The Art of Glass: Transcending From Craft to Art By Kristin N. Carlson  06/30/10 More articles like this >>

Glasswork has had an arduous journey over the infamous divide of art and craft. In Providence, Rhode Island, glass legend Toots Zynsky and newcomer Harue Shimomoto are working together---mentor and emerging artist---to keep pushing the medium and raising the bar. The two first met at a glass workshop in Japan where Shimomoto was assistant and translator to Zynsky, whose work is found in major museums throughout the US, Europe, and Japan. “Harue spent into the wee hours of the morning working with students as long as they wanted to work; she was so onboard. I really liked her intellect, and encouraged her at the time to come and do graduate work in the States,” said Zynsky, who studied at RISD with another famed name in glass, Dale Chihuly. Shimomoto, who received her BFA in Tokyo, recently completed an MFA at the University of Wisconsin Madison and also studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art. The appeal and challenge of the medium lie largely in its translucent quality, unlimited color palette, and innate fragility. Originally drawn to glass by the dance-like physicality of the work, Zynsky has a passion for color and texture. Her unmistakable vessels have rich painterly color and a distinct sculpted character which could not have been attained with blown glass. She pioneered her signature filet de verre technique, the process of pulling glass threads from hot cane, to give her work a quality never before achieved. Working with thicker, hand-pulled and slump-formed threads as her building blocks, Shimomoto’s work has a definite direct relationship to Zynsky’s filet de verre, incorporating the knowledge to accomplish a style uniquely her own. “I have learned a lot about being a professional artist since moving into Toots’s studio, and I’m also learning a lot just watching her create her work,” said Shimomoto. Both artists have a deep fascination with textiles that is reflected in the thread-like texture of their methods. From an early age, Zynsky felt a connection to the great-grandmother she had never met through the grandmother’s own Russian tapestry weavings in her family home. As an artist, Zynsky continues to find herself drawn to the colors and patterns of textiles in her travels around the world. Likewise, Shimomoto describes her own objective as “weaving with glass.” Through a labor-intensive process, Shimomoto pulls straight threads of various lengths and colors, arcs each one over kiln bricks and re-fires to create bend, then fuses numerous threads together into weblike panels. The panels are grouped and hung differently onsite for every exhibition. Because each thread is carefully and individually formed, there is a varied, hand-spun quality to the finished work which is immediately evident to the viewer. Zynsky and Shimomoto’s collaborative goal? Work bigger. “I want to work larger to capture the impact inspired by nature, the small beauties of daily life. I want people to forget the work is fragile glass, and to walk through experiencing the sculpture as an environment,” said Shimomoto. The potential weight of creating anything large with glass and the bearing of that weight on its own fragile material is something Shimomoto has researched and tackled head-on. Her thesis exhibition created a total environment of glass rods and delicate woven glass panels, departing the walls and filling the entire room from floor to ceiling. “She would send me images [of her graduate work in glass] and it was really exciting to see that some of the things I had taught her in Japan had blossomed. Harue was creating such large sculptures, these totally new ideas, out of such small pieces. She had figured out how to do it,” said Zynsky. Shimomoto’s experiments with scale combined with Zynsky’s technical prowess and love of color create a wonderful symbiotic relationship in the studio, one which both hope will allow them to develop large public commissions. Zynsky and Shimomoto are represented at SOFA WEST: Santa Fe 2010 by David Richard Contemporary. “We curate to show artists who deconstruct and comment on a concept, and who are working through a medium’s technicalities. I feel strongly about contemporary abstract, and work that is conceptually challenging and technically proficient. More and more artists are crossing the boundary between art and craft, and the medium is chosen to fit the message,” said gallery co-owner and director David Eichholtz. The gallery itself rejects definition by medium as well, and shows a variety of contemporary abstract painting, mixed-media, ceramics, and glass. This year’s second annual SOFA WEST: Santa Fe is the newest branch of the nation’s premiere fair for outstanding contemporary arts and design, also held annually in New York City and Chicago since 1994. SOFA WEST takes place July 8-11 at the Santa Fe Convention Center, 12pm-6pm daily. Image Credits: Harue Shimomoto Ame no ato (after the rain), 2010 Glass 34 x 18 x 10 inches Fused glass cane with braided stainless steel wire and stainless steel support for wall mounting. Toots Zynsky Candela, 2010 Glass 12 7/8 x 13 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches Learn more about Kristin N. Carlson >>

 

