I landed at the Palmer House in Chicago a few weeks ago. I stayed over the weekend to catch some things. Rather than stop at the hotel restaurant for another $26.00 veggie egg white omelet after spending I don’t want to know how much on Belvedere on the rocks the night before, I headed out for a real egg and real bacon with real butter on real fake enriched white toast. Maybe some real potatoes too. I stepped out onto Monroe and went left, then went left again on State. I decided I would stop at the first real breakfast place I could find. Many blocks, Starbucks, Subways, MacDonalds, Au Bons later I took another left, discouraged and beaten down. I wandered, Jackson, Van Buren, Wells, and there it was. I finally found it a Chicago Institution of artery clogging breakfasts. I stepped into Billy Goats and ordered. I watched the cook pull the cooked bacon off the grill with the same latex gloved fingers he used to drop the raw stuff down. Puerto Rican girls came in asking if Papino was cooking their egg sandwiches. It went on for a while, a dramatic morning treat. I got what I wanted, stuffed the hash browns and toast into my already full mouth like the men in work getups around me. I still did not fit. They talked shop, baseball, and something about used tires. I headed down to Michigan for Homer meets Hopper at the Art Institute of Chicago.
This treat may have been better than my breakfast. There was a line way on down Michigan. The wait was two hours to get in for nonmembers. I tossed members only out in the late 80s and waited my turn. When noon rolled around and I got in for the real show, the line was like the procession at Lenin’s funeral. I shuffled along in line sandwiched between other viewers. I got a look at Homer’s water color work up close and began to appreciate the dabs of the brush. I saw the cut and paste of the figures he used and reused, but no PhotoShop for this guy, so who is to judge?
Homer was self taught and became so adept at his craft that he was illustrating for the biggest New York publications of his time. In an era where people were reading by candlelight at night, not masturbating on the internet, his use of watercolor was the most advanced of its day. Painterly with precision, fresh, spontaneous, close to impressionistic, but never losing its basic naturalism. Not content to merely illustrate and with his penchant for solitude driving him, he spent the last part of his life, living in and painting the coastal wilderness of Maine. His vast subject matter approached all activities of human existence during the 19th century, but his most powerful works convey man versus nature themes. He is still seen as a dominant influence on the American realist scene and was an artist that mastered the nature of his materials in a way that few artists do even today.
Then over to Hopper. This was another treat. Close up the brush work reveals layers of color, twist of brush hairs, to create the sense of light. And maybe not the sense of it, but actual light from the paint. Everyone around me focused on the images, the rooms, the woman. What does it mean? Who gives a rats ass about what does it mean. It’s art. From behind me a heads up: “Oh my God, the famous one. It’s called Nighthawks! Suzie!” Alright already. And at the end of the show, speculation about the empty room, the simplicity. Maybe the guy just got old and tired of people, the figures, the painting. Who knows? And who cares? The real action in Hopper’s work is close up, in the density of paint, the density of colors mixed extraordinarily on the canvas.
Hopper was a truly American painter whose incredibly individualistic works are benchmarks of American realism. His paintings embody a unique American 20th-century sensibility that is portrayed by isolation, melancholy, and loneliness. Perfectly characterized by vacant rooms and solitary buildings...
He made three trips to Europe between 1906 and 1910 (the year Homer died) but remained unaffected by the French and Spanish experiments in cubism going on at the time. He was influenced mainly by the great European realists— Diego Velazquez, Francisco de Goya, Honore Daumier, Edouard Manet and took from these artists what he needed for himself instead of relying on the hype of coming modernism.
Although one of Hopper's paintings was exhibited in the famous Armory Show of 1913 in New York City, his work excited little interest at that show. His paintings were committed to his own form of realism: compositional structure built on basic, large geometric forms; flat masses of color against less controlled paint; and the use of architectural elements in his scenes for their strong verticals, horizontals, diagonals as well as their powerful emotive presence. Hopper’s realism is from a dreamscape but not the unconscious surreal. It's a parallel universe where the content is from our space/time dimension but exists in the paintings as an alternate reality. An alternate realism is felt when viewing his work. And I argue a psycho-perceptual mind state that is experienced when viewing the work of artists that have truly come to understand their own reality.
The mob moved through, among them a few impatient buttinskis, noses in the air. I belched for the good of the order. Nose in the air buttinski backed away. Thank you Billy Goat Breakfast.
