Fannta Drummer: An Artist on the Rise

This past winter Fannta's work was featured in the "Life Blood Exhibit" at Gallery Visio. Organized and curated by Jennifer Weigel, the group exhibition focused attention on the topic of menstruation. The fifteen female artists that participated in the show employed a variety of media to examine and celebrate the physiological, psychological and sociological issues associated with this female rite of passage.

Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass

Interview with Maria Elena Marshall

It is not every day that you have the opportunity to witness the birth of the creative process. In May Maria Marshall opened her show, "you don't matter to me at all: adventures in isolation and egotism" at Gallery Visio, with a live art installation. During the course of the evening, she flitted around the gallery adding ever-expansive scenes and details to her charcoal drawings on the walls, all while engaging in conversation with the audience. The energy was palpable and it seemed to feed her imagination. A graduate of the BFA program at Webster University, Maria is heading to New York to further her artistic career.

SC:             Tell me about your BFA program. Why did you choose to pursue studio art at Webster University? What was your major? Minor?

MM:             I wanted to go to a school where the professors were excited about their work and about their students. After attending two other schools, I decided that Webster’s program was the best fit for me. I enjoyed the freedom of using whatever tools - painting, printing, drawing, video, photography - I needed to complete an idea. I majored in painting, although I do mostly drawings, and I minored in philosophy.

SC:             How did your relationship with other artists/classmates influence your early work?

MM:            The subject matter for my drawings is usually drawn from my experiences or stories that I hear from others. Whatever I’m reading or watching at the time often influences which images I use and how I arrange them.

SC:             When did you begin to develop your own artistic voice/style? Is there a specific artwork that comes to mind?

MM:            I feel that these things develop gradually. I don’t know that my style of drawing in itself is particularly significant or interesting, honestly. I think it falls more on the arrangement of the images and creating an atmosphere.

SC:            Describe your first exhibition. What was significant about the work (s) you showed?

MM:             "Electrosugar Electroshock who were we talking about again?" was my first solo show. It was held at Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts in August 2009 the summer after I graduated from college. All of the drawings and collages were directly on the walls. The entire show was temporary. There was also an installation where guests could take pictures of themselves on a bed under a sign: ‘disposable moments, the mundane spectacle’. I had a fantastic time and I think the freedom to take over an entire room was significant. Every so often it helps to stretch the boundaries of what you think you’re capable of accomplishing.

Maria Marshall, disposable moments, the mundane spectacle, 2009, Temporary Installation, Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts

SC:            How has your art evolved since your first exhibition?

MM:            During "Electrosugar" I knew I wanted to do a large scale drawing on the wall. The format was there but I wasn’t sure about the content. The current exhibition, "you don't matter to me at all: adventures in isolation and egotism" at Gallery Visio, is more focused and specific. The drawings came from my research into the exact definitions of the words in the title and then what those words have meant over the last several decades to the public.

SC:             Tell me about your inspiration for the Gallery Visio show. How did you come up with the title for the exhibition?

MM:             The first half, "you don’t matter to me at all," is a running joke among my coworkers. The majority of the patrons where I work were being jerks one day and we suggested getting tee shirts made with that phrase printed on them. Although the title started out as a joke, I began to see that it had broader applications. The second half, "adventures in isolation and egotism," was added on later to expand and ground the phrase in our current social structure.

SC:             Explain your artistic process. Do you work from an intuitive level or are your drawings planned out in advance? How does the audience influence the outcome of the work?

MM:            Taking parts from what’s around me, I reorganize them so that they make sense to me and are hopefully interesting to others. In general, I spend about 10 minutes drawing and a half hour of staring at what I’ve done to decide the next course of action. For "you don’t matter to me at all," I planned the main parts, the anchors in a sense, and then expanded on them during the show. The audience helped me to not over think and to draw more fluidly.

Maria Marshall, Wall Drawing from "you don't matter to me at all: adventures in isolation and egotism, 2011, Gallery Visio

SC:             What do you hope visitors will take away from the exhibit?

MM:            In spite of, or perhaps due to our increasingly public lives, we are becoming more isolated. Many people are more excited about attending an event and making it public, rather than experiencing it fully at the time, i.e., constantly taking pictures for the sole purpose of posting them online. During the opening the viewer witnesses an installation that draws attention to the temporary. The subject matter is drawn from man's timeless fascination with himself and the repercussions of detachment and isolation.

"you don’t matter to me at all: adventures in isolation and egotism”  

is on view until August 11, 2011 at Gallery Visio.

About the Gallery

The Gallery Visio Student Association founded Gallery Visio in 2001 as an alternative art venue to showcase the talents of University of Missouri-St. Louis' students, faculty, staff and alumni. Gallery Visio, which is a student-run gallery, is committed to exhibiting the work of emerging artists for the purpose of visual enjoyment and education. 

General Information: Gallery Visio, 170 Millennium Student Center, One University Blvd., St. Louis, MO, 63121.Phone: 314-516-7922, 

Email: galvisio@umsl.edu, Website: www.umsl.edu/~galvisio. 

Free and open to the public. 