Passages: Gorky and Graham By John Ireland  06/17/10 More articles like this >>

Each day is a passage in our lives. Each day multitudes of people brush against one another without a thought of who was inside the anonymous skin they just touched. Arshile Gorky ended his life passages just a few years after Patrick Graham was beginning his. Now, sixty years later, they meet again, rub skin again, in an art gallery where their works share the walls that hold them and the viewers’ eyes that caress them. The time is now and the place is Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Los Angeles. This is a show with two perfect examples of very personal art. The young and vital Gorky is revealed through a beautiful collection of notebook sketches, ”thumbprints” Rutberg calls them, small works on paper that reveal Gorky’s art and ideas at their birth. This rare exhibition are works from the estate of the late Hans Burkhardt who obtained them from Gorky when both men shared life as mentor (Gorky) and student (Burkhardt), and as friends. It is without exaggeration that Rutberg has described Gorky “as one of the most pivotal artists working in America in the 20th century.” Seeing Gorky’s sketches is like being invited into his most personal and private world; unedited and overflowing with the man and the artist. Patrick Graham could only be Irish; it courses through his body, dances in his eyes and wistfully teases the corners of his mouth. And then you look at his work and instantly the man and canvases are one. Gobs of paint, like sorrow’s snot, hang from wood and cloth and paper. Fragments of figures scream for us to save them. Pieces and layers of Graham’s ever evolving images are glued and stitched on top of each other. Graham refers to Ireland as a damaged, wounded country. He is talking about the people, but also how their blood has watered the soil of Ireland for centuries. His work takes us outside and inside injured human animals; him and us, and somehow, by the end of the journey, I felt calmer and more at home with my own frailty. Jack Rutberg is an internationally known and respected art dealer, collector and scholar in modern and contemporary art. And he is the third corner of the triangle in this outstanding show. Rutberg pursues his work with a dynamic commitment to his artists and his audience. On May 26, four nights after the show’s opening, Jack Rutberg sat down face to face with Patrick Graham for an intimate conversation and it was made even more intimate by the full house of art lovers, collectors and critics who attended. For well over an hour, this intelligent and thoughtful interview let us meet Graham the artist and Graham the human being. And the audience was part of the conversation, bringing their own questions and ideas as if we were all downing pints in a local pub. Even though Gorky and Graham never met, they know each other well. And this amazing joint show is the perfect opportunity to enter their skins and discover them at very, very close range. Arshile Gorky: Sketchbook Drawings and Patrick Graham: fact of the matter, runs through July 31, 2010. For more information contact Jack Rutberg Fine Arts.357 North La Brea Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90036, tel. 323 938 5222. www.jackrutbergfinearts.com. Image Credits: Graham on left being interviewed by Rutberg on right. Learn more about John Ireland >>

 

‘Summer of Color’ erupts across L.A.’s coastline By Doug McBride  06/03/10 More articles like this >>

Have you ever envisioned an art project so enormous, that it could stretch the length of an entire shoreline? Well, now might be your chance to see that vision become a reality. Thanks to one great non-profit, thousands of brave volunteers, and some generous corporate donations, the largest public art project currently under way in the U.S. is now beginning to make waves in Los Angeles. Known simply as ‘Summer of Color,’ the project has already added a touch of brilliance to L.A.’s shores. A total of 155 lifeguard towers, covering 30 miles of California coastline, from Leo Carrillo state beach in the north, down around the tip of Point Vicente in the south, have already received fresh coats of paint. Each lifeguard tower was given an initial base color (rotating between bright yellow, rumba orange, sweet pea, Toronto blue, or crocus petal purple), in preparation for the hand painted murals that will ultimately adorn all 155 stations. A handful of towers have already received their murals, and when all is said and done, an estimated 5,000 youth and adult volunteers from area schools, hospitals, and social service programs will have taken part in the project. For a project of this magnitude, you might imagine a team with extensive experience would need to collaborate, to connect all the dots. Enter brothers Ed and Bernie Massey. The two are co-founders of Portraits of Hope, an L.A. based non-profit organization that spearheaded the entire project. The Massey brothers’ NPO has had success in finding corporate sponsors for all of their past endeavors, and the ‘Summer of Color’ project is no exception. This time around, the group secured funding from Ford, Image Options, Laird, and Starbucks. Through private sponsorship, the organization has compiled a long list of successful, large-scale public art projects, but the common denominator with each project remains civic involvement. In their own words, “The Portraits of Hope program is aimed at enriching the lives of children and adults - many who may be coping with adversity or serious illness - through their participation in creative, educational, high-profile, one-of-a-kind projects.” One great example of the groups’ recent work is the highly publicized Garden in Transit project, which made moving murals out of New York City’s iconic fleet of yellow taxicabs, between September and December of 2007. New York’s then mayor Bloomberg said of the project, “Think of this as a great opportunity to give thousands of kids -- many of them sick and disabled -- the thrill and pride of creating something that will travel the city streets and be seen by millions. For the thousands of people who take part, Garden in Transit promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime event, as one of New York's most enduring symbols is turned into a colorful canvas." A quick glance at the Portraits of Hope website reveals international news footage of past projects, and extensive additional info on the ‘Summer of Color’ lifeguard tower project. To donate, volunteer, or learn more about the project, go to Portraits of Hope Image Credits: Zuma Beach Lifegaurd Station 1 (In Toronto Blue) Learn more about Doug McBride >>

