed lifeboats finally at the end of land, I had an uninterrupted view. I could see the lighthouse in its classic posture but it too was silent. A small beacon closer to me was the only movement on the water." (Read the complete article with photos here)

 

j.frede : 59.99230° N / 29.78197° E - Selected Works

This exhibition consisted of various works created by the artist j.frede during his residency at NCCA Kronstadt. Ranging from paintings to sculpture, drawings to video all of which were created during his stay in Kronstadt. Some of the works include the painting “All Ways But Still” which hangs as a loose canvas on the wall, which he recently wrote about on the Huffington Post. A diptych of drawings titled “Vigilant / Mischief” of sails and riggings of ships by the same names. A sculpture titled “For Alexander” consisting of an anchor with a knotted mass, the newest in j.frede’s Heirloom Series. A Video of the action titled “After Malevich” that features j.frede recreating the famous “Black Square” painting on the surface of the Baltic Sea.

During his time at Kronstadt he has written six articles for the Huffington Post, several journal entries on his own tumblr blog, taken hundreds of photographs created ten new original works and made a number of videos and audio recordings.
(View exhibition installation photos here)

 

National Center for Contemporary Arts - Kronstadt, Russia - Artist in Residence

This month I am the artist residence at the National Center for Contemporary Art in Kronstadt, Russia. My work will focus on nautical and maritime themes and concepts and which will consist of Drawings, Paintings, Audio, Photography, Video and Sculpture. Along with the visual work I produce I will also be writing essays and journals documenting my Residency.

The texts, photographs and video can be followed at - huffingtonpost.com/jfrede and on my other sites: vimeo.com/jfrede - tumblr.com/jfrede - soundcloud.com/jfrede - twitter.com/j_frede

Here is a little about the residency and the city of Kronstadt taken from the NCCA site.

“NCCA Art Residency in Kronstadt allows artists to live and work in Kronstadt either within the frameworks of art exchange programs or on an individual basis. Close to the residency are old shipyard and sailmaking workshop, shipping locks and drawbridges, docks and canals. Kronstadt is surrounded with a number of 18- and 19-century forts. The town's unique historical landscape makes the Kronstadt residency especially attractive for photographers, video artists, land artists and those making social projects.
In 2012, the St Petersburg branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts announces a residence fellowship for Russian and foreign artists and curators in Kronshtadt. The fellowship aims to promote contemporary art in Russia and support contemporary art projects.”

 

 

Studies for Sail Shapes - Limited Edition

Hand Painted Gouache Edition "studies for sail shapes" on 140 lb Arches watercolour paper. 9" x 12"

Limited to 50 pieces (25 Blue / 25 Red)

Each piece was hand painted based on two sail shapes of a Russian Shebek ship from the late 18th Century.

This edition was produced in preparation for and to raise funds for equipment for j.frede's upcoming residency at the National Center for Contemporary Arts in Kronstadt, Russia. More on information about the residency can be found at huffingtonpost.com/jfrede

Each signed/numbered piece will be shipped out within two weeks of sale. 

Order here: http://frederick-publishing.myshopify.com

 

 

 

Preparation for Safe Passage: Following the Pharos

My latest article on the Huffington Post is now up! This post takes a look at lighthouses and will be followed by a companion post on the lighthouses of Kronstadt once I am in Russia.

"The first time I saw the ocean I couldn't speak a word. It was in San Francisco and a storm had just let up. The waves were double headers, but to me they seemed thirty feet high. All I could think was how little we matter, followed by these have NEVER stopped moving, not for a second. As I stared at the writhing vast ocean, I realized the nearest soil was Japan, half a world away. The magnitude of our insignificance started to set in, but not in an existential crisis sort of way, more of an existential alertness. Discovering one's scale can be incredibly therapeutic. The sea has been a constant informer of such things since the first man climbed aboard the first boat and pushed off into the open ocean. Falling off the edge of the world has always been the least of man's threats, though it took us a while to accept this...."

Read the complete article here...

