The piece in question is a scrawl done in black marker directly on the wall, a reproduction of Shannon’s signature one assumes, by Doug Simay himself. I confirmed the hunch (stop if you don’t like spoiler endings), while he explained that he was given a few attempts to copy Spanhake’s autograph, then handed a marker and said allotted wall space with one try to get it right. The result is less than appealing and barely visible due to its placement and a spotlight glaring down upon it. A lone label with the real artist’s name printed on it, Shannon Spanhake, sits to the left of the work to indicate that it is indeed art. Ok we get it, but I no longer want to think about it as a slew of artists come to mind, the likes of Lawrence Weiner, Kosuth, Bruce Nauman - even graffiti artists – or for that matter, any one of the women artists in the WACK! exhibit who conceived this “art making by verbal or written instructions” 30 years earlier and did it with so much more elegance. I give up; I don’t want to figure out all the complex interstices of possible meaning, subtle associations and self-referential satire. Humor? Irony? I don’t care. The selling of art, often heard about when it reaches into the millions on the auction block, is often neglected when it comes to selling it in a show. The $3000.00 price tag on Spanhake’s drawing makes me further question the sincerity of the work. I imagine this is the point.




"This is What We Are Up Against in the Nam" - Jason Sherry (click for larger image)


“This is not Johnson's war. This is America's war. If I drop dead tomorrow, this war will still be with you.”
“We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.” – Lyndon B. Johnson


Sound familiar? I’m sure it does for Jason Sherry (www.jasonsherry.com) who points this out to us in “This is What We Are Up Against in the Nam.” Sherry has created a sublime work of art, has re-created a relic of a bygone era – the Vietnam War to be exact – an era that we are still feeling repercussions from today mirroring to some, our prolonged involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is a timely object indeed – acting with deadly precision and bravado on the current political stage – it is beautifully manufactured, as it sits encased in a long coffin-like shadow box with dark royal blue velvet lining the interior. Blue is for Royalty but an AK-47 is for dealers and buyers of weapons. But Sherry’s weapon of choice and in art is not just any AK-47, it is one that has been carved out of bamboo from the barrel down to the gun sights, including the bullet clip and the barrel stock of this most revered killing machine. The only remains of an actual AK-47 that haven’t been carved by Sherry are the butt of the gun and the hand grip. Look closer and the gun’s barrel is strategically pointed at the bust of Lyndon B. Johnson printed on some faux paper medallion enshrined by Laurel leaves, underneath is a little brass plaque that reads “This is what we are up against.” Indeed we are, then as in now. Placed below the rifle is a P.P. silver U.S.A.R. insignia (helicopter assault division?) that is a powerful and poignant reminder of the losses suffered “over there.”

I had the pleasure of seeing Sherry’s work in an earlier show organized at the Zedist Gallery in Normal Heights, and was impressed by its freshness and his technique of weaving collage and printing techniques into the work with constrained doses of political and social satire. It seems nothing is out of bounds in Sherry’s world. Other splendid works in the Simayspace exhibit include: (Spock)“In My Country Science is Gay” and “According to the Bible Code the Apocalypse is Going to be Fucking Action Packed.” You have to give credit to Sherry for his sensible use of collage, always finely incorporating it into the body and content of the work beyond the simple urge to juxtapose contrasting images for their face or nostalgic value.

"(Spock), In My Country Science is Gay" - Jason Sherry




"According to the Bible Code the Apocalypse is Going to Be Fucking Action Packed" - Jason Sherry



Benjamin Lavender (www.benjaminlavender.com) has exhibited three welded steel and concrete sculptures that seem rather strangely out of context with the rest of the works in the show. Perhaps it’s not his fault I would imagine, having been pre-selected to exhibit as an emerging artist. But for the curator who’s organizing and sampling from this random pre-selection selection committee’s selection, solely relying on his expertise and the artwork before him, it’s not surprising to get some pieces that just don’t fit one way or another. You select what you’re given which typically has nothing to do with the art – even if it’s good, bad or indifferent. And in the case of Lavender’s pieces, while beautifully made, they don’t exactly determine a defining trend in contemporary art or sculpture but define at least for me, a trend in contemporary decoration – and I don’t mean this pejoratively. I don’t believe that the work is strong enough to move the viewer into another realm of experience or sensation beyond seeing his pieces as representations of various plants and trees made from steel. “Ocotillo” is the most successful piece in my view, elegantly translating the beautiful and spindly stalk-like form of the Ocotillo desert plant in bloom - unique only to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.

Benjamin Lavender




"Long Claw" - Benjamin Lavender




"Long Claw"(detail) - Benjamin Lavender




"Ocotillo"(detail) - Benjamin Lavender




"Totem Pole (Nation Wide Museum Mascot Project)" - Brian Dick


Brian Dick (www.artmag.com/autresnouvelles/dick/home.html) exhibits a floor to ceiling totem pole entitled “Totem Pole (Nation Wide Museum Mascot Project)” made out of afgan blankets – yes the kind your mother used to knit - socks, pillows, slippers, plastic cups and clothing pins. It’s a massive piece held together rather precariously that towers over the viewer in the gallery. It may not be done in the Kwakwaka’wakw style of carving from British Columbia, but Dick’s totem is certainly indicative of the American style of the art and culture of thrift store bargain hunting, garage sale leftovers and grandma’s hand me downs. The abundance of stuffed animals, Sponge Bob Square Pants slippers made in China and afgan blankets from the 70’s holding this pole up is hallucinating.



