Words and Deeds

The Visual Art Worker is a dialog about visual art.  I concentrate on galleries and museums in western New York, but this week we go much further west to Berkeley,  California to be exact.

University of California at Berkeley

Museum of Art

On the campus of UC Berkeley there is a wonderful museum, so let's go inside!  Unusual for an art museum - we are greeted by musical outbursts!  Today, a demonstration is being conducted for an audience of about a hundred children, to use their imagination to think up unique ways of making music and noise on common everyday household objects..

Away from this cacophony and up the stairs we found "Deities,Demons & Teachers", a showing of Tibetan and Nepalese arts going back to the 13th century.  Presiding over the ceremonies - a larger-than-life gold Shakyamuni Buddha sits, cross legged, in the act of attaining enlightenment and inner peace (just what we need these days!).

Gilt, bronze, Tibetan 14th century

I don't know that finding inner peace was any easier in 14th century Tibet than it is today.  The art of Tibetan Buddhism is not afraid of ritualized emotions, or the acting out of various characters in the hopes that people can identify with the agency of human interaction and practice mindfulness and compassion.

Wrathful Deities of Bardo, Tibetan - 18th century

color, pigments on cloth

The demons were also out in full force, and these very detailed paintings ( tankas ) serve as a visual reminder to not transgress or else!  In a side room a dancing Devi attracts my attention, she is all voluptuousness and movement.  Meanwhile across the room stands Lokesvara, a lord of wealth under a tree of jewels and playful monkeys.

Nepal, 19th century, Gilt, Bronze

Down the corridor, an exhibition of figurative art titled "A Ballet of Heads" attracts your eye with a strategy to effect the emotional stability of the viewer.  From the School of Lucas Cranach, we see a portrait of Lucretia who is about to take her own life - as a result of her being violated, and next to that is a painting of Judith with a sword and the head of Holofernes...  Elsewhere are theatrical studies by Rubens, and the American artists Marsden Hartley and Romare Bearden.  A late Philip Guston honks at you - a funky cartoon automobile filled with hooded Klansmen picks a trail toward mayhem in an urban setting. 

Along the next incline is a gallery filled with sensuous color in the abstractions of Hans Hofmann.

During the 20th century, Hofmann was among the most influential teachers of painting and drawing, and artists flocked to hear him speak, and take his classes in Provincetown and on eighth street in Greenwich Village.  Many of my teachers were students in the Hofmann School and so I feel a strong relationship to this artwork.

Hans Hofmann, 1960  "Goliath"

oil on canvas

Hans Hofmann had to flee his native Germany, and the school he had there during World War ll and initially he was teaching a summer session at Berkeley, this was back in 1940.  "Rectangles" is the title for the show we were looking at in the museum, and three paintings stood out for me:  "Goliath " from 1960,  "Sanctum Sanctorum" from 1962,  and "Equinox" from 1958.  I took extra time to look over the surfaces of these paintings which have held up remarkably well over a half century - this art has staying power!

Finally,  if you want to have fun, seeing this short video brings Rembrandt to life:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/a6W2ZMpsxhg?feature=player_embedded

The Finger Lakes

In a matter of a few days on a summer weekend some interesting exhibitions and a new gallery have opened - now isn't that a show of optimism and affirmation in the face of all the news of the week?

Bradley Butler, an R.I.T. graduate student has gone on to be the director of a new gallery in Clifton Springs called Main Street Arts.  The newly renovated space promises to be a lively spot with a big group show that opened Saturday, July 13th.  Check out their little promo video for the show titled "Locality".

Join the Print Club of Rochester, today!

On Sunday afternoon, I was in the auditorium of the Memorial Art Gallery, giving an illustrated talk about The Print Club of Rochester, a non-profit group dedicated to fine art printmaking.  A nice cool place to be on a hot afternoon, we had a good time talking about prints and the process of making them and then I went on a run through the 64th Finger Lakes Exhibition.