Future posts will be archived on my bio page - huffingtonpost.com/jfrede

 

 

I will be writing for the Huffington Post about my upcoming residency at the NCCA Arsenal in Kronstadt Russia. The first entry is now online and more posts to come in December as I prepare for the trip.

"On January 13th 2014, I will be the Artist in Residence at the National Center for Contemporary Art in Kronstadt, Russia. I will be documenting this experience in a series of posts that begin here in Los Angeles with the preparation for the trip and continue through the entirety of the residency coming to a close with my return home to Echo Park.

The posts will be a combination of journal entries and process documents that follow my experience throughout my time on a fortified Russian island that sits in the frozen Baltic Sea off the coast of St. Petersburg.”

Read the complete article here...

Future posts will be archived on my bio page - huffingtonpost.com/jfrede

 

Reductions- Sculptures

Updated the Reductions page with a few new sculptures including the one featured above titled "Blue"....

info about the work:

The Reductions series comes out of my interest in the end, represented in this case by the discarding of utilitarian objects that at some point were cherished or at least appreciated for their abilities while used daily. Their demise or changing of hands is a mystery in most instances, as many seem fully functional albeit visually worn.  We can’t know if they were replaced by a newer version of themselves, smaller, bigger, or if their owners had merely eliminated a need the pieces had previously addressed..... (Read More Here)

 

 

The long out of print album j.frede:arctic movments now available on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon.


"Arctic Movments' is a suite of four, roughly equal length pieces which move from an appropriately glacial stasis to a complex, almost musical finale. 'Part 1' is slow and drifting, putting one in mind of both images of the Arctic wastes and one of their prime musical interpretations, Koner on 'Permafrost'. Long drones sweep across, while chill deep tones and subdued pulses play as the rocks shift to some natural rhythm. Some more active beats are applied in 'Part 2' where a dense cloud of clicks shimmer between the speakers, a wind storm of out-of-phase particles. More regular clickloops appear, phased and echoed and played around with - one sounds like a camera shutter - and a rhythm gradually coalesces.

To be lost in a long Arctic wind fade. Turn the vinyl over (metaphorically on my cd-r) and 'Part 3' is almost inaudible: a suggestion of a pulse from some squirrly electronica/machinery combined with a whitenoise sussuration of air blowing from a nossle. The white noise is the ground for this piece; the pulsing builds, becoming a soft cluttering machine and deep tone about halfway. From here these elements ebb and flow - the machines rising and falling, the balance between them and across the speakers twisting, until the white noise wins and blows to the end. Another quiet but dense start, pulsing signals and crackling atmosphere, enjoined by a click, opens 'Part 4' before a vibrating triple tone sequence - it sounds like a guitar but is probably tone generated. This becomes very active, increasing and changing in volume, frequency and pitch, played about with by echoing, phasing, cutting and pasting, becoming the sole focus. Some hissing noise is associated with it which occassionally becomes dominant, but the two weave in and out, sometimes shifting to almost silence, before a fade out which cycles a return to the mood of 'Part 1'."

Jeremy Keens - Ampersand Etcetera - Vol 3 Num 3 - September.2000

 

more reviews can be found here.. jfrede.com/reviews.html

 

 

j.frede : Kelso Dunes ; Limited Cassette Edition

Title: j.frede : Kelso Dunes Format: C10 Cassette Running Time: 10 minutes Label: Banned Production Year: 2013 Limited to 50 Copies

The first release in the Booming Dunes body of work, this cassette features recordings made at Kelso Dunes in California’s Mojave Desert. I was approached by legendary noise label Banned Production about being part of their Limited Cassette series on C10, C20 & C30 tapes. I decided it would be a great opportunity to make my release recordings from Kelso Dunes. The “expired” format of cassette was appealing to me for several reasons one of which is that I like that tapes are now more of objects that a feasible media for casual listening meaning that for most people effort would have to be taken to enjoy the audio. For me this makes the Kelso Dunes tape as much an art object/edition as it is a classic cassette release. Side A; Sub consists of binaural recordings made beneath the dunes surface. Binaural microphones were buried in glass jars just below the dunes surface and I moved the sand above and around the microphones. The singing of the dunes can be heard moving from one side to the other, the deep sounds of the dunes resonance is the mysterious singing sound which a higher sounds of the sand moving across the glass surface of the jars containing the mic’s can also be heard. Side B; Surface features binaural recordings just above the dunes surface. The combination of the low booming dune and the sands movement is more harmonious in this traditional style of field recording. Thanks to Banned Production/AMK for releasing this cassette.   j.frede : Kelso Dunes: C10 Cassette = $5.00 http://www.bannedproduction.com/ordering.html   more about the booming dunes project here