"Totem Pole (Nation Wide Museum Mascot Project) - detail" - Brian Dick


Satire? Humor? Commentary on American consumerism? Is it poking fun at every high school’s mascot in every town and city in America? Is it a representative of a new found or dying indigenous culture, tribe or clan? Or are these items donated to Dick’s mascot project, acquiring a blanket here a stuffed animal there, travelling to various museums and galleries growing all the time in height and bulk as it’s installed? One can only guess. The work suffers though from too much open ended and fill-in-the-blank interpretations to be successful. Instead it relies on the inherent iconic and bas culture attraction of the materials used which is in sharp contrast to their real-life non-art meaning and existence. The piece is not subversive enough to be critical, not kitschy enough to be catchy and not humorous enough to be satirical – it’s just fun. Art can be fun – or a totem to one’s life.

"Totem Pole (Nation Wide Museum Mascot Project) - detail" - Brian Dick




"Totem Pole (Nation Wide Museum Mascot Project) - detail" - Brian Dick



Camilo Ontiveros (www.exchangealteration.blogspot.com) has installed a smoky plexiglass cut-out of three running figures – a man, woman and child – exiting out of or running through (across) the wall they’re fastened to. Installed side by side at equal distances between one another, organized in a typical patriarchal manner with the man leading, you’ll soon realize that it is a 3-D sculpture of the many border crossing panels motorists will find lining the freeways in San Diego. The goal is to avert and caution the passing motorist to the possible “illegal” crossing of the border by “illegal immigrants.” A timely piece indeed considering the recent second go-round defeat of the President’s immigration bill in congress but is it adding anything new to the debate? Ontiveros’ “untitled” work does appear to be an extension of his “CAUTION” project produced during Labor Day weekend of 2005 that was meant according to the project’s statement “ to emphasize on the inequalities faced by undocumented immigrants who come to the United States to work and earn money at unfairly low wages. Using the CAUTION sign, he(Ontiveros) altered their wording to play with the meaning of the icon and the phrases used.” Ontiveros had printed and pasted onto the actual freeway panels, such phrases as WANTED, CASH ONLY, FREE MARKET that mimicked economical jargon and commercial buzz words, but that also implied the only valuable and “decent” labor market in America is a free one. It also lowered their “illegal” albeit temporary immigrant status to that of common criminals. No rights, no justice and very little pay.



"Untitled" - Camilo Ontiveros




"Industry Need Not Want," "Root Hog or Die" - Allison Wiese


Ontiveros’ sculpture however, much like the panels exhibited by Allison Wiese ( www.allisonwiese.info) – high intensity sheeting on aluminium or basically the material used to make road signage - suffer greatly within the confined space of the gallery. Wiese’s looks too much like they’re trying to be art and I think are confusing as such. Context and placement of work is primordial. If both Ontiveros’ and Wiese’s pieces are to be viewed as maquettes for larger more ambitious outdoor public projects then they are a success, if they are to be viewed as stand alone pieces they fail. One could easily see Ontiveros’ border crossers in the thousands installed throughout downtown, running out of buildings, doorways, Horton Plaza, the Marina etc etc. This would be much more on par with and at the same level of impact illegal immigration is supposedly having on America. Perhaps this is what the artist intends to do some day, but as one piece in an art gallery with given ‘x’ amount of wall space to install it in; the work I feel comes off looking flaccid and too easy. The same criticism can be said of Wiese’s signs, much too simple in their thought process and presentation. A sign or many signs attached to the outside of the Art Academy’s building would I think, been a step in the right direction. (It’s interesting to note Spanhake’s work needing the gallery setting to survive as art - or otherwise it would just be a graffiti tag -while both Ontiveros and Wiese’s works need the great outdoors to be effective and interpreted differently from what they’re actually representing.)

Wiese’s roadside panels with Holzer-esque cryptic meanings stencilled on them such as “Root Hog or Die” (an old adage meaning fend for yourself or die) and “Industry Need Not Want” were simply propped up leaning lazily against the wall. To what end?




"No. 1 (The Anchor Series)" - Chris Ferreria


The appropriation of “historical” imagery by any means necessary, and then digitally printed, silk-screened and otherwise reproduced on virtually any support, is quite common amongst contemporary artists these days. It’s been awhile since anyone has seen or remembers the time Rauschenberg was using lithography and lighter fluid to transfer his iconography to canvas. While Rauschenberg was a master composer, organizing image with idea, composition with order, beauty with sensibility within the picture plane, he would in no way let one image prime over another, choosing instead harmony, intent and form. The digital and internet society we find ourselves living in has provided a plethora of “lost” and/or archival images usable and disposable at the touch of a keyboard – if it doesn’t look good delete it. The fight and struggle has been taken out of the art making/decision process, the glory has been lost. It has gotten easier to copy/paste but it hasn’t necessarily made the artwork any better.



