Tuesday, June 12, 2012

REVISITING OLD FAVORITES AT CEDARHURST CENTER FOR THE ARTS


The outdoor gallery, known as the Kuenz Sculpture Park, at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, located in Mount Vernon, Illinois, is the ideal place to connect with contemporary art. Interspersed among 90 acres of woodland and fields are over 60 sculptures to explore and ponder. Towering groves surround many of the works providing much needed shade on sunny days, and under their canopy of branches, there is an occasional bench where one can sit and mull over the multitudinous artworks.

Over the narrow footbridge, beyond the pond, the dense arrangement of monumental sculptures dominating the front lawn gives way to smaller works situated in sparse, intimate settings among the forest. Without a map, finding them is bit like playing hide and seek as various paths snake and merge in unexpected places; one never knows what is around the next bend.

Such is the case with Bull (1997) by John Kearney. Nestled in a deep recess in the woods, Bull's stout, chromed body, fashioned from used car parts, stands alert with his head and tail erect. However, instead of confronting the approaching visitor as if facing down a matador in the bullring, Bull seems completely oblivious to the viewer's presence. Installed perpendicular to the trail, Bull's orientation calls to mind a high relief sculpture thereby diminishing its three dimensionality, as well as, the potential threat of violence a face-to-face encounter would evoke.

John Kearney, Bull, 1997 
Further along the same trail, a keen eye catches glimpses of violet peeking through the verdant foliage. As one draws nearer, Jeff Brundege's agile sea serpents swim rapidly into view. In contrast to Bull's disinterested demeanor, Brundege's The Eels (n.d.) seem to aggressively pursue the viewer; their undulating bodies surge forward, and with bared teeth, they appear poised for the attack. Made of painted fiberglass, the seven kitschy sculptures, originally designed for a Bass Pro Shop, could easily serve as props for a B-rated horror flick, and add a bit of sportive humor to the otherwise "respectable" art collection.

Jeff Brundege, The Eels, n.d.
At the confluence of two broad paths, an expansive clearing emerges revealing five oversized Pods (1998). Arranged in a semi-circle adjacent to a tangle of shrubs, Robin Murez's biomorphic sculptures immediately bring to mind black walnuts, albeit gigantic seeds made of concrete. Their course, hollow, mahogany shells, opened on one end, look as if they have been picked clean by an equally large omnivore. However, after more consideration, one can also imagine that the pitted pods are abandoned egg casings from which some alien, animal form has issued forth and taken refuge in the nearby boughs.

Robin Murez, Pods, 1998
After wandering the vast grounds, one can cool off with a visit to the Mitchell Museum. The permanent collection, amassed by collectors John and Eleanor Mitchell, comprises over 400 paintings, sculptures and decorative art objects by leading 19th and 20th century American artists. In addition, the museum hosts several temporary art exhibitions each year in its two rotating galleries.

Whether with lighthearted humor or the sober mindedness of a scholar, the interpretive possibilities are endless and with so much to see, Cedarhurst Center for the Arts is a place to engage with art over and over again, regardless of one's inclination.


Tuesday, February 14, 2012

ARTNPerspective's photostream

Robin Murez, Pods, 1998Jeff Brundege, The Eels, n.d.Siona Benjamin, Finding Home, 2002John Kearney, Bull, 1997Pat McDonald, Dolmen, 2000Pat McDonald, Dolmen, 2000
Ned Cain, Three Travelers, 2003Harry Gordon, Mjolnir (Thor's Hammer), 1990Howard Kalish, Apple of Eve's Eye, 1999Chakaia Booker, Serendipity, 1998Chakaia Booker, Serendipity, 1998Aldon Addington, Northern Moon, 1991
Kathleen Holmes, Venus Verde, 2002Glenn Zweygardt, Alfred Atlas, 1989John Kearney, Gorilla, 1990Laura Ford, Bird, 2007Tom Otterness, Kindly Geppetto, 2001Igor Mitoraj, Eros Bendato, 1999
Keith Haring, Untitled (Ringed Figure), 1987Roxy Paine, Placebo, 2004, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO(Background) University City City Hall, University City, MOGreg Cullen, Rain Man, Kingsland and Delmar, University City, MO Dietrich Klinge, Polyante, Delmar, University City, MOA view from inside Panera Bread, Delmar, University City, MO

