ArtGroop will hold its first fall 2007 meeting this coming Monday, September 24th at 5:30PM in the student lounge which is located on the first floor of JCM (Art Building). This informal and free gathering will function as an opportunity for interested students to come together for an open forum on art-related issues. Bring your questions and, most importantly, yourselves. Anyone is welcome to attend. Hope to see you there.
For more info on Artgroop go here.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Yoko Ono At UTSA: Sept. 26
From Glasstire.com
"San Antonio's going Yoko Ono: the Japanese artist has a show, Yoko Ono Imagine Peace: Featuring John & Yoko’s Year of Peace, opening Wedensday, Sept. 26 at the UTSA gallery. Curated by Kevin Concannon of the University of Akron, the show features ephemera from Ono's conceptual projects and art actions with husband John Lennon dating back to the early 1960s (click here to view a slideshow). There are also nine bilingual "Imagine Peace/Imagínate La Paz" billboards on view around town. The show should be a real treat for San Antonians, and even for audiences who caught Ono's 2001 show Y E S YOKO ONO at CAM, it will be quite a different group of works from the Fluxus objects included in that show. Big kudos to recently-arrived UTSA gallery director Scott Sherer for bringing this one to town!"
This could be a great show.
"San Antonio's going Yoko Ono: the Japanese artist has a show, Yoko Ono Imagine Peace: Featuring John & Yoko’s Year of Peace, opening Wedensday, Sept. 26 at the UTSA gallery. Curated by Kevin Concannon of the University of Akron, the show features ephemera from Ono's conceptual projects and art actions with husband John Lennon dating back to the early 1960s (click here to view a slideshow). There are also nine bilingual "Imagine Peace/Imagínate La Paz" billboards on view around town. The show should be a real treat for San Antonians, and even for audiences who caught Ono's 2001 show Y E S YOKO ONO at CAM, it will be quite a different group of works from the Fluxus objects included in that show. Big kudos to recently-arrived UTSA gallery director Scott Sherer for bringing this one to town!"
This could be a great show.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The Rinpa Eshidan: Artist Collective
Help An Artist: Be An Intern!
What do all the images above have in common? They are all images taken from an exhibition entitled Wall Painting which took place at UTSA in the fall of 2005. Former UTSA Art Department Chair Fran Colpitt curated this exhibition that focused on a small group of artists whose work in painting included a significant number of paintings composed for and completed directly on walls. Due to the nature of this show, many of the invited artists were brought to UTSA from various locations n the U.S. to install their work on site. This fact afforded many students (myself included) the opportunity to work directly with the artists, as assistants, often times painting and installing significant sections of the wall paintings included in this exhibition.
From a student point of view, there were few experiences I had, while in school, that were more valuable than the opportunities I had to work with professional artists. Not only does one get the rare occasion to watch a pro at work but one also gets to ask questions and get answers from seasoned art veterans. Another perk is the chance to have a visiting artist you are working with sample your art and give you a personal critique. That doesn't always happen but you're chances for networking are better if you have such opportunities than if you don't.
As for the Wall Painting exhibition, it was a fine show. If you would like to learn more about that show and see and hear what went into the making of the works on display then be sure to check out the Wall Painting DVD and catalogue available in the VRC (located on the third floor of JCM: Art Department Bldg.).
Opportunities to work with artists anyone? Check out the Artpace Residency in San Antonio. They often take student interns to work with the artists of their residency as they complete their work for exhibition. For more info go here.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
How To: Setting Up A Still Life
Every student taking a beginning painting class is familiar with the still life. Painting from a constructed set of inanimate objects arranged before one's easel has been the m.o. of painters as far back as time immemorial. Working from a still life as a means to enhance one's powers of observation and, by extension, improve one's ability to render forms, light, and color can either be viewed as an extreme challenge or tedium in its most condensed form. One way to alleviate the tedium is to take a still life on as a challenge, a puzzle that one is willing to solve. Once one has got the attitude to get on with the task at hand one then has to start searching for items that one would enjoy painting. Finding interesting items for one's still life is of paramount importance for executing a solid composition that looks like it is somewhat inspired. Simply tossing random detritus found around the house in a heap and painting from that often leads to boring uninspired work. So find something that you would really love to paint, something that will get you excited to render.