It was an extraordinary show. Keep in mind, my sweets, that Homer and Hopper had beginnings too. Hopper hit the sell out at the Rehn Gallery in New York in 1924—a realist of the inter-war period, I’ve read. This makes me really wonder about the San Diego Alternate Realists of our now endless war period. What is their place in history? Is Hutchison the Homer and Barrett the Hopper? The Klee? The Dali?
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Who needs New York City when you have events like Ten Years of Dark Vomit in San Diego
The great thing about traveling to San Diego for work is not the part about working but catching up with what is going on and taking off in the San Diego art scene. Who needs New York City when you have events like Ten Years of Dark Vomit at the At Art of Framing. The show is down by now but the address is 3333 Adams Ave. Check them out for the sake of checking them out because they are bound to bring on the art for the sake of bringing on art.
The Art of Framing frame shop has an excellent show space. It is owned and run by Blythe Goodwin and Ryan Campbell who apparently do high quality framing and attract some of San Diego's most interesting artists. This is a place that generates excitement about art and follows through with the goods every time.
For the opening, fog flowed from the door as I approached the gallery. It was a cool effect and cleared the mental palate in a way as I passed through the door. Although I was interested in catching this show, I was not prepared for what hit me when I walked into the gallery space. The incredible amount of work packed on the wall made the show feel like a full sized installation. There had to be 75 or 80 original works on two walls and in a window. A disco ball threw motion on the starkly lit walls and video galleries on a large monitor led viewers into inter-dimensional participants.
Kelly Hutchison's work feels like it crept up out of the puke and graffiti filled punk shack and onto the gallery wall. Dark Vomit indeed. The volume of his painting through the last ten years is the living growth of passion and vision. A Van Gogh-like progression from the low to the high brow. His expansive imagery and luscious color, does exactly what surrealism is but it's ever so much more. A complete yet eerily familiar alternate reality. Subtle psychological layers. DiChirico and Magritte-like mind spaces with contemporary icons.
The San Diego City Beat Art writer Kinsee Morlan coined it perfectly with "pop disturbism". His vision is truly unique to himself but the timelessness and popularity of the forms everyone can relate to. Kelly's painting style is direct and references 19th century European painting (partly from his use of elaborate framing) and 1950's commercial illustration. Many scenes are consciously the moment before, during or after action or mishap. Lots of eyes. Eyes on pies, too many eyes on cats, chickens and people. An eye floating in my morning coffee.
Among the many eyed portraits on the walls, which he is famous for, some of the eyes on the portraits seemed to be following me, especially "Mr A. Fish". I thought it was just another visual trick, but lo and behold! The eyes have eyes. It seems Mr. Hutchison has recently been working with Mr. Bret Barrett, a kinetic artist I have been following for some time. The "Toxic Avenger", with one regular moving eye and one super-random moving eye courtesy of Mr. Barrett was mesmerizing for its modeled toxic skin as well as not being able to figure out how that googly eye motion is so random.
A picture of this show could be the pure and true definition of eye candy. Visually and psychologically exciting. Disturbing in only a fun-weird way, unless you are of weak constitution. This show is past tense as in ed, d, or t, but if Kelly Hutchison is showing anywhere you might be, it will be a must see. When I checked the works before leaving there were more red dots. My advice, buy low, sell high for art’s sake.
The Art of Framing frame shop has an excellent show space. It is owned and run by Blythe Goodwin and Ryan Campbell who apparently do high quality framing and attract some of San Diego's most interesting artists. This is a place that generates excitement about art and follows through with the goods every time.
For the opening, fog flowed from the door as I approached the gallery. It was a cool effect and cleared the mental palate in a way as I passed through the door. Although I was interested in catching this show, I was not prepared for what hit me when I walked into the gallery space. The incredible amount of work packed on the wall made the show feel like a full sized installation. There had to be 75 or 80 original works on two walls and in a window. A disco ball threw motion on the starkly lit walls and video galleries on a large monitor led viewers into inter-dimensional participants.
Kelly Hutchison's work feels like it crept up out of the puke and graffiti filled punk shack and onto the gallery wall. Dark Vomit indeed. The volume of his painting through the last ten years is the living growth of passion and vision. A Van Gogh-like progression from the low to the high brow. His expansive imagery and luscious color, does exactly what surrealism is but it's ever so much more. A complete yet eerily familiar alternate reality. Subtle psychological layers. DiChirico and Magritte-like mind spaces with contemporary icons.
