A Sudden Gust of Wind Serkan Ozkaya September 19 – October 31, 2008

Born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1973, Serkan Ozkaya’s work has been featured in Artforum, Art in America, and many publications throughout Europe. He has also been featured in The New York Times, with whom he collaborated for the work Today Could Be a Day of Historical Importance, (2006) where the newspaper featured a full-page reproduction of his artwork on the front of the Arts section. Ozkaya’s work has also been shown at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Kunsthalle Bern, the PERFORMA07 Festival in New York, Exit Art (New York), and the 9th International Istanbul Biennial, among many other museums. He holds a PhD from Istanbul University and an MFA from Bard College.

“Ozkaya's work is without such hope (that in Jeff Wall's picture Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai) there still seems to be a hope that a gust of breeze or undercurrent can come and subvert capital rationalism) and imagines the gallery as an airless place, even a vacuum, a gust of wind or breezy undercurrent is not expected anytime soon to animate the frozen wings of these sheets of A4. In fact, Ozkaya's work is built to accentuate the fact that the gallery finds such unexpected changes undesirable, a spontaneous gust could ruin this image of spontaneity. However I suppose a counter reading is also available, that one would be more about “unseen” forces, I suppose most obviously of capital itself... and of digital photography, in that reading then Ozkaya's work would be contrasting by not really having invisible (i.e. digial photographic) means, but more like the oldfashioned magicians tools of clear fishing line.”

– Judy Radul

Opening reception: Friday, September 19th 6:30 - 10pm

For more information about Serkan Ozkaya's work click on the following links:

– PERFORMA 07 @ the Freemans restaurant “Bring Me the Head Of...”

– THE NEW YORK TIMES PROJECT (video time-lapse of Serkan copying the newspaper)

– NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE

– 9th INTERNATIONAL ISTANBUL BIENNIAL Michelangelo's David sculpture

– PS1 Radio interview

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Boot Print is a publication dedicated to contemporary art and published by artists that serves as a non-commercial publication of cogitations, initiatives and information. Boots Contemporary Art Space is now proud to present the June 2008 issue of Boot Print. Volume 2/Issue 1 covers recent Boots exhibitions; goes to the source to talk about the role of the collector in contemporary art; discusses with two curators the US landscape in an election year; speaks with the author of Pablo Helguera’s Manual of Contemporary Art Style; and features a translation by Walid Sadek from the autobiography of Moustafa Farroukh.

This season’s exhibitions at Boots Contemporary Art Space kicked off with guest curator Dana Turkovic’s group show, Amass; followed by the solo exhibition of Kansas City artist Dylan Mortimer, aptly titled Amen Bitch; and finished up with the second installment of the Pedestrian Project by Brett Williams.

Boot Print Volume 2/Issue 1 gets deep into the mind of the collector of contemporary art by speaking with some of the most innovative and influential collectors worldwide. From private collections in Mexico and Angola, to corporate, museum and new ideas of collecting in Germany, Boot Print contributors connect first hand with Eugenio López Alonso of the Fundación/Colección Jumex, Sindika Dokolo of the Sindika Dokolo Foundation, the Deutsche Bank Collection under the direction of Friedhelm Hütte, the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst under the direction of Barbara Steiner, and the innovative art fund collection of Rik Reinking.

In addition, Boot Print contributors explore the history of the collection, the business of art advising, the education of collecting, and the place of an art fair in collecting work through articles on and interviews with, respectively, Helene Zucker-Seeman, Christos Savvidis, Orhan Taner, and The Hugh Lane.

The year 2008 brings a focus on the political landscape of the United States as two featured projects reveal. Laura Fried speaks with Nato Thompson about his recent tour and series of Town Hall Meetings on the subject of Democracy in America, and Boots Director Juan William Chávez speaks with Charles Esche, Kerstin Niemann, and Stephanie Smith about the Heartland project an exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum later this year, and at the Smart Museum of Art in 2009.

This issue also features profiles St. Louis art institutions: the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, Laumeier Sculpture Park, and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Boot Print will reach 2000 art professionals in print form via postal mail in the United States and abroad; over 3000 via email in its electronic form. Follow the link below to www.bootsart.com to download Boot Print Volume 2/Issue 1. Soon available in print at Boots Contemporary Art Space in St. Louis.

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Boots Contemporary Art Space thanks the Boot Print advertisers, the St. Louis art community and the Boot Print friends for funding our vision.

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About Boots

Boots Contemporary Art Space is an art-laboratory on the south side of Saint Louis, Missouri. Located in the historic Antique Row District on Cherokee Street, this shotgun brick building was once a shoe repair shop in the early 1900's. The fading images of boots on the storefront served as the inspiration for the name.

Boots was founded in April 2006 by Juan William Chávez (St. Louis, MO) in collaboration with artists Bryan Reckamp (San Francisco, CA), Georgia Kotretsos (Athens, Greece / Johannesburg, South Africa) and Jon Peck (Miami, FL).

As an artist run space our mission is to provide emerging to mid-career artists and curators, local, national, and international, with an art lab that will support them in creating and showcasing new work. Through programming and exhibitions we attempt to stimulate a creative dialogue between the Saint Louis art community and the contemporary art world. Saint Louis was our choice of location due to the contemporary art boom in the community over the last few years. We wanted to invest and contribute in that growth.