PORTLAND, ME.- On Saturday, September 11 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., the Portland Museum of Art’s front patio will be the launch site for artist Andrea Zittel’s new project, The Group Formerly Known as Smockshop (GFKAS), as part of SPACE Gallery’s outdoor art and music Block Party on Congress Street. Sponsored by the Quimby Colony, GFKAS members or “panelists” Tiprin Follet, Peggy Jo Pabustan, and Karen Gelardi will be creating and selling rectangular shaped products on the patio in front of the Museum. The public is invited to witness the making process as well as view and purchase finished products. GFKAS is an artistic enterprise that generates income for artists whose work is either non-commercial, or not yet self-sustaining and includes artists from Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Berlin, and South Portland. The Museum will be open extended hours until 9 p.m.

The GFKAS project succeeds Smockshop, a similar endeavor in which artists produced more than 300 simple garments, as reinterpretations of Andrea Zittel’s designs. Zittel’s work is internationally recognized, exploring all aspects of day-to-day living. Clothing, food, and furniture all become the sites of investigation in an ongoing endeavor to better understand human nature and the social construction of needs.

GFKAS products begin with a simple dictate to create a rectangular product or “panel” which each artist then interprets according to his or her own skills, interests, and special talents. These rectangular designs, which include garments, accessories, household items, and printed projects, all have the capacity to contract and expand, morphing from a single surface to fully functional objects.

The GFKAS project launch in Portland is made possible by the collaboration of SPACE Gallery, Portland Museum of Art, and the Quimby Colony, a new nonprofit urban artist residency program. The Quimby Colony is sponsoring the GFKAS artists and hosting them at their artist residency building on Congress Street.

Artist Andrea Zittel trained at San Diego State University and Rhode Island School of Design. Recent solo exhibitions include Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy; Sadie Coles HQ, London, England; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria, New York; and Schaulager, Basel.