"No. 2 (The Anchor Series)" - Chris Ferreria


Fellow San Diego artist R. Gleaves nailed it when he opined “Google is an art’s best friend.” But is it always an artist’s best friend?

Chris Ferreria (www.uber.com/cnferreria) wants to answer that question I believe with a series of work entitled “The Anchor series” No.1 and No.2, digital prints on cotton fabric. Does Ferreria answer it or does he add to the cornucopia of gallery distilled works on paper or WOPs – an acronym I’ve heard used in various art circles. WOPs are stylistically characterized by the use of overly large pieces of paper, huge untouched surfaces that contain a relatively small object or image placed squarely at the bottom of the paper’s edge either on the left, middle or right. The image Ferreria is using is a grouping of Navy cadets in training, circa World War II, wearing gasmasks or separately on another canvas firing a rifle. Loosely hinged on a flat backing, the canvases bleed out to the unframed edges, slightly wavy as they sit solemnly on the wall. Perhaps Ferreria’s images are simply metaphoric anchors. A third image entitled “Upon Your Return to the Comfort of a Storm” is a large blurred close-up of the Battleship board game, its ships and plastic pegs in total disarray strewn about. Abstractly and compositionally intriguing, it is by far the best work out of the three images on view. Unfortunately, Ferreria’s pieces in my opinion are the weakest link in the show.

"Upon Your Return to the Comfort of a Storm" - Chris Ferreria



Matt Devine (www.mattdevine.net) could ultimately place second with two works “Untitled”, steel rods with patina and “Balance” Series, steel with patina. “Balance” is placed on a white pedestal that hugs the wall preventing any in-the-round appreciation and “Untitled” hangs flatly against the wall and does nothing more visually. Both works have a dark rich brown patina that interferes with the reading of the surface and in the case of “Untitled” disrupts the undulating surface of thick gage steel rods welded together side by side one after the other. Devine has simply created a wave pattern of alternating lengths of steel rod equal distance on both sides in some Rorschach steel menagerie that is static and formally dissatisfying. The work starts to break down as the rods start to thin out toward the extremities, pairing or tripling up showing the viewer the simplicity of the design and logic. “Balance” fares much better. Comprised of a conical cross section, sliced on the diagonal and turned on its side, a round circular hole has then been hollowed through the body of the piece slightly off center, creating a delicate “balance” of negative spaces and adding a Brancussi like flavour to the work. Much more formally appealing, “Balance” really can’t be considered I believe, to be indicative of any contemporary sculpture being made today as the lessons Devine is trying to explore have been learned by many of his predecessors – Noguchi, Arp and Tony Smith for example - and have been resoundingly dealt with. I’m not saying Devine can’t make this sort of work or shouldn’t, of course not, what I’m saying is that it’s not particularly at the forefront of setting any defining aesthetic. Once again, are these maquettes for larger public sculpture or models of formal contemplation? Robert Smithson once said that size determines what an object is; scale determines if it is art.

"Untitled" - Matt Devine




"Balance" Series - Matt Devine



If you’re still reading this and if you’ve only gotten a glimpse of just a fraction of the works Nina Karavasiles (www.ninak.info) has exhibited at Simayspace, there are many more where that came from. All of them and I mean all, are splendid in their plurality and limitless imagination. You would do well to check out her website complete with an audio pronunciation of her first and last name – knee nah care a vasa less. This of course, is to see not only the breadth and range of work she’s made but the apparent ease and comfort, the dexterity she exhibits in vacillating between public art, site-specific installations, private commissions, the studio, workshops and her design work which includes gardens, kitchens, bathrooms and jewellery. Karavasiles appears to be the most prolific and versatile artist in this group show creating work that is not only conceptually based but in tune with the site and specifics of each environment she’s working in. She is also sensitive to the public art public needs of the community when she’s been invited to create a sculpture within it, harmoniously integrating all the elements and requirements. Karavasiles work is far too vast to summarize and I am unable to do it justice in a small paragraph. The work shown at Simayspace was a collage of several public works she produced in collaboration with several architects and landscape artists amidst other designers, in achieving some of her past present and soon to be future projects. Some of these are: the recently installed “A San Diego African American Legacy”, a proposal for the Colfax bridge that spans the LA river, the 70th Street Trolley Station, and “Recipe for Friendship” in San Diego’s Little Italy. Just a few which are in reality, part of a dozen or so other projects she’s successfully completed. I would hardly consider Karavasiles an emerging artist but could easily see her as the epitome of the Renaissance artist or sculptor for the King and State: a thinker, engineer, inventor, explorer, scientist but most of all a dreamer.



Kevin Freitas



Nina Karavasiles




Nina Karavasiles