German-born Cleveland artist Christian Wulffen of Studio C. Wulffen with assistant Heather Quesada curates Portability & Network, an exhibition featuring an international array of artists who work with the concept of formal reduction. This economy of form also contributes to a unique portability that these artworks share. This exhibition provides a panel of new links and levels of understanding about a very specific model of work and meaning of art.
Taking internet networking as its springboard, the exhibition approaches the curatorial process as a means to provide varying viewpoints to a single topic. Due to the artists' shared concept, they often belong to similar social and professional circles, forming a network. This network is played out in the "chat room" of the gallery where the variety of approaches lend voice and perspective.
The participating artists are connected through shared circles-galleries, projects, critical writings, museums, shows, academies, styles and executions. There is a broad range of artists, from those working with strong Russian constructivist references to those invoking Max Bill's Concrete Art, but all the artists are working towards a self-critically questioning means of purity and strict formal visual vocabulary, as well as through references to architectural design and interiors, and a mixed-media working approach.
Each artist was asked to submit a highly portable work that will then be accompanied by supplemental material that provides further information to the viewer about the artists and this network to make plain the often-tangled webs that weave together artists and artistic practice outside of the gallery walls.