 

Exquisite Corpse: Group Show - Collaboration with Amanda Gordon Dunn

I have a collaborative piece with Amanda Gordon Dunn that will be in a show in Denver opening July 13th at the Groundswell Gallery.

"For Exquisite Corpse : Stamped & Mailed, GroundSwell Gallery asked artists to create one artwork with another artist as their chosen collaborator. The initiating artist uses a media of choice to create an artwork with collaboration in mind (the artwork may seem partial or “in progress.”) The work is then mailed to the collaborator who completes the artwork with whatever media or process desired. Fourty-four Denver artist agreed to participate in this project bringing along collaborators as near as neighboring zip-codes and as far away as France."

more about the show here

 

National Center for Contemporary Arts - Kronstadt, Russia - Artist in Residence

I am very pleased to announce I have been awarded an artist residency at the National Center for Contemporary Art in Kronstadt, Russia.

My residency term will be in January of 2014 and the work I will be making will focus on nautical and maritime themes and concepts.

Here is a little about the residency and the city of Kronstadt taken from the NCCA site.

“NCCA Art Residency in Kronstadt allows artists to live and work in Kronstadt either within the frameworks of art exchange programs or on an individual basis. Close to the residency are old shipyard and sailmaking workshop, shipping locks and drawbridges, docks and canals. Kronstadt is surrounded with a number of 18- and 19-century forts. The town's unique historical landscape makes the Kronstadt residency especially attractive for photographers, video artists, land artists and those making social projects.
In 2012, the St Petersburg branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts announces a residence fellowship for Russian and foreign artists and curators in Kronshtadt. The fellowship aims to promote contemporary art in Russia and support contemporary art projects.”

 

 

How About Now- a group show

How About Now A Group Show Our movement through the world can often be seen by our physical presence but can also be evident in what remains. Objects we require, marks we have made either intentionally or unintentionally, and the arrangement or rearrangement of the space we take up could be seen as a map of our presence however vague the evidence might be. For How About Now, I have selected works that can be perceived as dealing with one or both subjects: The Void/The Present. While each piece may have been conceived and created with different intentions, in the context of this grouping a narrative is created, lines are drawn and assumptions are made about reason. Most of the work was created not for this show but was either made for previous shows or have previously just been residing in the artists’ studios. From Dane Johnson’s removal of the feature subjects in his “Players” painting to Joseph Imhauser’s “Legend Hill, kitchen” photograph that documents the interior of a well used kitchen to Kate Harding’s “Meramec Caverns” paintings to Tanya Brodsky’s “Cleanliness...(triptych)”, How About Now balances the idea of what it is to be present what it is to be absent and the point at which they meet. The title of the show, How About Now, is taken from a group show Dane Johnson curated in 2010 at Sabina Lee Gallery. I remember hassling Dane about the show title not having a question mark and he insisted it was a statement, not a question, which I found both amusing and perplexing. Now three years later I am presenting the same statement while wondering if my intention is indeed a question or if I am recognizing that Now is Now as it was Then.  - j.frede 2013   Namaste Highland Park 5118 York Blvd, Highland Park, 90042 namastehighlandpark.com Opening Reception: Saturday June 1st 7-9pm     popupprojects.tumblr.com
j.frede - Self Portrait with Warhol Wig - Gouache on Paper - 2013 (on left)
j.frede - Reductions: Pink - Wood, Photograph, Pedestal - 2013
For HOW ABOUT NOW I decided to show “Self Portrait with Warhol Wig” and “Reductions: Pink”. The “Self Portrait..” is a large Gouache painting on paper of the letter I taken from an ice machine sign. I have been photographing the letter I on ice machines for sometime with the intention of painting them as a series as I am interested in the temporary but mostly because they look like they are wearing little wigs. This work is titled Self Portrait but in reality it is a portrait of anyone who sees/reads it, as soon as the viewer thinks “I” in their head the work is about them. In the context of the show I like that the work addressed the present ie: the viewer considering themselves and acknowledging that they do indeed exist by the simple declaration “I” and that the image is commonly known and associated with ICE which is temporary in form and part of popular culture in America. I chose to paint the work with Gouache due to waters relationship to ice. The silliness of the image and scale (which is my height) balances out the underlying heavy-handed concepts of the temporary.   Reductions: Pink is the first of my Reductions series to be exhibited. The series takes found utilitarian objects and reduces their size and function into a sculptural form. More can be read about this series HERE. Pink rests atop a custom made pedestal and is accompanied by a small photograph of the original chair sitting on the street in Los Angeles where I found it, part document part memorial. - j.frede 2013

