NEOCraft Global: Excerpts from the Future Archive, Vol. 1
Marilyn Volkman
+15 Window Exhibition
August 1 to September 28, 2013
NEOCraft appropriates self-help seminars, motivational techniques, and cult-like aesthetics to set the stage for strengthening artists as active viewers and participants in their own work and community. From intimate private sessions to group workshops and large-scale corporate seminars situated within art institutions, NEOCraft responds to issues of critical motivation through pseudo-corporate models and activities. The project results in a range of experiences for individual artists and community members, producing a continually expanding archive of site-specific self-help guides, instructional-videos, audio downloads, and artist testimonials available for viewing, streaming, and download.
“NEOCraft is a fully integrated system of philosophical thinking tools allowing art producers to proactively engage with systems of power by utilizing the expressive potential of art for personal and social gain. Focusing on the creation of meaningful art experiences, the philosophy of NEOCraft re-imagines the values of professionalism in free-market economies with a special interest in creating ties between contemporary capitalist nations and developing arenas…”
-NEOCraft, “Manuscript V”
Marilyn Volkman received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Chicago in 2009 and her BFA from the University of Arizona in 2007. She is the creator of NEOCraft Global, the co-director of ARTE NO ES FÁCIL and half of the producer-director duo MARILYN&SMALLWOOD. In recent years, Volkman has been the recipient of The Mary E. Hofstetter Legacy Scholarship for Excellence in The Visual Arts (2013), The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Artist Connections Fund (2012), LinksHall’s Artistic Associates Grant (2011), and The University of Chicago Arts Grant (2010). She has been an Artist in Residence at The Banff Centre as a part of Our Literal Speed, and a Visiting Artist for various programs including ART+DESIGN NOW at The Alberta College of Art and Design, Art and Community at The Associated Colleges of the Midwest, and NEXT’s Talk Shop at Art Chicago. Volkman teaches at Roosevelt University, The Illinois Institutes of Art and is a guest lecturer at The Institute of Superior Arts in Havana, Cuba.
Marilyn Volkman was The New Gallery’s artist-in-residence for August, 2013.
marilynvolkman.com