The San Diego City Beat Art writer Kinsee Morlan coined it perfectly with "pop disturbism". His vision is truly unique to himself but the timelessness and popularity of the forms everyone can relate to. Kelly's painting style is direct and references 19th century European painting (partly from his use of elaborate framing) and 1950's commercial illustration. Many scenes are consciously the moment before, during or after action or mishap. Lots of eyes. Eyes on pies, too many eyes on cats, chickens and people. An eye floating in my morning coffee.
Among the many eyed portraits on the walls, which he is famous for, some of the eyes on the portraits seemed to be following me, especially "Mr A. Fish". I thought it was just another visual trick, but lo and behold! The eyes have eyes. It seems Mr. Hutchison has recently been working with Mr. Bret Barrett, a kinetic artist I have been following for some time. The "Toxic Avenger", with one regular moving eye and one super-random moving eye courtesy of Mr. Barrett was mesmerizing for its modeled toxic skin as well as not being able to figure out how that googly eye motion is so random.
A picture of this show could be the pure and true definition of eye candy. Visually and psychologically exciting. Disturbing in only a fun-weird way, unless you are of weak constitution. This show is past tense as in ed, d, or t, but if Kelly Hutchison is showing anywhere you might be, it will be a must see. When I checked the works before leaving there were more red dots. My advice, buy low, sell high for art’s sake.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
The Midwest Island for Art’s Sake
I sing a song of myself and my country that amends for the moment a patriotic little jingle to go from California to the Midwest Island. So let us just substitute the Midwest Island of the Twin Cities for that other island—Minneapolis being in my mind just now an island of urbanity and culture in a sea of hard living, hard working, hard drinking rural America. For the moment this island is as east as we need to go from California to discover more art and artful living for the sake of art and artful living.
And what I discover on this island of urbanity is the Rosalux Gallery on Washington Ave and the Criminales di Cromatica, new artwork by Shawn McNulty and Michael Sweere. Actually I saw this show on March 18th, the night that it opened, but life on the road kept me too busy to post. I write this from looking at the digital photos I took opening night with Sweere’s permission. The photos are good, but the work is far more interesting from a couple feet or inches away.
Sweere’s work in this show is founded on reuse. The works are patched together pieces of packaging such as Summit IPA six packs, wood blocks, and old tins secured on a surface with shiny little nails. Sweere's reuse pieces are displayed among some of Shawn McNulty’s Diebenkornesque landscapes of a mind. Michael Sweere's nailed tin pieces cross illustration and sculpture resulting in tight metal worked objects with humorous and thoughtful scenes. The use of former packaging material whose original imagery is usurped for the artist's purpose, wrapped and nailed around a canvas support, produces levels of design, packaging and product interplay that are shiny and fun. "Shooting Arrows At The Sea" is a nice example of the collaged metal and patterned nails creating a new scene that defies painted space. But the figure, color and shapes beckon the viewer in. It is somewhat remarkable for printed flat tin and nails even.
Shawn McNulty's paintings recall Diebenkorn meets Rothko roughed up by Anselm Kieffer without the tar. The color and shape fields work best in my view, when the paint is thick and worked and pushed and textured through the process. A few of these paintings nail it and are thick and rich with layers of work and color. These are the ones where the Push and Pull of foreground/background, space/flatness have the most impact.
The showing of these two artists together is an interesting choice that plays with the whole idea of what painting can be. The non-objective work asks you to enjoy painting as color, form, line, etc. for its own value. The tin pieces, with scenes created from commercially printed material, involving no actual painting, create a story/visual space that is read like a painting. A thought that occurred to me only after viewing my digital pics again.
The work piques my interest. Some at the opening had their interest piqued enough to pull out their wallets and get on with the business of purchasing art for the sake of purchasing, a novel convention at an art opening.
The space itself on Washington Street was a great place for a wandering Bill Grey. At every turn, a surprise, another space filled with work, another corner, another clique of arties looking, sipping, jabbering about the stuff on the walls. And then stairs up and down. Downstairs was beer and art and Sweere himself in his ProDesign eyewear. Upstairs you will find a view into the bookstore, coffee shop next door at the railing. It was a great place to hang and wait for a crowd to clear out from in front of the McNulty paintings on the wall opposite.