Sometimes with a juried show you can get a sense of the Juror's aesthetic inclinations - but not on this occasion.  I was glad that one of my current students - Joseph Tarantelli had a print accepted into this show, and there were certainly many people in the main gallery whose work is familiar to me.  But I think that the selections were all over the map so hanging this show must have been very engaging.

David Dorsey

Earlier this year, I had the chance to see a  detailed painting of a skull by David Dorsey at The Oxford Gallery in a show I reviewed from the spring titled " The Four Humors".  It was good to see this painting and more works from this artist.  Among other people whose work I have followed and reviewed - a shimmering abstraction near the entrance to this show -from Jeanne Beck was very attractive.

Jeanne Beck

Stephen Merritt has a ceramic construction that is very bold and Asian in its stance and statement.  For a bit of poetry try the artist's books of Sue Huggins Leopard - just taking the time to slow down and enjoy this tableau - I think you will agree is very soothing.

Dewey Fladd has a series of black and white mug shots ( in a grid of nine images ) that reminds one of Chuck Close, and there are are some wonderful three dimensional works in this  juried show worth a mention.

Lee Hoag

Sculpture and found objects are put together in an assemblage by Lee Hoag that looks like a tool for Goliath.Something about this object and its cousin on the next pedestal that I found interesting in its' shiny simplicity.

There is much more to this show - paintings, photos, sculpture, and collage - something for every taste. 

Frack Less

Gloria Betlem, pastel
  "Canadice Spring"  at St. John Fisher College


Like a canary in the proverbial coal mine, Gloria Betlem describes herself being diagnosed in the late 1990's with acute reactions to pesticides, solvents and other chemicals.  This can prove to be difficult for an artist who uses paints and thinners as a painter or printmaker -  and so one has to alter their practice and keep in mind the strictures put in place because of health concerns.  It is also this sensitivity that makes one more aware of dangers in the environment - and dangers to the environment - and once again if you are an artist - this could become the theme of your artwork.

"The Finger Lakes: Above and Below" is the result - a show of primarily pastel paintings and mixed media that highlights the beauty of the Finger Lakes region, and at the same time their vulnerability in the face of natural gas exploration and exploitation.  An interesting tableau - a map really - to the individual lakes as seen from above - is juxtaposed with a view below ground that features the famous shale formations in which natural gas is found - this is all part of a new exhibition that just opened July 10th in the Patricia Ross Art Gallery in the Joseph S. Skalny Welcome Center at St. John Fisher College.

Small and medium size pastel paintings from the past seven years have brought Gloria Betlem, who is a teacher and graduate of R.I.T., some notoriety - especially since people are waking up to the fact that their environment may be changed irrevocably if the petroleum industry gets their wish.  Look at this art, and then look around you - this art heightens our awareness of what could be lost, and for that reminder Gloria deserves our thanks.

In another part of town, on West Main Street, in the historic Susan B.Anthony district, my colleague Luvon Sheppard has re-opened the Joy Gallery and I look forward to seeing the shows at this new location.

Painting is Alive and Well

Ryan Bubnis
  paintings  at  Gallery 1975

As one show departs the other one begins, and this is to say that PAINTING is alive and well in Rochester galleries this summer.  In the Gallery 1975 this past Sunday, I looked over the work of two artists who developed a concept for an exhibition with a limited choice of colors ( Black and Blue ).  Their show included paintings and collage and there were several interesting aspects, the first of which is their collaboration.  I am seeing much more of this kind of cooperative effort among pairs of artists ( in this case Lucas Irwin and Ryan Bubnis ), and even collectives that are challenging our ideas of authorship and seemingly also challenge the art world and its structures of commerce.

'Black and Blue" sounds a bit down for the title of a show, but it is accurate to the artwork chosen for display.  The painted abstractions by Lucas Irwin have a strong design sense and they work well as a group on the walls of this gallery.  The paintings are very linear- playing with our sense of depth perception - and this is also part of the charm of Ryan Bubnis' artwork which has a faux naif quality.  I enjoyed the ensemble of decorated objects on a little shelf, and his (#48) "Black and Blue Landscape".