NEW EXHIBITION OPENING AT GALLERY VISIO


POP MANIFESTO: The Second Coming

Featuring:
Kevin McCoy [Work/Play]
Jermaine Clark
Skip Jones [Made Monarchs]
Erika Brown

February 23 – March 22, 2012
Opening Reception Feb 23, 4 – 7pm

Featuring emerging artists from the St. Louis community and UMSL, this second coming of "Pop Manifesto" is a visual declaration on contemporary pop culture. Co-sponsored by Made Monarchs, the show will feature a variety of media: illustration, design, painting, and sculpture in an attempt to create a visual dialogue that explores what pop art means to 21st century viewers.  Gallery Visio is located on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus. www.umsl.edu/~galvisio.  

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Harry Bertoria: 40 Years of Drawing

Harry Bertoia, Untitled, 235, c. 1950s

Gallery 210 is pleased to present Harry Bertoia: Forty Years of Drawing, a collection featuring over 30 rarely seen monoprints from the Harry Bertoia estate. Also featured in the exhibition will be examples of Bertoia's furniture design and sculpture. On loan from Knoll will be Bertoia's Diamond, Chair Child Diamond Chair, Bird Chair & Ottoman, and Outdoor Chair. These pieces are made available through Knoll. As well as the drawings and furniture the exhibition will include one of his well know 'sound' sculptures.  

This exhibition organized by the Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with assistance from Knoll. It will be held from January 26th to March 17th, 2012. A public reception for the exhibition will be held January 26th, 2012 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. During the reception Celia Bertoia, the artist's daughter, will present a slide lecture describing her father's life and work. Her lecture begins at 6:15 PM and will be held in the Gallery 210 auditorium.



Monday, January 16, 2012

Free At Last by Sergio Castillo

Sergio Castillo, Free at Last, 1975


"Free at last" is one of Dr. Martin Luther King's most memorable phrases. These words, taken from his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, serve as the title for Sergio Castillo's abstract sculpture in Boston University's Marsh Plaza.

Mounted on a granite base inscribed with Dr. King's quotes, the Cor-ten steel sculpture depicts a flock of 50 interconnected bird-forms rising up in a series of graceful arcs reaching towards the heavens.

Dedicated in May of 1975, the work honors Dr. King's legacy as a civil rights leader and an alumnus of the University. Dr. King earned his PhD in Theology from Boston University in 1955.


 

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Coming Soon a Review of the New Crystal Bridges Museum

In January I will visit the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. I am especially interested in exploring the ways in which the artworks have been installed. I spent the summer in Boston and had ample time to peruse the newly installed Art of the Americas wing at the Museum of Fine Arts, which opened in November. I am anxious to compare the two collections.  How will Crystal Bridges measure up to the more established art institution? 

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Electric is the Love


Electric is the Love

Kranzberg Exhibition Series

 

October 29, 2011 – January 22, 2012
Museum Galleries
Laumeier Sculpture Park presents Electric is the Love, in the ninth installment of the Kranzberg Exhibition Series which features artists from the St. Louis region. Electric is the Love will bring
together a range of practitioners: collaborative architects, a sound artist, a super gamer and a sci-fi sculptor. Recognizing how personal devices, mobile networks and surveillance technologies now unite us by creating an inexorable conduit that organizes our contemporary lives, the indoor galleries at Laumeier Sculpture Park will be transformed into a space to engage in a conversation about our attraction to digital, electric and mechanical practices and to explore the lure of interactive environments. Opening October 29, 2011 and continuing through January 22, 2012, the exhibition will include new works by Dave Derington, Eric Hall, Christopher Ottinger, Yo_Cy (Christine Yogiaman and Ken Tracy) and Robin Assner and Adam Watkins (who will create a didactic video collaboration).

