Chambers Fine Art presented Revolving Door: ISCP <-> Asia, in conjunction with the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), an international visual arts residency program, located in Midtown Manhattan. Established in 1994, ISCP hosts emerging artists and curators from abroad, who are sponsored into the program by government agencies, cultural institutions, foundations, corporations or private patrons. Prior to tenure at ISCP, the work of most participants is underexposed in the US and the duration of an artist’s program can range from three to twelve months, depending on funding. ISCP emphasizes career advancement and implements an effective programming strategy, which fosters genuine interaction with the host culture and leads to widespread dissemination of the participants’ art in the US.

Revolving Door: ISCP <-> Asia, has been conceived as a multi-media exhibition, which includes painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, new-media installation, and a video program. This exhibition will include twenty-two current and former ISCP artists-in-residence, two of whom are currently featured in the Whitney Museum’s The American Effect exhibition: Makoto Aida (painting) and Bjørn Melhus (video).

This exhibition at Chambers Fine Art explores the “revolving door” experience of the artists who participate in this radically international New York City-based residency program and the possibilities that the door opens for thinking and creating across cultural space and time. The work in the exhibition will investigate subject matters ranging from cityscape, body and identity, to politics and ideology. Revolving Door focuses in particular on how resident artists from Asia work and create in this dynamic environment and how some of the non-Asian residents are influenced and inspired while working along-side artists from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Bringing together both Asian and non-Asians, the exhibition attempts to visualize ISCP as a “global” intersection where collaboration and mutual understanding are highly valued.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: Makoto Aida (Japan), Manu Arregui (Spain), So-Yeon Choi (South Korea), Alexandre Estrela (Portugal), Melissa Friedling (USA), Marica Gojevic (Switzerland), Yoshiaki Kaihatsu (Japan), Airan Kang (South Korea), Hannes Kater (Germany), Hiroshi Kobayashi (Japan), Bjørn Melhus (Germany), Kaoru Motomiya (Japan), Hideki Nakazawa (Japan), Fahrettin Örenli (The Netherlands), Serge Onnen (The Netherlands), Hung-Chih Peng (Taiwan), Fernando Renes (Spain), François Rousseau (France), Yasuyuki Sakura (Japan), Satoshi Watanabe (Japan), Tsan-Cheng Wu (Taiwan), Gyoko Yoshida (Japan).

Yasufumi Nakamori is a New York City-based independent curator and practicing lawyer. Until January 2003, he was a curatorial assistant at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where he assisted in the production of the Contemporary Series and The Quilts of Gee’s Bend exhibitions as well as conducting extensive research for the recently opened landmark exhibition, The American Effect.