Belinda Bryce
   paintings at Gallery r

A few blocks away, at 100 College Avenue, the invitational show "New Work" will open this week at Gallery r.  Five artists associated with R.I.T. are showing selected recent paintings in this handsome student run gallery.  The show is open through July 20, 2013, so go and check out the artwork.  Belinda Bryce has a new set of larger scale paintings ( for her ) with some refreshing textures and patterns to create a visual dialog amongst themselves.  Texture and wordplay is on view in the paintings of Elizabeth Coyne and her paintings share a palette of subdued color with another one of the artists in the show: Bradley Butler.  Mr. Butler has an impressionist/expressionist message to offer about atmospheres and landscapes that are just far enough away to be out-of-focus, so they hang on the wall and vibrate ever-so-slightly.

Bradley Butler
  paintings at Gallery r

Jose  Enrique Portas has studied painting at R.I.T., but he also brings over from his native Spain a love of the surreal and a knowledge of the local landscape of the mind.  Some of his figurative pieces involve a test of the integrity of the body - so one can identify with their vulnerabilities.  Vincent Massaro rounds out the cast of characters at Gallery r, with his framed small scale works that could be studies for sculptures - like a pile of legos that want to be manipulated into a larger form - except they are all in a painted place.

Summer flowers outside Gallery 1975

I Know They Know

Louise Bourgeois ( ink on silk )
  at The Herbert F. Johnson Museum
  "HAIR - Untangling Roots of Identity"
     thru July 14, 2013

If the government is conducting surveillance and reads my blog, at least they will be learning something about what to see in our part of New York State!

On a sunny day, I ducked inside the Herbert F. Johnson Museum on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, to see their exhibitions.  The new entrance to the museum leads you downstairs past a partially enclosed Japanese garden and towards a temporary exhibition extolling the artistic potential and virtues of human hair.

The show accompanied by a handy little catalog was developed by The History of Art Majors' Society, and on the walls of the museum were myriad images where hair and hair styles play their part ( no pun intended).

Marina Abramovic

Marina Abramovic in a video projected on a wall is seen brushing her hair furiously and intoning that:"Art Must Be Beautiful" and the "Artist must be beautiful" meanwhile her image conveys frustration as the performance piece continues and the quandary deepens....  The subtitle of the show is "Untangling Roots of Identity" and this concerns both sexes - made memorable by the image of Ernesto Pujol all dressed up in a white habit of a Catholic nun that totally obscures the hair and calls into question the sex of the wearer.

Red dyes on silk is the medium in which Louise Bourgeois completes her thoughts on hair - and her funny image equates a faceless woman with a fountain continually spouting.  My friend,  Kumi Korf has a little print in this show that portrays a free floating hairstyle ( no face once again ) and short straight bangs.  How we look, and how we present ourselves is all part of our design, and it becomes identified with who we are and what we would like others to think of us.

A space is set aside for an extensive collection of weavings that the Johnson Museum has received as a donation.  Here I found a radical departure from the pictorialism of hair concepts in the rich geometry of a Naga Culture textile from 1930-1950.  The Naga Culture is from Burma, now called Myanmar and the strong grid is reinforced cotton with cowrie shells.

Naga Culture textile:
   cotton, goat hair, and cowrie shells

In the next room Kumi Korf is given more space to lay out a mini-retrospective of her prints and artist's books.  Kumi is also an architect and the three dimensional aspect of her artwork is very engaging.  There seems to be some influence from Joseph Cornell's shadow boxes in Kumi's artwork, as well as an aesthetic of biomorphism combined with calligraphy.  I am attracted to her recent prints like "Starr's Garden" - an intaglio print on Akatosashi paper, and I was struck by the unusual geometric forms of her book: "The Alphabet of My Phobias".

Kumi Korf's "The Alphabet of My Phobias"

Upstairs, in the Johnson Museum is another solo show titled "Summer Breeze", the paintings and drawings of Alice Dalton Brown.  Here, paintings dominate the space and Ms. Brown - a photorealist - portrays a world of sunlight in an empty room ( without the existential angst found in Edward Hopper's painting of the same name ).  Alice Dalton Brown has a quiet, patient approach to art making and it strikes a slow, determined, therapeutic note in contrast to a world that seems to constantly rush by.For this viewer the paintings are repetitive - seeming to strike the same notes over and over again, all done with a consummate virtuosity, of course.

