Paul Druecke's conceptual art projects deal with the phenomena of the social, especially in relation to art and the “art world”. Druecke's staged events utilize public participation as a means of reflecting the value that participation has in creating the social phenomena. In Come, 2010, Druecke used a searchlight placed outside of a gallery opening to create, in the context of the art world, a spectacle, not usually associated with gallery openings. For The Brightest Stars Shine But Briefly, at the Dark Fair in Cologne Germany, Druecke staged a red carpet event complete with paparazzi for the visitors of the fair. The red carpet event highlighted how the participation of the public creates part of the value by which an art fair is judged. Druecke uses snapshot photos, public spaces, refrigerator magnets of refrigerators, pop-culture spectacles, and public gestures as his means of exploring the content of the social as well as how the social functions.
Druecke's Green Gallery show documents and archives the people and events that he has facilitated over the last ten years through images and text.
Releasing The Last Days of John Budgen Jr. from The Green Gallery Press:
The Last Days of John Budgen Jr. transcribes the blog of the recently deceased John Budgen Jr. The story, told in five installments, was conceived as a printed publication and distributed free of charge in the midwest and beyond. Dr. Carol Sklenicka writes in praise of Chapter One, "And who but Druecke would unearth the speculation that James Joyce would have thrived as an author of spam?" Geri Mateceli writes, "The trajectory of the Last Days swerves around obvious questions. It meanders through doubts and certainties with the fickleness of a shadow at twilight." The first reading of The Last Days took place in Berlin, Germany, in conjunction with the ManyMini—the briefest residency ever conceived.
The Last Days of John Budgen Jr., Published by Green Galley Press, 2010
In the backroom a changing exhibition of two artists at disparate stages of their careers, Austin Eddie and Leslie Vansen, will explore their different approaches to the art making process. Beginning on June 19th sketches or studies on paper from both artists will be displayed which demonstrate their individual techniques for developing their work. Then on Saturday, July 3rd the works on paper will be replaced with larger works on canvas.
Leslie Vansen has been a member of he UWM faculty since 1978 and has earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa and an MFA from the University of Colorado. Vansen's abstract acrylic paintings on canvas and paper build complex abstract layers through repetitive figurative movement.
Austin Eddy graduated from School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a BFA in Painting and Drawing in 2009. He has had two solo exhibitions in Chicago, There is always someplace else at Monument 2 Gallery and I feel better already, or at least I think I do at Golden Gallery.