And after checking out the show, it was just a hundred yards or so to Grumpy's and the Meat Trivia show. As I discovered, to to Grumpy’s prepared to play, and if you order the tater tots with your local brew, you will need a couple of cronies who are not South Beachers to finish them off for you as they are served by the 3 pound basket. The show is meat trivia in starch in starch heaven.
Art, Meat Trivia, and enough starch to make the Pillsbury Doughboy laugh without poking–a well rounded night on the Midwest Island.
And what I discover on this island of urbanity is the Rosalux Gallery on Washington Ave and the Criminales di Cromatica, new artwork by Shawn McNulty and Michael Sweere. Actually I saw this show on March 18th, the night that it opened, but life on the road kept me too busy to post. I write this from looking at the digital photos I took opening night with Sweere’s permission. The photos are good, but the work is far more interesting from a couple feet or inches away.
Sweere’s work in this show is founded on reuse. The works are patched together pieces of packaging such as Summit IPA six packs, wood blocks, and old tins secured on a surface with shiny little nails. Sweere's reuse pieces are displayed among some of Shawn McNulty’s Diebenkornesque landscapes of a mind. Michael Sweere's nailed tin pieces cross illustration and sculpture resulting in tight metal worked objects with humorous and thoughtful scenes. The use of former packaging material whose original imagery is usurped for the artist's purpose, wrapped and nailed around a canvas support, produces levels of design, packaging and product interplay that are shiny and fun. "Shooting Arrows At The Sea" is a nice example of the collaged metal and patterned nails creating a new scene that defies painted space. But the figure, color and shapes beckon the viewer in. It is somewhat remarkable for printed flat tin and nails even.
Shawn McNulty's paintings recall Diebenkorn meets Rothko roughed up by Anselm Kieffer without the tar. The color and shape fields work best in my view, when the paint is thick and worked and pushed and textured through the process. A few of these paintings nail it and are thick and rich with layers of work and color. These are the ones where the Push and Pull of foreground/background, space/flatness have the most impact.
The showing of these two artists together is an interesting choice that plays with the whole idea of what painting can be. The non-objective work asks you to enjoy painting as color, form, line, etc. for its own value. The tin pieces, with scenes created from commercially printed material, involving no actual painting, create a story/visual space that is read like a painting. A thought that occurred to me only after viewing my digital pics again.
The work piques my interest. Some at the opening had their interest piqued enough to pull out their wallets and get on with the business of purchasing art for the sake of purchasing, a novel convention at an art opening.
The space itself on Washington Street was a great place for a wandering Bill Grey. At every turn, a surprise, another space filled with work, another corner, another clique of arties looking, sipping, jabbering about the stuff on the walls. And then stairs up and down. Downstairs was beer and art and Sweere himself in his ProDesign eyewear. Upstairs you will find a view into the bookstore, coffee shop next door at the railing. It was a great place to hang and wait for a crowd to clear out from in front of the McNulty paintings on the wall opposite.
And after checking out the show, it was just a hundred yards or so to Grumpy's and the Meat Trivia show. As I discovered, to to Grumpy’s prepared to play, and if you order the tater tots with your local brew, you will need a couple of cronies who are not South Beachers to finish them off for you as they are served by the 3 pound basket. The show is meat trivia in starch in starch heaven.
Art, Meat Trivia, and enough starch to make the Pillsbury Doughboy laugh without poking–a well rounded night on the Midwest Island.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Yo, Boss
Endeavor
Part 2
Yo, Boss. I'm looking for a walk to work program, something with good benefits and time off, something that takes me far far away, on voyage to an art for art's sake place. Something that takes me past Art Produce every damn day. Why? Because this place might be the birth place of some kind of art movement. I'm talking Part 2 of what hopefully will have a Part 3 and other parts beyond the flimsy fodder of day to day art entrees.
The show is evolving through the millennia of these average times. Universal themes are emerging, crawling up on the shores and gasping gill-free. What's in the show? Birth as a metaphor for artistic creation. The feminine power of the universe celebrated as the source of art. The mechanics of creation and creativity. The gestation of genius. The flowering fruit of loss. The heart of Art and the ability of Art to transcend. Art is my God to be and how great thou art once I walk and grasp with my opposable mind.
Quickly now, for the show is ongoingly going on.
