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Coleen Fitzgibbon

Coleen Fitzgibbon recently finished two documentaries, one on the nether-world installations of sculptor Johnathan Silver (Infidel in the Studio) and a canoe tour of superfund site in  Greenpoint, Brooklyn (Greenpoint 2017).  Fitzgibbon is in the 1980’s work of The Offices at the HirshHorn Museum’s current show Brand New and is currently working with Carolina Mandia on a tapestry for BravinLee Productions and has two new scripts in the works.  

Fitzgibbon is an experimental filmmaker/artist based in NYC and Montana who exhibits work at film festivals, museums and galleries, including the HirshHorn, MOMA NY, Cuchifritos Gallery, New Museum, Salon94, MOCA/LA Film Forum, Austrian VIENNALE, TIFF, IFF Rotterdam, BERLINALE, Subliminal Projects Gallery, Anthology Film Archives, Light Industry, Printed Matter, James Fuentes Gallery, Stephen Harvey Gallery, Dorian Grey Gallery, Knokke EXPRMNTL Festival, DeAppel, Palais des Beaux Arts (Bruxelles) and others.

Fitzgibbon studied at Boston U. Fine Arts, graduated from School of the Art Institute of Chicago (under Owen Land, Stan Brakhage and Carolee Schneemann) and the Whitney Independent Study Program (under Yvonne Rainer and David Diao); in the early 1970’s worked for Jack Smith, Dennis Oppenheim and Gordon Matta-Clark. She co-founded the collaborative X+Y Offer with Robin Winters, The Offices of Fend, Fitzgibbon, Holzer, Nadin, Prince and Winters, Collaborative Projects, Inc. (Colab), Ocean Earth Inc (with Peter Fend, Paul Sharits and Jenny Holzer), created 5 Bleecker Store and was a producer for AT&T Technologies/Bell Labs, John Lurie’s “Fishing with John” TV series, Mark Rappaport’s video narratives and worked for a cattle ranch in Montana.  

“Greenpoint 2017” – image from the movie
“LES” – image from the movie
“Manifesto” show at 5 Bleecker Store – photo by Fitzgibbon
“Jonathan Silver: Infidel in the Studio” – image from the movie
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  1. […] Colleen Fitzgibbon is a filmmaker who has recently finished two films, a documentary about the sculptor Jonathan Silver and another titled Green Point 2017 which looks at the Newtown Creek Superfund area. She is now working on some narrative scripts which is a first for Fitzgibbon. She is one of the founding artists of Collaborative Projects, Inc. (Colab) in New York City, and is one of the artists responsible for the collaborative conceptual work The Offices of Fend. The Offices was a project in which the artists tried to sell their aesthetic services. For the project, they created the slogan “the artist is an agency for the initiation of function.” Fitzgibbon recalls that their services were rejected a lot, but the concept behind the project was to offer solutions to conventional business problems in the context of conceptual art. Her film LES is being screened at MoMA. The film was shot in the 1970s in the Lower East Side in an area (Avenue D to Avenue A) which was almost completely burned out. The area today is completely transformed with bistros lining the streets where once vacant and burned out buildings stood. Her film Greenpoint 2017 takes a close look at a tidal creek in Brooklyn designated a Superfund site by the EPA. Despite funds being in place for cleanup, the process has not begun. Fitzgibbon recalls with some awe the sheer size of the site that needs to be addressed. Fitzgibbon sits on the board of the Filmmakers’ Co-op. To hear her speak more about New York in the 1970s and other topics she has documented in film, listen to the whole interview. […]

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