Not a lonley artist

The idea of the artist as lonely genius, working in moody isolation, is an enduring yet utterly false myth. In reality, the most dynamic artists have always fed on cooperation, community and the encouragement of intergenerational colleagues on issues touching the essence of art and society – i.e. mentorship.

CFHILL’s new show, curated by New York-based Rick Herron, presents twenty lively examples of this phenomenon. In Mentors, we encounter artists like R.E.M. lyricist Michael Stipe and John Giorno, a pop music and performance art pioneer with a cult following, who shifted his artistic focus to the AIDS crisis after the non-stop party of the sixties and seventies, when he was collaborating with Andy Warhol and appearing in his films. In reaction against the ever more theoretical and exclusive turn that painting had taken, in the nineties photography became an arena of experimentation, resistance and renewal.
Innovators like Marilyn Minter, with her piercingly anti-aesthetic aesthetics, and Jack Pierson, with candid portraits of his intimate surroundings on the periphery of society, exerted a powerful influence on both their own generation and the one that followed. In Mentors, all of these now legendary artists are exhibited side-by-side with younger artists, presenting a narrative of art as a living ecosystem, a human chain of activism, creativity and community.

With Mentors, we at CFHILL are proud to embark on a series of exhibitions arranged by some of the most exciting curators, not only introducing Stockholm art lovers to brilliant artists but providing multiple perspectives on their art in its natural context.

Michael Storåkers
Anna-Karin Pusic
Michael Elmenbeck