Anyway, I could go on and on but instead I'm going to link up a bunch of online sites that discuss this topic extensively. Check out the available information below:
Wet Canvas Basics 101. Nice chat about zee still life here.
About.com. One can always find a posting on any subject on this site. Here's another About.com post on the subject here.
Wikipedia on Still Life. Not always accurate but generally helpful site we've all come to know and love. Mostly history of still life but useful.
Below are a few images of work my former students have done from a still life. Click ont he images for a better view.
Anyway, I could go on and on but instead I'm going to link up a bunch of online sites that discuss this topic extensively. Check out the available information below:
Wet Canvas Basics 101. Nice chat about zee still life here.
About.com. One can always find a posting on any subject on this site. Here's another About.com post on the subject here.
Wikipedia on Still Life. Not always accurate but generally helpful site we've all come to know and love. Mostly history of still life but useful.
Below are a few images of work my former students have done from a still life. Click ont he images for a better view.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Artlies!: A Look At Feminism In Art
For those gals (and guys) interested in feminist issues and how they relate to art, the current issue of Artlies! has a number of pertinent essays on the subject. Several students over the past two semesters have inquired about methodological approaches to this subject in their art and how they might develop a feminist point of view that doesn't rely so heavily on traditional feminist imagery and contextualization. Maybe some of the views expressed in this issue of Artlies! might help in that regard (or maybe not). I found the colloquium, moderated by Rachel Cook, to be quite interesting. Link to that article here.
Beautiful Losers: Book Recommendation
For those art students under the influence of skater culture and anything that might be generally associated with contemporary low-brow art here's a book for you. It was not long ago (just a couple of years back actually) that most of the art represented in Beautiful Losers would have been dismissed by the fine arts world as nothing less than uncultured shlock. This pejorative view of the work of artists like Barry McGee, KAWs, Shepard Fairey, and the late Margaret Kilgallen has fortunately been reduced to a trickle as the last bastions of academic snootery are giving way to a new generation of artists less concerned with the separation of art from the daily lives of those who produce the art. A student in my painting class lent me this book over the weekend and I was very intrigued and inspired by the stories of the lives of the artists represented in this thick and well crafted book. I highly recommend it.
Beautiful Losers
D.A.P./Iconoclast; 2nd Ed edition (October 15, 2005)
Here's a review of the book found on Amazon.com:
From Publishers Weekly
Most of the work in this exhibition catalog is not beautiful by traditional standards. Nor can its makers, artists whose work is now displayed in museums and top galleries around the world, really be considered losers. Yet the loosely affiliated group of skateboarding and punk music aficionados represented in this book seems to have a considerable amount of cachet invested in their outsider status, their ability to see the beauty in being a "loser." Many of the painters, photographers and cartoonists in this book appear to be taking a cue from the most famous insider/outsider of them all, Andy Warhol: witness Harmony Korine’s photo-collage of a disaffected Macauley Culkin, Terry Richardson’s photo of a young man sitting on a toilet or a scarf design by Mike Mills titled "Fight Against the Rising Tide of Conformity." The artists consume popular culture and then spit it back out in a highly personalized form to express their alienation from the usual boogeymen (suburbia, capitalism, middle-class middlebrow culture). Bucking the traditional art school route, these self-taught artists prefer a more laid-back, "D.I.Y." ("do it yourself") attitude. This approach involves doodling, spreading graffiti and taking snapshots of their friends naked. The book’s accompanying essays narrate the development of these street culture artists with an absurdly exacting level of detail, the kind usually reserved for the lives of geniuses who’ve been dead for at least 10, maybe even 20 years. And while the book is excellently produced and the works in it are a lot of fun, it’s hard not to wonder if these artists enjoy posing as outsiders a little too much, especially given their newfound success. 200 color & 200 b/w illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Link to Amazon listing here.
