Alan Calpe is a visual artist that works primarily in video and performance. He lives in NYC.
His video work includes presentation at The Getty Museum, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Museum of Chinese in America, Lesley Heller Workspace, Anthology Film Archives, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, LAXART, Telic Arts Exchange, and Machine Project.
His performance work has been included at the New Museum, The Kitchen, Danspace Projects, Abrons Art Center and New Museum. His work with the collaborative project, Cloud Seeding, included performances at The Wexner Center, McKinney Art Contemporary, VCU, and RISD, also receiving a Franklin Furnace Grant for Performance Art.
He has attended artist residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, The Kitchen’s Dance and Process, New Museum/Movement Research in Residency, St. Ann’s Warehouse Experimental Puppetry Lab, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts.
Artist Statement:
Alan Calpe's work intersects video with performance, animation and sculpture, all emphasizing bodily labor as both material and subject. Often, bodies are engaged in seemingly mundane activities and performing simple mechanics, but become suggestive of unusual private rituals that move us into the space of the imaginary.
He is especially compelled by new potentials in the gay-historic language of camp (which at its essence, embodies ingenuity in dealing with the crisis in representing one's desire). Thinking specifically of camp’s doubled readings and insinuations, along with performances in drag and cruising, the work oscillates between flamboyant display and whispered discretion. It resides between a Hollywood musical romance and an illicit encounter...
Always remaining ambivalent as it occupies both a longing for “fitting in” while suggesting its incompatibility.
EDUCATION
2006 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
2003-06 University of California San Diego, MFA in Visual Art
1995-00 University of Florida
SELECTED SCREENINGS/EXHIBITIONS
2017
· We Got Lucky, Chashama, NYC
·.WATCH '1-'6, Skowhegan, NYC
2016
· Interior Landszaft, Lesley Heller Workspace, NYC
· Bahay:Home, ARK, NYC
2014
· Dance and Process, The Kitchen, NYC
· The Fantasies Given to Us May Never Be Fixed, Vox Populi/Aux Performance, Philadelphia, PA
· The Flip of the Wrist, Machine Project, Los Angeles
2013
· INsideOUT, Atlantic Center for the Arts, FL
· Ransom, Wayfarers Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
· Another Performance: Collaboration with Moriah Evans, Danspace Project, NYC
· Another Performance: Collaboration with Moriah Evans, Work-in-progress Showing, JACK, Brooklyn NY
2012
· Rethinking the Imprint of Judson Dance Theater 50 Years Later, Movement Research in Residency, New Museum, NYC (Collaboration with The Bureau for the Future of Choreography)
· Light, Miniature Garden, NYC
· When Elephants Weep, F.L.A., Gainesville, FL
· Another Performance: Collaboration with Moriah Evans. Draftwork, Danspace Project, NYC
· LD4D: Collaboration with Moriah Evans. Abrons Art Center, NYC
· I Cho-Cho Choose You, Wayfarers Gallery, Brooklyn NYY
2011
· Together, Cameo Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
· Pretty Vacant, Mathematics Collective, Brooklyn, NY
· Wish You Were Here, Westchester Gallery, WCC Center for the Arts, White Plains, NY
· Fenced & Stitched, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), Brooklyn NY
2010
· VIDEOROVER, NURTUREart Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
· The Things Themselves, Pelham Art Center, Pelham, NY
· St. Ann's Warehouse, Experimental Puppetry Lab Exhibition, NYC
2009
· VIBA Festival (Video arte Internacional Buenos Aires), Argentina
· Forever, Subliminal Projects, LA
· Carousel: 3rd Annual Milwaukee Invitational Slideshow, Woodland Pattern, WI
· Satellites (Video Installations throughout the Channelside District), Tampa, FL
2008
· Agenda: Queering Popular Media, Current Gallery, Baltimore, MD
· Near Sighted, Far Out, Harvestworks, NYC
· Q + Me: A Fierce and Questioning Asian America, Museum of Chinese in America, NYC
2007
· Identity Masquerades: Showing, Telic Arts Exchange, Los Angeles, CA
· We Are Wizard, LAXART, LA
· Locating Secret Psychological Space, Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University
· Battle of the Cities Film Festival, Ice Capades, Chicago, IL
· Let's Be Civil: Thesis Exhibition, Marcuse Gallery and Performance Space, UCSD
2006
· Supersonic, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery
· Where: Sundown Salon, LA
· Video Nightmare, Raid Projects, LA
· The Elephant vs. The Termite, University Art Gallery, UCSD, San Diego
· Dolphins of San Onofre, Compact Space, LA
2005
· Surveying the Border, J. Paul Getty Museum, LA
· Voiceovers and Guest Stars, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
· INsideOUT, Atlantic Center for the Arts, FL
· Borders, Union Gallery, University of Arizona
· Anthology Film Archives, NYC
· Whoever Sees This Will Live Forever, Compact Space, LA
· The Porch Show, Cinders Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
· Que Traes, Estacion Tijuana, Tijuana, BC
· The New Pony Mask Operas, San Diego, CA 2004
2004
· Sea Meets Swell, First Year Exhibition, UCSD
· Shift, Acuna-Hansen Gallery, Chinatown, LA
· Paradigm Promiscuity Proliferation Perversion, Marcuse Gallery, UCSD, San Diego
2002
· Que Sera, Sera: Alisson Bitikker and Alan Calpe. The Ark, Gainesville, FL
· Selections from 2002 New Festival. Brooklyn Academy of Music, Rose Cinema. NY
· 14th Annual New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
2001
· Philadelphia International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
2000
· MixNYC, 14th New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film/Video Festival
· Seamless: Selected Video Art. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL
· The Greatest Love of All, Gainesville, FL
CLOUD SEEDING
From 1999- 2002 I was a founding member of Cloud Seeding, a 12-member collaborative performance art event that culled from the traditions and lore of the old American circus. In a modified box truck that folded to become our stage we travelled the country over the course of three tours, invited at venues that included:
Chashama Theater (NY), The Kitchen (NY), McKinney Art Contemporary (Dallas),
Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus), Plan B Evolving Arts (Santa Fe),
Univ of California San Diego, School of Visual Arts (NY), Rhode Island School of Design.
Cloud Seeding also received a Franklin Furnace Fundwinner for Performance Art Grant.
RESIDENCIES
2014 Dance and Process, The Kitchen, NYC
2014 Atlantic Center for the Arts (with Master Artist: Charles Atlas), New Smyrna, FL
2012 JACK Development Residency, Brooklyn NY (with Moriah Evans)
2012 Movement Research in Residency, New Museum, NYC (Collaboration with The Bureau for the Future of Choreography)
2009 St. Ann's Experimental Puppetry Lab, NYC
2007 Disfarmer Experimental Puppetry Residency with Dan Hurlin, Stuyvesant, NY
2006 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
2005 Atlantic Center for the Arts (with Master Artist: Janie Geiser), New Smyrna, FL
