my longtime pals + collaborative art couple, tribble & mancenido, curated a stellar exhibit at bushwick open studios this weekend. swingers wknd featured creative work by an eclectic mix of contemporary artist couples including russell tyler & trudy benson, ethan greenbaum & sun you, heather rasmussen & julian hoeber, gina magid & ryan steadman, tribble & mancenido, carrie yamaoka & joy episalla, holly coulis & ridley howard, jennie jieun lee & graham collins, jennifer coates & david humphrey, saira mclaren & mike hein and tamara zahaykevich & grant huang. the exhibition pays homage to a 1949 exhibit artists: man and wife at the sidney janis gallery. then, work by 9 renowned artist couples like jackson pollock & lee krasner, and françoise gilot & pablo picasso were paired together. sixty-six years later, tribble & mancenido "continue to explore the perpetual complexities of artistic partnerships that are reinforced by shared domestic spaces. each artist’s practice is embedded into one another, both subtle and layered despite their differing approaches to making work."

see images + more info below:

from their press release // the familiar narrative of the artist couple is steeped in the mythology of creative partnership. the married artist collaborative, tribble & mancenido will examined this archetypal phenomenon in their pop-up exhibit, swingers wknd.

the colloquial term “swinging” dates back to the sexual revolution of the 1960’s and is still used to describe recreational fornication between multiple couples. in the case of this exhibition, creative couples were invited to participate in an artistic orgy (pun intended) and to engage in free flowing discourse within a communal space. a few of the participating couples collaborated on producing work specifically for the show, while the individual members of each remaining couple chose to exhibit work from their personal artistic practices. objects from the couples’ homes were displayed alongside their respective works as symbols of domestic connectedness.

atwood road // 2014 // panels 1 -5 // tribble & mancenido — atwood road // 2014 // panels 1 -5 // tribble & mancenido

* my friends * frank tribble and tracey mancenido, or tribble & mancenido, are recent graduates of sva's art practice graduate program. they met back in 2004, while both in undergrad working at the same jean georges' restaurant in the meatpacking district of nyc. after helping each other out with personal projects, they started collaborating and creating projects together. their ideas became seamless and they decided to collaborate from that point on. they have now been making work together for almost a decade.

tracey and frank say, "if outkast and wu-tang had babies, we could be those babies." their work featured in this post will be shown at miami project with sasha wolf gallery, during art basel miami (from dec 2-7 in the wynwood district).

255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 1 // tribble & mancenido — 255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 1 // tribble & mancenido

cultureisland: what is your artistic process?

tribble & mancenido: for us, art is deliberately and precariously held together without formal resolve. we see our work as allegories of connectedness and similarity, touching on themes of personal space, memory and the domestic. our practice is photo-based, with express regard for being both voyeur and subject, and a particular interest on social interactions and its documentation. these interests range across three areas: the everyday, the home and the archive. embedding ourselves into different social and cultural situations has become an integral part of how we make art. for a former project, hurry up & wait, we became truck-drivers in the united states for an entire year to live, work and be part of that subculture- documenting our journey, and the anonymity of living on the road.

255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 2 // tribble & mancenido — 255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 2 // tribble & mancenido

cultureisland: can you tell us more about your recent work?

tribble & mancenido: our current practice considers the similarities of the everyday of the domestic space, of the necessities of each individual’s life, and the familiarity of a home. in the work atwood road, we continue our investigations of being both subject and voyeur, investigating the interiority of our shared lives, moments and objects while using each other as a mirror reflection of one another. our constant dialogue as a collaborative is also a constant reflection. our intent is for the viewer to contemplate its interiority in relationship to his or her own domesticity. they may not even know it was once our own, but what is most important is that it is a distinct portrait of a home. an actual physical place for a person to simply exist. from august 2013 - august 2014 we lived in and sublet 7 apartments mostly through the commonly used online platform airbnb. during this time we stayed in many apartments and differing neighborhoods such as bed-stuy, clinton hill, south slope and the upper west side. in doing so, we stepped into the domestic lives of others, temporarily assuming their daily rituals and surrounded by their objects, both precious and utilitarian. we focused on the details that could possibly tell the story of a person’s life, while also addressing the anonymity of such constructions. the significance of personal objects was transferred onto us by the owners, and now onto the viewer as objects and photographic archives that we have created. the work ranges from nuanced shifts in dimension created by printing inside the edges of the frame taking on the subtlety of sculpture, to using actuals grids as an ode to typography often used in photography, to several polyptychs with fading color that visually mimic the fading of memory and time. our work challenges the everyday perceptions of our environments with close studies of photography’s materiality and subject at hand. we are all creators and anthropologists of the dailyness of daily life.

255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 3 // tribble & mancenido — 255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 3 // tribble & mancenido

cultureisland: where do you find inspiration? who are some of your favorite artists?

tribble & mancenido: we find inspiration everywhere everyday, concentrated on a shared experience, with lots of reading, seeing, doing and conversation. some of our favorite artists include judd, irwin, kosuth, duchamp, gary simmons, tim rollins and kos, lorna simpson, bernd and hilla becher, taryn simon, do ho suh, on kawara.

255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 4 // tribble & mancenido — 255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 4 // tribble & mancenido

cultureisland: what are your favorite places to see art in nyc?

tribble & mancenido: les galleries, bushwick galleries, museums and other artists' studios.

255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 5 // tribble & mancenido — 255 W 88 // 2014 // panel 5 // tribble & mancenido

cultureisland: what other places in miami do you plan to check out during art basel?

tribble & mancenido: the private collections -- rubell, margulies and de la cruz. the moca and perez museums. the nada and independent fairs.

* photographs are by tribble & mancenido // frank tribble & tracey mancenido // check out more of their work here + here, follow them on instagram here *

art exhibit // swingers wknd @ bushwick open studios // curated by tribble & mancenido

small talk // artists tribble & mancenido