511 west 25th street, new york, ny 10001

www.cueartfoundation.org

2006–2007 jac k h a l l b e r g

LEAD SPONSOR OF 2006-07 SEASON OF EXHIBITION CATALOGUES:

KYESUNG PAPER GROUP (SOUTH KOREA)

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY

ELIZABETH FIRESTONE GRAHAM FOUNDATION

CUE Art Foundation

December 7, 2006 - January 27, 2007

CuratedbyDaveHickey

THIS EXHIBITION SUPPORTED IN PART BY

COMPASS DIvERSIFIED TRUST

JACk HALLBERG

Foreword CUEArtFoundation

We are honored to host this exhibition generously curated by Dave Hickey. Mr. Hickey, a writer

and critic, has chosen Jack Hallberg; an artist from Las Vegas, Nevada. Mr. Hickey’s appreciation

of Mr. Hallberg’s work demonstrates how the Foundation’s discretionary selection process allows

for a natural cross-pollination between differing forms of expression.

CUE appreciates that geographic location can sometimes limit an artist’s

exhibition possibilities elsewhere, thus CUE is pleased to offer Mr. Hallberg the opportunity for

his first solo exhibition in New York. Mr. Hickey and we, together, wish him a future of fulfillment

and success.

Artist Statement JackHallberg

The first painting that had an impact on me was Seurat’s La Grande Jatte. I was eight years old.

My class was on a field trip to the Chicago Art Institute. I didn’t respond at first glance but, as

I approached the painting, it seemed to come alive, to transform itself into a sea of pieces that

comprised the whole. I must have walked back and forth in front of Seurat’s painting a dozen

times watching it change, confused by the fact something could seem so complete and so

fractured, intrigued by the fact that it could make me respond physically. I felt like I had a unique

personal relationship with this inanimate object. I liked the dots and the spaces between the dots.

I liked the whole experience, and I am always trying to recreate that sense of wonderment in my

own paintings, trying to make work that is visually and socially engaging, playful, artificial and well

defined, like a welcome guest at a wonderful party.

Curator’s Statement DaveHickey

Jack Hallberg was my student in the early 1990s. He has been my friend and neighbor ever since.

He is also, for me, a living repudiation of the idea that artists develop. In fact, artists decide.

For about a year after Jack arrived in Las Vegas, he made bad paintings. Then one day he just

got sick of it. He began making good paintings, and he has made them ever since, steadily and

without complaint through a virtual tsunami of accident, illness and personal disaster. During this

onslaught, Hallberg’s paintings never lost an iota of their goofy, meticulous, good-hearted, ebul-

lience. I have no idea how he has managed this or where the paintings come from.

They are full of art history, of course, and I can cite references. Seurat? Certainly.

Pollock? Of course, but through Lichtenstein. West Coast abstraction? Absolutely. Ultralounge

Vegas, Sci-Fi Surrealism and kenny Scharf? Without a doubt. But none of these references

address or explain the charm and equanimity of Hallberg’s paintings. I can only suggest that they

share these virtues with paintings they do not much resemble by Elizabeth Murray, John Wesley

and Peter Saul and that the work of all these artists exudes a level of good humor and self-posses-

sion that is daunting for its sheer lack of neediness and aggression. On a cultural battlefield full

of striding warriors and calculating strategists who demand our awe and attention, strewn with

bloody victims demanding our care and sympathy, high physical comedy can be challenging and

intimidating. It can seem like an insult to the entire endeavor, because it is one thing to abandon

drama for theater. That is the contemporary move. It is quite another thing to abandon theater for

high-hearted conversation, because solemnity is not an option in everyday talk. So these ques-

tions arise. How dare these artists, at this rich and profligate moment, seem to need so little? How

dare they seem be having so much fun? How dare they tempt us into the daylight?

1293… 2005 Acrylic on panel, 24" x 48"

1130… 2005 Acrylic on panel, 24" x 48" Details at right

WaterStreet Bridge 2005 Ektachrome print 6" x 3.8" Edition of 10

WaterStreet Bridge 2005 Ektachrome print 6" x 3.8" Edition of 10

931… 2005 Acrylic on panel, 24" x 48"

Details at right

1007… 2006 Acrylic on panel, 24" x 48" Details at right

545… 2005 Acrylic on panel, 36" x 72"

Details at right

2103… 2006 Acrylic on panel, 36" x 72" Details at right

2823… 2006 Acrylic on panel, 72" x 84" (diptych) Details at right

Jack Hallberg was born on May 17, 1963 in Rockford, IL. He grew up in Rockford with his parents

and his three sisters in a house his father built. One of Jack’s earliest memories is of going up into

the attic with his father. The floor joists were exposed and the ceiling topped out at five-feet.

