Art as Authority

New paintings by Matthew Offenbacher.

Spun by Richard Gleaves at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today's national news reports that a 19-year-old MIT student was arrested at Logan International Airport for wearing a circuit board with blinking LEDs on her sweatshirt. She told authorities it was an artwork.

This event, taken together with the digital graffiti scare from earlier this year, firmly establishes digital circuitry as a symbol of terror in the American visual lexicon. Which is deeply ironic given that under their smooth plastic covers every cellphone and iPod in America carries the very same circuitry and blinking LEDs.

iPods are to Big Macs as bare naked electronics are to blood-spattered cow intestines: both cross-relations involve deep consumer ignorance and denial. So when one encounters the real thing in public, the response is likely fear.

Spun by Richard Gleaves at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"To boldly go where no man has gone before" is indeed a lofty mission statement by which most of us know by now is the stuff of science fiction; much like the exuberant proclamations of the Administration’s equally enthusiastic “The Way Forward” or “Mission Accomplished”. The upside of the adventures of Capt. Kirk and the USS Enterprise is that their journey has never really ended, boldly moving forward exploring every nook and cranny of the universe. The downside of the political quagmire we find ourselves in today is that we are truly stuck, hardly advancing and sinking deeper.

A bit like the current art scene here in San Diego, wouldn’t you say? There’s the stuff that floats on the surface, bobbing for attention and then there’s the stuff that is already starting to decompose, shedding its superficiality and exposing its heart and soul. Not all bad art sinks and not all good art rises to the top, it takes a certain blend of ooze, time, permutation and quality of the ingredients – yes, the good art – to get a residue worth staining the knees of your pants as you dig down to pull up some of that primordial muck we call art. (All allusions to Peter Morgan’s recent expo at Spacecraft is intentional) But where do you know to dig? Call it Lady Luck, the environment, experience or just plain boredom, call it what you want but sometimes you needn’t drive from Houston, Texas to Orlando, Florida to find what you’re craving for. Sometimes it’s bubbling right up in your own backyard and sometimes it just lands there.

Take Emily Fierer and Christopher Puzio for example. They land in San Diego, stardate 2003, but it takes a meeting of the minds in Boston so to speak, via a voyage on their way here plus a long layover in Detroit to make it happen – that is to say, the building and opening of their design firm and gallery known as Spacecraft Studio in North Park. It is an interplanetary adventure that merits a closer look.

Spacecraft Studio in North Park


Fierer and Puzio meet in Boston, Red Sox fans I didn’t ask. Fierer has a Masters in Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design, Puzio continues his studies in architecture and design with an emphasis in metal work and furniture prototypes, both run in the same (design and mutual friend) circles and discover a deeper commonality between themselves beyond their fondness for Mies van der Rohe. They get married and Puzio applies and is accepted to the Cranbrook Academy of Art located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a rather posh suburb of Detroit. Puzio graduates from Cranbrook in 2002. The academy in existence since 1932 founded by George Gough Booth, a Detroit newspaper baron and philanthropist and Eliel Saarinen, a Finnish architect who influenced much of modern American architecture and design, had according to the school’s history the following objective in mind: “The Academy was envisioned as a school that would train artists, an atelier that would produce objects to embellish and improve the American environment, and a community where art would be integrated with daily life to the benefit of all. In practice, the Academy was born of the Arts and Crafts concerns of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and emerged as the country's pre-eminent school of art, design, and architecture.”

The setting was indeed fertile ground for Puzio and intellectual and architectural paradise for Fierer. Fate brought them together, but a solid education put them in another league that I believe resulted in the unique vision they have brought here to San Diego. Their view on art was in large part cultivated, groomed and honed razor sharp not only conceptually but from a design and manufacturing point of view, as in the hands-on skills necessary to fabricate an object – i.e. the “craft” – by their time spent at Cranbrook and by the Detroit art scene. Detroit doesn’t often come up in conversations on art, but it does indeed have a scene with the historical cojones to back it up. This art historical baggage carried by most Detroit artists past and present (still fervently defended today), and not too dissimilar from Chicago, New York or L.A.’s post World War II era and revolutionary ‘60’s and ‘70’s art scenes I believe, was not as prevalent perhaps when Fierer and Puzio were there, but the heady pungent perfume of a tumultuous Detroit art scene and in particular emanating from the infamous ghosts of the Cass Corridor artists still lingered in the air - at least enough to get a whiff of. One also shouldn’t forget the importance the DIA (Detroit Institute of Art) had on the art being made at that time and exhibited; it is true even to this day. The DIA you might recall has Diego Rivera’s iconoclastic mural “Detroit Industry” on its walls. The museum, designed by architect Paul Cret, was referred to by many as a “temple of art” when it was completed in 1927.

