-018 Patrick Carlin Mohundro
If there is one thing that you can change in a previous project of yours, what would it be?
Photo by Gregory Gentert
One thing I would change about a previous project would be my attitude, following the reception of the P.A.D. retrospective, “In with the Old,” at Walter’s (FKA Walter Elwood Contemporary). My ATTITUDE!
There are a number of other mis-steps and mis-takes that I have made with projects, exhibitions or single works, but the shame I have when recalling my behavior after the opening night of this particular show sticks with me and still makes me cringe almost five years later.
We had just spent months (and to some extent you could say years) planning the P.A.D. retrospective. It was an idea that I had early on with the project, as a way to get all of the artists and small works into a single, institutional space in effort to justify all of the hard work we had been doing on the street since the project’s inception. Brent Birnbaum agreed to host the exhibition at his newly conceived contemporary art museum and let us crash in his studio on several occasions; the curator Sophia Ma collected most of the works and made multiple eight-hour, round-trip journeys to to the museum in Amsterdam, NY; Eliana Blechman designed this amazing catalogue of press releases and images of the seasonal P.A.D. exhibitions; Xavier Acarín Wieland wrote a 600-word introduction to the catalogue; Sam Cockrell and Emily Janowick organized a team of art handlers to help install the show; Andy Ralph drove up a 16’ truck full of c-bins, all of the artwork, and every art-handling supply you can find; James Chrzan and Sam made extra trips to install work and help with the project; and, of course, my spouse, Chang Sujung, was there with me every step: packing working, unpacking, editing copy and dealing with my temperamental disposition as I helped organize the exhibition of over 200 works of art. All of this labor, effort and contributions were donated by this amazing group of people.
Then, after all of this build up, we had a fantastic opening! Many friends from the city made the trek upstate, upstate artists and out-of-town family drove in, and we rented a giant house to host all of the friends and participating artists who came from the city. It could have been the whiskey, but by the time we all settled into the house, I was exhausted. And, rather than take pause to thank everyone, I was fixated on the negative. Huddled in a group, sitting in the living room of the rental-house, one of my kindest friends asked me which pieces in the exhibition were my favorite.
Generally disinterested in playing favorites, I deflected to gossip. I asked the group which work they liked the least and, in my head, all I could think about were the artists who were impossible to work with or gave me work that I felt was unconsidered or unrelated to the work we had been doing together. I could see the shock in my kind friend’s face and another friend who was participating in the show said something along the lines of, ‘I hope it isn’t my work!”
I felt like such an asshole. P.A.D. [Project Art Distribution] is a project made up of and for an extended community of artists in the city and around the world. It was my moment to give thanks to all of them for making the project possible and I missed that opportunity.
If I could go back and change one thing in a previous project of mine, it would be to respond to that question with grace and gratitude and thank all of the people that make P.A.D. possible and enrich my life and work in New York.
Thank you Brent, Sam, Emily, Andy, Arkadiy, Xavi, James, Eliana, Sophia, and Sujung for all of your help with the project; thank you to all of the artists who have participated in P.A.D.; and thank you, Phil, for inviting me to contribute to your project!
About Patrick Carlin Mohundro:
Patrick Carlin Mohundro lives and works in New York. He is from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and holds an MFA from Hunter College (2019). He is currently the director of P.A.D, an introductory NADA member and pop-up exhibition space in historic SOHO (South of Houston) District in New York City. He is the recipient of NYFA and Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency grants and has received awards from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (NY, 2011), Salem Art Works (NY, 2012), St. Nicks Alliance’s Arts@Renaissance (NY, 2013), Incheon Art Platform (Seoul, 2014), the Founding Fellowship at Offshore Residency (ME, 2016), Famous Chimps’ artist-in-residence program (Ridgewood, 2019), Carrizozo Arts (NM, 2021), and A-Z West Artist (CA, 2021). He has had solo exhibitions and presentations with Essex Flowers (NY, 2024), Home Gallery (NY, 2023), Lonesome Dove (NY, 2023), and Collar Works (NY, 2013) and exhibited in group exhibitions at the Finnish Cultural Institute (NY, 2023), International Waters (NY, 2025), and O’Flaherty’s (NY, 2022).
Installation photos by Pierre Le Hors. All images courtesy of Patrick Mohundro.