“In this exhibition, varied queries about the merging of the physical and digital worlds are approached in unique ways, allowing the viewer to digest, interact and ultimately embrace our ever-changing world,” said Dana Turkovic, Laumeier’s Curator of Exhibitions. “In response to ongoing technological and cultural shifts, art continuously evolves, providing another medium in which to improve our capacity to adapt.”

Electric is the Love brings a new range of sculptural practices to Laumeier,” said Marilu Knode, Laumeier’s Executive Director and the Aronson Endowed Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “While we typically think of sculpture as three-dimensional objects on the ground, these technologies suggest things as invisible as aural or online environments. These new invisible realms create psychological and conceptual spaces which are real in their own way. I’m very excited about how these technologies will connect our sense of tangible space to intangible worlds.”

Robin Assner works primarily with photography, video and installation. An Associate Professor of Art in the Leigh Gerdine College of Fine Arts at Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri, she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Connecticut and her Master of Fine Arts from the Ohio State University. Assner’s art has been exhibited in various solo and group shows throughout the United States.

Dave Derington holds a Master’s Degree in Computational Chemistry from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and has significant experience in computer programming and information technology. Currently, he works for Certara in St. Louis, which creates software for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. In 2005, Derington founded Warfactory which has produced some of the biggest video game tournaments in the United States. Derington also teaches video game technology at Webster University in St. Louis.

Eric Hall is a composer, improviser, producer, installation artist, performer of electronic-based music, DJ and freelance music educator. Hall has performed John Cage's "First Construction (In Metal)" as a solo live-sampled electro-acoustic piece with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He has created several sound-sculptures and interactive installations for the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis and White Flag Projects, St. Louis. He has composed and performed works commissioned by Washington University in St. Louis and Forest Park Community College, St. Louis.

Christopher Ottinger earned his MFA in Studio Arts from Washington University in St. Louis and his BA in Film and Video Directing from Columbia College Chicago. Ottinger uses various media technologies to compress and distort our sense of time and space. He is particularly interested in how we as viewers no longer engage with the world itself, instead we interface with the world through technological mediaries. His art has been exhibited in group shows around St. Louis and throughout the United States.

Adam Watkins is a St. Louis-based multimedia artist and Assistant Professor of Art at East Central College, Union, Missouri. He graduated with an MFA in 2000 from the Kent Institute of Art and Design in Canterbury, United Kingdom and earned his BFA from Webster University, St. Louis. His work deals with the notions of the post-pop culture that we live in, its constant re-contextualization and personal translations of Derrida's theories on ontology regarding the future, the past, "ghosts," being and machines. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and around the world.

Yo_Cy: Kenneth Tracy received his MArch from Columbia University and his Bachelor of Design from the University of Florida. He is a founding partner of Yo_Cy design, based in St. Louis. Tracy was formerly a partner at both Associated Fabrication (AF) and 4-pli Design in Brooklyn. Currently a visiting assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, he has taught at Pratt Institute’s Graduate School of Architecture, Columbia University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture. Christine Yogiaman earned her MArch from Columbia University and her Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan. She is an assistant professor at Washington
University in St. Louis.

Exhibition Opening: October 29, 2011
4–5 PM Member Preview Reception and Artist Talk [free for members]
5–7 PM Public Reception and Gallery Talk [free]
Museum Galleries
Saturday, November 12, 4:00 p.m.
A presentation by artist Eric Hall at Beverly Pepper's Cromlech Glen on Laumeier's Nature Trail will continue Laumeier’s Campfire Chat series.
Saturday, December 10, 1:00 p.m.
A Gallery Talk with artist Dave Derington will explore the exhibition’s content and context in the Museum Galleries.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Oliver Herring's TASK at the University of Missouri-St. Louis

Oliver Herring’s TASK
Gallery 210, University of Missouri-St. Louis
October 21-DECEMBER 5, 2011.
TASK PARTY: October 21, 2011, 5:00PM to 9:00PM
RECEPTION FOR TASK EXHIBITION: October 28, 2011 5:30PM to 7:30 PM

TASK, a self-generating, improvisational art-making event developed by artist Oliver Herring will be held at Gallery 210 on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis on October 21. Herring is an internationally known experimental artist based in Brooklyn New York. His works include knitting Mylar, participatory performances, styrofoam photo sculpture, video, and TASK.