Detroit’s longest on the scene art critic for The Detroit News, Joy Hakanson Colby (now retired) sums it up the best after sixty years on the paper’s staff, what would eventually shape Detroit’s future and many of the artists:

“The late 1960s and 1970s also made art history in Detroit. Two major groups working and exhibiting separately pumped energy into the community — the Cass Corridor artists and the Gallery 7 artists led by Charles McGee. The Cass Corridor gang consisted mostly of male professors and art students at Wayne State. They made art along a seedy stretch of Cass Avenue, they drank at Cobb's Corner at Cass and Willis, and they exhibited at the Willis Gallery down the block. The Willis was a run-down storefront. But I can remember walking through with Philip Guston, who admired the proportions of the space enough to say he wouldn't mind showing his own work there. The DIA's Sam Wagstaff inspired and encouraged Cass Corridor artists, such as Gordon Newton, Michael Luchs, Douglas James and Jim Chatelain. Susanne Hilberry, who owns a leading gallery today, worked at the museum with Wagstaff in those days and was an important part of the Cass Corridor energy.”

Charles McGee would be remembered for his ground breaking exhibit “7 Black Artists” who he later championed and brought to the public’s eye along with his gallery, Gallery 7 that showcased African-American artists. Nothing on this scale or the resulting influence from it had ever been done before. The complete article can be found here.

Colby mentions two very important points in her article, causing me to wonder if they weren’t very well the keys to success for Spacecraft or any other gallery trying to turn this town into a showcase of local, national and international talent. Colby says first, “For as long as I can remember, artists who live and work here have been critical of the encyclopedic DIA for not doing more with contemporary art.” In this case, substitute the MCASD for the DIA and try to determine the museum’s impact on the art community globally and not selectively (are they leaving no stones unturned?) and judge the level and importance of the contemporary art they’re exhibiting. Secondly Colby says, “I left The News in April, but the art beat left me months, even years ago. It strikes me as particularly ironic that The News should join other metropolitan dailies across the country in drastically cutting coverage of the visual arts.” Again, take out The Detroit News for the San Diego Union Tribune; do you have enough arts coverage here in San Diego to make a difference? One of those differences could very well be to understand how the arts are perceived here and accepted – critically – by the individuals invested in its making, promotion, durability and interest publicly and intellectually. I would like to take a moment to expand briefly on one of those comments, specifically in how it relates I believe to the dynamics of the world of art here in San Diego.


I imagine that no one is criticizing the MCASD of being “encyclopedic” or for that matter criticizing anything about the MCASD and whether or not it is serving the better interests of a larger artistic community and its fellow inhabitants. Artists have long been brow-beaten into believing that the epitome of success is getting your work into a museum – and in typical hierarchal fashion – it would follow that the next best thing would be a collector’s home and last but not least, a gallery. Translation: don’t rock the boat. I would also suspect that the “tuyau” or pipeline to well established talent and the museum and/or anyone remotely or presumably associated with UCSD, other major institutions and any other major players – galleries or otherwise – flows undeterred. Some may feel this is a gross exaggeration, others just par for the course – typical it may be, normal it probably shouldn’t be. My point is this, wonder if we turned the tables slightly and didn’t necessarily stop thinking locally, but stopped thinking locally in terms of who was pre-approved by the local consensus, board of directors, trustee or collector – I avoid adding critics to the list because we all know we’re sure as heck not influencing anyone’s decisions – and by doing so would stop the dog from chasing its tail i.e. the artist chasing recognition, and would ever so slightly shift the change of power into the hands of those who are making the artwork in the first place, the artists. It’s just the simple economics of supply and demand, create the desire and they will come. The bigger question is for me, that is if you’re truly a museum for Art (with a capital “A”) or anyone involved in the selection process; how do you exhibit diversity, change, contemporary, technology, youth, culture, knowledge, history – past, present, future, experience, ideas, society, death, concepts, passion, love etc. all those things that encompass any one artist’s “raison d’être,” IF you’re not open to their opposites, the anti-art so to speak, the stuff that doesn’t get seen, those neighboring influences and artists beyond the borders of your preconceived notions? I was reminded recently by someone that museums are made up of ordinary people with their own unique blend of quirks, visions and agendas that are thrown together to come up with one “museum vision” of what art should represent and look like. Not primarily as I would prefer to believe, as a “phare” or guiding light of current ideas or works by current artists. Fair enough.

