Clayton Colvin
Encyclopedia
Clayton Colvin is an American
artist
and Curator
of Contemporary Art
who lives and works in Birmingham, Alabama
. He received a BA in Art History from New York University
in 1999 and an MA Ed. Art Education from the University of Alabama at Birmingham
in 2003. He received his MFA in painting from University of Alabama in 2005.
Colvin interned for Agnes
for several summers while attending school. While there Colvin worked with many artists from the gallery including Karen Graffeo
, Lee Isaacs
, Spider Martin
, Jack Spencer
, Melissa Springer
, and Thomas Tulis
.
, Alabama
. Stealtharts ran for 2 years.
Colvin curated stealtharts shows. He has also curated exhibitions with University of Alabama at Birmingham
Visual Arts Gallery, as well as Center for the Living Arts/Space 301, Mobile, Alabama
.
Selected Curated Exhibitions
Werk, UAB Visual Arts Gallery, May 2010
Poems and Paintings from Memphis, November 2009, Amanda Schedler Fine Arts
Registering the Invisible, Space 301 off-centre, featuring work from Mobile and Baldwin Co. schools, Ashley Oates, Richard Curtis, and University of South Alabama Photography students
Alvin C. Sella, recent paintings, Space 301 (Sept 6th –November 12) featureing work by Alvin Sella, and then work by former Sella students: Pat Snow, Katherine B., Dominic, Nick Davis, Jerry Roland, and Ty Smith.
Southern Gothic Now, Space 301 off-centre (May 9 – July 6, 2008),
featuring works from Chris Jancke , Doug Baulos, Merrilee Challiss, Greg Hopins, Amy Pleasant, Maysay Craddock, Julie Puttgen, TM Sisters, and others.
Art and Place 2: Material at Hand, Space 301 off-centre (Mobile’s Centre for the Living Arts), featuring works from Buzz Spector, Francis Alys, William Christenberry, Lance Winn, Christopher McNulty, Greg Hopkins, Buffy Rinehart, and others
A Time for War or Peace: Art that confronts the realities of the present, Space 301 off-centre, featuring work from Steve Mumford, Multi-national Force-Iraq,, Beth Edwards, Erika Somogyi, among others (Co-curated By David McCann and Clayton Colvin, essay by Clayton Colvin)
Life is But Dream: Contemporary figurative photography, Space 301 off- centre, featuring works from Ryan McGinley, Julie Moos, Demetrius Oliver, Aaron Young, among others.
Contexture: fabric, fashion, fantasy, Space 301 off-centre, featuring works from Pinky Bass, Alabama Chanin, Knittaplease.com, Hiroshi Tanabe, Xiang yang, among others.
..and you must make a friend of horror, The Upper Room, Birmingham, Al, featuring Heather Blackwell, Natalie Benedetti, Samuel Nyholm, and Pat Snow
Art and Place 1: Place as Muse, Space 301 (Mobile’s Centre for the Living Arts), featuring works from Jen DeNike, Johannes Nyholm, Paul Slocum, Jeremy Earhart, Tom Moody, BEIGE, and Bryce Speed, among others.
November: a selection of works from UAB undergraduates, Stealtharts, featuring: Suzy Moorer, Jill Ivins, Gene Ferreiro, and Michael James Lukacovic
Information in Formation, UAB Visual Art Gallery, featuring the work of Billy Apple, John Baldessari, John Simon Jr., Brian Bishop, and others. (Co-curated by Clayton Colvin and Brett Levine)
Selected Public programs and Presentations
2010 Juror, Student Exhibition, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA
2008 Visiting Artist lecture and critiques, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN Re-imagining Architecture, a discussion with guest Sarah Urist Green, guest
curator of the Space 301 exhibition, Amongst the Ruins Field Recordings, a visiting artist lecture to the art department at Spring Hill
College, Mobile, AL
Registering the Invisible, an event featuring Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Art Historian Dr. Jessica Dallow and artists Ashley Oates, Brian Evans, and Rich Curtis.
