"Most of my current work is based upon miscommunications, failures of communication and gaps in communication. Any conflict between people is always a linguistic entanglement and I work with versions of these dialogues and problematize them further.
The images of riots, wars, uprisings and clashes found in my work are approached as instances of groups of people for whom a failure of language has created a crisis. These crises are their own form of communication and are as inadequate as any linguistic formulation. In a way, the crisis is a signifier or a representation of the underlying disagreement. In that sense the set of ideas is absent from the action, as any representation of a thing or idea implies its absence. Distancing us further from the ideas are the documentation, the discussion, the historicization and the mythologization of the crises. The possibility for any real understanding of the events is extremely faint.
Every message is perverted from its inception in language and gains more distortion through each iteration and reproduction. In their provisional relationship to interpretation, the riots and wars and monuments and ruins depicted in my pictures and texts have a bracketing relationship with art practice and its interpretation, and in fact with the entire ecosystem of artistic endeavor.
In 'Spurs: Nietzsche’s Style,' Jacques Derrida investigates a fragment found in Nietzsche's notes that states: "I have forgotten my umbrella." By devoting an entire text to a phrase that may have been of no real significance to Nietzsche's body of writing, Derrida canonizes that scrap of writing, reifies it, introduces it as something rather than nothing. In a way, my current works mirror that practice; by bringing attention to the idea of failures and miscommunications, I try to make of them a presence and suggest the infinite array of similar miscommunications, small and large, that make up our social and political reality. My works look at the massive absence of an idea in its representation and try to make something out of nothing, but nothing is almost always stronger than something."
Frank Selby, July 2009
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frank Selby was born in Palm Springs California in 1975.
He lives and works in North Carolina.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010
'to negotiate at a disadvantage'
October 22 - November 21
Museum 52 New York, NY
2009
NADA Art Fair Solo Presentation
Museum 52 Miami, FL
'a house that will never be built'
Galerie JeanRoch Dard Paris, FR
'There, Not There' (2-person Show with Jenn Selby)
Waterworks Visual Arts Center Salisbury, NC (AAM-Accredited)
2008
'We Weren’t Never Here'
Museum 52 New York, NY
2007
'Horses'
John Connelly Presents New York, NY
2004
Two Large Drawings
Toilet Gallery London, UK
MAFA Degree Show
Central St. Martins College of Art and Design London, UK
2002
'Frank Selby: New Work'
Restaurant Supply Gallery Los Angeles, CA
2000
'Tall Tales and Sprawl Stories'
Organic Los Angeles, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010-2011
'Art on Paper Biennial Exhibition'
November 7, 2010 - February 6, 2011
Weatherspoon Art Museum Greensboro, NC
2010
'A Bright and Guilty Place'
June 11 - July 24
PayneShurvell London, UK
'Preconceived Iconography'
Museum 52 New York, NY
'Think Pink' Curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody
Gavlak Palm Beach, FL (with catalogue)
2009
'When I Grow Up' (in collaboration with Daniel Arsham)
Galerie Jeanroch Dard & Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin Paris, FR (with catalogue)
'Instability: Art Interrogating Crisis'
Simmons Contemporary London, UK (with catalogue)
'Works on Paper'
Museum 52 London, UK
'Just What Are They Saying?' Curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody
Jonathan Ferrara Gallery New Orleans, LA (with catalogue)
2008
Passed as Present'
York Art Gallery York, UK
2007
'The End Begins: The Lodeveans Collection'
The Hospital London, UK
'Consequence'
Museum 52 London, UK
2006
'Assemblage I'
Museum 52 London, UK
