Frank Turek biography of creative activities (mostly musical)
Frank Turek has actively contributed to the progressive cultural life of Portland, Maine, both as a creator and a presenter, since arriving in 1984. Whether through his own boxed assemblage art work, improvised music performances or curating exhibits, Turek's commitment to the avant-garde and the shock of the New, has consistently brought challenging work to the public eye.
The Last Tumbrill (2006) limited edition assemblage print. Originally printed as a series of mailart postcards
Beginning in the mid-1980s while attending classes at the University
of Southern Maine, Turek hosted several radio programs at the university
radio station WMPG where he introduced listeners to experimental sounds
and musical techniques of contemporary performers and composers. This
interest in challenging music evolved into an exploration of the marginalized
and derided easy listening music of the 50s and 60s, which came to full
bloom with the radio program My Vinyl Recliner. Airing from 1987-1996,
the show anticipated a resurgence of interest in this music and cultivated
a devoted audience.
Around this time in the late 1980s an interest in surf instrumental
music of the sixties and a picking up of the saxophone led Turek to
form the Portland, Maine rock band Shutdown 66, which quickly established itself
as a staple band on the local music scene. The obscure 60s instrumental
songs that Turek uncovered for Shutdown 66's repertoire pre-dated a
nationwide re-discovery of this music genre. (Sparked in part by the
cult movie Pulp Fiction, released in 1994, and featured surf instrumentals
for much of its soundtrack.) The posters and flyers for the Shutdown
66 featuring Turek's signature collage graphics, also gained notoriety
and praise.
After Shutdown 66 disbanded, Turek along with the band's drummer Mike
Dank, created the visionary novelty band The Clown School Dropouts.
Mixing the styles of 1930's novelty jazz with klezmer and circus music
motifs, this duo of "avant-schmaltz" music played regularly
from 1999 through 2004 in venues ranging rock
clubs to art galleries.
Around this time Turek expanded his repertoire of saxophone music when
he got together with two locally prominent improvising musicians Frank
SanFilippo and Chrys Demos. Together, as Mystic Out-Bop Review, they
challenged the norms of the jazz genre, infusing it with experimental
techniques and 'punk' energy. Their tight-knit improvisation performances
still regularly astonish Portland audiences.
detail from Charles the Rash' House of Horrors (1991)
All the while, since 1990, Turek had been monkishly working away at
his boxed assemblage artwork. In 2000, a relatively new venue for new
artistic ideas, Local 188, offered a show for these assemblage pieces.
It was at this show that the Portland art viewing public became widely
aware of Turek's artwork. New assemblage showings soon followed at other
local galleries.
In the fall of 2004, while scouting out possible new studio spaces,
Turek came across the old locksmith shop at 316a Congress. In a perfect
match of building-to-person, this Portland architectural icon became
ubu studio, a compact art gallery with a studio space in back allowing
Turek to continue his dual role of creator and presenter. And as Turek
brought his creative ideas to curating exhibits, ubu studio quickly
became 'the' gallery in town to see the new fresh faces in the Portland
art community. And with connections, fostered over the years, to the
avant-music scene, ubu studio also became home to New Music performances
by a variety of up and coming east coast musicians and composers.
In October of 2006 ubu studio ceased being a gallery and moved across town to 142 High St. suite 323 and re-formed as Frank Turek's private studio space. Here is where all the new work is being created. Please feel free to call and arrange a visit.
For more biographical tidbits and thoughts on my artwork check out to footer section on the other web pages in this site.