Emil Memon - Bio
Emil Memon is a visual artist and musician living in New York and Koper. He studied at art academies in Florence (Academia di Belle Arti - BA in Painting), in Ljubljana (Academy of Fine Art – MA in Spatial Design and Graphic Art) and in New York (MFA in New Forms at Pratt Institute) as a Fulbright scholar.
Creation is a conceptual act for him to promote social consciousness and critical thought. At the same time, as an aesthetic practice characterized by links between different media it works in conjunction with a certain context. With its diverse and multimedia artistic practice, it is tempting modernism and popular culture and with pop aesthetics the logic of capitalism. In the New York's galleries and clubs, he has worked with installations and had concerts and performances (Club 34, Club USA, Super Club, Limelight, The Tunnel, The Roxy, Danceteria ...). In addition to installation art, painting and graphics, he deals with film (Super8), video and music. He has produced several CDs and music videos independently or in collaboration with New York musicians. He is currently producing his first feature film entitled Mishima.
Projects / exhibitions (selection)
In the 1980s, he had several solo exhibitions in Yugoslavia (e.g., in Škuc Gallery Ljubljana, Gallery of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, SKC Gallery, Belgrade - 1981, 1982). Later he participated in group exhibitions around the world (New York, Berlin, Miami, Bogota, Munich, Ljubljana, Washington DC, Berlin, Miami, Bogota, Beograd, Hague, Manchester, Los Angeles, Ottawa, Lugano); among others also at Duke University, NC; Manchester Community College, CT; Museum School, Boston; Pratt Institute Brooklyn, NYC; Museum School in Boston; Civilian Warfare Gallery, East Village, NYC, First East Village Film Festival Limbo Lounge, Kenny Schachter’s Flamingo East Shows, NYC; Escape from Alkatraz, Williamsburg Art and Historical Center Gallery, Brooklyn, NYC; Tribes Gallery, NYC; The Nippon Club Gallery, NYC; Lace Gallery, Los Angeles; UnionDocs, Brooklyn, NYC; NYC; Bushwick Open Studios, Brooklyn, NYC; TrashArt und XXL (curator ADLER A.F), Neurotitan, Berlin and Munich, DUMBO ART Happening, NYC.
As a member of the ATW Art Group, he participated in the New York Gallery PS.1 (1990) and at the Inbetween project at the Venice Biennale (1994).
In cooperation with the artist Tobias Putrih, he made the DC / Project as a permanent installation at the Slovenian Embassy in Washington.
His works are in several art collections: e.g., in Free Tibet House (NYC), ICC (International Criminal Court in The Hague) and (American) private collections, at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Zagreb), Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (Ljubljana) and in the video archive of DIVA Station (SCCA-Ljubljana).
In recent years, he has participated in exhibitions and projects in Slovenia: the International Photography Exhibition Live (Carinthian Gallery of Fine Arts, Slovenj Gradec, 2005) and Multimedia Practices and Venues of Production (curators: Barbara Borčić in Igor Španjol), Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (Ljubljana, 2017). He participated in the programs of Slovenian video art: e.g., Reverse Loop (curator Ida Hiršenfelder) presented at the Media Facade of the MSU - Museum of Contemporary Art (Zagreb, 2014); DIVA Station Presents III (curator Barbara Borčić), shown in: Lace Gallery (Los Angeles, 2016 ), Union Docs (New York, 2016), Slovenian Cinematheque (Ljubljana, 2017); and At some point in a certain place (Peter Cerovšek selection from DIVA Station), within the framework of Night of Short Films, Slovenian Cinematheque (Ljubljana, 2017).
Curator / writer
He is also active as a writer and curator of international group exhibitions:
42 23rd art show at multiple floors of 23 St. Townhouse in NYC, 1994;
The Von Show, Armory Week, NYC, 2012 (http://vonshowart.blogspot.com/);
HyperAbstraction, Armory Week / SoHo, NYC, 2013 (http://hyperabstraction.blogspot.com/);
and together with Kyoko Sato Ono: Japanese and Contemporary Art, The Nippon Gallery, NYC, 2014 http://japonismcontemporaryart.blogspot.com/)
and The History of the World Vol.2, The Week of Frieze Art Fair in New York, SoHo, NYC, 2015 (http://how2artshow.blogspot.com/).
Texts (selection):
Emil Memon: Diamantna serija, Likovne besede, št. 89-90, 2009
http://blog.geismar.net/2018/03/nice-text-and-review-by-emil-memon-on.html
https://www.tribes.org/web/2008/06/21/richard-prince-at-the-guggenheim-museum-by-emilmemon
Media coverage
Barbara Borčić, M'Zin, Likovna umetnost (Indok), Ljubljana, 1991, št. 6
Matej Mljač, Umetnost je matematika. Emil Memon, Slovenec v New Yorku, Mladina, 12. 3. 2001 https://www.mladina.si/104251/umetnost-je-matematika/
Meta Česnik, Portret: Emil Memon v New Yorku, TV Slovenija 1, Osmi dan, 26. 2. 2009
https://4d.rtvslo.si/arhiv/osmi-dan/29233089
Miha Colner, pogovor z Emilom Memonom, Radio Študent, Art-Area 162, 22. 12. 2010
http://old.radiostudent.si/article.php?sid=26009 SLOVENCI PO SVETU
Sebastijan Kopušar, Emil Memon. Nima sreče s svojimi deli, Slovenske novice, Slovenci po svetu, 26. 6. 2012 https://www.slovenskenovice.si/bulvar/domaci-trac/nima-srece-s-svojimi-deli
Slovenian artists Tobias Putrih and Emil Memon display their innovative work, Washington Life Magazine, June 2007 http://washingtonlife.com/issues/june-007/diplomatic_dance/page124.php
J. Š. A., Med Japonci tudi Slovenci, Delo, 5. 2. 2014
https://www.delo.si/kultura/razstave/med-japonci-tudi-slovenci.html
Making History Bushwick, NYC: Independent Publisher, 2016
http://www.pattyfab.com/making-history-bushwick-1/
Blaž Maljevec, Emil Memon: "New York je bil včasih drugačen", Radio Koper, Primorci po svetu, 20. 9. 2018 https://www.rtvslo.si/radiokoper/zgodbe/emil-memon-new-york-je-bil-vcasihdrugacen/466478
Original at: https://www.scca-ljubljana.si/emil-memon-three-steps-to-madness-social-sculpture-and-other-short-stories/
pdf at: https://www.scca-ljubljana.si/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Emil-Memon-Bio_eng.pdf