 

Reductions- Sculptures

info about the work:

The Reductions series comes out of my interest in the end, represented in this case by the discarding of utilitarian objects that at some point were cherished or at least appreciated for their abilities while used daily. Their demise or changing of hands is a mystery in most instances, as many seem fully functional albeit visually worn.  We can’t know if they were replaced by a newer version of themselves, smaller, bigger, or if their owners had merely eliminated a need the pieces had previously addressed..... (Read More Here)

 

 

Love Letters To Man Ray; Photographic Study no.011

A macro view of my studio paying homage to Man Ray's Dust Breeding photograph taken in Marcel Duchamp's studio in 1920.

The photos feature remnants of my most recent exhibition comingling with dust that has settled on the surface since the work was completed.

j.frede

 

 

The Reality of Fiction - Redline Gallery - Denver, Colorado - March 8th

j.frede - fiction landscape no.02 - BW - 9" x 27" x 2"

The Reality of Fiction
The realities and absurdities of our modern age
Curated by Mark Sink
Exhibition Dates: March 8 - April 28, 2013
Reception: March 8th 2013, 7-10 pm, Members 6-7 pm

A survey of photographers work who explore the subject of reality and fiction in this new millennium. From serious social documentation to humorous and absurdities of our modern culture.

This survey of fake will consist of portraits of extreme plastic surgery, hyper realistic fake babies, fake holidays, fake relationships, fake realities, UFO Polaroids and much more.

 

Participating artists:

Emily Peacock - Reiner Riedler - Phillip Toledano - Sarah Martin - Sally Stockhold - Rebecca Martinez - Greta Pratt - James Soe Nyun - Joe Clower - j.frede - Katie Taft - John Bonath - Christine Buchsbaum - Conor King - Michael Ensminger - Edie Winograde - Pablo Gimenez Zapiola - Lori Nix - Liz Greene - Harry Walters - Adam Milner - Sarah Haney - T. John Hughes - Nina Berman - Susan Anderson

redlineart.org - MoP

_________________________________________________________________

About the Fiction Landscapes body of work:

The Fiction Landscapes are a continuation in my interest in memories, both secure and lost within objects, which I first addressed with my Heirlooms body of work in 2012. The Fiction Landscapes are made with banal photographs of landscapes I purchase at flea markets then arranging them into new landscapes by aligning in such a way that the scene continues from photo to photo spanning wide geographic locations and decades.

I feel that with a photograph that is lacking a focal point such as a family member or specific location IE: the destination of the trip, then the photo is something of a placeholder for what was happening in the photographers life at that moment. For instance that point and shoot photo of a hill side on a road trip, which we have all taken at some point, will call back the trip as a whole and memories of the trip or that time in your life that are completely unassociated with the uninteresting and un related hillside that happened to fly past you as you rode in the car or stopped at a rest stop. Once these photos with no discernable direction have found themselves in a bin at the flea market these ambiguous photographs and their secret associations with memories are lost forever.

