The Five Senses

Over the many years that I have been curating, creating, discussing and writing about art, I never cease to be surprised at the constantly changing and always surprising quality that is human creativity.

When the Target Gallery asked me to curate "The Five Senses," I must admit that I was a little concerned about the sort of work that I would eventually review for selection. The harsh brainwashing of the post-modernist mafia is a hard thing to avoid, even if you sometimes try to rebel against it.

But leave it to the creativity and intelligence of the artists submitting entries to not only surprise me, but also to delight me and open my eyes to a whole new genre of creativity, new media, fresh ideas and enviable talent from all over the nation.

David Bausman (Texas). Ideas, Sterlig Silver & Mixed Media, c.2005

All the jurying was done in the blind, and I never knew the artists' names until after the selections were made.

I was floored by the sheer diversity of interpretations of the theme, including a lot of three dimensional entries, which are usually represented by a small number, in a juried call for artists such as this one.

Not this show! There was a surprising number of 3D pieces in this call and a significant number in the selected pieces.

J. Lewis Takahashi (New Jersey). Senses - Taste - Watercolor c.2007

Not to say that the 2Ds were not represented; after all, J. Lewis Takahashi's gorgeous watercolors and Thomas Schlotterback's superb charcoal drawing make a very strong presence for the wall works.

Sun Kyoun Kim (Illinois). Triad II, Sterling Silver, c.2007

But as I write these words, I can't wait to see and get my hands on Sun Kyoung Kim's "Triad II" or "Restriction I." Or see or walk around Anjali Srinivasan's "(Re)Flexion" and Adam Bradley's "Cherubs," or wear and use Gary Schott's "Thought Stimulators."

This exhibition is a triumph of the human mind and talent over those who want to reduce the creation of art to just ideas or wall text about ideas, and it has been my honor and pleasure to have been a part of it.

See some of the selected artists here.

The exhibition is up now and through April 6, 2008, and the opening reception (free and open to the public) is Thursday, March 13, 6-8pm and I will give a gallery talk on that night at 7PM and present the awards.

See ya there!

Opportunity for photographers

The Baltimore Museum of Art has invited 19 photographers to respond to the exhibition "Looking through the Lens" with their own work.

The 19 were chosen by by artist Peter Bruun, Urbanite magazine creative director Alex Castro, and photographer/BMA Trustee Connie Imboden, the participating artists are: Beth Barbush, Jennifer Bishop, Laura Burns, Marshall Clarke, Cory Donovan, Peggy Fox, J.M. Giordano, Camille Gustus-Quijano, Regina DeLuise, Ellis Marsalis, Dan Meyers, Christopher Myers, Ken Royster, Jacqueline Schlossman, Sofia Silva, Lynn Silverman, Michelle Woodward, Erik Whipple, and Jack Wilgus.

Their images will be on view in the Looking Now Digital Gallery at the BMA from March 16–June 8, and also as part of a special feature in the April issue of Baltimore’s Urbanite magazine.

But on April 23 - June 8, the Digital Gallery expands with images by teens in the Youthlight after-school program. Founded in 2001 by photographer Marshall Clarke, Youthlight is committed to engaging young people in using photography as a means of self-expression.

And then other photographers can join Looking Now by visiting Looking through the Lens, creating your own digital images inspired by the exhibition, and uploading them to BMA beginning in mid-March. The best of the images submitted online will be on view at the BMA in the Looking Now Digital Gallery. April 23–June 8, 2008.

Submission inquiries may be directed to looking@artbma.org.

B&W

One of the posts that I lost in the last two weeks was an announcement for the opening of "black and white and... all over," the group show of 19 Greater DC area black and white photographers curated by fellow artsblogger J.T Kirkland for H&F Fine Arts.

I'm hearing good things about this exhibition, and from the images on JT's site, I really like the way that the show was hung - it looks really good.

It's a shame that when Lou Jacobson left the Washington City Paper, no one there has picked up the slack in focusing reviews on photography shows, as there are several good photography shows going on the DC area this month.

Airborne


And heading home from beautiful Arizona. As most of you know, my desktop died a couple of weeks ago, and a few days later my laptop was stolen, and then I came out West for a week.

Between all of that, I have lost a ton of pre-prepared postings and I am at least 500 emails behind, and I'm still struggling a little with the cool, new tiny laptop.

Jerome Art Galleries

Jerome, Arizona sits straddling the side of a mountain about a mile high from sea level and less than 30 miles from its more famous cousin Sedona.

"America's most vertical city" -- I am told -- is home to about 400 people, but once boasted 16,000 inhabitants and a brothel madam who was Arizona's richest woman.

Although the whores are long gone, today the town still manages to attract a few million tourists a year, not only for the spectacular views that it affords from nearly every vantage point in this tiny and beautiful town, but also because of a budding gallery scene that although seemimgly having fairly established roots, it only seems to be blossoming out recently with a significant number of art galleries and venues and a rather successful monthly art walk on the first Saturday of the month. With 30 galleries and artists' studios participating in the art walk, it reflects the huge impact of the fine arts in a town of 400.

Most of Jerome's art galleries seem to fit the Southwest style of galleries that I discussed earlier in reference to Sedona. However, and very surprising to me, Jerome's art spaces seem more individual and original -- in most cases -- than Sedona's cookie cutter model of galleries.

There are several cooperatives that I observed, most noticeably the Jerome Artists Cooperative, where the hilarious (and smart) watercolors of Dave Wilder were on exhibit on that day that I visited. Full of irony and delivered with superb technical expertise, Wilder flexes well-developed observational skills that challenge the genre of "cowboy art" in a new refreshing manner.

