First Friday: March 2024 - Spring cleaning before the Frieze
Inspiration & Updates from Brian Madden Studio
I don’t collect what I like. I collect what’s important.
– Anonymous Collector
Greetings from Los Angeles! I’m here for Frieze LA, an international contemporary art fair celebrating LA and its global contributions to the visual arts.
This week I was speaking with an art collector who’s starting to build a thesis around her collection, developing the ‘why’ behind the art she will leave behind to future generations. When she quoted her mentor’s intentional approach to collecting, it made me stop and reflect on my own sensibilities.
The collector’s level of intentionality and commitment to building a collection with meaning reminded me of my time as a designer at Nike. Among so many lessons from that chapter, I learned that our ideas that come to life aren’t always our favorite ones, but the right ones— for that moment, context, team, or the overall goals of the work.
So, in this 12th edition of First Friday, I’ve curated a collection of updates and inspiration that feels right at this moment. This month, I’ll be sharing:
WHAT I’M MAKING: A Window to the Hope of an Uncluttered Mind
WHAT I’M SEEING: A Curated Collection of Collections
WHAT I’M SHOWING: The Bay Area Arts & Crafts Exhibition is Live!
WHAT I’M READING: The Shape of Design, by Frank Chimero
WHAT I’M HEARING: A Collection from the Cool Grey City of Love
You’re receiving First Friday because you’ve supported my artwork, visited my studio, or otherwise signed up to stay in touch. Thanks for being a part of this community!
WHAT I’M MAKING: A Window to the Hope of an Uncluttered Mind
For years, I’ve been carefully collecting printed materials from every chapter and adventure I’ve embarked on, not always for how they look, but because they represent meaningful moments and the memories. Artifacts from just about every trip I’ve gone on, every art museum I’ve made a pilgrimage to, every exhibition I’ve attended, every map I’ve used, and other items found along the way. These beloved scraps of visual information have helped me chart this journey of life, but also weigh me down, in bags and boxes that clutter my mind.
Feeling overwhelmed by all the stuff a couple weeks ago, I felt moved to do some spring cleaning. And I made an intention to no longer judge myself for my compulsion, and instead of simply tossing all this ephemera that’s been weighing me down, I decided that I would build something intentional with all these memories. I wanted to communicate the inspiration, education, and joy that each of those moments brought to me, through the lens of my artistic practice.
As I reflect, these items always felt like building blocks to something bigger, or pieces of a larger story, a map, or more like a puzzle that I wanted to share with others. I had a hunch that starting to share these moments could remove the weight and make room for mental space. So I spent a cathartic, rainy afternoon in the studio using some of them to build a window to the hope of an uncluttered mind.
I can also imagine the potential of piecing together a shrine to share these memories on a larger scale. The hope would be to activate this collection of artifacts to uncover their stories and to reflect on what I should bring with me through each chapter, how much of it I should share, and how much of it I should simply let go.
What are you holding onto that you’d like to unload and open space for in this next chapter? Feel free to let me know in the comments below.
WHAT I’M SEEING: A Curation of Collections
This month I’ve got collecting on the brain, or more specifically—artist’s collections. It was an action-packed month of seeing art in SF and LA, so I’m going to share a curation of 4 experiences I visited that have been on the brain, before I dive deeper into LA Frieze next month. If you have any questions on the shows below, I’ve provided links, but don’t hesitate to reach out to discuss.
Lee Mingwei, Letter Writing Project
Earlier in February, I was lucky enough to see artist Lee Mingwei in conversation with de Young Museum contemporary curator Claudia Schmuckli. In a special homecoming survey of Mingwei’s art, Rituals of Care, the museum is featuring his iconic letter writing project, where visitors can enter an introspective space to hand write a letter to someone who they’re unable to connect with, like a deceased relative, friend, mentor, or an ex who they’re out of contact with. The writers may seal and address their letters, or they may leave them unsealed so others can pick them up and read the messages within. Mingwei carefully protects the 60,000-and-counting undeliverable letters in his studio. The artist said that when the project reaches a natural ending point, he will do a ceremonial burning of all the cards to celebrate their collective messages. You can participate for yourself at The de Young until July 7.
Confluence (2024) by Mark Baugh-Sasaki at SF State University Art Gallery
Last weekend, I was moved to visit the SFSU Gallery to see five contemporary artists create artwork in response to the artist Ruth Asawa and The Garden of Remembrance, a memorial to Japanese American incarceration during World War II that was one of the artist's last public artworks. One of the artists, Mark Baugh-Sasaki, created Confluence (2024) a fantastic museum-quality installation featuring his father’s artifacts from the internment camp he lived in. The several sets of artifacts were each celebrated on custom built wooden tables punctuated by river stones from his farm by the American River and projection mapped films that activated his father’s artifacts to deepen the story. I admired the level of care with which Mark honored his father’s story. You can see his and the other artists’ meaningful artwork in person until April 6.
