MINUS SPACE is a curatorial project located in Brooklyn, NY. It has gallery and web site devoted to reductive art.
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MINUS SPACE began as an online curatorial and critical project presenting reductive and concept based art. Reductive art includes geometric abstraction, artwork that deals with repetition, monochrome or limited color, seriality.[1] and minimalism.[2] It is also characterized by the use of plain-spoken materials, precise craftsmanship and intellectual rigor.[3]
It was launched as a nonprofit, online curatorial project in August 2003 by Brooklyn artists Matthew Deleget and Rosanna Martinez, and gradually developed into a showcase for dozens of artists.[4] They began by putting portfolios and curating exhibitions online. MINUS SPACE published interviews of artists, reviews and critical essays. At this point project was only online, literally minus space.[5]
MINUS SPACE then started to produce physical exhibitions in their Brooklyn project space.[6] These included one person shows of abstract painting, installations and performance art.[7] In addition they began to curate exhibitions nationally and internationally at universities, galleries, artist-run spaces and nonprofit spaces located in Manhattan; St. Mary's City, Maryland; Sydney, Australia;[8]; Houston, Texas[9]; Brussels, Belgium.[10]
In 2008, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center exhibited MINUS SPACE, a survey of 54 artists from 14 countries affiliated with MINUS SPACE. The exhibition was curated by Phong Bui, publisher of the Brooklyn Rail and P.S.1. Curatorial Advisor. The exhibition marked the 5th anniversary of MINUS SPACE.[11]
Also in 2008 MINUS SPACE curated an exhibit to re-present abstract shaped canvas paintings as new, made by Mark Dagley first shown with Tony Shafrazi Gallery 20 years earlier in 1987. Most of the exhibition of was painted in William S. Burroughs Bunker in the Bowery in New York City.[12]
They curated a traveling exhibition Machine Learning which was shown at the Boyden Gallery of St. Mary's College of Maryland, The Painting Center in New York City, Gallery Sonja Roesch in Houston, TX in 2007 and 2008.[13] The title of the exhibition was inspired by a subfield of artificial intelligence concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to learn. Machine learning algorithms recognize patterns within massive sets of data. Real world applications include the internet search engine. This exhibition examined new pattern painting in the information age.[14]
MINUS SPACE has a space on the internet enabling it to collaborate with other institutions.[15] The web site has an online log that functions as a web portal for information on exhibitions of reductive art internationally. There is also a comprehensive directory of related web sites for reductive art including galleries, museums and related publications, a directory of artists affiliated with MINUS SPACE, and also artist interviews.[16]
MINUS SPACE maintains a comprehensive Chronology of reductive and concept-based art. The chronology includes major events, exhibitions, and writings in the development of reductive and concept-based art in Europe, South and North America from 1800 to date.[17]