 

Art Rouge Gallery By Carla Rover  05/19/10 More articles like this >>

Five year old Art Rouge Gallery is a bright tear of color across an often insolently, vanilla Southern art scene. Like a crafty child drawing willfully outside the lines of trend and the "acceptable" genres, Art Rouge's exhibitions evade the expected forms and spill its exuberant, indefinable mélange of cultures and ideas across the canvas of the public view, garnering national acclaim. Voted as "The Best Damn Art Show, Period" by The Miami New Times in 2009 and earning the 2008 Miami Award in the Art Galleries & Dealers category by the U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA), their successful curatorial philosophy is consciously provocative yet inherently cerebral, bringing both highly-talented young and long established Miami artists to an ample, welcoming space which serves as both a studio and exhibition area. The success of Art Rouge Gallery is a product of the owner's distinct philosophy of nurturing artists with local roots through well-publicized shows, developing an active media presence and, in many cases, providing studio space to affiliated artists. States veteran painter Sergio Garcia, currently showing in Art Rouge's exhibition "Self, Transcendence and Symbols", "Gala Kvachnina looks for art that has what I call in Spanish the three C's; cabeza, corazon y cojones - brains, heart and courage." Art Rouge owner Gala Kvachnina states, "My gallery is considered one of the best galleries of Miami since it represents masters of contemporary art. Our famous local artists now want to work with a home gallery and important, international, contemporary artists request to collaborate with (us) as well. " Technology also plays a role. The gallery's website, blog and social media links are essential connections for Art Rouge's outreach to the public. The most salient trait of Art Rouge's business model is that it focuses on internationally recognized artists who live and work in Miami and this affords both collectors and the gallery owner unfettered access to their affiliated artists and vice versa. A hands on approach is an essential element of the gallery's appeal and lends to its success in attracting rising star artists. Independent of Art Basel, which occurs in Miami every December, the Wynwood Arts District has become not only a center of the best in local art, but also contemporary art for all of the Americas. States Kvachnina, "We’ve created a strong body of collectors (local and outsiders) due to the strong interest of art collectors that follow Art Basel and other major art fairs. I believe that the Miami market has everything - great artists, collectors, art events - and it occupies an important position in the world art market.” The current show is a panorama of transcendent mysticism. Avoiding cliché and the pandering of the usual "isms", "Self, Transcendence and Symbols" evokes a mood of introspective musing while simultaneously celebrating the alchemy of unfettered expression and cerebral design. The muted ecstasies of the exhibition's offerings are a dance of conceptual equalities where symbol becomes self and vice versa. Art, in essence, might stand in for a roadmap of the cities of the human interior. Art Rouge's formula is one of intimate connections between collectors and artists, along with an innate appreciation of globally relevant talent. Art Rouge's shepherding of artists who present visceral works, which arrest the eye and contradict the "branding" of their genre, has garnered it national kudos and steady sales. Art Rouge's success is a product of its passion and artists with works that transcend trend and movements to present pieces which are vibrant, atypical and awash in complexities. "Self, Transcendence and Symbols" runs through May at Art Rouge. Art Rouge Gallery 46 NW 36th St Miami, FL 33127 www.artrouge.com Image Credits: Interior of Art Rouge Gallery Learn more about Carla Rover >>

 

The Arts of Seeing Healing and Beginning By John Ireland  05/06/10 More articles like this >>

