Art as Authority

Opening Reception: December 6, 2008
6 - 10 pm

Art of Framing
3333 Adams Avenue • San Diego, CA 92116 • 619.563.9770
www.theartofframing.net

www.bretbarrett.com

Spun by Art as Authority at 08:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Kevin Freitas


Former San Diego artist and SDSU graduate Sandra Doore, has an exhibit on view at the Slide Room Gallery in the Vancouver Island School of Art, Victoria, BC. Doore also has work on view at Deluge Contemporary Art in a group show "Gifted" and will have another exhibit in May 2009 called "Primal Sense".


All photo credits: Nadine Kong - Paradox of the Absurd / Sandra Doore - Gifted

"Venus in Furs"


Victoria also happens to be where Doore makes her art and home. Some of you may have seen this same body of work, "Paradox of the Absurd," last April at the Art Produce Gallery in North Park, San Diego. If you did, you'll recall a body of work that was absurdly constructed in its use of everyday kitchen utensils weaved into or should I say, overtaken with bulging fungi like forms - generally stitched, pieced, and sewn together out of various fabrics and vinyl (faux) leather.

Doore, like another San Diego artist David Adey, make artwork that is compelling, at times repulsive, extremely beautiful, expertly crafted, and to a large degree - unexplainable. It is work that goads, annoys, and seduces you into (seeing is) believing one thing while implying another. Understandings Doore’s work hinges on our comprehension of how “objects” work, are used contextually (by whom for what), and how they are for example, admired as trophies, acquisitions or art. In the case of Adey, it is how celebrities are portrayed and admired in all their one-dimensionality between the covers of a magazine. In both cases, the object’s (form), and how we use them, is inseparable to their functioning (like utensils) or fulfilling our projected fantasies.

"Paradox of the Absurd II"


The key is how both artists take this experience of an object’s functionality and incorporate it into their works, altering not only your impression and contact with that object, but the ensuing conflict it raises, once the artist has resurrected the "objet du désir" into something that actually glorifies or subverts it and ultimately renders it useless. Rendering an object useless, if you’re not destroying it, might seem pointless. However, and without getting too pedantic, the role of artists is to provide a certain amount of “meaning” into their works visually and without words. This can be achieved in many ways of which an object can take on metaphorical, even allegorical meaning, alluding to something bigger – idea, concept, thought, emotion, ritual etc. – beyond its physical presence. In this manner, Doore references her reading of David B. Morris’ book entitled Illness and Culture in the Post-modern Age, and his belief that “illness defines who we are.”

“Paradox of the Absurd” is based in part on this concept of illness, an illness not so much physical as it is mental. “The sculptures in ‘Paradox of the Absurd’ are meant to make visible the anxiety and tension experienced in a postmodern capitalist society that is mesmerized by ‘the body without organs’; they are metaphors of unattainable desires,” says Doore. I think Adey would also agree.



"Compulsion I"


Is the transformation of a bottle opener into a grotesque guillotined shell of itself “a metaphor of unattainable desire”? Difficult to tell. However, the mental game of piecing together what a bottle opener looks like, with what you actually see, can be disorienting, gratifying, or extremely banal - depending on your state of mind and level of perception and observation. There is a richness of detail of course, to be witnessed in every one of Doore’s works. Her sculptures might though be easier to grasp literally rather than visually, as the objects are often hidden or protected underneath the object’s surface/texture/skin (take your pick) or “growth” wanting to be caressed but not always touched. In any case, pleasure and pain are never to far away from our fingertips it seems.