Arranging these into new landscapes that never existed speaks to the stitching together of human behavior and how we relate to time and the past: How many people have stopped at that rest stop and taken nearly the same photo of the plain hillside? All locking their own associations into the view, first road trip with a new love; last road trip to see grandma; one of many road trips alone.

The visual of how well the lands meet and continue also creates a dialog about how the land beneath our feet is connected to the land beneath our loved ones feet possibly thousands of miles away. Further more it can be argued that all of the land is connected beneath all of our feet spanning continents and beyond where the divisions are not humanly perceivable. One constant line drawn below us around the globe and back to us, with a center meeting point just under our shoes in which ever direction you choose to face.

Choosing photographs that create a perfect line from one to the next while allowing the colors and contrasts to not play a part in my decision results often times dramatic changes visually in both exposure and color tones but allows the passage of time to be often times instantly recognizable from the 1970s to the 1980s to the present. With the black and white versions the time shifts are fare less apparent and act more as documents of the past than the color pieces. While we tend to identify black and white photos as “the past” with detailed edges that belong to a specific time period (speaking from the view of my generation) the color ones resonate more out of “our past”.   

 

j.frede - 2013

Unentitled - New paintings - February 9th - 23rd - Lebasse Projects

I am pleased to announce an exhibition of my newest body of work titled "unentitled" paintings. They will be on show at Lebasse Projects in Culver City (Los Angeles) from February 9th - 23rd.

My work will be shown in the project room of the gallery while the Greek artist Alexandros Vasmoulakis will be featured in the main space.

I hope to see you all at the opening reception February 9th - 6-9pm

LeBasse Projects
6023 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232

lebasseprojects.com
vasmou.com

 

 

info about the work:

ALL OF THE ANSWERS TO EVERY QUESTION EVER ASKED BY ANY PERSON

The English alphabet consists of twenty-six letters that could be interpreted as elements of a puzzle. Various arrangements of these elements create the words we use to describe ourselves, the world around us, our thoughts and so on.

Considering letters in this simple and obvious way allows us to think of them as combinations, not unlike the numbers used for a combination of a safe. If we know how to arrange the letters, we can essentially make any word. 

This idea brought me to the conclusion that any question I have or anyone has ever had for that matter, could be answered if only we knew how to arrange the letters of the alphabet in the correct order. This led me to create “Unentitled”, a series of paintings that addresses these thoughts.

I have layered each letter of the alphabet one on top of the other creating a silhouette of all of the combined letters. This results in a total loss of function of their intended use, but theoretically any question imaginable can be answered within that shape if only you knew how to deduct the unnecessary letters.

This restriction of purpose and the somewhat impossible idea that every question’s answer is merely a matter of arrangement are meant to run parallel as well as have a symbiotic relationship.

The silhouettes change shape depending on the font used to create them, speaking to the fluid nature of thought and language. From elegant to gaudy to simple to decorative the outcome remains the same: a shape that has brought us no closer to answering even our simplest questions.

The title of the work, “Unentitled”, suggests that possibly we are not actually entitled to all of the answers to every question ever asked by any person.

j.frede - 2013

 

 

With the year coming to a close I look back at a particularly productive year. From my “Marie Antoinette” piece last March to the entire “Heirlooms” exhibition in June to the current body of work titled “Unentitled” which is more than half way complete and will show in Los Angles in early 2013, I am looking forward to the new year.

 

 

This year also saw the beginning of a long-term project titled "Booming Dunes: A Study in 35 parts" that will consist of an extensive study of the worlds singing sands. Below is an excerpt of the initial texts I have written regarding the project.

"Our lives are driven by logic; every choice, decision, movement and thoughts uses
logic, great or small, as a pivot point. When logic is challenged or seemingly
defied we are forced to pause to assess, question and investigate the source of
what, by human understanding, seems impossible or at least improbable.