On May 22nd and 23rd, 2010, four hundred artists and thousands of art lovers will unite in a unique event to raise funds for the Venice Family Clinic, the largest free clinic in the country. Each year, twenty-four thousand people from all over Los Angeles County receive a variety of services including primary care, specialty care, dental care, vision care, health education and mental health services through the clinic’s eight sites on the Westside of L.A. County. The art of medicine again joins forces with the medicine of art in what is now its 31st anniversary event. Venice is one of Los Angeles’ very unique communities. It is a work of art in its own right, combining various ethnicities, cultures, architectural styles and demographics. Aging Rastafarian surfers merge with Jewish/Hindu/Muslim/atheist/bebop/hip hop/vegan weight lifters. Then add to that eclectic mix, Hollywood heroes and has-beens, Groucho Marx meets Karl Marx types and then sculptors, painters, photographers, conceptualists plus a few old fashioned impressionists and cubists and you have just a peek into the heart and soul of Venice, California. In this environment, a two day art event can only be exceptional, if not insanely beautiful and totally unforgettable. For a $50 donation, art lovers and event seekers will enjoy access to 50+ artists’ studios, special exhibitions, and a chance to bid in a silent auction of 400 original works. In addition (and for additional cost) there are three very special Art & Architecture Tours - two on Saturday, May 22nd and a third on Sunday, May 23rd. On Saturday, Rustic Canyon: the Sequel includes lunch at the home of architect Melinda Gray as well as the VIP cocktail reception at Marmol Radziner and Associates on Friday evening the 21st. Also on Saturday is Architects’ Homes on the border of Venice and Santa Monica, exploring homes that architects built for themselves. The third tour, on Sunday, is Ocean Front Walk & Venice Canals. Enter photographer Georgina Reskala, my god is she tall and beautiful. Born in Mexico City, now living and working in Los Angeles by way of Portland, Oregon and San Francisco, she is a non-digital purist - shooting film and doing her own printing. For some photographers, this would be a non-commercial luxury. Reskala can do it because that is what she is known for and why her clients seek her out. A tour of Reskala’s website (www.georginareskala.com) leaves me fascinated with her use of soft focus. She replies that she is obsessed with memories of her childhood that now elude her, that is her personal fascination. As a viewer, her soft focus images dance with me, at times moving closer but never surrendering everything while at other times drifting farther and farther away, demanding that I follow if I want to learn its secrets. First invited three years ago to participate in the Art Walk and Auction, Reskala pulls a ghostly image from an envelope and reveals what will probably be her offering to the silent auction. The picture is haunting, a tree on a hill, captured from a moving car. I see the tree and I also see Don Quixote on his horse. I ask Reskala what she sees, and an enigmatic smile is her answer. The Venice Art Walk and Auction takes both art and viewer out of the traditional convention center commercial arena. The art joins hands with the smells of food, the sounds of street musicians, the shrill taunts of seagulls, the warmth of the sun, the salt in the air, laughing children and the viewer suddenly remembers this unique art event is about helping people. The Venice Art Walk and Auction in support of the Venice Family Clinic is on May 22nd and 23rd, 2010. For ticket/donation information and a schedule of events, go to www.veniceartwalk.info. Image Credits: Photos of Georgina Reskala, taken by John Ireland Learn more about John Ireland >>

 

Q+A: POPLOCK Gallery’s Lexie Gehrke on curating through the storm. By Doug McBride  04/29/10 More articles like this >>

Bringing art to the public is a constant challenge for artists, curators, and gallery owners alike, but it’s rare to hear about an art scene where the challenge lies in separating the partiers from the real art lovers, amidst a storm of public interest. Strangely enough, that’s been the case for many of the galleries located in Downtown Los Angeles’ Gallery Row in recent years. By taking a multi-pronged approach, downtown’s POPLOCK Gallery has found a way to add a touch of class to the continuing buzz surrounding Gallery Row’s Art Walk event this year. While the Art Walk nights have enjoyed unprecedented popularity, POPLOCK has offered substance through a unique mix of canvas based, installation, and mixed media pieces, all the while playing gracious hosts to an overeager public. POPLOCK’s ever changing combination of in house D.J. sets, live music, drinks and hor’s d’oeuvres, hasn’t made it hard on visitors, but there is a clear focus on the quality of the work within the gallery that shines through. Connecting with actual patrons is still the challenge of course, and the goal for this particular gallery is finding them in the midst of the storm. Uploaded recently got a chance to talk shop with POPLOCK’s curator Lexie Gehrke about that challenge and quite a few others. Interview with Lexie Gehrke: So, I understand you went to New York to enjoy the city and maybe even check out a few prospective new POPLOCK Galleries while you’re there. How’s that going? We are having the time of our lives. This city is incredible and there is something new at every corner, literally. The galleries are inspiring, the people baffle me, and they have everything at the deli. On a professional note, we have visited Chelsea, Williamsburg, the Lower East Side and Brooklyn. All the contacts we have made have been very beneficial. We all adore the East Coast and the globally known artists in the galleries, but it’s time for some fresh paint in the bucket. Getting back to L.A. or the idea of it at least, how has 2010 been going so far over at your POP LOCK Gallery space in Downtown? I can’t get L.A. off my mind. Downtown L.A. and art is my passion. Seriously. POPLOCK has been going incredibly well. My mission was to bring “Lost Angeles culture back to the people,” and make art accessible to everyone. Our event in February had 7,000 people come, and I only knew 4 of them. Now I post serious business signs about crowd control. What do you think are some of the most enjoyable elements of running POPLOCK at the moment? Seeing the person’s face when they get so excited about buying a piece. Delivering it can be extra special too. Seeing what kind of person likes your work. Seeing people come back time and time again that can’t afford it, but just like to look at it. Students that copy your stuff is probably the absolute best. The students mean serious business. Your photo collaborations seem to be some of the most interesting work up on the walls over at the Gallery. How did your modeling background affect how you see photography and your photo collaborations? There‘s tons of great art other than mine, but thank you. Modeling funded my art career. So, for every miserable minute I spent modeling, I can look back fondly, because now I get to do what I really love. I also learned that as a photographer, a model is just an object, but I have to remember they are real people too, with real feelings. They deserve to be treated with the same respect as anyone else. What do you think are the toughest parts about running a Gallery Space and how do you deal with some of your biggest obstacles? The toughest part about running a gallery space is the initial set up, learning to let go, delegating tasks, and managing the artists. I had a hiccup with a business partner who didn’t have the same vision, and that can be difficult. How do you see POPLOCK fitting into the interesting mish-mash of galleries in the Gallery Row District? We don’t. That’s the whole idea. We are different. I hope I’m not intimidating like many of the terrifying curators I’ve met. Shoot, they still scare me. Do you feel that it’s necessary for a Gallery space to attempt to fill a certain type of niche, in order to remain relevant nowadays? Yes. You have to be original and that’s the hardest thing to do. Keeping the work consistent with a theme is important too. That way, people know what they should be looking at. Last but not least, where can we find your artwork, blog, or news about upcoming shows/events over at POPLOCK Gallery? POPLOCK website: www.poplockgallery.com Image Credits: Photo Courtesy of Lexie Gehrke, Lexie in front of Photo Collaborations Learn more about Doug McBride >>