There are also several palatable reminders experienced by some as eliciting a negative reaction, a certain "state of not so well being" found in Doore's work like: violence, pain, bondage, loss, dismemberment, and abandonment to name but a few. I believe these are much more easily detected than any signs of illness, anxiety or tension. The visible stitching, the mending of wounds, and the subsequent scarring only heightens the disfigurement of the sculptures. Imagine the work of Japanese photographer Araki and his tightly roped and bound models; remove their heads and a limb or two, and your left with protruding breasts and buttocks. Everything is still there more or less in a Doore sculpture, a heart, a soul, and a vagina, but while your imagination reassembles the rest of the parts, there is no body to recall the ghostly (w)hole. On the other hand, orifices, fabric folds (labia), texture, silky smooth fur, blue veins appearing just below alabaster white stretched fabric (skin), garter belts, bra straps, women's underwear, red lace hidden, revealed, exposed, seduction, foreplay, and eroticism come to mind as well, and fulfils the "positive" and pleasurable emotions of looking at Doore's work. If there is an anxiety to be felt, it is through an endorphin induced remembrance of life’s pain and pleasures.



"Compulsion II"



"Compulsion III"


Doore understands this by walking a very fine line between giving the viewer enough information to draw them in and enough of repugnant charge, albeit quite humorously sometimes to send them back reeling. And while Doore’s sculptures “are bodies without organs” it is difficult to associate illness to inanimate objects such as bottle openers, dish scrubbers, or plastic whisks. They become Surrealist objects that while absurd, do not give enough clues to convince the viewer of some of the real illnesses of a consumer and body conscious society such as anorexia and the intake for example of tobacco, alcohol or any other number of substances, inactivity and poor health (mental or physical) that can possibly lead to cancer. This duality is the strength and weakness of the work. Reminiscent of great works by Eva Hesse, Louise Bourgeois and the sensual forms of Brancusi, consecrated with the rawness of Araki’s photos, it leaves the viewer wanting more or ultimately perplexed. Ambiguity becomes a strength to be further blurred in Doore’s sculptural vocabulary. Don’t underestimate however, a certain level of frustration and denied pleasure that is building from within these pieces, as the pressure pushes against the taunt skin of its host body.



"Quotidian Daydream"



"Quotidian Daydream"


And don't be embarrassed if you're caught looking, its part of Doore's game. Any number of slits, folds, bulges, and mesh covered gashes discovered in the work, is a conscious effort on Doore's part to trigger certain "ancestral" or psychological reaction in the viewer that will undoubtedly elicit a strong emotion. Is it as visceral and graphic as some of the Viennese Actionists performances of the 60's, probably not, however, there’s still a powerful charge to Doore's sculptures. I wonder though, if the work perhaps lacks (certainly not every piece), a more substantive and larger context for it to exist in. Instead of these sculptures resting comfortably on-the-wall or on-the-floor, detached in a visual limbo of sorts and un-threatening, almost apathetic, perhaps they could be pushed into the realm of props, accessories, extensions of the human body which could then act as a foil or backdrop for a range of emotions and concepts, the pieces cannot always vehicule by themselves. In other words, push the work beyond the hijacked stereotypical clues of lace and everything nice, and banal objects, into more pure form or purer seduction – a clearer message. Doore is at her best when subtlety is replaced by directness, anger by fists, sex by fucking, and art filled with passion. It is also what makes it worth experiencing and writing about.



"Dystopia"



"Dystopia" detail






John Luna, artist/writer and Chair of the Slide Room Gallery, also wrote a review of Sandra's exhibit (before mine) that you'll find in its entirety below. Published with permission by John Luna. KF


Review of “Paradox of the Absurd”
by John Luna
(11.21.2008)

La poésie ne s’impose plus, elle s’expose.
- Paul Celan

In the corner of the gallery sits a small blue object, like an egg. Its blueness seems concentrated in the white noise of the shabby corner, small and dense, tight and aloof. Looking closer, something protrudes from discreet folds in the split surface: a hand, a cartoonish call for help. It’s a temperature-sensitive gel suspended in puckered plastic, a soother for teething infants. The little fingers seem to invite us into the surface of the sculpture but it’s a pacifier (a “dummy”). Suddenly surrogate, it reorders the terms of the contract: we grip; it becomes part of the mouth.