Summer Hours: Monday – Wednesday 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Freedom at What Cost?

JR's TED Prize wish: Use art to turn the world inside out | Video on TED.com

JR's TED Prize wish: Use art to turn the world inside out | Video on TED.com

Wow! If you want to be inspired, then watch this presentation. The French artist, known as JR, uses the streets around the world as his gallery spaces. His large-scale photographic works, which engage and empower communities, have graced exterior walls in Brazil, Paris, Spain as well as the Middle East. You can become a part of the conversation by participating in the Inside Out global art project at http://www.insideoutproject.net/

Exploring Contemporary Sculpture at Cedarhurst Center for the Arts

Cedarhurst Center for the Arts, located about an hour and a half from St. Louis, Missouri, is tucked among an arcadian residential neighborhood in Mount Vernon, Illinois. Due to its unassuming surroundings, its not the easiest place to find. One would certainly drive right pass the site if not for Ned Cain's cyclopean, steel construction Three Travelers (2006) towering above the black, metal perimeter fencing. The artwork is part of the outdoor gallery known as the Bernard F. Kuenz Sculpture Park, a 90-acre campus decorated with over 60 sculptures made from a variety of media including concrete, fiberglass and wood. Established in 1992, the park's pastoral setting offers the perfect environment in which to view the mostly abstract works produced by regional, national and international artists. 

Ned Cain, Three Travelers, 2006, Steel 

John Kearney, Gorilla, 1990,
Chromed car bumpers

John Kearney is amply represented by three chromed sculptures, one of which is Gorilla (1990), a zoomorphic work made from welded automobile bumpers. Situated near the entrance to the parking lot, the ape-like form hunches forward on its rectangular platform and stares vacuously at the viewer with hollow eyes. In comparison to Kearney's other lighthearted pieces, Gorilla's presence is noticeably unnatural. The ungainly junctures, coupled with the gleaming, reflective surface of the chrome, lend to the sculpture a mournful, futuristic quality, which seems to portend the real animal's impending extinction in the wild.

Pat McDonald, Dolmen, 2000, Cast concrete

Looking to the ancient past for inspiration, Pat McDonald's sculpture Dolmen (2000) is based on Neolithic burial chambers the artist encountered during a family trip to Ireland. Resembling weathered stone, the primitive, architectonic structure, made of cast concrete, is composed of four massive vertical posts topped by a colossal slab. McDonald artfully plays with the negative space between the supports and underneath the angled roof, creating portals through which the viewer can traipse in and out. Entering the Dolmen from the oversize opening at the back of the sculpture, and emerging from the small orifice at the other end, feels vaguely transformative like some archaic ritual now lost on the uninitiated, contemporary visitor.

From afar, Chakaia Booker's sculpture Serendipity (1998), stacked like Lincoln Logs, appears to be some sort of architectural ruin gutted by fire. The bowl-like structure calls to mind the remains of a burned out fort; however, upon closer inspection, one finds that the charcoal colored blocks are in fact wooden beams encased in shredded tires. The patterned grooves, adorning the treads, add an interesting visual as well as tactile quality to the work, drawing the viewer into and around the space encompassing the modular construction. Designed in the form of a gigantic question mark, Booker's artwork celebrates fortuitous discovery. As a result of serendipity, Booker stumbled upon discarded automobile tires as an artistic medium, and through the process of repurposing the rubber scraps, creates objects that are once again new, and valuable.

Chakaia Booker, Serendipity, 1998, Rubber tires, steel and wood

Serendipity, Dolmen and Gorilla, represent only a tiny fraction of the intriguing artworks that grace the expansive front lawn of the park. Beyond the pond, along gravel paths that meander through the woods, more sculptures await the inquisitive visitor. 

To be continued.

Will Kansas Governor Set a Precedent?

In my first blog post "The State of the Arts," I lamented about the proposed cuts in arts funding at the state and federal levels. As I read the Los Angeles Times article about Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's elimination of the Kansas Arts Commission, I had to ask myself "Will his decision set a precedent that other states will soon follow?"

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/05/kansas-governor-eliminates-states-arts-funding.html

Looking At Art When You're Just Not That Into It

On a recent Sunday afternoon, I visited Laumeier Sculpture Park to view Jessica Stockholder's show "Grab grassy this moment your I's," a whimsical exhibition featuring about ten of her composite painting/sculptures made from banal consumer products.

As I stood in the gallery, I watched people enter the space, make a quick sweep of the rooms, then promptly walk out. The few who stayed longer than five minutes scratched their heads in puzzlement and exclaimed, "I just don't get it." One man jokingly concluded that Stockholder's enigmatic artworks must have been made while she was tripping on LSD.

At first glance, her intuitive assemblages and installation pieces, made with mundane materials such as extension cords, plastic storage bins, Styrofoam and light fixtures, could easily be mistaken for detritus, the kind found in the dark corners of garages, on top of yard sale tables or piled next to garbage dumps on trash day.

I must admit, I too was repulsed by my initial encounter with Stockholder's unappealing creations and had to fight an overwhelming urge to hastily retreat from the building; but I found the courage to stand before them and compelled myself to look.

