FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, 9/27/22
CONTAINER, Unconventional New Exhibition Venue Opens With Social Practice Artist Swoon
Grand Public Opening: 29 October 2022, 3-6 pm
Contact: Michael Carroll and Tonya Turner Carroll, Owners
Phone: (505) 995 0012
Email: Press@CONTAINERtc.org, Tonya@CONTAINERtc.org, Michael@CONTAINERtc.org
Art institution meets commercial gallery meets private collection, CONTAINER is a radical change in well-worn approaches to exhibiting and collecting contemporary art. Veteran curators and gallery owners Tonya Turner Carroll and Michael Carroll grew the CONTAINER concept from the need to shed outdated art world contrivances, and to embrace more nimble attitudes of inclusion and collaboration between Artist, Museum, Gallery, and Collector.
CONTAINER is anything but conventional, both physically and conceptually. Housed in the first structure in Santa Fe to be built with High Cube ISO shipping containers, this sustainability-built, institutional 5000 sq. ft. building features soaring 20 ft. atrium ceilings, spaces artists can transform at will, and an artist’s residence. As “statement” architecture, the CONTAINER building is a radical partner and vessel for the innovative business model it contains.The venue will host versions of museum exhibitions, where individual works will be available for acquisition by discerning collectors. CONTAINER also provides travel and housing grants for curators, as well as residencies with studio space for artists.
This exciting new venture will kick off October 29 with an exhibition and book launch for mega-artist Caledonia Curry, a.k.a. Swoon. The event will feature the artist's monumental sculptural installations The Seven Contemplations, which premiered at the Albright Knox, as well as her most recent work. Bursting onto the international art scene by literally sailing her raft into the Venice Biennale, Swoon will activate CONTAINER and give a sneak peek into her Sundance Fellowship-awarded feature film, as well as signing her new monograph just off the press from Italy.
CONTAINER’s programming is agile and responsive, bringing unforgettable art experiences through international collaborations with S.A.C. Gallery in Bangkok to exhibit top Thai artists, and with CAM Raleigh in hosting their UNSEEN exhibition of Clarence Heyward’s paintings.
Amended versions of exhibitions such as Mokha Laget’s Perceptualism from American University’s Katzen Art Center, Stephen Hayes’ Cash Crop from the African American Museum, the Hung Liu retrospective from Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Mildred Howard’s installations from the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, and Beverly McIver’s Full Circle retrospective from Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art will all open at CONTAINER in 2023-2024.
Unlike traditional museums, CONTAINER can act quickly in scheduling exhibitions that respond to imminent societal issues, and collectors will be able to purchase some of the artworks directly from CONTAINER’s exhibitions. Thus, CONTAINER will host versions of museum exhibitions, without traditional museum constraints.
CONTAINER also offers the Dandelion Curatorial grant (funding curator travel and lodging expenses in Santa Fe), as well as the Hung Liu Memorial Artist Residency, which includes travel, lodging, and studio space in Santa Fe. Visiting curators and artists have the opportunity to offer programming at CONTAINER, in addition to interacting with art world peers in the region.
CONTAINER is a nimble, flexible, inclusive new path in the art world and we invite you to be the first to share it with your readers. Interviews with the owners and artists are available upon request, as are high resolution images and additional information.
About Swoon: Caledonia Curry, known as Swoon, is a contemporary artist and filmmaker recognized around the world for her pioneering vision of public artwork. Through intimate portraits, immersive installations and multi-year community based projects, she has spent over 20 years exploring the depths of human complexity, and asking how art can fundamentally re-envision the communities we live in towards a more just and equitable world.
She is best known as one of the first women street artists to gain international recognition in the male-dominated field, pushing its conceptual limits and paving the way for a generation of women street artists. As the first to cross over from the streets to museums, and the first to become wildly successful in the NFT realm, Swoon literally crash-landed into the art world at the 2009 Venice Biennale with a raft she sailed across the Adriatic. She won two Sundance fellowships this year for a new feature film she’s working on, titled Sybilant Sisters.
About Tonya Turner Carroll and Michael Carroll: For the past three decades, Turner and Carroll have dedicated themselves to championing visionary artists and developing meaningful relationships with public institutions around the world. With experience in virtually every aspect of the art world, Turner and Carroll have curated numerous exhibitions in museums, art centers, and cultural centers in the U.S. and abroad, as well as authoring monographs and catalogs. Their eponymous Turner Carroll Gallery in Santa Fe is now 32 years old, and a bastion of Santa Fe’s finest contemporary art. Turner Carroll is strategic advisor for Hung Liu Studio, and the recipient of both the Morehead-Cain and the Raoul Wallenberg Scholarships for her studies in art history. Carroll has worked with artists including Ping Chong and studied art and culture at Duke University and Leningrad State University in Russia. The two have placed numerous works by artists such as Judy Chicago, Hung Liu, and Mildred Howard in major museum and private collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nasher Museum of Art, San Jose Museum of Art, and National Museum of Women in the Arts. CONTAINER is a celebration and amplification of these partnerships and their deeply held belief that Art Transforms.