"Mental Trap"


Sandra Doore’s work depends on equilibrium, of hot and cold or my space and your touch. Compulsion (title of three of the works in this exhibition) is after all a desire to augment and adjust, in the name of achieving the grace of the initial, virgin context: the compulsively cleaned, trimmed, brushed, filed, locked, polished or tied. The Compulsion pieces protrude from the wall in a row, the size of a petite fist or breast, streamlined but soft. Through tubes (the transparent handles of soap-storing scrub-brushes) bra straps wend their way, in weightless, sensual suspirations of corporality and control. Lingerie also fulfills this function on the floor version of Paradox of the Absurd: an ornamental constraint, it can’t commute the mass that extends from it. Like the fluffy synthetic band of Venus in Furs, it invites touch while defining the borderland where surface slips into formlessness, unknowable becoming unthinkable.

What can or can’t be thought of is part of what Paradox provokes. Teething toys, lingerie, kitchen utensils or fold- away furniture, they offer the signifiers of domesticity without the relief of interface, creating a Trap or object lesson out of familiarity. Body image occurs as part-object, from which we cannot possibly assemble a whole, (a sexual organ, a self, a mother, a family household) or a cancerous mass whose growth defies any internal economy. Their rounded edges recall the amphibious lines of contemporary consumer goods from SUV’s to cell phones, designed to insinuate themselves into habits’ niches. Poreless, they seem to emerge from a virtual space, as in the very narrow gap between sorted and unsorted recognition at the mirror, the split-second gap in which we decide whose side we’re on.



"Vanity I"


Beyond provocation and protuberance however, the ungainly balancing act of the pieces, their ultimate co-dependence, wins out. Experienced in the round, the objects become funny as well as unbearably candid, sensible as well as demanding. Their utensil-armatures assert themselves as a structure of foreplay, their cruelty the necessary discipline for a therapeutic confrontation. Over time, it becomes apparent why Doore still considers herself involved in an extension of the dialogues of painting: surfaces and touches that defer and deflect, forms that role-play interchangeable scenarios of illusion and material cause, craft as the desire to arrest a body’s limitless flux, a language that projects its vulnerabilities in order to expose our own.



"Vanity I"



"Paradox of the Absurd I"



"Paradox of the Absurd I"



"Stuck"



"Stuck" detail




And finally, a sneak preview of newer work by Sandra in the "Gifted" exhibit on view at deluge Contemporary Art.



"Consumed I"



"Consumed I"



"Consumed II"



"Consumed II"



"Consumed III"



"Consumed III"

Spun by Art as Authority at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

by Kevin Freitas


I was contacted by N Art Magazine last week, a virtual art magazine of sorts that is part blog and part television crew that covers the arts scene from "Southern California, to Los Angeles to Northern Mexico, Arizona and all points West." Their stated mission is: "To promote and foster appreciation of the arts in the area" and goes on to say, "N Art Magazine is created by artists for artists and those passionate about the arts. We showcase individual artists as well as explore the region's art happenings in an effort to enrich our varied culture." Excellent!, exactly what San Diego needs more of.

There always is a certain amount of serendipity in these types of encounters, which are for the most part, opportunities to be heard and showcased. I was fortunate enough to be interviewed about Art as Authority, while inside Luis de Jesus' Seminal Projects Gallery, when San Diego artist David Adey (and recent San Diego Art Prize nominee) still had his work on view. David also had the chance to be interviewed about the work, and I must say, came off like a pro before the camera. I won't say how many takes it took to get through mine!

There was also the opportunity to speak about the Exquisite Corpse dinner organized in support of the San Diego Visual Art Network. An original idea by Escondido artist and sculptor, Dave Ghirladucci, who contacted San diego artist Michele Guieu - a San Diego Art Prize nominee this year as well, and who later contacted me to join them. What a night! A six course meal, 6 performances, plenty of wine and good conversation, a live chicken, and plenty of DADA antics and absurd moments. Dave's son Alex, our silent Maitre d, insured that there was never a dull moment for our unsuspecting guests of twelve patrons.