2005
'Popularart'
Nehru Centre London, UK
2004
'60 Seconds'
291 Gallery, Space-twotentwo London, UK
'Sorry, Steve' (Performance)
Victoria Miro Gallery London, UK
'The Inscriptive Ferret'
Space 44 London, UK
2003
'Post-Postal' (also co-curated)
EuroArts Gallery London, UK
'Souvenir'
Transitions Gallery London, UK
2002
'Twelve Between Sixth and Seventh' (also co-curated)
Restaurant Supply Gallery Los Angeles
2001
'Young Team'
Organic Los Angeles
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Apostolos Mitsios, “Frank Selby at Gallery Jeanroch Dard,” www.yatzer.com, Sept. 28, 2009
Neel Chrillesen, “Frank Selby: Presence in Absence,” Cimaise, Spring 2009
Greg Lindquist, “Greg Lindquist on Frank Selby at Museum 52,” ArtCritical, May 2008
Sally O’Reilly, “Consequence,” Time Out London, August 6, 2007
Rebecca Geldard, “Rebecca Geldard’s Top Ten Shows in London,” Saatchi Gallery Online, August 2007
Sally O’Reilly, “The End Begins,” Time Out London, July 16, 2007
Samantha Hulston, “Consequence: Philip Hausmeier, Corin Hewitt, Hans Schabus, Frank Selby,
Sara Van Der Beek, Brian Wills at Museum 52,” ArtVehicle, Issue 22, July 2007
Dolan Cummings, “The End Begins,” Culture Wars, July 2007
Angela Antunes, “Four Artists Court the King,” Gazeta Do Interior (Portugal), April 21, 2006
Sarah Akhurst, “Adventures in Art,” The Guardian Magazine, April 20, 2006
Matt Price, “Early Risers,” Flash Art Online, January 2006
RESIDENCIES
2006
Centro Cultural Raiano, Monsanto, Portugal
Month-long studio-based intensive residency
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Artists Pension Trust, New York, NY
Hiscox Collection, London, UK
Claude Berri, Paris, FR
The Sender Collection, New York, NY
The West Collection, Philadelphia, PA
The Lodeveans Collection, London, UK
The Anderson Collection, San Francisco, CA
EDUCATION
2004
Master of Arts in Fine Art
Central St. Martins College of Art and Design
The University of the Arts London
London, UK
1998
Bachelor of Fine Art
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM
The images of riots, wars, uprisings and clashes found in my work are approached as instances of groups of people for whom a failure of language has created a crisis. These crises are their own form of communication and are as inadequate as any linguistic formulation. In a way, the crisis is a signifier or a representation of the underlying disagreement. In that sense the set of ideas is absent from the action, as any representation of a thing or idea implies its absence. Distancing us further from the ideas are the documentation, the discussion, the historicization and the mythologization of the crises. The possibility for any real understanding of the events is extremely faint.
Every message is perverted from its inception in language and gains more distortion through each iteration and reproduction. In their provisional relationship to interpretation, the riots and wars and monuments and ruins depicted in my pictures and texts have a bracketing relationship with art practice and its interpretation, and in fact with the entire ecosystem of artistic endeavor.
In 'Spurs: Nietzsche’s Style,' Jacques Derrida investigates a fragment found in Nietzsche's notes that states: "I have forgotten my umbrella." By devoting an entire text to a phrase that may have been of no real significance to Nietzsche's body of writing, Derrida canonizes that scrap of writing, reifies it, introduces it as something rather than nothing. In a way, my current works mirror that practice; by bringing attention to the idea of failures and miscommunications, I try to make of them a presence and suggest the infinite array of similar miscommunications, small and large, that make up our social and political reality. My works look at the massive absence of an idea in its representation and try to make something out of nothing, but nothing is almost always stronger than something."
Frank Selby, July 2009
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frank Selby was born in Palm Springs California in 1975.