Paul Brogden's "Edgar" presents a brooding portrait of the godfather of the Twilight Zone and the perfect icon as the first piece in this collection of work. It gets the viewer, the voyager into the other-worldy mindset of the "Untitled Guru" levitating shaped painting by Zuriel Waters. This is even more fun and games than his Part 1 offering. And this time, in this Part 2 extravaganza, Bill Pierce delivers a piece with pop. Pierce’s "Art Takes Lives" print leaps to a statement of truth. But Billy won’t be a hero, won’t be a fool with his life.
Nuvia Crisol Guerra's "Uterine Cycle" shows a 4 piece row of different emotions surrounding the power of the womb. Well, at least that's what someone said, so we'll go with it here. That okay with you, Boss? It is a smartly painted set that speaks volumes more than most feminist work I've seen over the last ten years. It celebrates what is.
And then here it is, the work that I looked for in Part 1. Barrett's work again gives me pause. What creatures of what kind of mind are these? What jittering, jangling motorized emotives are these? I laugh. I laugh harder. Then I really laugh. Why do I want to look away when I cannot stop looking on? These creatures and dimensions defy their space; they give rise to an alternate realism. But then, where art thou reptilian brain, but in Part 2.
The labor of the body and the light of the mind roll along with balance in Christopher Raymond's "Self Portrait." Dave Miles Mind must be evolving still. His "Simians Of The Atom" is a portrait of the evolution of Art as well as humans, unless of course, you are a creationist. Then it is none other than Adam and Eve after the garden is gone.
Perry Vasquez Shows a well painted centralized heart surrounded by flowers in "Inquietum est cor meum". The fragile power of beauty is suspended in the universe and the pumping power driving creativity.
The same artists from Endeavor Part 1 stepped it up with even better work for Part 2. Of course, Part 1 was on view much longer, but Part 2 was the show to see. Too bad it will be down by the time I have this uploaded. But, remember the artists from this show; they are worth the time and effort of a following. These artists do art when it is so much easier to do nothing or just comment (yours truly included). Of all the diploid zygotes, in all the wombs of the entire world, why are these artists here in this place? Who cares? It is just a damn good thing they crawled up on their shores and dared to gasp.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
ENDEAVOR
Art Produce Gallery
3139 University Ave., San Diego, Ca.
It’s on view Jan 12 to Feb 16.
Searching for the good stuff, I arrived in San Diego and surfed the web for art, for art authorities, for art peoples in the know. And lo and behold, there it was: artasauthority.com. What could be better? Click. Shows in San Diego, where I happen to be on business far from my Midwestern home. And what do I see on artasauthority.com, but a name from my boyhood town. Flashback. Barrett. Bret Barrett. Bret Barrett co-curated a show at Art Produce Gallery 3139 University Ave. with Bill Pierce of Radioactive future. I find the Art Produce gallery. Closed at night, but I can see in the windows. This is almost better—a glass barrier instead of a people barrier between me and the work. No bodies. No temptation. No love in my heart and lust in my trousers, to quote Cheever. My own reflection in the glass is my only distraction. So there I am. What do I see? Not enough Barrett for one thing, not one of his sculptural contraptions, but I’ll move on. Lynn Susholtz seems to attract decent talent for the space.
The show "Endeavor" staged by Radioactive Future is a collection of work that may be a happenstance result of artists starved for places to show or a brilliant exhibit set up to illustrate an intrinsic struggle in Art today that dates back to Byzantine and Gothic periods and quite possibly predating that. Good enough to come back for a closer look when the place is actually open, which is what I do. The first work I am confronted with is Bill Pierce's. Judging from the show’s flyers featuring Andy Warhol, and seeing the loads of work Pierce has done under the Radioactive Future banner in the past, it is clear that Pierce is interested in Warhol’s work ethic but also his advertising and celebrity over art, marketing practice. Ah, the new church of art has been developing around Warhol since the 60's. This school of thought in recent years has done the same thing to Art and Artists that the church did over a thousand years ago, what art schools did 100 years ago, and maybe still do—all taking the Art out of the artwork.