N Art Magazine will be televising all this and more, this coming Sunday November 30 at 4pm on KGTV Channel 10 San Diego. Here is what else is in store for you from N Art Magazine:

The third episode of N Art Magazine is a cornucopia of visual and conversational delights. We've taken the ordinary elements of the holiday table and found artists whose work reflects them. Join us as we visit with acclaimed sculptor Boban, who creates dynamic figures out of silver spoons, ceramic artist Jake Allee, mixed media artist (and guest co-host) Simon Loli, glass artists from the Escondido Municipal Gallery, Art as Authority art critic and blogger Kevin Freitas, visual artist David Adey, a DADA inspired dinner, new Gallery Walk artists and a few surprises. You can enjoy this sumptuous feast with no calories on KGTV, Channel 10, on Sunday, November 30 at 4 p.m. For more information, contact Lisa Bebi at 619.916.9040 www.nartmagazine.com

Spun by Art as Authority at 09:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

by Richard Gleaves

Machine Project is a Los Angeles based non-profit arts organization, a storefront exhibition space, and purveyor of DIY workshops in the spirit of the Maker Faire.

LACMA is the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the largest encyclopedic museum west of Chicago, and a patchwork complex of seven buildings ranging in style from 30's streamline moderne to Jetsons 60's to bad 80's to Wright-ian organic to bland contemporary. (Hold that thought.)

Machine Project at LACMA was a one-day event where MP took over the LACMA campus, inserting Machine esthetic into a museum setting to the tune of 55 artist projects.

MP's artistic logic was straightforward: counterpoint the classic museum attributes of stasis, high art, and quiet contemplation with ephemerality, low craft, and sonic assault.

LACMA's institutional logic for hosting such an event proved cagier and ultimately more satisfying artistically: in a word, demographics. Anyone familiar with current art museum programming knows of the various special programs designed to lure anybody under 30 into the galleries. Compared with such events, MP at LACMA was a veritable Burning Man of youth programming.

And the primary lure was all too familiar: the dominant global art form of the past half century, aka music. To MP's credit there was not a DJ in sight; instead we got tablas, glass harmonicas, feedback loops, ambient drone remixes, elevator marching bands, barbershop hum quartets, mid-century modern folk song, speed metal guitar solos, and build-your-own synthesizers. In sum, everything necessary to retool the museum's traditionally contemplative space into the kind of high-stimulus environment necessary to captivate a generation of electronically-enhanced short attention spans.

What made so much of it work so well (recall held thought) is the structural irregularity of the LACMA campus: the very same irregularity that the LACMA trustees once dreamed of razing. But bad architecture can make for good ecosystems, and the LACMA campus offered dozens of niches for MP interventions that in their siting showed signs of acute intelligence operating behind the din.

The speed metal guitarist was planted on the second-floor patio of the Art Of The Americas building, enabling his blissfully context-free sonic projections to blat through various museum courtyards like thunder through the canyons of the High Sierra.

Similarly, the elevator marching band could be heard continuously as its elevator car floated up and down the atrium lobby of the Ahmanson building, changing only in volume as the door opened and closed on various floors, revealing the heretofore unknown acoustics of elevator cars and shafts.

As the day wound to a close, natural processes contributed the strongest project of the bunch, wafting the entire LACMA campus with the delicate scent not of popcorn but burning chaparral, conceptually fulfilling the prophecies of troublemakers from generations past.

Spun by Richard Gleaves at 12:00 PM | Permalink

KAI ONE is a damn fine graffiti artist. The homeboy from Tucson has something special running through his veins, other than Krylon Ultra Flat Black, that gives him a brillant artistic edge over his competitors. It is first and foremost, his dedication to the art form of graffiti. Secondly, respect for others and his art, and an unsatiable drive and energy that pushes him to innovate, take risks, and generally improve upon the state of graffiti today. "Don't count the kid out," is one of KAI's mottos - a way of life perhaps - that insures that we won't. His work is just too strong. Keep this in mind while you're admiring the works below: KAI ONE is to graffiti what Muhammed Ali was to boxing - a champion!