The Women of FESTAC’77 by Marilyn Nance at Roberts Projects
In Los Angeles this week, I was invited to visit Roberts Projects, a gallery hosting a joint visit between the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco & Institute of Contemporary Arts SF. One of the exhibitions on view was by artist Marilyn Nance. Called The Women of FESTAC’77, the exhibition celebrates Nance’s ‘vast catalogue of photographs and archival materials that revisits the memory of the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC’77) from the perspectives of women artists in the American contingent. Objects from fellow participant Betye Saar’s archives are also on display, including her sketches, datebook, personal photos, official FESTAC’77 participation documents and ephemera.’ I loved the dialogue between the two artists’ archival items, within the stadium-like setting. If you’re in LA, you can explore this work for yourself in LA until April 27.
Max Lamb at Gallery Fumi Outpost / Sized Studio
Across town, I stopped by the Fumi Outpost to make my pilgrimage to see the latest furniture collection by Max Lamb, one of my favorite artist-designers, while scoping out furniture options for an interiors commission project for one of my collectors. London-based Gallery Fumi is in town to unveil Max’s new collection made entirely of cardboard packaging, densely built and finished with linseed oil and marine grade resin. I loved chatting with the owners Sam Pratt & Valerio Capo, and learned that Max Lamb amassed 4 full garages of used cardboard boxes over the course of years to build this body of work! Talk about a collection. If you’re in LA, you can sit on this work in the gallery until March 9.
Stay tuned next time for a deeper dive on Frieze LA, Felix Fair, and the citywide celebration of contemporary art.
WHAT I’M SHOWING: The Bay Area Arts & Crafts Exhibition is Live!
The Bay Area Arts & Crafts Exhibition is live at The Sausalito Center for the Arts! My contributions came from my creative practice of repurposing process remnants from my art commissions to create art that represents these moments in time. These works represent a blurry blend of Fine Art and Fine Craft.
When curated in dialogue, I find that these works exude a sense of vulnerability with a quiet confidence. The ruin-like carrara marble remnant structure represents a perpetual tearing down and rebuilding, and the strong, earthy travertine heart relief asserts a steadfast optimism, representing a fortitude and optimism that I hope points to brighter days.
These works are on view in Sausalito, CA until March 15. If you’d like to learn more about the works or see the show in person, please send a note to info@brianbmadden.com.
WHAT I’M READING: The Shape of Design, by Frank Chimero
One of the reasons I started this newsletter was to practice writing about my studio practice, to build a better understanding of what fuels my creativity and guides my art. Sharing books and opening up to my community has created a lot of new synapse connections. I find it so inspiring when my readers share their feedback on the books I recommend, and I love when they recommend books to me.
I hosted my friend Lindsay from Minneapolis at the studio to talk about creativity, as she’s been in the midst of her own creative renaissance. She recommended a book called The Shape of Design by designer, illustrator, and writer Frank Chimero. He wrote this book as a vehicle for sharing his mindset on the meaning and importance of design and creativity.
Available in book form and online, its ten chapters are meant to be digestible and relatable no matter your creative pursuit, and felt incredibly poignant and considered. And thanks to Shashin from Portland for guiding me to chapter ten! Reading that was a gift in itself:
Regardless of where our talents and tendencies come from, the gift of the individual is an assignment: their talents must be used to sing a song of their own. Their personal gift is made good through their labor, and the gift is passed on to others through the work they produce. We feel an obligation to use our natural resources to build and make, to mold and shape the world around us for the betterment of others.
– Frank Chimero, the Shape of Design
WHAT I’M HEARING: Collecting Sounds from the Cool Grey City of Love
Inspired in part by the late, iconic SF artist Joan Brown, I joined the Dolphin Club and have been falling in love with San Francisco all over again. This collection draws from a diverse range of sounds overheard throughout the Cool Grey City of Love (bonus book rec, thanks to Beth from SF)!
First Friday playlists consist of songs I’ve heard, received, discovered, or rediscovered out in the world, songs overheard at (coffee) shops, restaurants, bars, galleries, or received from friends IRL and online.
Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend,
Brian
brian@brianbmadden.com
“The moment just past is extinguished forever, save for the things made during it.”
– George Kubler, Art Historian