Beautiful Losers
D.A.P./Iconoclast; 2nd Ed edition (October 15, 2005)
Here's a review of the book found on Amazon.com:
From Publishers Weekly
Most of the work in this exhibition catalog is not beautiful by traditional standards. Nor can its makers, artists whose work is now displayed in museums and top galleries around the world, really be considered losers. Yet the loosely affiliated group of skateboarding and punk music aficionados represented in this book seems to have a considerable amount of cachet invested in their outsider status, their ability to see the beauty in being a "loser." Many of the painters, photographers and cartoonists in this book appear to be taking a cue from the most famous insider/outsider of them all, Andy Warhol: witness Harmony Korine’s photo-collage of a disaffected Macauley Culkin, Terry Richardson’s photo of a young man sitting on a toilet or a scarf design by Mike Mills titled "Fight Against the Rising Tide of Conformity." The artists consume popular culture and then spit it back out in a highly personalized form to express their alienation from the usual boogeymen (suburbia, capitalism, middle-class middlebrow culture). Bucking the traditional art school route, these self-taught artists prefer a more laid-back, "D.I.Y." ("do it yourself") attitude. This approach involves doodling, spreading graffiti and taking snapshots of their friends naked. The book’s accompanying essays narrate the development of these street culture artists with an absurdly exacting level of detail, the kind usually reserved for the lives of geniuses who’ve been dead for at least 10, maybe even 20 years. And while the book is excellently produced and the works in it are a lot of fun, it’s hard not to wonder if these artists enjoy posing as outsiders a little too much, especially given their newfound success. 200 color & 200 b/w illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Link to Amazon listing here.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Local Art This Week: September 2007 (Cont.)
As for art in San Antonio this coming weekend, it is photography that will be featured at most of the galleries around Blue Star in keeping with the annual "Photo Septiembre" tradition. REM Gallery (located in the Blue Star complex) will be showing the work of UTSA professor Ron Binks. The opening reception to Bink's "The Third man in Vienna" will be on Thursday Sept. 6 from 6 -9PM. First Friday hours are from 6 - 9PM as well.
Unit B will have a closing reception for "The Yellow Wallpaper" featuring the work of artists Karren Mahaffy and Erin Curtis (see Unit B link on side bar for more details).
UTSA Satellite Space will host a group show curated by San Antonio sculptor Brian Jobe entitled "A Quiet." Opening reception is on Thursday Sept 6 from 6 - 9PM and First Friday 6 - 9PM. See info below for details on the artists involved and the concept behind the show:
J.R. Bruce (St. Petersburg, FL) Nate Cassie (San Antonio, TX)
Alex Lopez (Carbondale, IL) Karen Mahaffy (San Antonio, TX)
Sarah Moore (San Antonio, TX) Denny Renshaw (Brooklyn, NY)
Curated by Brian Jobe
The theme "A Quiet" was selected to feature art that contemplates the
subtle variations that give character and vitality to life. J.R. Bruce
constructs corridors of hanging plexi-glass panels to create an "Army
of Braille," inviting participants to investigate its complex tactile
nature. Nate Cassie cultivates a delicate landscape of ceramic beehive
forms, evoking a contemplation of chance within natural events. Alex
Lopez's video installation portrays a bird in flight with simple,
haunting silhouettes, reminiscent of Rorschach tests. Karen Mahaffy's
intimate video installation mixes elements of shadow play, wallpaper
designs, and household objects to uncover a sense of order and depth
within pattern. Sarah Moore commands one of the gallery's smaller
rooms with an installation that focuses on repetition as a gesture to
highlight slight variations. Denny Renshaw offers five close-up photo
portraits of different human faces, which reveal the moments amid
speech and silence.
There are plenty of other exhibits going on this week in both Austin and San Antonio that are not mentioned here. For more possible selections see the Glasstire link in the sidebar and click on the appropriate links to Austin and San Antonio.
Unit B will have a closing reception for "The Yellow Wallpaper" featuring the work of artists Karren Mahaffy and Erin Curtis (see Unit B link on side bar for more details).
UTSA Satellite Space will host a group show curated by San Antonio sculptor Brian Jobe entitled "A Quiet." Opening reception is on Thursday Sept 6 from 6 - 9PM and First Friday 6 - 9PM. See info below for details on the artists involved and the concept behind the show:
J.R. Bruce (St. Petersburg, FL) Nate Cassie (San Antonio, TX)
Alex Lopez (Carbondale, IL) Karen Mahaffy (San Antonio, TX)
Sarah Moore (San Antonio, TX) Denny Renshaw (Brooklyn, NY)
Curated by Brian Jobe
The theme "A Quiet" was selected to feature art that contemplates the
subtle variations that give character and vitality to life. J.R. Bruce
constructs corridors of hanging plexi-glass panels to create an "Army
of Braille," inviting participants to investigate its complex tactile
nature. Nate Cassie cultivates a delicate landscape of ceramic beehive
forms, evoking a contemplation of chance within natural events. Alex
Lopez's video installation portrays a bird in flight with simple,
haunting silhouettes, reminiscent of Rorschach tests. Karen Mahaffy's
intimate video installation mixes elements of shadow play, wallpaper
designs, and household objects to uncover a sense of order and depth
within pattern. Sarah Moore commands one of the gallery's smaller
rooms with an installation that focuses on repetition as a gesture to
highlight slight variations. Denny Renshaw offers five close-up photo
portraits of different human faces, which reveal the moments amid
speech and silence.