All the pieces on view, have come from KAI's first one-man show at Art Produce Gallery in San Diego. If you would like to know more about his process and influences, a video interview of KAI alongside his work in the gallery can be seen here. All purchases will be securely packed and fully insured for shipping. PayPal is accepted and purchases can be made through eBay if you prefer. Please direct all inquiries and questions to artasauthority@artasauthority.com Thank you!



"Beast"
acrylic, gesso, house paint on canvas - 30" x 24"
$ 150.00

"Alfred E. Raider"
spray paint, marker on canvas - 60" x 60"
$ 600.00





"Bad Ideas"
acrylic, gesso, house paint on canvas - 30" x 36"
$ 195.00





click for larger image
"Boss"
acrylic, gesso, house paint on canvas - 30" x 11"
$ 175.00





click for larger image
"Cat"
acrylic, spray paint, house paint, marker on canvas - 40" x 30"
$ 175.00





click for larger image
"Check to Check"
acrylic, house paint, marker on canvas - 24" x 18"
$ 150.00





"Don't Lose Money"
acrylic, house paint, marker on canvas - 30" x 40"
$ 195.00





"Don't Trust"
acrylic, house paint, marker on canvas - 30" x 42"
$ 375.00





"Fish and Towers"
acrylic, spray paint, house paint, marker on canvas - 50" x 96"
$ 1400.00





"Food Chain"
acrylic, gesso, house paint, spray painy, marker on shaped canvas - 32" x 32"
$ 250.00





click for larger image
"Impasse"
acrylic, house paint on canvas - 12" x 26"
$ 75.00









"Inmate"
acrylic, house paint on shaped canvas - 28" x 68"
$ 350.00





"Last Stop"
acrylic, house paint, marker on vinyl banner - 24" x 18"
$ 195.00





"Life is a Lie"
acrylic, house paint, marker on canvas - 26" x 22"
$ 350.00





"Never Share Lighters"
acrylic, house paint, marker on canvas - 40" x 50"
$ 500.00





"Nuclear Summer"
acrylic, spray paint, house paint, marker on canvas - 48" x 84"
$ 1400.00





"Self-portrait"
acrylic, house paint, marker on canvas - 36" x 60"
$ 275.00





click for larger image
"Shit Luck"
acrylic, house paint, marker on canvas - 60" x 84"
$ 75.00





"The Words of the Prophets"
acrylic, gesso, house paint on canvas - 30" x 11"
$ 900.00





"Girl in Tub"
acrylic, gesso, house paint, spray paint, marker on canvas - 26.5" x 54"
$ 800.00





"Totem"
acrylic, collage, pen & ink on paper, colored marker on canvas - 11" x 14"
$ 75.00









"UK"
acrylic, collage, pen & ink on paper, colored marker on canvas - 9" x 12"
$ 100.00





"Uncouth Kids" - click for larger image
acrylic, spray paint, nozzles, pen & ink on paper, marker on steel shelf - 36" x 11.5"
$ 225.00





"All Seeing"
acrylic, spray paint, marker, found objects on canvas - triptych - 24" x 48" each canvas
$ 1200.00





"All Seeing" detail
acrylic, spray paint, marker, found objects on canvas - triptych - 24" x 48" each canvas





"All Seeing" detail
acrylic, spray paint, marker, found objects on canvas - triptych - 24" x 48" each canvas





"No Future"
collage, acrylic medium, gold leaf, pen & ink, marker on paper - 13" x 20"
$ 100.00





"Pop Art is Dead"
collage, acrylic, medium, marker on canvas - triptych - 10" x 10" each canvas
$ 275.00
click for larger image





"Broken"
collage, acrylic on plywood - 15" x 10"





"Totem 2"
collage, pen & ink, marker, etching on paper (framed) - 12" x 15"





"Free Cwes"
acrylic, marker, spray paint on canvas, mounted on press board - 14" x 16"









"Sellin' Up" click for larger image
acrylic, collage, marker, gold leaf on canvas - diptych - 14" x 18" each canvas





"Genuis For Sale"
acrylic, marker, serigraph on paper - 17" x 20"





"Style For Sale"
acrylic, marker, serigraph on paper - 17" x 20"





"Mobb"
collage, plastic gold lettering, marker on commercial poster, framed under plexiglass - 20" x 16"





"There Is No God"
acrylic, collage, marker on canvas - 16" x 20"





"Life is a Joke"
acrylic, collage, marker on canvas - 16" x 20"





"Bored and Angry"
acrylic, collage, marker on canvas - 16" x 20"





"Cross" click for larger image
acrylic, serigraph on paper - 60" x 84" - 8pcs.