Booming Dunes: A Study in 35 parts does precisely that. A long-term study of the
worlds singing sands phenomenon and the environments that surround them.
From the Kelso Dunes in Southern California to the Gobi Desert in China where
Marco Polo experienced the singing sands in the 13th Century."

See the Kelso Dunes page for updates on the project including photographs of
the process and project, audio recordings and videos.

As the project progresses I will set up pages with documentation of the studies complete with photos, video and audio recordings made. The work created from the project will be exhibited year to year, which will include photographs, drawings, sculpture, sound installations and more.

 

The long out of print album j.frede:eremiophobia now available on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon.

“Hollowed and spatial ambient noise construction abound on j.frede’s latest amazing full-length. Similar to the lighter drones of fellow artist Radiosonde. j.frede slyly intensifies his noisy augmentations, creating ploddingly destructive sonic crashing or brief minimalist cessations of audibility. Dark foghorn-esque moans and metallic footsteps are indicative of ability to puncture the ear with the intricacies of of sound while building a large wall of lo-fi noise. With execllent transparent packaging in the bargain, this is one of my favorite releases in experimental sound this year.”

Kathleen Maloney - XLR8R magizine [issue # 45] - January.2001

 

more reviews can be found here.. jfrede.com/reviews.html

 

 

j.frede:live documents now available on iTunes, Spotify and Amazon.

A collection of three live recordings that best represent the live audio performances I was doing between 1998-2004. Delicately weaving field recordings with analog textures and tones quietly processed juxtaposed by crisp noise.

"frede gradually introduces textural abrasions that quietly overwhelm his initial palette of tonal digital flutterings. The subtle intrusions from electroshock pinpricks, psychoacoustic drone play and anxiously skittering gestures activate frede's sound constructions to create disquieting atmospheres."

Jim Hanyes - The Wire [issue 235] - September 2002

 

more reviews can be found here.. jfrede.com/reviews.html

 

up now - eyespies no.38 ; Winners, Papal Cones, Fun Graveyards, Roads to Nowhere....

....eyespies index....

 

up now - eyespies no.37 ; Falling into place, Suggestive Transportation, Hungry Trees & Utopia.

....eyespies index....

 

I have been posting regularly on my Tumblr page about my work and work that interests me. Please follow me so I can follow you.

up now - eyespies no.36 ; Elegance, Trash, Misrepresentations, Telling her you love her and saying goodbye…

....eyespies index....

 

Heirlooms
New Sculptures that investigate objects and their memories

I am proud to present a new body of work I have completed titled Heirlooms. Consisting of 13 new sculptures Heirlooms addresses our relationship with objects and their hidden histories.

I am interested in the idea of objects holding the past while hiding their past. The memories we associate with our grandfather’s watch or the blanket our mother made us, we can have strong reactions at the mere sight or smell of items whose history we can recall and these same objects are static to anyone else who sees them with no personal association.

Is this history locked into the mantel clock whose chime mesmerized us as children or the stool we climbed atop to sneak cookies at night? Do they act as some sort of memory safe that grips its contents allowing only you to fall back into the past, for better or worse?

The objects are still while the knotted masses hold dear or secure the items and act out as the gripping hand of ownership, tightly wound balls of tension and as growths that can be both troubling and foreign.

This new work, Heirlooms, marries my Security Sculptures with objects both from my past and objects I have no personal history with but surely invoke strong memories for strangers I have never met.

Heirlooms will be shown alongside Amanda Gordon Dunn’s latest paintings, which combine the painting style of 1960s surfboards and color combinations of comic books from her youth.

June 22nd, 2012 (Opening Reception 6pm - 10pm)

Pirate Contemporary Art
3655 Navajo St,
Denver, CO 80211
303.458.6058

http://www.jfrede.com
http://www.amandagordondunn.com
http://www.pirateartonline.org

 

Los Angeles artist Joshua Petker and myself did a joint interview that goes into our upcoming exhibitions and includes preview images of some of the works.

The document can be viewed or downloaded here:
Support Documents Dialog; j.frede & Joshua Petker – June 2012