There are plenty of other exhibits going on this week in both Austin and San Antonio that are not mentioned here. For more possible selections see the Glasstire link in the sidebar and click on the appropriate links to Austin and San Antonio.
Local Art This Week: September 2007
One of the advantages of being an art student at TX State is one's close proximity to two budding cultural centers in Austin and San Antonio. Though mostly known for its live music scene, Austin has, over the past three years, developed a young vibrant gallery scene. Semi-new nonprofit spaces like Okay Mountain and Art Palace have been staging some excellent exhibitions in the past year and this week features a couple of shows at these venues that are worth taking a peek at:
Art Palace
Lasers In The Jungle
Eric Gibbons and Nathan Green
Sept 1 - Oct 6 2007
Okay Mountain
The Total Power of Such a Signal is Infinite
Kristin Luke, Mark Mulroney, and Casey Jex Smith:
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 8th, 7-10pm
Exhibition Dates: September 8th - October 13th
Gallery Hours: Wednesday 7-9pm and Saturday 12-5pm
"The Total Power of Such a Signal is Infinite" explores incongruent interactions of disparate ideologies, methods, mediums, and vocabularies. While each artist works within their own distinct framework, continuous psychological and conceptual linkages are established between each artist. What happens when physical manifestations of faith, jarring methods of communication, surreal environments that pit anxieties against fantasies, spiritual visions, and strategies that reflect endless possibilities are forced to relate to one another?
Kristin Luke graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2006. She has shown work throughout the U.S. and the U.K., and currently resides in Los Angeles.
Casey Jex Smith graduated with a BFA in painting at Brigham Young University in 2003, and an MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2005. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions around the country, such as the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Swarm Gallery in Oakland, and the Provo Arts Council Gallery in Provo, Utah, as well as abroad.
Mark Mulroney graduated from San Diego University with a B.F.A in painting and received his M.F.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2000. Mark has shown all over the U.S. extensively and had numerous solo exhibitions at Mixed Greens in New York, the Greg Lind Gallery in San Francisco, the Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica, and the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art.
Art Palace
Lasers In The Jungle
Eric Gibbons and Nathan Green
Sept 1 - Oct 6 2007
Okay Mountain
The Total Power of Such a Signal is Infinite
Kristin Luke, Mark Mulroney, and Casey Jex Smith:
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 8th, 7-10pm
Exhibition Dates: September 8th - October 13th
Gallery Hours: Wednesday 7-9pm and Saturday 12-5pm
"The Total Power of Such a Signal is Infinite" explores incongruent interactions of disparate ideologies, methods, mediums, and vocabularies. While each artist works within their own distinct framework, continuous psychological and conceptual linkages are established between each artist. What happens when physical manifestations of faith, jarring methods of communication, surreal environments that pit anxieties against fantasies, spiritual visions, and strategies that reflect endless possibilities are forced to relate to one another?
Kristin Luke graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2006. She has shown work throughout the U.S. and the U.K., and currently resides in Los Angeles.
Casey Jex Smith graduated with a BFA in painting at Brigham Young University in 2003, and an MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2005. His work has been shown in numerous exhibitions around the country, such as the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Swarm Gallery in Oakland, and the Provo Arts Council Gallery in Provo, Utah, as well as abroad.
Mark Mulroney graduated from San Diego University with a B.F.A in painting and received his M.F.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2000. Mark has shown all over the U.S. extensively and had numerous solo exhibitions at Mixed Greens in New York, the Greg Lind Gallery in San Francisco, the Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica, and the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art.
500 Years Of Women In Art
Nice morphing technique going on here. So when are they going to do the boys?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)