"Anti-Square"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 24" x 21"





"Dignity"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 24" x 21"









"Fish Eye"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 21" x 24"





"Not Even God"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on foam core - 30" x 20"





"Lucky 7"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on foam core - 30" x 20"





"Lost Cause"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 30" x 22"





"Bum Days"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 30" x 22"





"Faux Ghetto"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 28" x 22"





"Scum"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 28" x 22"





"Rust-oleum 1"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on cardboard - 21" x 24"





"Rust-oleum 2"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on cardboard - 21" x 24"





"Rust-oleum 3"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on cardboard - 21" x 24"





"Rust-oleum 4"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on cardboard - 21" x 24"









"My Weakness"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 24" x 21"





"Low Class"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 24" x 21"





"Goon Squad"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 24" x 21"





"Dice Games"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 24" x 21"





"Off On a Bad One"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 24" x 21"





"COPY"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 24" x 21"





"Die Young"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 24" x 21"





"Dream"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 21" x 24"





"Not Worth the Paper"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 21" x 24"





"Random Thoughts"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 21" x 24"









"Hopeless"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 21" x 24"





"JC & KO"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 21" x 24"





"Delivered"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 13" x 20"





"Taureau"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, pen & ink on poster board - 13" x 20"





"Triple OG"
acrylic, collage, pen & ink, marker on canvas - 18" x 24"





"Mickey D's"
acrylic, collage, publicity, marker, pennies on board - 23" x 17"





"Easy Way Out"
acrylic, spray paint, collage, marker, canvas board on press board - 17" x 23"





"Bad Kid"
acrylic, marker, collage, canvas on bulletin board - 18" x 24"





"No Trespassing"
collage, marker on metal sign - 24" x 18"





"Crypt"
acrylic, collage, pen & ink, marker on canvas - 24" x 30"









"No Pissing Flood"
acrylic, collage, marker on metal sign - 24" x 24"





"Kill the Rich"
acrylic, collage, marker on drawing clip board - 26" x 23"





"Life Sucks"
acrylic, collage, marker on metal sign - 30" x 30"
$ 600.00

Spun by Art as Authority at 03:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

from the press release

San Diego Visual Arts Network, L-Street Fine Art Gallery and SanDiegoArtist.com present:

Who Do You Love? - Movers & Shakers: Who’s Who in the San Diego Visual Arts World
Local Artists Portray Local VIPs

The established artists chosen for the 2009 San Diego Art Prize will also be announced that evening!

November 22, 2008 to February 4, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 22nd 8-9 pm

L-Street Fine Art Gallery at the Omni Hotel 628 L Street, San Diego, Ca 92101
Gallery Hours: Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays 1 to 5 p.m.
Info: Patricia Frischer 760.943.0148 or Ann Berchtold 858.254.3031
www.moversandshakers.sdvag.net


MOVERS AND SHAKERS LIST - BIS (Artists are in bold)

Patricia Bean - Constance White (Art Program Manager, Public Community & Customer Relations Dept, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority)
Dan Camp - Jonathan Segal (Jonathan Segal FAIA & Development Company)
Alida Cervantes - Jean Lowe (Installation artist, lecturer at UCSD)
Mireille des Rosiers - Felicia Shaw (Director Arts and Culture, The San Diego Foundation)
Raymond Ellstad - Mary-Catherine Ferguson (Museum Director, California Center for the Arts, Escondido)
Gerrit Greve - Derrick Cartwright, (The Maruja Baldwin Director, San Diego Museum of Art) and Vas Prabhu (Deputy Director for Education and Interpretation, SDMA)
Raul Guerrero - Larry Poteet (lawyer, SDAI board member, and Debra Poteet art collectors and both honorary VIP hosts for SD Art Prize)
Pamela Jaeger - Robert Pincus (Art Critic and Books Editor, The San Diego Union-Tribune and Sign-On San Diego)
Philipp Scholz Rittermann - Mary Beebe (Director, Stuart Collection, University of California)
Jeff Yeomans - Hugh Davies (The David C. Copley Director, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego)


