PLANS

November 10th, 2012

I've updated this "News" page, which I haven't done in some time. Whoops. I will continue to add to it, as it fleshes out the resume a bit.

November 9th, 2012

I am showing the video "Model Earth" at "The Future Imagined: What's Next", a satellite exhibition of the Zero1 Biennial - a new media show curated by Hanna Regev.

They have put together a nice website. Here is my page, with a new text about "Model Earth."

I was also asked to make a short video about the work. As of now, I haven't put this video online, so this is your sneak preview:

November 3rd, 2012

I have some drawings from the 2012 Series in an auction to benefit Et al., a.k.a. curators Jackie Im and Aaron Harbor, at MacArthur B. Arthur gallery.

After the auction the Et al. Flatfile website will continue selling works, including my own. It features a broad range of excellent work by Bay Area artists, and is affordable.

August 8th, 2012

I am happy to share that the "Summer of Video Art 2012" exhibition at Krowswork received some positive reviews, some of which mentioned my work.

Sarah Hotchkiss at KQED writes,

"While a number of pieces in Summer of Video Art resemble gestures more than fully realized works, Farley Gwazda's Model Earth (Part One), an abstracted digital animation, is notably accomplished. Layers of colors, line, and movement interact seamlessly with one another, all backed by a warm mixture of real life and digitally-produced sounds. With the video's title as a starting point, the animation connotes planet formation, cell growth, shifting tectonic plates, and ocean currents. Tucked in the far corner of the back gallery, this video should not be missed."

Additionally, Heidi J. De Vries writes on her excellent Bay Area art review blog, "Engineer's Daughter",

"Farley Gwazda's amazing animation Model Earth (Part One) holds court in the back corner of that same room with a hypnotic meld of renderings of scientific processes, glitchtastic mosaics of assaultive color, and a perfectly pitched soundtrack."

August 3rd, 2012

I have a piece in the group exhibition "Summer of Video Art 2012, Futuring the Past, Pasting the Future" at Krowswork in Oakland. I participated in last year's "Summer of Video Art" as well, and I love how it provides a portrait of the wide approaches to and vital practice of this medium in the Bay Area.

I will be showing the video "Model Earth."

July 23rd, 2012

New music video for my brother Chester Endersby Gwazda's song "World Killer":

More about this video here.

October 29th, 2011

Even though it consumes a fair share of my time and effort, I rarely announce anything about the Martina }{ Johnston Gallery on this site. However I am very happy to announce that Indira and I have been awarded an Alternative Exposure grant from Southern Exposure, which will allow us to serve our artists better and grow the community of people involved with the space.

August 31st, 2011

Three art events are in the works!

First of all, opening on Friday, September 9th, from 7 - 10 pm, and staying open til October 2nd, I will be showing the video I created for the song "Pleasure" by Blondes at Experimental Notations - an exhibition that will co-occur at the Royal NoneSuch Gallery and MacArthur b arthur. RNS is at at 4231 Telegraph Avenue between 42nd and 43rd street, super close to the BART.

This is "an exhibition of dialogues between sound and visual representation, and the systems or interpretive strategies that inspire them." It seems like an awesome idea for a show, a cool group of artists, and I can't wait to see the work.

In addition to a nice, crisp, uncompressed version of the video, I will be showing some of the original animated gifs I used to make the video, as well as notes I made while planning the visuals.

Then on Saturday September 10th (the following evening), from 6 - 9 pm, will be the opening for "Keeping an Eye on Surveillance," (facebook invite) an exhibition curated by Hanna Regev at the Performance Art Institute: 575 Sutter St., San Francisco, 94102.

"it's going to take us forever to get home" by Farley Gwazda - Live NYC, 09.11.01 by farleygwazda

"It's going to take us forever to get home" was recorded by Farley Gwazda and his friends in downtown Manhattan on September 11th, 2001, and edited ten years later.

This primary document is digitally looped into relentlessly repetitious post traumatic chants comprised of decontextualized phrases calculated to meet our expectations of an account of such a dark moment. Further listening reveals that these phrases were cut from conversations about food, sex, pop culture, and other personally meaningful topics that did not become part of the mythos of 911.