 

The Plastiki Launch: Art on a Global Scale By Carla Rover  04/22/10 More articles like this >>

Art, by definition, questions the consciousness. What do we see? What are we "meant" to see? It likewise demands judgment, are we indeed moved by the object or left untouched. The Plastiki, a 12-ton, 60ft boat made almost entirely out of discarded objects (12,500 recycled plastic bottles), is a statement piece, an act, aside from its theoretics of daring. In preparation for the Plastiki launch, the sea-faring vessel was built in an ad hoc gallery of sorts, pieced together in front of visitors. Presently, the Plastiki is heading to Australia from her launch in San Francisco. The crew told Uploaded via a joint statement, "(Our) first intentions for the Plastiki's physical legacy is that the bottles be upcycled whilst the Plastiki herself will become an educational tool, potentially visiting schools and taking part in exhibitions around the world. "The Plastiki, stripped of spin and political ethos, is an artistic rendering of a lost vein of creation - adventure. The boat itself is a futurist-inspired fusion of high art and primitive technology, a working structure of found objects that continues to travel seamlessly as the crew hit the mid-point of their journey. The madness of the voyage is its poetry and its brilliance. Similar to Picasso's stunning first works; it is childlike in its simplicity, yet awash in meaning, both subliminal and overt. We humans risk so little of our comfort in this age to interact, to exist, or to create. In order to become an artist, to perform or to commit to a tangible media, one risks judgment, failure of expression, and a doubtful or absent audience. Art once launched in the public view is subject to the mortality of the work itself. Will it be remembered or even acknowledged in its day? The art of the Plastiki is its untenable lunge in the face of sanity, safety and a reasonable comfort. Like Jean Dubuffet's Art Brut, it is a torrent of symbols, protests and unconscionable contradictions, and in that, it is its indefinable, irreverent and near laughable bravado that makes it beautiful in its folly and its cost. Charlotte Bufton, spokesperson, and the Plastiki crew told Uploaded via a joint written statement that "The Plastiki and Adventure Ecology (the Plastiki's sponsoring organization) are centered around pushing boundaries and igniting excitement within people to create their own adventure, if this is through the medium of design and art then that is fantastic. Art has always been at the forefront of predicting and highlighting change as it is a representation of society's outlook and opinion. My belief is that environmental awareness is becoming a large and important part of culture and thus transpires through many channels, including art. We are privileged to have an inspiring crew and team behind the Plastiki who endeavor to spread this message far and wide as it is an honest cause that needs to be highlighted." The premise is a welcome respite from the addictive mediocrity of the day. Film, televison and music somehow feel so uninspired. Risk, true risk is a rare, beautiful thing. Unscripted, distanced from the wealth of ready labels and interpretive dances of publicists, the Plastiki is an honest piece of work. It vociferously negates the possibility of ambivalence. Art is inextricably linked to daring. The power of statement is in essence the human spirit's inalienable right to assert itself; to force its own recognition by creating something which has not before existed. Image Credits: All photos by The Plastiki Crew Learn more about Carla Rover >>

 