Southern Gothic Now, a gallery talk featuring artists from the exhibition. Alvin C. Sella’s Recent Paintings Considered, a gallery talk discussing
Sella’s paintings and legacy as an artist and educator
2007 GreenSpace, Space 301, a roundtable discussion with Dr David Nelson(Univ. of South Alabama Biologist), Harry DeLorme (Telfair Museum Curator of Education), and Cassi Calloway (of the Mobile Bay Keapers)
Life is But a Dream: The Ethics of Photojournalism, a roundtable discussion with Mobile Press-Register staff photographers
Life is But a Dream: the Poetic nature of Photography, a discussion with University of South Alabama’s Rita Skiadas
Contexture: fabric, fashion, fantasy , a roundtable discussion featuring Univ. of South Alabama’s Dr. Elizabeth Richards, and exhibiting artists Pinky Bass, Matt Posey, and Alex Podesta
2006 Art and Place 2: Material at Hand, Space 301 (Mobile’s Centre for the living Arts), a roundtable with Dr. Jessica Dallow, Jen DeNike, Johannes Nyholm, and Chris Lawson
WHIL 91.3 FM (NPR) Spring Hill College, discussion of Art and Place 2: Material at Hand, Space 301 (Mobile’s Centre for the Living Arts)
2010
group show: Alabama Humanities Foundation celebrates 50th anniversary of To Kill A Mocking Bird
solo exhibition Fiction, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL
solo exhibition: Caseworks, University of Memphis Art Museum, Memphis, TN
ARTPAPERS: annual art auction, juried benefit for ARTPAPERS magazine, Atlanta
2009:
Fiction, solo exhibition, Amanda Schedler Fine Arts, Birmingham, AL
Drawing on Alabama 2009, Biggins Hall, Auburn, Al ---- Space 301, Mobile, AL
2008:
solo exhibition Pier and Ocean and Main St., Amanda Schedler Fine Arts, Birmingham
solo exhibition Pier and Ocean and Main St., Material, Memphis, TN
ARTPAPERS: 9th annual art auction, juried benefit for ARTPAPERS magazine, Atlanta
2007:
le papier (part) deux: group exhibition of works on paper, Geschiedle, Chicago, IL FRISBEE is NOWHERE and EVERYWHERE (curated by Anat Ebgi and Jen
DeNike), Circus of Books, Los Angeles
FRISBEE is NOWHERE and EVERYWHERE (curated by Anat Ebgi and Jen DeNike), McMurdo Station, Antarctica
SuckaFreeJams: the Remainder Gallery, Birmingham, AL Dia de los Muertos: Barehands Gallery, Birmingham, AL Satellite Gone: solo show, The Upper Room, Birmingham, AL Popular Digest: Clayton V. Colvin and Pat Snow, Barehands, Birmingham, AL
2006
Wonder Twin Powers, Activate! (curated by Anat Ebgi,, and Jose Carlos Diaz),, Gescheidle Chicago,IL
IRAQ (curated by Lynn Longe), Gulfspace, Fairhope, AL Night of 1000 Drawings, Artist Space, New York, NY
FRISBEE is NOWHERE and EVERYWHERE (curated by Anat Ebgi and Jen DeNike), Art Basel Miami Beach, FL
Made in Birmingham (curated by Brett Levine), Space 301, Mobile, AL Unselfconscious Alabama, A Farmhouse Gallery, Seale, AL Politics, Politics: Questions for the New South Series, Space-One-Eleven, Bham, AL Contour, (curated by Jon Cofffelt) for Schedler Minchin FA, Birmingham, AL
2005
Space Cadet, solo show , Material, Memphis, TN Birmingham’s Best Young Artists, Schedler Minchin FA, Birmingham,A Night 1000 Drawings, Artist Space, NY, NY
Worm-Hole Laboratory’s Art-Official X-mas, @ Frisbee, Miami Beach Worm-Hole Laboratory’s Art-Official X-mas, @Queen’s Nail Annex, San Francisco UAB Faculty Show, Soon-Bok Lee Sellers Art Gallery, Hoover, AL
Postcards from the Gulf, Gulf Art Space, Fairhope, AL
2004
5 from 4, Birmingham Art Association, Birmingham, Alabama Reoccurring Exchange, Florida International University, Miami, Florida Dirty South!, Worm-hole Laboratory, Miami, Florida, Curator : Jose-Carlos Diaz
Colvin will show in April and May 2010 in caseworks exhibitions space in Memphis, Tn.
Colvin was included in "Politics, Politics: Nice Artists Explore the Political Landscape" curated by Anne Arrasmith
and Peter Prinz of Space One Eleven. This exhibition was funded by the Andy Warhol
Foundation for the Visual Arts and included Pinky Bass
and John Trobaugh
.