The media's replaying of spectacular recordings has led us to forget that life on this one day was a complex mish-mash of tragedy, confusion, appetites, minor complaints, and bad jokes - the concerns of nonheroic social beings making their way through shouts, sirens, street static, and tolling bells. This work takes advantage of the media's strategies to overwhelm the mind, but also offers the opportunity to reject the simplicity of monolithic negativity and let in complexity, confusion, and vulnerability."

Then on Saturday, October 15th from 1 - 4 pm I will be moderating the afternoon session of the UC Berkeley Art Alumni Symposium IX - HELP: Facing and Fielding Transitions. This all-day event "will explore ways of composing a career in a shifting landscape. Panelist of varied experience will address their histories and perceptions regarding exhibitions, gallery relationships, networks, critical written discussions, residencies, mentors, and legacy." I will be speaking to Taraneh Hemami, Jonn Herschend, Will Rogan, and Margaret Tedesco. I am looking forward to learning more about these artists and their practices!

July 1st, 2011

I am showing a new and improved installation of Mortal Treasures at Summer of Video Art - Oakland Video Vague at Krowswork, one of my very favorite galleries in Oakland. I'm very excited about the show, and to meet the other video artists.

The improvements have to do with improved dynamics of the sensor system, a changed picture dynamic hack (instead of going all the way off, it gets very dark and supersaturated), and a fan and ventilation system to keep users' hand sweat from making it gross. Your comfort is our utmost concern, dear viewer!

May 20th, 2011

Big news! I've finished a new music video; "Pleasure" for BLONDES!

I'm really excited about this one, so read more about it on the page I've created.

April 14th, 2011

I will be participating in "21 Projects" at Royal Nonesuch Gallery.

More information on their website.

Thursday, April 14, 7:30-8:30pm
Visualizing Utopia - Fragments of a Revolutionary WebApp with Farley Gwazda

Please join artist Farley Gwazda for a drawing and brainstorming session re: the creation of a web-based drawing game that will bring fresh blood to the ongoing struggle for freedom. Please prepare by sending your vision of Utopia to farleygwazda (a+) gmail.com anything OK!!!

April 9th, 2011

New show at Martina }{ Johnston Gallery!

Renee Delore "RESIDUE"

March 12th, 2011

Today I launched this website. I built it myself, so please let me know if it is not working in any way.

February 12th, 2011

New show at Martina }{ Johnston Gallery!

Ali Dadgar "UNBELIEVABLYBELIEVABLE"

October 25th, 2010

Santa Clara University, Department of Art and Art History presents Memory Mine featuring artists Lydia Greer, Farley Gwazda and Azin Seraj

In this collection of video work, the artists use the camera as a tool to engage memory and reexamine personal history. When the video camera turns on, the subject becomes an actor and the story changes with each retelling. Fixed notions of personal history and cultural identity are complicated through differences in representation.

Opening: Thursday, Nov. 4, 2010
Artist Lecture: 5-5:45 p.m. in Fine Arts room F
Reception and artist talks: 5:45-8 p.m.
Exhibition runs from October 25-December 3, 2010
SCU Art Department Gallery, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, Ca, 95053
Gallery Hours: Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
If you have a disability and require accommodation, please contact (408) 554-5483.

A Self Made House opens with the artist Lydia Greer’s stepfather telling a family folktale of two sisters, a violent hog, and a house that forms itself. Much like the way the story is told, Greer shapes this film through hand-made animation, performance, and shifting narratives. Greer lets the story (and the house) build itself through the assemblage of divergent genres, interpretations, and narrative devices.

Farley Gwazda initiates intimate interactions between participants through modest materials and tactile games. In this new work, Gwazda constructs a dimly-lit box in which family members place their hands inside to hold and talk about the contents, largely household and childhood objects. In this safe confessional space, family members describe the nostalgic, remorseful, and humorous memories these objects evoke. Gwazda’s unassuming use of play allows the participants and viewers to engage with the work in a sincere way.

In Azin Seraj’s video installation, the viewer is drawn into a dense visual landscape of everyday life—bustling urban streets, colorful mosques, and evening street vendors. Through the split-screen display, the viewer’s attention is placed on the liminal moments of time, space, and memory. This meditative work resists the illustration of Iran as a media headline, a place of war and unrest. Instead, we see a montage of Iran that moves in real time, rich in subtlety and reflexivity.
-Curated by Rose Khor