Zadok Art Gallery By George Leposky  04/14/10 More articles like this >>

The maelstrom of activities surrounding Art Basel Miami Beach 2009 last December included an open house, one evening at Zadok Art Gallery in the Wynwood Art District north of downtown Miami. When the Art Basel event took place, Zadok Art Gallery had existed for just three weeks. In that time, proprietors Dror and Miriam Zadok and their gallery director, Frederic Letzelter had cobbled together a stunning “soft” opening for 1,700 people. On March 1, Zadok Art Gallery held an official grand opening that drew an even larger crowd. This time the main event was Chasing Flames: Miami, an exhibition of paintings and sculptures by 24 contemporary Chinese artists. Their work (on display through May) spans three decades and multiple genres: “Our niche is to focus on Chinese and Asian art, but not exclusively,” Dror Zadok says. The gallery also will show an eclectic mix of contemporary art from elsewhere in the world and selected works by 20th-Century masters such as Alexander Calder and Andy Warhol. With 17,500 square feet of display space, Zadok Art Gallery occupies one of the largest Wynwood structures devoted to art. Its two-story building, constructed in 1950, is a classic example of the clean, lean, mid-20th-Century MiMo (Miami Moderne) style. Horizontal masonry “eyebrows” shade the windows and a vertical pylon rises in the center of the façade. Originally built to process dairy products, the building later housed the Rome Mattress & Furniture Co., Inc., and other industrial enterprises. In 2006 and 2007, Paris-based Galerie Bertin-Toublanc spent over $1.5 million to renovate it for use as an art gallery. Dror Zadok bought it in July of 2008 for $3.2 million. “My tenants operated for a year and a half, until November of 2009,” he says. “They had a five-year contract, but faced financial problems as the market declined and many galleries closed due to the problems in the global and local economy. “I said it’s a perfect scenario for us to open our own gallery. This is an episode that will go away. Sooner or later the economy will change. Art is art, and collectors will come back.” Art is just the latest phase in the Zadoks’ chameleon-like career. They met in college and became teachers. After 15 years in education, they became entrepreneurs. Their companies include Miami-based Perfume International and they also are real-estate investors. “Throughout the years, we’ve had a great passion for the art world, particularly contemporary art – what the gallery is focused on,” Dror says. The Zadoks hired Letzelter, who had directed Galerie Bertin-Toublanc’s Miami branch. He earned a masters degree in art history and art business management from the EAC (Ecole Supérieure d'Economie d'Art et de Communication) in Paris, specializing in design and contemporary art. In addition to mounting gallery exhibitions, the Zadoks and Letzelter will focus on the secondary market – resales of works owned by collectors and museums that want to refresh and refocus their holdings. “The secondary market has two parts,” Letzelter explains, “works by artists who are no longer producing because they are dead and older works by contemporary artists who are still producing. My job is to find a broker or collector who wants to buy such art. It’s a discreet business. Often the collector who is selling something doesn’t want it to be seen by other people.” Zadok Art Gallery 2534 N. Miami Ave Miami, FL Image Credits: Escaping the Square (Photograph, 2009) by Luca Artioli. Courtesy of Zadok Art Gallery. Learn more about George Leposky >>

 