Colvin's work was part of "Contour: The Definitive Line" curated by Jon Coffelt
. One of 17 artists who were asked to define the concept of contour, the exhibit was the culmination of this subjective approach. This exhibition also included Sara Garden Armstrong
, Lee Isaacs
and Sean Slemon
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and Curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
of Contemporary Art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
who lives and works in Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
. He received a BA in Art History from New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
in 1999 and an MA Ed. Art Education from the University of Alabama at Birmingham
University of Alabama at Birmingham
The University of Alabama at Birmingham is a public university in Birmingham in the U.S. state of Alabama. Developing from an extension center established in 1936, the institution became an autonomous institution in 1969 and is today one of three institutions in the University of Alabama System...
in 2003. He received his MFA in painting from University of Alabama in 2005.
Colvin interned for Agnes
Agnes (gallery)
Agnes was a Birmingham, Alabama photography gallery from 1993 to 2001. Shawn Boley, Jon Coffelt and Jan Hughes opened the gallery with the mission of attempting to raise awareness of social issues — such as cancer, AIDS, death and dying, the environment, homelessness, ethics, racism,...
for several summers while attending school. While there Colvin worked with many artists from the gallery including Karen Graffeo
Karen Graffeo
Karen Graffeo is an American artist based in Birmingham, Alabama. While specializing in photography, Graffeo is also a choreographer and installation artist. Early in her photography career, she worked as Jerry Uelsmann's assistant and model...
, Lee Isaacs
Lee Isaacs
Lee Isaacs is an American photographer, living and working in Birmingham, Alabama.Isaacs studied pinhole photography with Pinky Bass. He has worked both with commercial and art photography. He works with photography seminars and teaches classes and workshops across the US.He has involved himself...
, Spider Martin
Spider Martin
James "Spider" Martin was an American photographer known for his work documenting the American Civil Rights Movement....
, Jack Spencer
Jack Spencer
Jack Spencer is a self-taught American photographer.Spencer was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi and his first love was music, performing in rock bands making a recording. He is probably best known for his series, Native Soil that featured deep sepia tones combined with deep-South imagery...
, Melissa Springer
Melissa Springer
Melissa Springer is an American photojournalist whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including Aperture, Elle, Forbes, Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Southern Living, The Village Voice and House & Garden.Springer was one of the first...
, and Thomas Tulis
Thomas Tulis
Thomas Tulis is an American photographer and painter living and working in Atlanta, Georgia. He was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee.Tulis lives a very simple life....
.
Curatorial work
Colvin founded StealthArts in BirminghamBirmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
. Stealtharts ran for 2 years.
Colvin curated stealtharts shows. He has also curated exhibitions with University of Alabama at Birmingham
University of Alabama at Birmingham
The University of Alabama at Birmingham is a public university in Birmingham in the U.S. state of Alabama. Developing from an extension center established in 1936, the institution became an autonomous institution in 1969 and is today one of three institutions in the University of Alabama System...
Visual Arts Gallery, as well as Center for the Living Arts/Space 301, Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
.
Selected Curated Exhibitions
Werk, UAB Visual Arts Gallery, May 2010
Poems and Paintings from Memphis, November 2009, Amanda Schedler Fine Arts
Registering the Invisible, Space 301 off-centre, featuring work from Mobile and Baldwin Co. schools, Ashley Oates, Richard Curtis, and University of South Alabama Photography students
Alvin C. Sella, recent paintings, Space 301 (Sept 6th –November 12) featureing work by Alvin Sella, and then work by former Sella students: Pat Snow, Katherine B., Dominic, Nick Davis, Jerry Roland, and Ty Smith.
Southern Gothic Now, Space 301 off-centre (May 9 – July 6, 2008),
featuring works from Chris Jancke , Doug Baulos, Merrilee Challiss, Greg Hopins, Amy Pleasant, Maysay Craddock, Julie Puttgen, TM Sisters, and others.
Art and Place 2: Material at Hand, Space 301 off-centre (Mobile’s Centre for the Living Arts), featuring works from Buzz Spector, Francis Alys, William Christenberry, Lance Winn, Christopher McNulty, Greg Hopkins, Buffy Rinehart, and others
A Time for War or Peace: Art that confronts the realities of the present, Space 301 off-centre, featuring work from Steve Mumford, Multi-national Force-Iraq,, Beth Edwards, Erika Somogyi, among others (Co-curated By David McCann and Clayton Colvin, essay by Clayton Colvin)
Life is But Dream: Contemporary figurative photography, Space 301 off- centre, featuring works from Ryan McGinley, Julie Moos, Demetrius Oliver, Aaron Young, among others.
Contexture: fabric, fashion, fantasy, Space 301 off-centre, featuring works from Pinky Bass, Alabama Chanin, Knittaplease.com, Hiroshi Tanabe, Xiang yang, among others.