"Golden Corner", 1988 by Alice Dalton Brown

Outside of the museum and just up the street is the new wing attached to the School of Art, Architecture and Urban Planning.  Opened this past year we have the marquee designs of Rem Koolhaas and you should take a walk through the new premises to see what can be done to shape the academic environment and give those students some new ways to think about space.  I was impressed, this sets a new standard, and an example to build upon.  

Rem Koolhaas 

School of Art, Architecture and Urban Planning

Cornell University

When I was a student getting my MFA at Cornell in the 1970's, I watched as the I.M. Pei designs took shape as the Herbert F. Johnson Museum went up on campus - it is still striking now forty years later.

You should take a look!

Father's Day

" 6 x 6 " 2013
     at 
     Rochester ContemporaryArt Center, Rochester, NY

I took a break from my painting of an iris blooming in my backyard to look around at the latest incarnation of " 6 x 6 " at RoCo.  This fundraiser never disappoints- there is something for everyone  and the price point for works of art was never better!

The official greeter at the gallery let me know that the exhibition contained over six thousand tiny works of art and that more than 1400 have been sold - towards a goal of selling over 2000 before the show closes July 14th.  The show and sale opened last week and sales continue also online where you can slowly view the entire collection.

The fun thing about this is that the artworks are all anonymous - that is,  there is no signature on the front to identify who made the art - all the buyer needs to do is plunk down their $20. and it is theirs.
Artists donate their artwork to help RoCo raise the money they need to operate.  I donated three small prints and they are hiding in plain sight, maybe someone will find them!

The show itself is hard to categorize beyond the size of the works aligned in a grid on the wall.  Many of the three dimensional works have already been sold and I think textures go a long way towards attracting attention.  Some of the art is easily identified with their creator - so if you are up on your contemporary art, and know the work of many artists - you probably can spot some works by a favorite artist, and then go and try to buy one for your own collection.

1975 Gallery mural

This summer keep your eyes open for murals being painted.  Last year there was quite a lot of attention being paid to the murals near the Farmer's Market.  I saw this wonderful mural on the side of the 1975 Gallery with a fresh coat of bright red on a clear day in June.  The initiative to bring murals to the street can be very interesting and a calling card for something a city has to offer.  Just take a look sometime when you are in Philadelphia, PA.  The murals there attract so much attention - there are regular tours to go and see what's up.

Now I have to get back to my painting before the light goes, or it starts to rain again!

Gasland 2

Josh Fox
  Director,  "Gasland 2" at Cornell University

Friday night in the Statler Auditorium on the campus of Cornell University, the director Josh Fox brought the crowd to its feet even before the movie started.  Josh Fox is the force behind "Gasland" and "Gasland 2" - both films that tell a story about recent developments in shale gas extraction - and much more..

The style of the film is cinema verite where a handheld camera juggles around too much - but this technique also lends a bit of an edge to the proceedings - especially when his camera is taken into a hearing room on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. where we see Josh Fox being arrested for filming a public forum.

His documentary artform is put to work making a case against fracking even though this point of view gets skewed at the beginning by recapping the horror story of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf from a couple of years ago.  There are many layers of information in the present film, and it covers a lot of the same ground that the first "Gasland" explored.  What was different for me this time was a follow-up discussion held in the Auditorium with many of the folks who had been interviewed in the new film.

People who attended this screening were able to ask questions of some of the experts including Robert Howarth who is a Professor at Cornell.  Howarth drew our attention to the amount of methane being poured into our atmosphere, and he touted a new plan to hook up our power grid to other energy sources, not natural gas.  Hopefully the activists in the audience will begin to promote the new plan to change over to renewable energy sources ( wind, water, bio fuels, etc ) and move the New York State government towards a positive action for our environment.