The Bulletin Board: Mitchell Wright

The eighth installation for White Columns’ project space The Bulletin Board – a 6′ x 4′ glazed aluminum bulletin board installed in our entrance lobby – is a dual presentation by the artists Aleksandra Mir and Mitchell Wright.

On display in White Columns’ lobby will be complimentary copies of Aleksandra Mir’s ‘Living & Loving No. 3: The Biography of Mitchell Wright.’ Living & Loving is an ongoing series of biographical publications “about ordinary people’s extraordinary lives.” The project started in 2002 with ‘Living & Loving No. 1: The Biography of Donald Cappy,’ the life story of a 28 year-old art school security guard in the Bay Area. ‘Living & Loving No. 2: The Biography of Zoe Stillpass,’ a 20 year-old art collector’s daughter from Cincinnati, was published in 2004.

The subject of ‘Living & Loving No. 3’ is Mitchell Wright, a 29 year-old artist, and a recent graduate from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Aleksandra Mir met Mitchell in the summer of 2005 when he walked into her New York studio looking for a summer job. Mir subsequently went to visit him in Knoxville, where they spent four days driving around the city together, visiting his studio and talking about his life.

After Mitchell agreed to be the subject of the third publication in this series, a release form was signed that gave editorial authority to Mir and ‘Living & Loving’s’ co-producer Polly Staple. About the protocol involved with the project, Mir and Staple have said: “The story … emerges as form of meditation between the subject and us, and between the two of us. It is at once a wrestling game and a love affair, painful in parts, and delightful in others. We need to develop an intense obsession with this total stranger, accept her/him on his/her terms, suspend judgment, bring her/him to life through the layers of words, sentences, punctuations, [and] the structure and drive of the story that we put together.”

To coincide with the launch of ‘Living & Loving No. 3: The Biography of Mitchell Wright’ White Columns will present two recent paintings of cell phones by Mitchell Wright in The Bulletin Board project space. This will be Mitchell Wright’s first solo exhibition in New York.

Designed by Silke Roch, and printed as a 30 x 42 cm full color broadsheet Living & Loving is distributed free-of-charge. FREE COPIES OF ‘LIVING & LOVING No. 3’ WILL BE AVAILABLE FROM WHITE COLUMNS.

‘Living & Loving No. 3: The Biography of Mitchell Wright’ is produced by Polly Staple, Executive Produced by Andrew Roth, and generously supported by Philip Aarons. White Columns is grateful to all concerned for their enthusiasm, energy, and support.

Aleksandra Mir currently lives and works in Palermo, Italy and New York. Since 1996 she has been involved with more than 75 exhibitions and projects. Recent solo projects include: WELCOME Sometimes, greengrassi, London; New Designs: Birth, Death and Abortion, Roth, New York (both 2005); The Big Umbrella, P.S.1, New York, (2004); group shows include: Organized Movement, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York, and Bonds of Love, John Connelly Presents, New York (both 2005) and the 2004 Whitney Biennial, New York. Mir studied Cultural Anthropology at the New School for Social Research, New York, and Media Arts at SVA, New York.

Mitchell Wright recently graduated with a BFA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He recently moved to New York. His project for The Bulletin Board will be his first solo exhibition in New York.

The Bulletin Board series is generously supported by Corrie Sandelman.