..and you must make a friend of horror, The Upper Room, Birmingham, Al, featuring Heather Blackwell, Natalie Benedetti, Samuel Nyholm, and Pat Snow
Art and Place 1: Place as Muse, Space 301 (Mobile’s Centre for the Living Arts), featuring works from Jen DeNike, Johannes Nyholm, Paul Slocum, Jeremy Earhart, Tom Moody, BEIGE, and Bryce Speed, among others.
November: a selection of works from UAB undergraduates, Stealtharts, featuring: Suzy Moorer, Jill Ivins, Gene Ferreiro, and Michael James Lukacovic
Information in Formation, UAB Visual Art Gallery, featuring the work of Billy Apple, John Baldessari, John Simon Jr., Brian Bishop, and others. (Co-curated by Clayton Colvin and Brett Levine)
Selected Public programs and Presentations
2010 Juror, Student Exhibition, Columbus State University, Columbus, GA
2008 Visiting Artist lecture and critiques, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN Re-imagining Architecture, a discussion with guest Sarah Urist Green, guest
curator of the Space 301 exhibition, Amongst the Ruins Field Recordings, a visiting artist lecture to the art department at Spring Hill
College, Mobile, AL
Registering the Invisible, an event featuring Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham Art Historian Dr. Jessica Dallow and artists Ashley Oates, Brian Evans, and Rich Curtis.
Southern Gothic Now, a gallery talk featuring artists from the exhibition. Alvin C. Sella’s Recent Paintings Considered, a gallery talk discussing
Sella’s paintings and legacy as an artist and educator
2007 GreenSpace, Space 301, a roundtable discussion with Dr David Nelson(Univ. of South Alabama Biologist), Harry DeLorme (Telfair Museum Curator of Education), and Cassi Calloway (of the Mobile Bay Keapers)
Life is But a Dream: The Ethics of Photojournalism, a roundtable discussion with Mobile Press-Register staff photographers
Life is But a Dream: the Poetic nature of Photography, a discussion with University of South Alabama’s Rita Skiadas
Contexture: fabric, fashion, fantasy , a roundtable discussion featuring Univ. of South Alabama’s Dr. Elizabeth Richards, and exhibiting artists Pinky Bass, Matt Posey, and Alex Podesta
2006 Art and Place 2: Material at Hand, Space 301 (Mobile’s Centre for the living Arts), a roundtable with Dr. Jessica Dallow, Jen DeNike, Johannes Nyholm, and Chris Lawson
WHIL 91.3 FM (NPR) Spring Hill College, discussion of Art and Place 2: Material at Hand, Space 301 (Mobile’s Centre for the Living Arts)
His art
Colvin's recent exhibition record is as follows:2010
group show: Alabama Humanities Foundation celebrates 50th anniversary of To Kill A Mocking Bird
solo exhibition Fiction, Spring Hill College, Mobile, AL
solo exhibition: Caseworks, University of Memphis Art Museum, Memphis, TN
ARTPAPERS: annual art auction, juried benefit for ARTPAPERS magazine, Atlanta
2009:
Fiction, solo exhibition, Amanda Schedler Fine Arts, Birmingham, AL
Drawing on Alabama 2009, Biggins Hall, Auburn, Al ---- Space 301, Mobile, AL
2008:
solo exhibition Pier and Ocean and Main St., Amanda Schedler Fine Arts, Birmingham
solo exhibition Pier and Ocean and Main St., Material, Memphis, TN
ARTPAPERS: 9th annual art auction, juried benefit for ARTPAPERS magazine, Atlanta
2007:
le papier (part) deux: group exhibition of works on paper, Geschiedle, Chicago, IL FRISBEE is NOWHERE and EVERYWHERE (curated by Anat Ebgi and Jen
DeNike), Circus of Books, Los Angeles
FRISBEE is NOWHERE and EVERYWHERE (curated by Anat Ebgi and Jen DeNike), McMurdo Station, Antarctica
SuckaFreeJams: the Remainder Gallery, Birmingham, AL Dia de los Muertos: Barehands Gallery, Birmingham, AL Satellite Gone: solo show, The Upper Room, Birmingham, AL Popular Digest: Clayton V. Colvin and Pat Snow, Barehands, Birmingham, AL
2006
Wonder Twin Powers, Activate! (curated by Anat Ebgi,, and Jose Carlos Diaz),, Gescheidle Chicago,IL
IRAQ (curated by Lynn Longe), Gulfspace, Fairhope, AL Night of 1000 Drawings, Artist Space, New York, NY
FRISBEE is NOWHERE and EVERYWHERE (curated by Anat Ebgi and Jen DeNike), Art Basel Miami Beach, FL