The Rubell Family Collection By Carla Rover  04/07/10 More articles like this >>

One afternoon, I wandered through a startlingly comprehensive collection of contemporary art. I was not in Berlin or Paris - I was in downtown Miami. Comprised entirely of pieces from the private collection of the Rubell Family, the exhibition "Beg, Borrow and Steal", showcases more than 260 works by 74 artists, both renowned and emergent. The artwork ranges from Ai WeiWei to Marcel Duchamp to Jeff Koons. The Rubell Family Collection, started 45 years ago, focuses exclusively on contemporary art pieces, which over the decades have been the talk of the art world. The collection's ethos of mixing world-renowned artists with new talents has been lauded globally by critics and patrons alike, but its true significance is its organic connection to the community. The massive 45,000 square feet gallery is not located in tony Palm Beach or on tourist-choked ocean drive in South Beach. Rather it is in Wynwood in a former DEA confiscation facility in the heart of a working class community that has become the center of Miami's emergent art scene. The Rubell Family Collection (RFC) hosts an immense library of lithographs and art reference books open to Miami's student population and researchers free of charge. There are guided tours available in Spanish and English and frequent open house days permit the community at large a view of pieces which have never been shown in the South before. The receptionist and the curator Juan Roslieone-Valadez are both smiling and convivial. The gallery feels like a post modern community center, rather than one of the world's most talked about private galleries. Juan walks us through the gallery and explains the RFC's mission to not only show to savvy art collectors, but to reach out to the community at large. "We bring literally hundreds of students from the public schools here", he states. "We would love for them to come in and use our library for research or just personal enjoyment. We want art students to avail themselves of these resources. We have an immense collection of research materials on contemporary art- one of the best in the state, in my opinion". Two of Jeff Koons' pieces showcased at RFC that really made an impression on me were "Three Balls 50 /50" and “New Hoover Convertible 1980”. Jeff Koons, a provocateur, cynic, and pop culture prophet shocks the eye with the pornography of the commonplace. He is the unflattering mirror in any retail outlet; the obscenity of our fleshiness, irrationality and the transparence of our flailings towards value at any price. < P> In Hoover, a 1980 model vacuum cleaner stands as a relic of an era when this machine was a symbol of a brave new world within which a woman's wifely duties might be alleviated, if her husband were a kind man, by the introduction of this wonderful dust-banishing machine with which she might render service more easily. Koons is of that late generation of conceptual artists who made a bloodily exacting commentary on the pre-90's epicurean obsessions of wealth, celebrity and the "democratization" of fine art and fame. While spiritual forbearers Roy Liechtenstein and Andy Warhol made a linear, minimalist statement of commerce as social literature and hence art, Koons' creates a Dante's Inferno like vilification of Americana kitsch, while still canonizing it. 3 Balls 50/50 portrays 3 basketballs suspended in a fish tank, seemingly alluding to a holy trinity, object lessons in a catechism of social identity and pop culture. While Koons' tome seems at times a cold splash of cynicism, it is in fact, simply a diary of an imploding national consciousness. American culture itself replaces the figure becoming, in essence, the "media" itself. Koons' work screams to the observer to impose some sort of meaning or order upon its arrogance and banality, so intricately constructed. His work was a sort of Nero-like fiddling while the neoclassical ideas in contemporary art burned around him. Post-war America, into which Koons was born in 1955, was the definition of industrial dominance. We were faster, stronger, and with our allies in WWII, a mere 7 years prior, we had quite literally saved the world. American dominance, in nearly every arena, became so evident in film, television and in 1984, with the American's taking center stage in the Olympics as Eastern Bloc countries boycotted, American basketball seemed to herald America as a second world empire. 3 Balls 50 /50 was created in 1985 perhaps as a homage to this cultural shift. This trinity of dominance in culture, industry and language became a ripe field of exploration for Koons' works. As stated in the introduction to the guidebook of the "Beg, Borrow and Steal" Exhibition, "The most interesting contemporary art engages us with a future that is not yet known and we believe that this new work is dealing with that future. The same way Andy Warhol predicted our current culture of fame, artists today are working around something we are just beginning to understand". This excerpt eloquently summarizes the purpose of RFC – to create an innovative, artistic venue that engages, educates and challenges us to think about art from a past, present and future perspective. The Rubell Family Collection 95 NW 29th Street, Miami, FL 33127 T: +1(305)573-6090 F: +1(305)573-6023 Image Credits: First Image: Jeff Koons, Three Ball 50-50 Tank (Dr. J Silver Series), 1985, Glass, steel, distilled water and basketballs, 60 3/4 x 48 3/4 x 13 1/4 in. (154.5 x 123.7 x 33.5 cm) Second Image: Jeff Koons, New Hoover Convertible, 1980, Vacuum cleaner, acrylic and fluorescent lights, 56 x 22 1/2 x 22 1/2 in. (142.2 x 57.2 x 57.2 cm) Learn more about Carla Rover >>

 

Paul Davies – Hanmer, March 24 - April 11, 2010 By Karen Finch  03/31/10 More articles like this >>

