Current Exhibition Future Exhibitions Past Exhibitions Catalogues

Cottage Industry
June 1 - August 24, 2008

Order your copy of the Cottage Industry catalogue at lulu.com

Cottage Industry Opening Reception Pictures
May 31, 2008

FEATURING:

The Tract House--Lisa Anne Auerbach
Edible Estates--Fritz Haeg
Volksboutique--Christine Hill
Smockshop--Andrea Zittel
The City Reliquary Museum
The John Erickson Museum of Art

Christine Hill's Tourguide Office
Christine Hill, Tourguide Office

Cottage Industry features six artists/enterprises whose artistic output involves the creation of innovative and conceptually engaging business and cultural ventures, both actual and pseudo. With an entrepreneurial spirit, the artists in Cottage Industry combine commercial and personal interests as diverse as biking, knitting, horticulture, architecture, shop-keeping, and even museum management with a variety of artistic media and conceptual goals.

Edible Estates

**OUR BALTIMORE EDIBLE ESTATES HAS BEEN PLANTED!

By often locating their work directly in the social/commercial sphere, the artists in Cottage Industry integrate an entrepreneurial interest in branding and free enterprise with artistic influences ranging from the happenings of Fluxus and the “social sculpture” of Joseph Beuys to the legendary “Food” cooperative of Gordon Matta-Clark and Pop Art’s fascination with commodity. For these artists the delineation between art and living—and between artistic and commercial product—becomes nearly indecipherable. 

The core exhibition will include products/sculptures, documentation, artifacts, ephemera, photographs and video from previous business and cultural enterprises. Additionally, several artists will create a site-specific project/venture in available storefronts throughout Baltimore, engaging the community in active dialogue and compelling them to explore another level of art exchange where their role is not as passive observer, but is active and essential.

Christine Hill's Home Office Accounting Trunk
Christine Hill, Home Office Accounting Trunk

While their individual concerns may be widely varied, what these artist/entrepreneurs share is a desire to seamlessly merge their personal aesthetic, artistic output, social network, and means of financial support. Theirs is a truly revolutionary art practice that comes from the mingling of artists, disciplines, and communities. Cottage Industry explores this inspiring model of artistic and personal success through a handful of artists who are dynamic forces in their respective communities and, for a time, will be a dynamic force in the Baltimore community.

.Lisa Anne Auerbach's Unicycle Shop
Lisa Anne Auerbach, Unicycle Shop

Lisa Anne Auerbach's Small Business Series
Lisa Anne Auerbach, Small Business Series

THANK YOU

COTTAGE INDUSTRY is generously sponsored by:

M & T Bank

Major support provided by Cynthia and Stuart Smith.

Additional support provided by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, the Baltimore Community Foundation, the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, the Maryland State Arts Council, the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation, and the Creative Baltimore Fund of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts.

In-kind support provided by Green Field's Nursery and Lanscaping.

Maryland State Arts Council Logo

 Join our email mailing list Check us out on Facebook

 



back to top


100 W. Centre Street Baltimore, MD 21201   PH: 410.783.5720   F: 410.783.5722   E: info@contemporary.org
Copyright © 2005, Contemporary Museum   Site by The Berndt Group