While I believe that this is partly true, what would prevent any trustee, any collector any curator from the MCASD dropping in on Spacecraft to look at what is going on? Or for that matter, any of the remaining few serious galleries in North Park (Rubber Rose, Art Produce, 4Walls…) that are pushing the boundaries of contemporary art by exhibiting serious works by serious artists. Perhaps they already have, perhaps they’re shy about making their presence known, Puzio says “not to his knowledge” but why would they be? What is the risk they would be taking? The dangers of looking and discovering something they like OR haven’t seen? Isn’t that part of their role? Wouldn’t you want your finger on the pulse of what is beating alive and strong in your own backyard? I would and it certainly would be a whole lot more fun. You would still have to select and make choices to get to the “good art” – of course, it’s part of the process but in doing so, by allowing other galleries, other artists to participate in the offer and not the demand, you would create a more accurate and poignant picture of the local contemporary art scene here. And at the same time, it brings it and others up to speed to the same level of performance as other art enclaves around the country, not to compete necessarily (though I believe it is healthy), but to make them and us aware of what’s on each other’s mind – not to mention see some very different works from your own. Sunday painters please abstainer. San Diego needs to blow some fresh air back into the vacuous art paradise it’s created or forever suffer being beaten on a national and international level. San Diego needs to position itself as a credible and dynamic center for the arts, unless of course that’s not important – but that would be a mistake to think so. Anyone of Spacecraft Studio’s recent exhibitions from artists such as David Adey, Peter Morgan, Matt Wedel, Jeremy Gercke or local designer Miki Iwasaki (don’t forget Spacecraft is also about showcasing some the finest designers working today) and Craig Kane merit and deserve to be recognized by their peers first. And second it would be a considerable honor and plus for the MCASD to have any one of these artists in their collection – amongst many more I can name throughout San Diego. Museums cannot always and probably shouldn’t shape the direction or the course an artist takes, it should be a depository for his/her idea(s), a laboratory of experimentation and a window or Petri dish of sorts, for the public to observe, learn and participate through.


But did Fierer and Puzio know what they were immersing themselves into here and the political choice(s) they were making? For art is politics too; whether you make it, show it or sell it is political in nature and is determined (there are many sides to stand on) in the selections you make and the results you get. Were they aware of San Diego’s position within the art world and its sibling relationship to L.A.? In speaking with Puzio, their choice to move here appeared at least to me, a personal one as opposed to artistic. The arrival of their newborn girl a year earlier to their arrival and a desire to be closer to Fierer’s family in La Jolla – seemingly a better quality of life from that of city life in Detroit – led to a decision that thousands of families make every day. Let’s move. Fierer had already begun working as Project Manager for Turner Construction, one of the worlds largest General Contractors with expertise in airport construction to pharmaceutical and biotechnology facilities, and Puzio was fresh out of Cranbrook. Ghanaian artist, El Anatsui, said artists should make use of whatever the environment throws up – so that’s exactly what Fierer and Puzio did, find a home and a place to utilize their skills and do business all in one. Their search led them to a typical one-story southern Californian stucco house built around 1927 up for sale in North Park. Zoned as mixed-use thanks in part to the previous owner, a doctor who had built himself an office on the same exact spot where Spacecraft gallery is now located. Finding nothing worth salvaging in the good doctor’s home, it was leveled to make way for a new design by Fierer and Puzio which also enabled them to tuck their home off neatly to one side – apart but accessible through the gallery. What better way to show off your skills than to put your wares out on the street. It may have been a very expensive business card but one that no one was likely to lose.

Three years later, in November of 2006, Spacecraft Studio was a reality and open for business as an independent design firm specializing in construction, re-models, renovations and custom furniture, and as an art gallery in the thriving North Park Ray at Night community. I first learned about Spacecraft in February after receiving an email from an artist friend urging me to check out this “new” gallery in town that was exhibiting squashed and melted shopping carts. Christian Tedeschi, the sculptor who brutalized these carts and who also happens to be a friend of Puzio, is a Cranbrook graduate who currently lives in L.A. Rumor had it that Spacecraft was comprised of young hipsters from L.A. showcasing what else? – L.A. artists. Not true says Puzio, if anything there is still a strong Detroit and Cranbrook connection that to some extent guides the choices of art and artists being shown in the gallery. I purposely called Tedeschi a sculptor as opposed to the generic labeling of “artist” for a reason, it’s simply because Spacecraft shows a lot more sculpture, ceramic and installation work than anyone else – and some of the best at that. I have my biases of course everyone does, but give me something to stub my toe on, something smart and solid, something I can walk around and admire instead of this weak scumbling of colored paint on canvas and outlined figures in black that I see everywhere – were already inundated up to our ears with this stuff. Besides, California has had a long tradition of especially talented ceramic artists in its past the likes of Robert Arneson, Peter Voulkos and Manuel Neri to name a few, so it’s nice to see someone bringing that tradition back and contemporizing it at the same time.