Made in Birmingham (curated by Brett Levine), Space 301, Mobile, AL Unselfconscious Alabama, A Farmhouse Gallery, Seale, AL Politics, Politics: Questions for the New South Series, Space-One-Eleven, Bham, AL Contour, (curated by Jon Cofffelt) for Schedler Minchin FA, Birmingham, AL
2005
Space Cadet, solo show , Material, Memphis, TN Birmingham’s Best Young Artists, Schedler Minchin FA, Birmingham,A Night 1000 Drawings, Artist Space, NY, NY
Worm-Hole Laboratory’s Art-Official X-mas, @ Frisbee, Miami Beach Worm-Hole Laboratory’s Art-Official X-mas, @Queen’s Nail Annex, San Francisco UAB Faculty Show, Soon-Bok Lee Sellers Art Gallery, Hoover, AL
Postcards from the Gulf, Gulf Art Space, Fairhope, AL
2004
5 from 4, Birmingham Art Association, Birmingham, Alabama Reoccurring Exchange, Florida International University, Miami, Florida Dirty South!, Worm-hole Laboratory, Miami, Florida, Curator : Jose-Carlos Diaz
Colvin will show in April and May 2010 in caseworks exhibitions space in Memphis, Tn.
Colvin was included in "Politics, Politics: Nice Artists Explore the Political Landscape" curated by Anne Arrasmith
Anne Arrasmith
Anne Arrasmith is an American artist and curator who lives and works in Birmingham, Alabama. She co-founded and operates along with Peter Prinz the not-for-profit Space One Eleven. Arrasmith was a student of Edith Frohock while at University of Alabama at Birmingham.She and Peter Prinz founded...
and Peter Prinz of Space One Eleven. This exhibition was funded by the Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
Foundation for the Visual Arts and included Pinky Bass
Pinky Bass
Pinky M. M. Bass is an American photographer, known for her work in pinhole photography.Bass, a resident of Fairhope, Alabama, has exhibited at a number of museums including the Ashville Art Museum, Birmingham Museum of Art, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta,...
and John Trobaugh
John Trobaugh
John Trobaugh in Lansing, Michigan is an American artist specializing in photography and based in Birmingham, Alabama. Trobaugh received his BFA in 1996 with honors from University of Alabama at Birmingham and went on to study photography at the School of Visual Arts...
.
Colvin's work was part of "Contour: The Definitive Line" curated by Jon Coffelt
Jon Coffelt
Johnny Lee Coffelt born is an American artist who lives and works in Manhattan in the Financial District of New York City. Coffelt paints, sculpts, sews, makes book arts and curates art exhibitions.-Background:...
. One of 17 artists who were asked to define the concept of contour, the exhibit was the culmination of this subjective approach. This exhibition also included Sara Garden Armstrong
Sara Garden Armstrong
Sara Garden Armstrong is an American artist who lives and works in New York City. Armstrong creates sculptures, paintings, drawings from miniature to wall size, artist's books, multimedia artworks involving computers sound and light, and constructs permanent installations in atrium spaces...
, Lee Isaacs
Lee Isaacs
Lee Isaacs is an American photographer, living and working in Birmingham, Alabama.Isaacs studied pinhole photography with Pinky Bass. He has worked both with commercial and art photography. He works with photography seminars and teaches classes and workshops across the US.He has involved himself...
and Sean Slemon
Sean Slemon
Sean Slemon is a South African artist who works in sculpture, installation and printmaking. He lives and works in New York City, New York...
.
Quotes about Colvin
- Clayton Colvin's work is an attempt to come to terms with the multitude of experiences we deal with day to day; a way of gaining insight, a way of understanding the present. His work is an effort to order, (re)present and mark his existence. - Brian Bishop (University of Alabama)
- Clayton Colvin's mixed media canvases and sketches are heavily coated with a clear vinyl that has the look of solidified gel. Isolated words are scribbled, sketchy lines and restless black arrows meander across a surface that suggest objects but have no real identity. On occasion Colvin labels his works as "Untitled" and then gives them titles in parentheses, such as "Metamorphosis," "Space Cadet" and "Ambassador," hinting at content but suggesting is content incidental to intent. - James Nelson, critic for The Birmingham News, 2006