The irony of the show is the "Thought Police" piece by Pierce. Art has always been a battle for human minds. When given the attention of a viewer, does the work assist the person into their own mind space or does it use the opportunity to impose a simple predetermined message? The church, before the Renaissance, had rules for artists to help spread their word to those who could not read (and no glorification of the body or mind with the beauty of paint, just the message). The Byzantine artist made art prescribed by authority of the church—flat simple messages. The Gothic artist remained in line with the requests of the church but worked to form his own inner idea of figures and objects, soon bringing reason and feeling into artwork for then and the future. Graphic work is the perfect medium for political propaganda and advertising as we in America have known for sure since the 1950's. Pierce once again designs the perfectly patterned ad for himself. Art has always either existed for the simple beauty and pleasure of the mind or it has been usurped and used to sell something. Either way, you can buy it or not buy it. When I buy it, I look for something "real" not an idea made exclusively to sell its trendy self. Andi Brandenburg's message comes across as political and has a much more meaningful use of design and graphic processes. It also has artistic appeal. The message is the meaning. The best use of reproduction method Art is when there is a bigger idea to the Art than just the artist. Next, the classic 70's Keep On Truckin' poster by Perry Vasquez and Victor Payan manipulated and displayed in 4 panel Warhol style with a new political twist, well done. It also helps to draw out my verbal thought train here...
At first glance from the window this show seemed sparse and haphazard. But the stark graphic work is quickly read through and the intermediary between graphic work and paintings are different kinds of collages. I notice a stack of three strong panels, a nebulous mix of misty spray and hard edged imagery by Acamonchi. I also note three beautifully constructed mixed media collage pieces by May Ling Martinez and three viscerally gripping collage/assemblage pieces by Barrett. (Not his work I'm used to seeing.) The clean precision lines of Martinez's intriguing works of the scientifically mystical remind us why hands are still better than computers and give way to the splashed, glued, poured, painted, grit of Barrett’s definitely hand-made "Arp-Types".
Funny thing about Barrett is he is a transplant here. But in this world, someone will always remind you where you come from. Barrett was the founder of an art barn in Riverwest Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Frequenter of Fuel Café on Center Street. Smoker smoking. Barrett ran Barn art shows. You got it. He ran shows that as far back as 1990 rivaled anything seen on my trips to New York, Chicago and LA. He ran a studio that was nothing more than an old barn hidden in the middle of a Milwaukee neighborhood. It was the epitome of "underground". But then, it was in Milwaukee. Barrett’s kinetic work was always a step beyond, yet profoundly real and hilarious. Barrett’s work was always the kind of thing that got people talking, made people nervous, impressed Milwaukee art critics. The last show I attended was in 2000. The place was packed. I never had the opportunity to meet Barrett. And then, Poof! No more Bret Barrett. No more art Barn. Barn 9, I think it was called. Barn9 had a website. The website went with Barrett. But then 8 years later, there’s Barrett's name on a flyer at artasauthority.com. I’ve been to Barrett’s website. I almost ordered a painting. When I was ready, he was sold out. Good for him. Bad for Bill Grey. Back to the show, Mr. Barrett.
The painting section delivers a flow of work that gets deeper and deeper into the endeavor of painting and universal mind-space that painting can excite...The most beautiful piece comes next. Paul Brog's Beavis and Butthead painting twisted the whole idea of the show upon itself for me when I viewed it close. It is a masterfully painted picture of two normally flat graphic cartoon characters. It introduces the painting section and concisely, conceptually for me, loops the flow of the show. Brog’s painting style does something that makes me think I have to watch this guy.
Nuvia Crisol Guerra's painting is at the precisely perfect intersection of the modes of expression in this show. Modeled paint with a flowing graphic flowery almost body art feel, which is enhanced by the centralized composition and pink background. I like skulls and girls. Girl skulls are super cool. All paintings are about light, since color is in fact light. To paint neon and pull it off is quite a conceptual feat. Two perfectly packaged paintings by Lara K. Tamalunas pulls off this feat.
Dave Miles ingeniously paints content that stirs science and art and myth and history and has to be one of the best painters in San Diego. The monkey blankly looking at the space-suited man is perfect. Humanity's helpless drift through the evolution of time and space. The evolution of art and thought. Macro-vision. Thoughtful. Life affirming. Zuri Waters shaped painting is wild and joyous, performing a visual balance of color dancing on the lines between painting and graphics and sculpture and man and woman, when you look close
Celene can paint. I've seen her work at Zedism Gallery a few months back, flowing, organically beautiful as the female in snow depicted. Her work brings back the feeling I get looking at some of the early 20th century German Expressionists, but painted even better. Mary Fleener presents a piece on black velvet and it's quite attractive. It surprised me to see this electric colored soft painting and not see her work in the graphic side of the show. I have seen her graphic style produced, not by computer or screen print, but the old school real way—with a brush and paint. Christopher Raymond presents imagery that caps this show exactly from my perspective. Painterly, with control, a tree grows brilliantly from the hat of a relaxed, contemplative, earth-shaped man, not telling you what to think, but skillfully presenting something for you to experience in your own mind's way.