So how does Puzio see things after putting on a year’s worth of exhibits, month after month? He feels like several other gallery owners in the North Park Ray at Night district that I’ve talked to. It’s a lot of work organizing, installing, promoting, and selling a new exhibit then de-installing it, and then getting ready for the next one. I asked Puzio if he wouldn’t consider prolonging his exhibitions at some point, suggesting perhaps that he mix it up a bit, consider other dates and times for opening night(s), special preview parties or “collector night” – nothing new in way of ideas – but perhaps a way of maximizing the gallery and the work being exhibited. Spacecraft is for the moment, by appointment only. Puzio feels that they cannot afford not to capitalize on a monthly event that is ingrained in the psyche and reflexes of a faithful public that comes out to see art and socialize. Puzio and Fierer and Spacecraft have developed over a very short time a “clientele,” not always the spending kind, but they come to almost all the openings. While this is good of course, Puzio wonders “down the road” (and I’ve heard this from others as well) if it is enough to sustain a gallery before putting a hole in the budget for the wine and pretzels.

This is almost always the same problem for any gallery starting out. How do you import and then export the talent you have, how do you get it into the hands of people who want to buy it, how do you exhibit it “outside” the walls of your gallery and how do you get anyone to recognize the quality and to promote it through larger and more important shows - biennales, fairs, group shows for example, or through collector and critical support. Building interest is obviously a key ingredient among many others, for a gallery to survive. I always walk away from these sorts of conversations thinking that it is not sufficient enough just to show good work, yes the public will recognize it as such but will they do much more than that, unless they are “trained” – I use the term loosely - or simply told that they need to be active participants in the artistic process and promotion of an artist’s work and not simple voyeurs. Gallery dealers also need to realize that they need to be much more proactive than they used to be – there’s simply too much going on in the real world for any one individual to sit up and say “oh, there’s art out there I should go see it.” The bottom line is that everyone needs to work that much harder independently as a team. Do It Yourself, which Puzio religiously abides by, seems to be the modus operandi for San Diego and is what pushes and galvanizes individuals to eventually join together and recognize each others talent.

For the time being, Puzio and Fierer are content to keep a low profile, what Puzio called a “humbler” approach to the art business, happy with the response they received, willing participants in the ebb and flow of Ray at Night and not necessarily feeling that they need to pay their dues or to make a big splash. Time will tell. I think this is smart. Call their vision and the artists their exhibiting a quiet revolution, conquering through example and not lip service, converting through moderation and quality of work being shown and not excessive and redundant regurgitations of shows and repetitive boring artists. You can’t deny or ignore where they’ve come from or what they have witnessed, learned and applied through their experiences. It shows. You know there’s something to be said about those individuals like Puzio and Fierer and Spacecraft, disturbing the tranquility and artistic fabric of your town that come from a different space and time, a different culture different points of view different attitude different ways of seeing and believing. I say welcome and “what took you so long?”


Kevin Freitas



Spacecraft Studio
2865 North Park Way
San Diego, CA 92104
619.291.2752


The second part of this article is a review of the current exhibition on view at Spacecraft entitled “Atomic Particulars: New Work by David Adey”



"The New Bomb" - David Adey

Spun by Art as Authority at 06:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Parisian painter Julien Colombier has a new exhibit of his works opening at Van Weyenbergh Fine Arts in Brussels this month. If you find yourself in the neighborhood make sure you stop in and say hello to our good friend Julien, you'll be impressed by the character of the man and the quality of the work.

Opening: Sept. 15, 2007 at 7pm
Dates: 9/15 - 9/30/2007
Info

Van Weyenbergh Fine Arts
188 rue Haute
Brussels, Belgium
(01132 485612659)

Spun by Art as Authority at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(Cover San Diego Business Journal - detail Volume 28, Number 37 Sept. 10 - 16, 2007)


A special report was published in the San Diego Business Journal today entitled "Artists Flourish in a Lesser-Known Market," written by special report editor Pat Broderick, who presents her findings just as she collected them - straight-up. Covering several points of view from local art dealers and players such as Mark Quint and Joseph Bellows, Hugh Davies (David C. Copley director of the MCASD), Carlsbad artists Dennis Batt and Nanette Newbry, Patricia Frischer and Joan Seifried from Art Girls, Inc. and co-organizer of the San Diego Art Prize and yours truly - Kevin Freitas amongst others, Broderick's article will hopefully stir up a potential (and much needed) discussion about San Diego's sustainability as an art market and art community. In fact to further assist you in this debate, there are three other articles to be gleaned about San Diego's art scene which can be found in print at your local newstand or online here, here, and here.