OLIVER HERRING IS AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS. He will be on the UMSL campus from October 17 through October 28. You can reach him at oliverherring@earthlink.net or by phone at 917-699-1677. Interviews can be scheduled while he is on campus by contacting Terry Suhre, Director for Gallery 210 at 314-516-5952.


What is TASK?

TASK is an improvisational event with a simple structure and very few rules.
It’s open-ended, participatory structure creates almost unlimited opportunities for a group of people to interact with one another and their environment. It is a platform for people to express and test their own ideas in an environment without a focus on failure or success or any preconceptions of what can or should be done with an idea or material.

TASK events take place in a designated area with a variety of props and materials and rely on the participation of people who agree to follow two simple rules: to first write down a task on a piece of paper, add it to a designated “TASK pool,” secondly, to pull a task from that pool and interpret it any which way he or she wants, using whatever materials and space is available. When a task is completed, the participant writes a new task, pulls a new task, and so on. TASKs’ flow and momentum depends on the tasks written and interpreted by the participants. The continuous conception and interpretation of tasks is both chaotic and purpose driven. It is a complex, ever shifting environment of people who connect with one another through what is going on around them. One person’s tasks become absorbed into other people’s tasks, objects generated from one task are recycled into someone else’s task without issues of ownership or permanence.

TASK Parties have recently taken place at the University Galleries, Illinois State University, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota; Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa; Fieldcrest High School, Minonk, Illinois; University of St. Francis, Joliet, Illinois; Principia College, Elsah, Illinois; University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio; Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Augsburg College, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Oliver Herring will curate an exhibition from the objects created by the TASK participants as well as work by the artist.

The TASK Party will take place on October 21 from 5:00PM to 9:00PM. There is a reception for the TASK exhibition on October 28 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM. The artist will give a gallery talk at 6:15PM in the Gallery 210 auditorium.
 
This exhibition is supported in part by the Regional Arts Council, the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, and the Center for the Humanities.

All Gallery 210 events are free and open to the public. Public parking for Gallery 210 is available at the South Millennium Parking Garage on the east side of East Drive on the UM-St. Louis Campus. Handicapped parking is available behind Gallery 210.

Hours: Tuesday-Saturday: 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Gallery: (314) 516-5976/ Office: (314) 516-5952
Fax: (314) 516-4997

Gallery 210 is on the University of Missouri-St. Louis at 44 East Drive, TCC between the North UM-St. Louis Metro Station and the Touhill Performing Arts Center. The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The gallery phone is (314) 516-5976; the fax is (314) 516-4997; email gallery@umsl.edu and the website is umsl.edu/~gallery/.


For more information on Oliver Herring and TASK visit http://oliverherringtask.wordpress.com/.

OLIVER HERRING IS AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS. He will be on the UMSL campus from October 17 through October 28. You can reach him at oliverherring@earthlink.net or by phone at 917-699-1677. Interviews can be scheduled while he is on campus by contacting Terry Suhre, Director for Gallery 210 at 314-516-5952.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

CAUGHT IN PAINT, Rita Blitt with the Parsons Dance Company

"When I am drawing and painting to music I am dancing."
Rita Blitt

Rita Blitt in her Studio, from her website http://www.ritablitt.com/


Caught in Paint is a wonderful six minute video highlighting the visual arts collaboration between the artist, Rita Blitt and the Parsons Dance Company. As Blitt creates an improvisational dance with paint on to a piece of clear Mylar, the Parsons dancers mirror her fluid gestures and flowing lines with their bodies, extending her gestural marks beyond the two dimensional surface of the picture plane. Check out more of her work at http://www.ritablitt.com/ or catch her latest exhibition "Fear of War, Courage to Hope ... While Dancing" at the Gallery of Art and Design at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, MO on view until September 24, 2011.



