Thursday, August 04, 2016

Asshole of the Week: Bolivia's National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore

When a museum is part of a "proud" exhibition that honors a murdering, racist dictator (who now holds the record for the longest living dictator on the planet), then that museum is not only an easy "Asshole of the Week" winner, but also an almost certain "Asshole of the Year" award and an early favorite for "Asshole of the Decade" award.

Read about these dictator-loving mutants here.

Juan Villanueva (representative of the Museum of Ethnography and Folklore), you should pray that the disaster that has consumed the unfortunate island of Cuba never visits your beautiful nation.

Raye Leith in “Blueprints”

The Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center will open a solo exhibit the works of artist Raye Leith in her show, Blueprints, on display in the Forum and Passage galleries from Friday, July 29 to Sunday, Sept. 11.

An artist’s reception is scheduled for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6.
Leith has been painting and drawing the human figure for five decades. She is fueled by a basic desire for connection and communication. Leith is an eclectic artist who also has experience in theatre design.

“In these drawings I call ‘Blueprints,’ I’ve interwoven larger-than-life portraits with miniature cityscapes and expansive landscapes,” Leith explained. “I’ve skewed the portraits to express a sense of gravitational disorientation, and I’ve juxtaposed them with soaring expanses and apocalyptic disasters. Minute detailing in the pocket spaces between human forms creates unexpected shifts of spatial perspective.”




Leith’s individual portraits that will be on display in the Passage Gallery are developed from her weekly model studies. “I do the drawings on Lanaquarelle 300lb paper using indigo- and ivory-colored NuPastels. I’ve favored these pastels for three years for the unique way the crystalline dust absorbs and refracts light to create an especially rich and deep blue,” she said. “For me this blue is soulful — spiritual and expansive. It also brings to mind an earlier age of architectural blueprints and cyanotype photography, two media with which I feel a kinship.”

The Forum Gallery is on the first level of the Schlesinger Center, and the Passage Gallery is on the second floor outside of the Margaret W. & Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery. The galleries are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday and during events in the concert hall.