The show is definitely worth seeing. It is an excellent showing space. Extremes in vision often lead to informative viewing. Part 2 opens Feb. 9th. I'll miss the party again...but will try to check in after the opening. If you like artist over art stuff and prefer marketing over art, there’s something for you. If you want to get close to the work of an up and coming artist that your great grand kids will be reading about in art history books, there’s Barrett’s work. And there is more. So, there’s something for everyone in the “Endeavor” show at Lynn Susholtz’s Art Produce gallery 3139 University Ave., San Diego, Ca. It’s on view Jan 12 to Feb 16. Catch it while you can. Bill Grey, January 2008.
3139 University Ave., San Diego, Ca.
It’s on view Jan 12 to Feb 16.
Searching for the good stuff, I arrived in San Diego and surfed the web for art, for art authorities, for art peoples in the know. And lo and behold, there it was: artasauthority.com. What could be better? Click. Shows in San Diego, where I happen to be on business far from my Midwestern home. And what do I see on artasauthority.com, but a name from my boyhood town. Flashback. Barrett. Bret Barrett. Bret Barrett co-curated a show at Art Produce Gallery 3139 University Ave. with Bill Pierce of Radioactive future. I find the Art Produce gallery. Closed at night, but I can see in the windows. This is almost better—a glass barrier instead of a people barrier between me and the work. No bodies. No temptation. No love in my heart and lust in my trousers, to quote Cheever. My own reflection in the glass is my only distraction. So there I am. What do I see? Not enough Barrett for one thing, not one of his sculptural contraptions, but I’ll move on. Lynn Susholtz seems to attract decent talent for the space.
The show "Endeavor" staged by Radioactive Future is a collection of work that may be a happenstance result of artists starved for places to show or a brilliant exhibit set up to illustrate an intrinsic struggle in Art today that dates back to Byzantine and Gothic periods and quite possibly predating that. Good enough to come back for a closer look when the place is actually open, which is what I do. The first work I am confronted with is Bill Pierce's. Judging from the show’s flyers featuring Andy Warhol, and seeing the loads of work Pierce has done under the Radioactive Future banner in the past, it is clear that Pierce is interested in Warhol’s work ethic but also his advertising and celebrity over art, marketing practice. Ah, the new church of art has been developing around Warhol since the 60's. This school of thought in recent years has done the same thing to Art and Artists that the church did over a thousand years ago, what art schools did 100 years ago, and maybe still do—all taking the Art out of the artwork.
The irony of the show is the "Thought Police" piece by Pierce. Art has always been a battle for human minds. When given the attention of a viewer, does the work assist the person into their own mind space or does it use the opportunity to impose a simple predetermined message? The church, before the Renaissance, had rules for artists to help spread their word to those who could not read (and no glorification of the body or mind with the beauty of paint, just the message). The Byzantine artist made art prescribed by authority of the church—flat simple messages. The Gothic artist remained in line with the requests of the church but worked to form his own inner idea of figures and objects, soon bringing reason and feeling into artwork for then and the future. Graphic work is the perfect medium for political propaganda and advertising as we in America have known for sure since the 1950's. Pierce once again designs the perfectly patterned ad for himself. Art has always either existed for the simple beauty and pleasure of the mind or it has been usurped and used to sell something. Either way, you can buy it or not buy it. When I buy it, I look for something "real" not an idea made exclusively to sell its trendy self. Andi Brandenburg's message comes across as political and has a much more meaningful use of design and graphic processes. It also has artistic appeal. The message is the meaning. The best use of reproduction method Art is when there is a bigger idea to the Art than just the artist. Next, the classic 70's Keep On Truckin' poster by Perry Vasquez and Victor Payan manipulated and displayed in 4 panel Warhol style with a new political twist, well done. It also helps to draw out my verbal thought train here...