I took a moment to compose myself. I closed my eyes, mentally shut down my emotions and switched to analytical mode -- I employ this technique whenever I find myself in this situation. Then I focused my attention on trying to answer two basic questions: how are the pieces composed? What is the artist trying to communicate?

As I analyzed Stockholder's use of line, shape, form, color, value and texture, works that initially seemed displeasing now appeared winsome. Her capricious visual arrangements, replete with vibrant hues of plastic, recalled childhood memories of Dr. Seuss, pink Barbie dollhouses with lime green furniture and endless afternoons of imaginary play. This sense of playfulness without purpose is at the center of Stockholder's imaginative universe. According to the artist, "play does not have a predetermined end," so her compositions are open-ended to illuminate the infinite, creative possibilities (1).

Although they are not consciously imbued with narrative content -- many of the pieces lack titles --  given their association with consumer culture, it is easy to find meaning in her inventive amalgamations. For example, the mixed media piece Line Walking (2010) composed of a Styrofoam cooler, bamboo wine rack entwined with a green extension cord, plastic orange juicer and yellow fluorescent light plugged into a purple extension cord evokes images of wine distilleries and vineyards laden with ripe, pregnant grapes.

As I meandered through the rooms, I soon became aware that to truly appreciate the exhibition, I needed to disremember those pedestrian relationships and look upon the commonplace objects with fresh eyes. Thus, an extension cord became an undulating line, plastic containers became geometric forms and light sources became a means to create compositional value. By emphasizing the formal qualities of the artworks, Stockholder allowed the materials to transcend their original function.

I finally reached this conclusion after about two hours of meticulous study. I do not expect people to spend an entire afternoon examining artworks, but by asking the right questions, visitors can at least learn to appreciate a composition and attempt to understand the artist's intent even if they are initially repelled by the art.

REFERENCE:

(1).  http://www.pbs.org/art21/series/seasonthree/play.html

Mark Bradford

The "Mark Bradford" exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, which opens May 28 and runs through September 18, 2011, will feature more than 50 artworks produced by the artist over the last eleven years.  Learn more about the show online. Watch video excerpts, explore an art gallery and listen to Bradford speak about his creative process. Kudos to the museum for an amazing digital experience. http://www.pinocchioisonfire.org/

Ju Ming is a Sculptor You Should Know

Ju Ming, Tai Chi, Single Whip (front view), 1998, bronze
St. Louis, MO

Chances are you have probably never heard of the artist Ju Ming; however, if you have visited Citygarden, the urban art park in downtown St. Louis, then you have definitely seen the monumental bronze Tai Chi, Single Whip (1998), a lithe, geometric figure dynamically set in a basic tai chi pose. The sculpture is one of many Ju Ming produced, in both wood and bronze, as part of his famous Taichi Series. Considered "one of the best selling sculptors on the art market" today by artnet.com, his work is represented by several European galleries (1).  Yet, in spite of his international reputation, Ju Ming is not a household name in the United States.

The Human Cost

BP is one of the Tate's  biggest corporate sponsors? Will this art action goad the museum's directors into severing ties with the oil company?

Joseph Ravens

Check out this piece by performance artist, Joseph Ravens. For more videos/slideshows of his work, visit his website.


http://web.me.com/jravens/ART/Thistle_Garden.html

Dale Chihuly at the Missouri Botanical Garden

Dale Chihuly, Sunset Herons, 2006, Climatron, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO

Before James Cameron created the fantastical world of Pandora in the movie Avatar (2009), Dale Chihuly transformed the Missouri Botanical Garden into a mythical environment with his installation of colorful glass blown sculptures for the 2006 exhibition “Glass in the Garden.” One of the forty-eight site-specific works on display was Sunset Herons (2006), which was later purchased by the Garden with a gift from the Peters Family Charitable Fund (1). On a frigid day in January, I encountered a flock of these fanciful creatures nestled among the Climatron’s lush rainforest habitat.

Roxy Paine's Dendroids

Roxy Paine, Placebo, 2004, Stainless Steel, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO.

Roxy Paine's arboreal sculptures known as Dendroids are unmistakably alien. Made from industrial pipes and rods welded together, the stainless steel structures would probably look more at home on a science fiction movie set. Smooth columnar trunks ramify into angular limbs and twigs, which jut awkwardly out into space. Although, they have been exhibited in galleries and museums, the works are usually erected outdoors in park-like public settings where they stand in stark contrast to the surrounding environment.

VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF ATOMIC ENERGY

After last week's post on Henry Moore, a friend sent me a link to the Hyde Park Historical Society website. Much to my surprise, I found myself looking at a grim bronze monument by the artist commemorating the birth of nuclear energy. The skull-like sculpture entitled Nuclear Energy 

(1964-1966) was commissioned by the University of Chicago to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of their successful atomic experiment. In 1942, physicist Enrico Fermi and his team built the first nuclear reactor and "initiated the first controlled release of nuclear energy (1)."  The work, which was installed on the campus in December of 1967, is a visual reminder of the positive and negative consequences of nuclear power.