The Spirit Art Gallery, although an independent commercial art gallery, seems to be run like a coop as well, with work by 30 artists on display at once, with some very good talent among them. I liked the feisty owner, who really believes in her artists and is a breath of fresh air for gallery owners.

My Mind's Art Gallery, which features the work of its owner, Ukrainian painter Joanna Bregon, a surrealist artist who has found a home in this unusual little town, also stands out from the cookie cutter cluttered gallery model.

It was refreshing to see diversity in art and rugged individuality in each art space, regardless of how one feels about the quality of the art itself, in some cases.

And then, while walking through the various galleries and talking to some of the owners and artists, it dawned on me that the Jerome galleries and shops is what I had expected to see in Sedona: unique, one-of-a-kind shops, art venues and art galleries.

I also discovered that nearly everyone that I talked to in this tiny town where everyone seems to know everyone else, seems to have a grudge against either the land developers and the expansion of homes in nearby areas (and competition for water) and/or against the Jerome city fathers for a variety of reasons, most dealing with construction issues.

Finally I trekked down to the town's former High School, an ancient multi-story set of buildings that has been converted into artists' studios and workshops - 20 of them.

There the work of Michael MacDonald and Derryl Day really stood out, especially some of Day's older portraiture works, which were exquisite color pencil pieces full of personality and grace, as well as tremendous technical skill. But the key here, with an exception here and there, is that these were all artists in the overall, rounded, sense of the adjective -- not just "Southwest art" artists; it was refreshing and interesting.

As small as Jerome is, it's clear that the town's colorful past, coupled with its amazing location and vistas, and more recently married to a creative artistic community and over-protective city fathers, all act as an irresistible magnet to the hordes of tourists that visit it every year.

It's also clear that there's something special about this place; it can be felt in the air, in its people and in its streets, and the dealer in me wonders if this special spot would not be an ideal place for some sort of very specific and focused art fair - a mini model of my "new art fair model."

Sedona and Jerome are like kissing cousins of the Arizona tourist draw. I think that together, they can also become complimentary partners for an art draw of its own.

DCist Exposed

Even from far away Arizona I just wanted make sure that you all know that the DCist Exposed Photography Show opens tonight in DC!

The show is at Civilian Art Projects at 406 7th Street NW in Penn Quarter in DC -- a few blocks from the Chinatown metro, and the reception is from 7 to 9 p.m. and free. DCist Exposed received picks in all three Washington Post event guides, as well as the Washingtonian and other publications, and I bet that this year's show will be even better than last year's terrific exhibition.

Do not miss this opening and someone please email me some images of the opening crowds.

Sedona Art Scene Part III

Yesterday I used the example of Sedona's huge Exposure Gallery to discuss what I call the Southwest gallery model -- a gallery packed to the gills with art in a riot of color and fear of empty space -- as opposed to the more standard gallery model of a minimalist white cube for a gallery.

There are a lot of art venues in the Sedona area, nearly all of them, with one notable exception, follow this Southwest model. Most of the better spaces are listed in the Sedona Art Gallery Association website.

Of these, Kinion Fine Arts seems to offer a blend of the two gallery models. They recently moved from the Hozho Center (located at 431 Hwy 179 and home to several galleries) to uptown Sedona, relocating the gallery to a former bank building, safe room and all. The Kinions have divided the gallery into two rooms; at the entrance the Southwest model is in place, but the bank's vault is used for solo shows apparently hung in the cleaner, less cluttered style of the white cube. They're also one of the few art spaces in town where not everything is Southwest art centric.

A new gallery just up a few steps from Kinion Fine Arts, located at Hyatt Pinion Point, is the very beautiful space of the Vickers Collection (there are three of these galleries in total and the one in Sedona is called VC Fine Arts), opened just a year ago and by far the only gallery in the area that fits the cleaner white cube model.

Vickers uses the white cube model, and also offers the most diverse set of artists, not just a heavy-handed focus on Southwest art (as most Sedona galleries do, driven by the tourist art market).

It will be interesting to see if Vickers can survive as the sole Sedona gallery (at least that I've seen) that offers a diverse set of artwork; the type of art that could easily be seen in New York, or Philly or DC.

At VC I quite liked the bronze sculptures of Bill Starke, a refreshing change of pace from all the bronzes of horses, bears, javalinas, Indians, deer and cowboys that inundate most of this beautiful town's galleries.

I also liked Chris Nelson's smart and intelligent reverse paintings on plexi, which upon further examination are more than just paintings, since the artist also routes the verso of the plexi so that the textured reverse plexi interacts with the acrylic paint to actually create grooves and channels that on the front of the work create smart landscapes. As interesting as this work is, this artist has to be careful that he doesn't fall into a repetitive pattern in his work.

Since I have been in the advice-giving mood, an artist that would be a perfect fir and would actually sell like gangbusters all throughout the Southwest are the amazing storm paintings of the Washington DC area's Amy Marx, who recently had her first solo in New York and whose breath-taking, hyper realism captures massive storms and weather patterns like no artist that I have ever seen.

Another East Coast artist who would be an instant hit in the Southwest is Alexandria's Susan Makara, whose beautiful stacked stones series sell as soon as she is finished with them from her studio in Alexandria's Torpedo factory.

Still in uptown, the Sedona Art Center rounds up a very good artists' run membership gallery of local artists.

There are also quite a few galleries located in a faux Mexican village called Tlaquepaque; after two trips to Sedona, I still can't pronounce it. From there you can cross Oak Creek by foot and visit a whole bunch more galleries on Hwy 179, although the ongoing construction on 179 seems to be really hurting the gallery business on that road.

Later: A big surprise! why nearby Jerome has more interesting and diverse galleries than Sedona does.