More information and a .pdf document with images of all ten artists from Movers and Shakers at L-Street can be found here.
Movers and Shakers

Spun by Art as Authority at 08:21 AM | Permalink

by Kevin Freitas


"No man ought to looke a geuen hors in the mouth." - John Heywood


And I'm not. I'm just sayin' despite the re-writes, the emails and the stress and uncertainty of whether or not a review will be published, can make art criticism a real bitch to do. It's not easy, at least for me. 350 words good or bad and an excellent artist like David Adey doesn't go very far, just a handful of short paragraphs to cut my teeth on. But it isn't about me, it's about bringing to the public's attention the work of a very fine artist. Sometimes, I think we forget what sort of cause and effect a review not published can have on an individual artist, writer, gallery and public, which it is destined to help promote and instruct. While I am sad that a review may not be printed, it is felt to a much larger degree, especially here in San Diego where arts coverage is next to nil, by the artist whose work slips by un-noticed and un-read. The stakes are higher here, given that there is so little, it actually ends up hurting the arts community it is supposed to be supporting. (We end up covering the arts I believe, not out of any real moral or societal compunction, but out of laziness)

I applaud the recent initiative by CityBeat to feature local artists on the front cover of their weekly paper. But while I am grateful for the opportunity to have my reviews published and beautiful covers to look at, I recognize the necessity for more arts coverage by more diverse writers, and implore CityBeat and the Reader to expand their output.


Please find below the review of David Adey's exhibit, I've got a river of life flowing out of me, published in today's CityBeat, and on view until November 20th at Luis de Jesus Seminal Projects.



click for larger image


PUZZLED PIECES

The art critic Peter Plagens has referred to a lot of artwork these days as “postart,” fabricated by “postartists” who create works “post-” - after - the known art-history lineage without ever referencing the masters or the movements that have brought them to where they are today.

Plagens’ point is that artists nowadays are no longer interested in their predecessors. The problem is it’s not that simple, especially when you run across an artist like David Adey, whose work is historically tied to its influences. But you might not fully understand this by observing what he creates.

You could call Adey a postartist; he’s simply more interested in the process of making art. Using hundreds of craft punches in various sizes and shapes, from hearts to hand rakes and everything in between, he punches out only the visible flesh tones of figures from People magazine and Bebe publicity posters.

The result is a tightly organized collage, pieced together like some forensic puzzle and pinned to stark, white Styrofoam backgrounds. It is less about where the fleshy specimens come from but, instead, how they fit together. If beauty is only skin deep, then it is also paper thin, and Adey demonstrates this flawlessly in his use of high-profile celebrities and top models, dissecting them and then resurrecting them into ghostly lugubrious shells of themselves. But why?

This is harder to answer. Certainly, you can find some wry commentary on pop society, see some humor in how he uses a baseball-bat form to define a woman’s cleavage and recognize a subtle Christian theme of life, death and resurrection. If what Plagens says is true, it doesn’t matter where Adey starts his artwork, where it takes him and how it ends. What matters is that the work is not as disingenuous as it seems, but full of life, beauty and the passion of making things. Something Adey does extremely well.

Spun by Art as Authority at 09:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

from the press release





Escondido Arts Partnership November Screening Night

Please join us at the Escondido Municipal Gallery for our inaugural Screening Night of Experimental Film/Video and live performance.