Monday, August 22, 2011

Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass


"Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass" recently on view at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts was a spectacular arrangement of Dale Chihuly's most inventive glass sculptures.   Some of the artworks were new, but most of the installations were reconfigurations of the 2008 exhibit "Chihuly at the De Young Museum."  The nine environments, theatrically staged throughout the Gund Gallery, were for the most part, a visual feast for the eyes. Unfortunately, the exhibit failed to capture the otherworldly magic usually found in Chihuly's outdoor displays.

Persian Wall (2011) was the first piece I encountered as I descended the stairs leading into the exhibition. Spread out along the walls and on a knee-high platform were saffron and tangerine biomorphic forms edged with a ribbon of blue glass. Clustered in groups of twos and threes, the assembly resembled gargantuan flower petals in full bloom. Lit from above, the diffuse light created golden, spiral patterns that were reflected on the white and black surfaces of the space.
Persian Wall, 2011
Just inside the entry way was Scarlet Icicle Chandelier (2011), a multi-point star sculpture hung high from the ceiling. This was not Chihuly's most impressive work in the show and I found myself more intrigued by the tenebrous shadows cast upon the gray walls. The flat, triangular shapes mimicking geometric foliage called to mind Aaron Douglas's modernist paintings, particularly his mural the Aspects of Negro Life (1934).

Ikebana Boat (2011), which was inspired by a trip Chihuly took to Finland in 1995, was a visual tour de force. Spotlighted on a polished, black stage was a bleached, wooden boat overflowing with a profusion of writhing, kaleidoscopic pieces. Diagonally set in the middle of the platform, the boat listed dramatically to one side as if overburdened by its abundant cargo.

Ikebana Boat, 2011
Arranged in a dimly lit, narrow hallway were an assortment of squat vessels decorated in drab shades of brown, magenta, gold and blue. The dark area and subdued palette contrasted so sharply with the illumination of the previous gallery that the space appeared gloomy. The shift in ambiance made the Northwest Room (ND) seem striking…at first. One wall was covered from ceiling to floor with multicolored, multi-patterned wool blankets and on varnished wooden shelves and a table were opulent displays of woven baskets interspersed with cream color glass containers stacked in decorative arrangements. However, after spending some time in the environment, the orderly installation began to look like a chic, Native American inspired, home décor boutique.
Mille Fiori, 2011
The botanical inspired Mille Fiori, (One Thousand Flowers, 2011), was a fantastical garden-like assemblage bursting with a rainbow of colors. The variegated flower forms were densely amassed on a long, rectangular platform to maximize their optical effect. This environmental theme was recapitulated in the adjacent gallery with the work Persian Ceiling (2011), which evoked an aquarium experience. The translucent roof teemed with a menagerie of sea forms—starfish, urchins and octopi.

The penultimate gallery contained six of Chihuly's signature chandeliers suspended at varying heights from the top of the room like florid stalactites. The final installation in the exhibition was Neodymium Reeds (2011), an array of vertical, lilac stalks rooted in a series of overlapping logs. Although the rugged texture of the wood paired with the smooth glass (glass is made from sand) was an interesting combination, the coupling felt oddly unnatural.

Neodymium Reeds, 2011
This sense of unnaturalness permeated the exhibit causing it to feel devoid of life. The installations seemed too polished and stagy and the rectilinear rooms and intense lighting too unyielding. In an outdoor environment the natural light suffuses through the sculptures and emits a soft, empyrean glow. Moreover, the juxtaposition of Chihuly's biomorphic sculptures to the natural environment evokes a harmonious otherworldly atmosphere. The title of the exhibition, taken from Lewis Carroll's novel about Alice's adventures in an alternate world, was supposed to instill a sense of the enchantment; however, the feeling of magical wonderment, which is such a prominent part of Chihuly's botanical garden displays, was lost in the museum setting.