San Diego Art, Fact or Fiction - you decide.

Spun by Art as Authority at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here is a little dialogue with Bens and Gater, to get some insights on their thoughts about the current state of graffiti and some other related topics. Both agreed to speak candidly being comfortable behind the anonymity of their assumed nom de plumes. This will be the first of several such interviews and the goal is to explore the vast array of ideological circumstances that mold graffiti writers. KAI1

K: KAI1: Alright dudes (in dickhead tone) – what do you guys write? What crews?

G: Gator: One, I only write one crew … UK.
B: Bens: Shit man… Bens One. Don’t give me attitude either. I write UK.

K: What did you dudes write as toys?

G: That’s a previous lifetime buddy, not even worth mentioning.
B: I wrote Dense back in the day and then a bunch of other toy ass names.

K: What is the last thing that you stole? How long ago was it?

G: I take the fifth sir.
B: About 600 dollars worth of supplies from my work this past weekend. (Laughing)

K: What is the dumbest thing that you’ve ever done?

B: Shit I gotta search my memory banks for this one… it was when I beat up the homie Jets and then they were only gonna only take him to jail because he was too drunk and then I asked the officer if I could go to jail with him.
G: I was walking around with headphones on doing marker tags during the day. I wasn’t looking and a lady cop rolled up on me in her car. She jumped out on me but I sidestepped her, pushed her down, and then kept on running. I got a good distance away but ended up getting tackled down by some other cops right in front of my friend’s house. His dad saw the whole thing from his window.





K: Is graffiti worse than doing drugs? Why?

B: Way worse – it ruined my life – I’m serious drugs didn’t even come close.
G: Yeah, more addicting with less results.
B: I prefer doing graffiti while on drugs though.

K: Do you believe that God exists?

G: Of course I believe in God cuz... uhh... uhuh…actually cause TV told me. (Deadpan serious) From my TV education, I believe this to be true.









K: Do you think that god hates graffiti? (Awkward silence and then laughter.)

B: Naw … not at all … why would he give it to us if we weren’t gonna use it?
G: Um no, I believe it be that he finds it one of the more amusing jokes that he plays on society.

K: Aren’t you too old to be doing this shit?

B: Definitely – way too old.
G: I’m only 19 son.

K: Favorite color as expressed by a color of Rust-oleum paint?

G: Chrome….it gets you the most huffed if you ever alone on a bombing mission. Bens here has been known to huff it to get his balls up.
B: (laughing) Harbor Blue.





K: When was the last time you slept in the street?

G: Last night.
B: Never – like 5 years ago.

K: Do you think graffiti is worse than drunk driving?

G: Oh no by far not.
B: Yeah – I haven’t been caught drunk driving yet but I have been caught at graffiti and it sucked.

K: Have you ever drunk drove, done graffiti, and looked at porno all in one night?

B: I'd have to say yes buddy.





K: Have you ever beat anyone’s ass over graffiti?

B: Fuck dude (he asks around) I don’t even know just some little toys at a party that I mopped up once when I was all pilled up.
G: Not over graffiti but I did almost have to defend my self from a drunk chick that was like 6”3’. I just broke a bottle and looked at her all crazy.

K: Do you believe that graffiti is morally wrong?

G: No.

K: Is graffiti a gateway drug?

B: Naw man that’s weed stupid..
G: It’s more like a gateway crime.

K: Is graffiti a symptom of underlying emotional problems?

G: It’s like why some dudes wanna drive fast cars. NawhatImean?
B: Yes absolutely (laughing) for me it’s having a small dick.

K: Is it wrong to tag on someone’s house?

G: I guess.

K: Have You?

G: Of course.
B: Id have to say yes. Maybe a garage door or something. I would only tag someone’s front door if it was already killed with tags or I had personal beef with them.
G: Or if it’s a really good spot.





K: Do you pay taxes?

G: When I have a job.
B: Uh you know what… I didn’t pay this last years past… I’m prolly gonna get in some kinda trouble for that shit.

K: Do you hope that your kids end up doing graffiti or do you hope they find a real hobby?

G: I’m sterile.
B: (Half serious) I hope my children grow up to be axe murders and rapists. I d be real proud considering the way the world is.

K: Thanks

Spun by Art as Authority at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Thanks to RG

USS San Diego - 1915
(image: The California State Military Museum)

Spun by Art as Authority at 09:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)