This Friday, Nov. 7
Pizza, popcorn and drinks starting at 6:30; Screening and performance from 7 - 8pm

We will be showcasing the work of both local and international artists:

Matt Archer (Encinitas): Visionsubdivision
David Borgo (San Diego): Rivers of Silicon, Child's Play
Matthew Bradley (San Diego): How It Feels To Be In Love
Derick Faith (San Marcos): Dapper
Sean Bokenkamp (Milford Ontario, Canada): Generation Loss
Andres Sanz (Madrid, Spain): Bedford

and live performance by:
Synchronism Project (La Jolla): Popol Vuh

We are excited and pleased to have received such a variety of interesting works from local filmmakers, musicians and artists. The work being shown represents a range of forms and subject matter that demonstrate a strong artistic vision, technical mastery of many different media, and a willingness to tackle subjects with both thoughtfulness and a sense of play. We urge you to please come out and show your support for the arts in your community.

Admission is FREE! And popcorn, pizza and drinks will be available for purchase

Support for EMG Screening Night is underwritten through the generous support of Pam Slater Price, San Diego County 3rd District Board of Supervisors.

phone: 760.480.4101
www.escondidoarts.org
262 E. Grand Ave.
Escondido, CA 92025

Spun by Art as Authority at 06:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

from the press release


Agitprop film series begins on November 8th, 2008 with showings at 7pm and 9pm.
Please arrive on time.
The event is FREE, but please be prepared to bring donations (so that we can keep it free).
Enjoy the show!

The series is curated by :
Mauricio Chernovetzky (Mexico City, 1974). Mauricio moved to San Diego when he was eight years old. He studied literature and religion at Reed College. Upon graduating, he worked on several experimental shorts in San Francisco. Between 2001 and 2003 Mauricio studied film directing at the Lodz Film School in Poland. In 2007 he obtained a Master's degree in film production from San Diego State University. Mauricio is currently working on two feature films, while participating in an MFA program in Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego. Mauricio's work has screened in festivals all over the world. His latest film, Cassandra, was nominated for the National Student Academy Awards, and recently received a Special Jury Prize for Creative Achievement, at the Temecula International Film Festival.

Filmography: Cassandra (2008), Apart in the World (2006), Zofia/Roza (2004)
www.likefireproductions.com


The Film Series:
Expect unusual, provocative work at these screenings. The Theme of the night is: Leaving Home

The film series will kick start with a showing of Cassandra (27 minutes).
Cassandra is a poetic interpretation of Euripides' Greek Tragedy, "The Trojan Women," played out on the edge of rocky desolate Mexican border town.

This will be followed by something completely different:
A Family Finds Entertainment

Directed/Edited/Starring experimental person Ryan Trecartin.
AFFE is a fucked up digital bedtime story that indulges a drag-queen-dress-up-twist on the classic coming out melodrama. In this world, populated by about 50 of Trecartin's outrageously costumed friends, every moment and sound is electronically manipulated or processed, and performances seem to be fueled by an Alice-in-Wonderland type drug that accelerates (and often reverses) every character's movement. It's like the internet, but it is SO HONEST.


Agitprop
2837 University Ave.
San Diego, CA 92104
619.384.7989

Spun by Art as Authority at 03:34 PM | Permalink

by KAI ONE





"In the vein of so called Gutter Photojournalism is Nikki. Her photos capture that fleeting and sometimes bleeding essence of life and death. A few of these pictures are really heavy and not for the faint of heart, but therein lies their importance. These photos are not meant to be exploitative; they simply capture the breadth of scum life that endears even the shadiest of characters. Its cool to see a human side to people hellbent on image creation and life's destruction. It's god and the devil in the details. What I like about these photos are the quaintness in which they portray the human animal in a fleeting world. Sometimes, things feel like they're going so fast that you can't even hold on. We may be slighty different from our under evolved brothers, but not that far away. We resist, even though we're still guided from some primal place for better or worse."

Spun by Art as Authority at 09:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

by Kevin Freitas



AP Photo Mark Lennihan

Spun by Art as Authority at 08:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

by Richard Gleaves

Spun by Richard Gleaves at 03:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)