He lives and works in North Carolina.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010
'to negotiate at a disadvantage'
October 22 - November 21
Museum 52 New York, NY
2009
NADA Art Fair Solo Presentation
Museum 52 Miami, FL
'a house that will never be built'
Galerie JeanRoch Dard Paris, FR
'There, Not There' (2-person Show with Jenn Selby)
Waterworks Visual Arts Center Salisbury, NC (AAM-Accredited)
2008
'We Weren’t Never Here'
Museum 52 New York, NY
2007
'Horses'
John Connelly Presents New York, NY
2004
Two Large Drawings
Toilet Gallery London, UK
MAFA Degree Show
Central St. Martins College of Art and Design London, UK
2002
'Frank Selby: New Work'
Restaurant Supply Gallery Los Angeles, CA
2000
'Tall Tales and Sprawl Stories'
Organic Los Angeles, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010-2011
'Art on Paper Biennial Exhibition'
November 7, 2010 - February 6, 2011
Weatherspoon Art Museum Greensboro, NC
2010
'A Bright and Guilty Place'
June 11 - July 24
PayneShurvell London, UK
'Preconceived Iconography'
Museum 52 New York, NY
'Think Pink' Curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody
Gavlak Palm Beach, FL (with catalogue)
2009
'When I Grow Up' (in collaboration with Daniel Arsham)
Galerie Jeanroch Dard & Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin Paris, FR (with catalogue)
'Instability: Art Interrogating Crisis'
Simmons Contemporary London, UK (with catalogue)
'Works on Paper'
Museum 52 London, UK
'Just What Are They Saying?' Curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody
Jonathan Ferrara Gallery New Orleans, LA (with catalogue)
2008
Passed as Present'
York Art Gallery York, UK
2007
'The End Begins: The Lodeveans Collection'
The Hospital London, UK
'Consequence'
Museum 52 London, UK
2006
'Assemblage I'
Museum 52 London, UK
2005
'Popularart'
Nehru Centre London, UK
2004
'60 Seconds'
291 Gallery, Space-twotentwo London, UK
'Sorry, Steve' (Performance)
Victoria Miro Gallery London, UK
'The Inscriptive Ferret'
Space 44 London, UK
2003
'Post-Postal' (also co-curated)
EuroArts Gallery London, UK
'Souvenir'
Transitions Gallery London, UK
2002
'Twelve Between Sixth and Seventh' (also co-curated)
Restaurant Supply Gallery Los Angeles
2001
'Young Team'
Organic Los Angeles
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Apostolos Mitsios, “Frank Selby at Gallery Jeanroch Dard,” www.yatzer.com, Sept. 28, 2009
Neel Chrillesen, “Frank Selby: Presence in Absence,” Cimaise, Spring 2009
Greg Lindquist, “Greg Lindquist on Frank Selby at Museum 52,” ArtCritical, May 2008
Sally O’Reilly, “Consequence,” Time Out London, August 6, 2007
Rebecca Geldard, “Rebecca Geldard’s Top Ten Shows in London,” Saatchi Gallery Online, August 2007
Sally O’Reilly, “The End Begins,” Time Out London, July 16, 2007
Samantha Hulston, “Consequence: Philip Hausmeier, Corin Hewitt, Hans Schabus, Frank Selby,
Sara Van Der Beek, Brian Wills at Museum 52,” ArtVehicle, Issue 22, July 2007
Dolan Cummings, “The End Begins,” Culture Wars, July 2007
Angela Antunes, “Four Artists Court the King,” Gazeta Do Interior (Portugal), April 21, 2006
Sarah Akhurst, “Adventures in Art,” The Guardian Magazine, April 20, 2006
Matt Price, “Early Risers,” Flash Art Online, January 2006
RESIDENCIES
2006
Centro Cultural Raiano, Monsanto, Portugal
Month-long studio-based intensive residency
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Artists Pension Trust, New York, NY
Hiscox Collection, London, UK
Claude Berri, Paris, FR
The Sender Collection, New York, NY
The West Collection, Philadelphia, PA
The Lodeveans Collection, London, UK
The Anderson Collection, San Francisco, CA
EDUCATION
2004
Master of Arts in Fine Art
Central St. Martins College of Art and Design
The University of the Arts London
London, UK
1998
Bachelor of Fine Art
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM