How The Plots Became Fiendish
An Interview with Charley Friedman and Nancy Friedemann-Sanchez
The Other Side of the Desk is proud to present the first in a series of interviews called “The Independents” which focuses upon independent curators, artist run galleries, etc. The first interview is with Charley Friedman and Nancy Friedemann, married artists who I met around 1999 in their studios at The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center (now called simply, The Clemente) which was at that time run partially by a nonprofit called The Artists Alliance, of which they were both members. I was a member of a studio critique group that visited for one of its events, and became fascinated with this grand old building, one of New York’s earliest public-school buildings, which had been abandoned and then refurbished, squatter style, by an assortment of different artists, of which Charley and Nancy were two. They are both very socially active and dynamic personalities with different creative aesthetics. They made a great team so it was natural they would attract others and make something happen that everyone could be part of. Here’s what we talked about:
Punchcard Music by Gudrun Barenbrock, 2013
Punchcard Music by Gudrun Barenbrock, 2013
Punchcard Music by Gudrun Barenbrock, 2013
DAVID GIBSON: How long after you moved to Lincoln did you start Fiendish Plots? What was the impetus for it?
CHARLEY FRIEDMAN: We started Fiendish November 11, 2013, about a year and a half after we moved to Lincoln. Nancy and I have always had a lot of fun collaborating so this grew out of that creative dialog. It was also a way to be a part of a community and bring people together. Regionally, we thought it would be super fun to be able to bring artists that we felt were at the top of their game, invite them to place they’ve probably never been, and give them full creative control in a gorgeous space and meet a bunch of new and interesting mid-westerners. Generally, we are interested in artists with a seasoned language. We have between 3-4 shows a year. We’ve had 18 exhibitions so far all of them are attended by a wide swath of the community from old to young, art lovers to skeptics. FP is a way of creating community.
DAVID GIBSON: You're from Lincoln yourself?
CHARLEY FRIEDMAN: Born and raised. Left in 1986 for college, grad school, first “real” job, NYC.
DAVID GIBSON: Have you exhibited any Nebraska local artists?
CHARLEY FRIEDMAN: Aaron Holz, Anthony Hawley/Rebecca Fischer, Ashley Goodwin and this fall Dana Fritz.
DAVID GIBSON: Tell me about two of them
CHARLEY FRIEDMAN: Holz exhibited highly refined and exquisite portraits. He had a show with Jenny Dubnau. This fall Dana Fritz will show a new body of work continuing her long standing photo series concerned with artificial, synthetic or human made nature/landscapes. Both are profs at University of Nebraska. Next season we have more regional artists.
DAVID GIBSON: Tell me about the space. How did you develop it?
CHARLEY FRIEDMAN: It’s 500sf/24’ walls/roll up garage door in a warehouse on the edge of town. Our neighbors are a motorcycle repair, construction and a brewery. Space is much is minimal and malleable. When we have a show, we cut Nancy’s studio in half and use 2 movable wall (that are also storage) and, ka boom, we have an awesome gallery space. If it’s nice, we open the garage and get beer from our neighbor.
We developed very organically. Our first show was a friend from Köln that Nancy went to Art OMI named Gudrun Barenbrock. She’s an incredible video/installation artist. She was coming to visit and we said why don’t you be our first show. We didn’t know if anybody would show. It was packed. The local arts and culture writer L Kent Wolgamott (the Lincoln Journal has a full-time arts writer) showed up and the director of Sheldon Museum of Art. From that point we were hooked and started inviting artists that we loved with no preconception of selling. We needed to like the work and we did decide we wanted to only show artists with a mature language (not emerging). Artists stay in our attic and become part of our daily life. We wine and dine and invite local art…
Jenny Dubnau / Aaron Holz: FAMILY, 2014 (Holz above, Dubnau below)
DAVID GIBSON: Are you both equally involved with the gallery? Is there any separation of duties?
CHARLEY FRIEDMAN: It’s totally equal. I’d say I do more install prep and Nancy does more web. The brainy stuff like curation and strategy and outreach we do together. That said, whatever needs to get done we just do it. Sometimes we have an intern or assistant who helps out a bit. Also, we have Fiendish Plots T-shirts. We have a tradition that whenever has a show or helps gets one. We don’t sell so if you see an artist wearing one, you know she had a show at FP.
DAVID GIBSON: Nancy, before you moved there together had you ever been to Lincoln?
NANCY FRIEDEMANN: Hi David; yes, because we married in Lincoln while we were doing a residency at The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts.
DAVID GIBSON: I heard you first met at a residency. Was that it?
NANCY FRIEDEMANN: We also visited several times before moving from NYC
DAVID GIBSON: What's it like there? The farthest I have been is Wisconsin.
NANCY FRIEDEMANN: We met at the Bronx Museum while I was doing the AIM program. Charley was an art handler.
NANCY FRIEDEMANN: Lincoln has The University of Nebraska which is one of the big 10. It’s a small city and smaller than Omaha but it has interesting intellectual centers like The Sheldon Museum, the Carson Center for Emerging Media, the Ross Theater with art film. It had a killer English department. It’s not barren.
DAVID GIBSON: You curate the gallery together. Do you each have first choices? How does it work?
CHARLEY FRIEDMAN: We don’t do first choice. We both tend to build on each other’s ideas so it morphs into one.
NANCY FRIEDEMANN: We discuss artists and we choose together...The first show was Gudrun Barenbrock who I met at Art OMI. In some ways she pushed us to accelerate the opening of Fiendish Plots. She was doing a residency at Millay and was working on a video. We told her that we had this idea and she said I will be in Lincoln in a month so get the space ready. Her show was so professional and so grown-up and so mature that we realized in that moment what the destiny of the space was. And that destiny was a space for seasoned artists with unique visions. We also realized that it was a space for interdisciplinary practices. We like everything and we are open to collaborations between poets and painters, film, installation etc. We have even had sound works that have been the setting for fundraisers for Planned Parenthood for example.
NANCY FRIEDEMANN: Yes, we always have to agree. When the work and the artists arrive, I often work on the press release and promotion and Charley helps the artist install.
DAVID GIBSON: Charley said you had good attendance. Was it like that from the beginning?
NANCY FRIEDEMANN: Yes! Don’t know how it will be post pandemic. We are going to have an artist from Denmark and we are also going to show some local artists
CHARLEY FRIEDMAN: I think the attendance will continue to be large if not more since people want to get out.
TEXAS EXTRAVAGANT DRAWING curated by Bill Anring, 2019 (detail below)
DAVID GIBSON: I saw from your website that you had an exhibition curated by Bill Arning. When did you first meet Bill?
CHARLEY FRIEDMAN: Bill curated a show of Texas artists. Nancy how did you meet him?
NANCY FRIEDEMANN: He taught a class at NYU and I was his student. He took his students to many artist’s studios
DAVID GIBSON: I suppose one if the great things about starting a gallery as artists is that even being distant from a place like New York or Los Angeles, you have extended circles of artist friends to draw from. There’s a sort of fraternal equality among you. Opportunities can represent a way of deepening that trust and regard for one another. Sharing new experiences.
The test is to remain open beyond that circle. Do you do open calls?
NANCY FRIEDEMANN: Yes, it’s fraternal. I love your read. Everyone we have shown we love their work. We are starting with some local artists who we love too. No, we have not done open calls. It’s too much work for two working artists who do this out of the budget of their household. Maybe in the future.
DAVID GIBSON: So, the ever-opening circle connects more friends. It’s an extensive degree of amiability
CHARLEY FRIEDMAN: Agree, David. The key for Nancy and is not getting too bureaucratic. And loose creative malleability. Once we toss that away, then it loses its punkish by-the-bootstraps fun.
DAVID GIBSON: Has having a gallery led to any new opportunities for the two of you?
NANCY FRIEDEMANN: We have made a clear separation between what our goals are in our practice. By that I mean we don’t ask anyone invited for anything. That becomes a conflict of interest. We initially would let artists take us out for a goodbye dinner, we don’t do that anymore. While an artist is with us, we take care of them. We have an attic where they stay, we cook and sometimes we have lunches outside. Sometimes we have dinners for the artists and invite the community. Though with Covid that seems like pre-history.
CHARLEY FRIEDMAN: Exactly. It makes the roles clearer for everyone and we also get to be generous from our roles. We have been able to make new friends and have dialogues around art which is very gratifying.
NANCY FRIEDEMANN: Of course, it has opened opportunities because we are visible, we did not retreat to the prairie. We are actually working harder than before. The opportunities are coming form that visibility, not from an exchange with artists that we invite. Also, because we have more space and time we have gone deeper into our work.
DAVID GIBSON: Please describe this.
NANCY FRIEDEMANN: When I moved here, I did a deep reflection on my years in NYC. They were important as I went to grad school at NYU, learned about the U.S. art history and art world and also got steeped in the art market elements of the art world. In some way I allowed to be “occupied” culturally in order to integrate in my new home NY. When we moved here. For me it was my second move, the first one from Bogotá Colombia to New York and the second one from New York to Nebraska. For me, it was moving into deep America and farther away from my Colombian roots. I decided in that moment that really lasted over a year, to start a visual novel. I was reading the Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaños and his novel contained 40 characters. This novel and the kind of altered state of mind that I was in allowed me to make a shift in my production and to decide to create a body of work that I would call a visual novel. Right now, I am on chapter 7 or eight. I’m interested in the same topic said I was interested in New York. But because I have given myself permission to work in drawing and painting and sculpture installation and woodblock. I’ve been able to deepen into the topics of the historical encounters between Europe and the Americas, cultural memory, migration, intersectionality, feminism.
NANCY FRIEDEMANN: There are some practical aspects to this as well. Having a studio on the first floor without any steps, having a larger studio than New York, a drive that takes seven minutes from home to studio, hardware stores that are seven minutes away, a van and a cheaper way of life. They’re not that many distractions or that many good restaurants so there is more time to be in the studio.
DAVID GIBSON: How about you Charley?
CHARLEY FRIEDMAN: What’s the question?
DAVID GIBSON: How has being there and being involved with FP allowed you to delve deeper into your own work?
CHARLEY FRIEDMAN: NYC was a wonderful environment to be an artist for many years. I could learn about art from galleries, museums, studio visits and of course exhibit. This was the best cocktail for many years. At some point, I realized that there was too much stimulation and distraction coupled with the endless minutia of daily life from traffic to lines that are away at creative space. I longed to be “board”. Lincoln is a perfect local to make art. I can be at the studio early and quickly run errands and go back. At night I even have enough energy to work. In short, I have energy to explore, experiment and fail—creatively. The city sucks it out me. Plus, it’s so cheap and people are excited to collaborate.
DAVID GIBSON: It sounds like you’re both in a very good place. It’s great to reconnect and hear about all the Plots. Stay Fiendish!
CHARLEY & NANCY: David, this has been marvelous! Thanks so much. It really nice to catch up. This is exactly why FP exists…to create dialogue.
Nancy Friedemann and Charley Friedman
BIOS:
CHARLEY FRIEDMAN
I received my Masters of Fine Arts from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University, Boston and attended Skowhegan School Painting and Sculpture. I have exhibited numerous galleries and institutions including PS1/MoMA, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Queens Museum, The Fabric Workshop, OMI International Art Center, Paul W. Zuccaire Galley at Stony Brook University, Volta NYC, Joslyn Art Museum, Sheldon Museum of American Art, Museum of Nebraska Art, Nina Johnson Gallery, Jack Tilton Gallery. Residencies include MacDowell, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Fountainhead, Cooper Union AIR. Selected publications include: The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Miami Herald. Collections include: Walker Art Center, Brooklyn Museum, New York Public Library, Stanford University, Sheldon Museum of Art, Duncan Collection. I am a Pollock-Krasner grant recipient, Smack Mellon Hot Picks artist and two-time Rema Hort nominee. Upcoming shows include a solo exhibition at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, spring/fall 2021 and a solo exhibition at the Sioux City Art Center. For the last eight years, Along with my wife, Nancy Friedeman-Sánchez, we have co-directed Fiendish Plots, an exhibition in Lincoln, Nebraska. The programming focuses on seasoned visual artists with a mature language. Most recently, Fiendish Plots was highlighted in USA Today as being one of the top DIY artist run galleries in the country.
NANCY FRIEDEMANN- SÁNCHEZ
Nancy Friedemann- Sánchez has had exhibitions at Columbus Museum of Art, The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, Florida, Blue Star Contemporary in San Antonio, Texas, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska, The Joslyn Art Museum, The Nerman Museum in Kansas City, The Portland Museum of Art; The Museum of the University of New Mexico, El Museo del Barrio, El Museo del Arte de Puerto Rico, University at Albany Art Museum, Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogotá, San Luis Obispo Art Center and Bronx Museum of the Arts among others. The artist also was selected for the Elisabeth Sackler Feminist Art Base at the Brooklyn Museum.
Friedemann- Sánchez has been awarded a Catherine Doctorow Prize on Painting, a Nebraska Artist Achievement Award, a Smithsonian Artist Fellowship, a Puffin Foundation grant, a Pollock Krasner grant, a National Association of Latino Arts and Culture grant and has been nominated to the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, a Rema Hort Mann and to the Anonymous was a Woman Foundation. She has been invited to be a resident at Art OMI, Fountainhead, Tamarind Institute, Yaddo, Gasworks Tiangle Arts, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts and Bronx Museum for the Arts.
Anchored in feminism, her art is informed by North and South American cultural forms that fuse and cross-pollinate. Her practice is a bicultural and trans-cultural experience. Having grown up in Colombia and having migrated to the US as an adult she makes art in two languages about the curious and intense experience of physically having moved, yet having a piece of herself remaining rooted in Colombia. Nancy Friedemann- Sánchez creates visual expressions about the hybridity and syncretism that has taken place since the conquest of the Americas and that gets replicated in the migration experience.
For the last six years, Nancy and her husband Charley Friedman have also run in Lincoln an interdisciplinary art exhibition space called Fiendish Plots. Their programming focuses on seasoned local and international visual artists. Fiendish Plots does four exhibitions a year of contemporary artists. Most recently Fiendish Plots was highlighted in USA Today as one the top DIY artist spaces in the country.