Over the course of the weekend, his father single handedly raised the roof four feet in preparation

for two new bedrooms and a bathroom. From this, Hallberg drew the inference that people could,

if they wished, do what they wanted to do. In public school, Hallberg tested high and scored low.

He was considered a “problem child” but he could draw like an angel. After high school, he went

to work, made some money, bought some things, and decided he would rather be an artist.

He attended the University of Illinois, won a graduate scholarship to the University of Nevada,

Las Vegas and began exhibiting his painting. Today he lives in Las Vegas, teaches part time and

makes paintings.

Dave Hickey is a freelance writer of fiction and cultural criticism, a curator and lecturer. He has

written for most major American cultural publications about a great many artists, writers and

musicians. He has published a volume of short fiction, Prior Convictions: Stories from the Sixties

(Southwest Life and Letters), with the SMU Press. His critical essays on art have been collected

in two volumes published by Art Issues Press, The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty (1993)

and Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy (1998). His book, Stardumb (Artspace Books, 1999),

is a collection of stories with drawings by artist John de Fazio. He has two books in production

at the University of Chicago Press: Connoisseur of Waves: More Essays on Art and Democracy

(2006) and Feint of Heart: Essays on Individual Artists (two volumes) (2008), as well as a new

edition of The Invisible Dragon. His curating projects include: Beau Monde: Toward a Redeemed

Cosmopolitanism, SITE Santa Fe’s Fourth International Biennial in Santa Fe, NM (2002); The

California School (2004) and Step into Liquid (2005) at the Ben Maltz Gallery at the Otis College

of Art & Design, CA; and Edward Ruscha: The Long View at the Museo Tamayo Arte Contem-

poráneo in Mexico City (2006).

Biographies Jackhallberg

1023… 2004 Acrylic on panel, 24" x 48"

Details at right

DaveHickey

Mission Statement CUEArtFoundation

CUE Art Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit arts organization,

is dedicated to providing a comprehensive creative forum for

contemporary art by supporting under-recognized artists via a

multi-faceted mission spanning the realms of gallery exhibitions,

public programming, professional development programs and

arts-in-education. The Foundation was established in June of 2002

with the aim of providing educational programs for young artists

and aspiring art professionals in New York and from around the

country. These programs draw on the unique community of artists,

critics, and educators brought together by the Foundation’s season

of exhibitions, public lectures, workshops, and its studio residency

program: all are designed to be of lasting practical benefit to

aspiring and under-recognized artists. The entire CUE identity is

characterized by artistic quality, independent judgment and the

discovery of genuine talent, and provides long-term benefits both

for creative individuals associated with CUE and the larger art

marketplace. Located in New York’s Chelsea gallery district, CUE’s

4,500 square feet of gallery, studio and office space serves as the

nexus for educational programs and exhibitions conducted by CUE.

Cover image: 2823… (detail), 2006, Acrylic on panel, 72" x 84"

ISBN: 0-9776417-7-5

All artwork © Jack Hallberg

Photo credit: Max Bromwell

Catalog designed by Elizabeth Ellis

Printed on TriPine paper of kyeSung Paper Group (South korea)

Cover: TriPine Art Nouveau 209gsm (78lb), Text: TriPine Silk 157gsm (106lb)

Printer: Yon Art Printing (South korea)

BoArDoFDirECtorS

Gregory Amenoff

Theodore S. Berger

Patricia Caesar

Thomas G. Devine

Thomas k. Y. Hsu

Brian D. Starer

ADviSoryCoUnCil

Gregory Amenoff

William Corbett

Vernon Fisher

Malik Gaines

Deborah kass

kris kuramitsu

Jonathan Lethem

Irving Sandler

ExECUtivEDirECtor

Jeremy Adams

DirECtoroF

DEvElopmEnt

Elaine Bowen

progrAmS

CoorDinAtor

Beatrice Wolert-Weese

progrAmSASSiStAnt

kara Smith