At first glance from the window this show seemed sparse and haphazard. But the stark graphic work is quickly read through and the intermediary between graphic work and paintings are different kinds of collages. I notice a stack of three strong panels, a nebulous mix of misty spray and hard edged imagery by Acamonchi. I also note three beautifully constructed mixed media collage pieces by May Ling Martinez and three viscerally gripping collage/assemblage pieces by Barrett. (Not his work I'm used to seeing.) The clean precision lines of Martinez's intriguing works of the scientifically mystical remind us why hands are still better than computers and give way to the splashed, glued, poured, painted, grit of Barrett’s definitely hand-made "Arp-Types".
Funny thing about Barrett is he is a transplant here. But in this world, someone will always remind you where you come from. Barrett was the founder of an art barn in Riverwest Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Frequenter of Fuel Café on Center Street. Smoker smoking. Barrett ran Barn art shows. You got it. He ran shows that as far back as 1990 rivaled anything seen on my trips to New York, Chicago and LA. He ran a studio that was nothing more than an old barn hidden in the middle of a Milwaukee neighborhood. It was the epitome of "underground". But then, it was in Milwaukee. Barrett’s kinetic work was always a step beyond, yet profoundly real and hilarious. Barrett’s work was always the kind of thing that got people talking, made people nervous, impressed Milwaukee art critics. The last show I attended was in 2000. The place was packed. I never had the opportunity to meet Barrett. And then, Poof! No more Bret Barrett. No more art Barn. Barn 9, I think it was called. Barn9 had a website. The website went with Barrett. But then 8 years later, there’s Barrett's name on a flyer at artasauthority.com. I’ve been to Barrett’s website. I almost ordered a painting. When I was ready, he was sold out. Good for him. Bad for Bill Grey. Back to the show, Mr. Barrett.
The painting section delivers a flow of work that gets deeper and deeper into the endeavor of painting and universal mind-space that painting can excite...The most beautiful piece comes next. Paul Brog's Beavis and Butthead painting twisted the whole idea of the show upon itself for me when I viewed it close. It is a masterfully painted picture of two normally flat graphic cartoon characters. It introduces the painting section and concisely, conceptually for me, loops the flow of the show. Brog’s painting style does something that makes me think I have to watch this guy.
Nuvia Crisol Guerra's painting is at the precisely perfect intersection of the modes of expression in this show. Modeled paint with a flowing graphic flowery almost body art feel, which is enhanced by the centralized composition and pink background. I like skulls and girls. Girl skulls are super cool. All paintings are about light, since color is in fact light. To paint neon and pull it off is quite a conceptual feat. Two perfectly packaged paintings by Lara K. Tamalunas pulls off this feat.
Dave Miles ingeniously paints content that stirs science and art and myth and history and has to be one of the best painters in San Diego. The monkey blankly looking at the space-suited man is perfect. Humanity's helpless drift through the evolution of time and space. The evolution of art and thought. Macro-vision. Thoughtful. Life affirming. Zuri Waters shaped painting is wild and joyous, performing a visual balance of color dancing on the lines between painting and graphics and sculpture and man and woman, when you look close
Celene can paint. I've seen her work at Zedism Gallery a few months back, flowing, organically beautiful as the female in snow depicted. Her work brings back the feeling I get looking at some of the early 20th century German Expressionists, but painted even better. Mary Fleener presents a piece on black velvet and it's quite attractive. It surprised me to see this electric colored soft painting and not see her work in the graphic side of the show. I have seen her graphic style produced, not by computer or screen print, but the old school real way—with a brush and paint. Christopher Raymond presents imagery that caps this show exactly from my perspective. Painterly, with control, a tree grows brilliantly from the hat of a relaxed, contemplative, earth-shaped man, not telling you what to think, but skillfully presenting something for you to experience in your own mind's way.
The show is definitely worth seeing. It is an excellent showing space. Extremes in vision often lead to informative viewing. Part 2 opens Feb. 9th. I'll miss the party again...but will try to check in after the opening. If you like artist over art stuff and prefer marketing over art, there’s something for you. If you want to get close to the work of an up and coming artist that your great grand kids will be reading about in art history books, there’s Barrett’s work. And there is more. So, there’s something for everyone in the “Endeavor” show at Lynn Susholtz’s Art Produce gallery 3139 University Ave., San Diego, Ca. It’s on view Jan 12 to Feb 16. Catch it while you can. Bill Grey, January 2008.
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