Landscapes are part of the backbone of the painting canon, so there can be a certain expectation sometimes, when visiting a gallery, to see a landscape exhibition. Everyone has their ideal of the landscape, be it a familiar or imagined one, and it can be quite confronting when faced with something that is far removed from that ideal. Paul Davies creates such confronting worlds in his large-scale acrylic works that are a combination of contemporary architecture and borrowed natural landscapes. These are not places one can visit. They are constructs made by combining man-made and natural elements – primarily modernist architecture and trees. There are no people or animals in any of the works, which creates an eerie sense of emptiness. Davies says that this allows people to step into the paintings, into the houses, making their own story rather than one imposed by the presence of a figure already there. 1 There is something of a poster-like quality to the paintings, partly via the use of broad expanses of flat color and the sharp edges of the houses. But there is also an unexpected sense of depth that gives a totally opposite feel to the work. Close examination of the paintings reveals a complex layering with nearly every available effect offered by modern acrylic paints being employed. Underlying thin glazes with seductive runs are a large component in that sense of depth, offering rich, soft textures and mysterious shadows and patterns. Davies’ use of hand cut stencils then imposes hard lines of thicker shinier paint over this subtle underlay, topped again by a judicious use of selectively placed impasto detail. The use of layering produces a level of tension that is also generated by the final images. It is possible to get a quite different sense of some of the works depending on whether a long or close up view is being experienced. For instance, in Yellow Sky, Blue Pool, the reflection in the pool is visually confusing. Masked horizontal elements, echoed in the sky, and the mirror of parts of the nearby house indicate that the pool is full, and still. However, vertical elements in the underlying wash visible in the top part of the pool as the viewer comes closer generate a sense of emptiness. Perhaps it is a trick of the eye, but this experience is repeated in a number of the other paintings. The sense of tension produced by the emptiness of the landscape, the various contrasting technical elements within each painting and the sometimes violent pull of sharp, bright color is tangible. These are powerful, evocative works, but they are not restful. Davies’ gallerist, Tim Olsen says, “There’s a suspense, a sense of drama when you look at these empty houses and empty pools. It makes you wonder, ‘What just happened?’2 Davies admits to a certain level of eeriness in the paintings but says it is unintentional. But, intentional or no, these are certainly works that leave the viewer with more questions than answers. The exhibition runs until 11 April 2010. Information on this and other exhibitions can be found at http://www.timolsengallery.com 1 Blake, E. ‘No Place Like Home’, Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum, pg 10, 27-28 March 2010 2Ibid Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney Australia Image Credits: First Image: Paul Davies, Night Forest Reflection, 2009, acrylic on linen, 198 x 150cm Second Image: Paul Davies, Green Sky, Green Pool, 2009, acrylic on linen, 187 x 153cm Third Image: Paul Davies, Seidler House, Pool, Landscape, 2009, acrylic on linen, 122 x 153cm Forth Image: Paul Davies, Blue Forest Vertical, 2009, acrylic on linen, 187 x 153cm Learn more about Karen Finch >>

June 30, 2010		Diversions The Art of Glass: Transcending From Craft to Art    Glasswork has had an arduous journey over the infamous divide of art and craft. In Providence, Rhode Island, glass legend Toots Zynsky and newcomer Harue Shimomoto are working together---mentor and e...Read More >>
June 17, 2010		Diversions Passages: Gorky and Graham    Each day is a passage in our lives. Each day multitudes of people brush against one another without a thought of who was inside the anonymous skin they just touched. Read More >>
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May 19, 2010		Art Rouge Gallery    Five year old Art Rouge Gallery is a bright tear of color across an often insolently, vanilla Southern art scene. Read More >>
May 06, 2010		Diversions The Arts of Seeing Healing and Beginning    On May 22nd and 23rd, 2010, four hundred artists and thousands of art lovers will unite in a unique event to raise funds for the Venice Family Clinic, the largest free clinic in the country. Read More >>
April 29, 2010		Diversions Q+A: POPLOCK Gallery’s Lexie Gehrke on curating through the storm.    Bringing art to the public is a constant challenge for artists, curators, and gallery owners alike, but it’s rare to hear about an art scene where the challenge lies in separating the partiers from th...Read More >>
April 22, 2010		Diversions The Plastiki Launch: Art on a Global Scale    Art, by definition, questions the consciousness. What do we see? What are we "meant" to see? It likewise demands judgment, are we indeed moved by the object or left untouched. Read More >>
April 14, 2010		Diversions Zadok Art Gallery    The maelstrom of activities surrounding Art Basel Miami Beach 2009 last December included an open house, one evening at Zadok Art Gallery in the Wynwood Art District north of downtown Miami. Read More >>
April 07, 2010		Diversions The Rubell Family Collection    One afternoon, I wandered through a startlingly comprehensive collection of contemporary art. I was not in Berlin or Paris - I was in downtown Miami. Comprised entirely of pieces from the private coll...Read More >>
March 31, 2010		Diversions Paul Davies – Hanmer, March 24 - April 11, 2010    Landscapes are part of the backbone of the painting canon, so there can be a certain expectation sometimes, when visiting a gallery, to see a landscape exhibition. Everyone has their ideal of the land...Read More >>
March 23, 2010		Diversions Making Video Fit In    Over a year ago, after it changed its name from Kontainer, but before it relocated from Chinatown to Culver City, Mihai Nicodim Gallery hosted an exhibition of video art by Romanian artists. Read More >>
March 16, 2010		Diversions Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney    Currently, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) is exhibiting ‘Almanac: The gift of Ann Lewis AO’ on levels one and two, to which admission is free. Read More >>
March 03, 2010		Diversions The Lunar Fest – A Favorite of the Winter Olympics    As the cauldron was snuffed, the world watched our athletes with smiles and pride at the closing of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. From the 12th of February 2010, Vancouver has been an interactive ...Read More >>
February 24, 2010		Diversions The Wynwood Art District.    There is a place, far from the logical realms of art and culture, where things are truly without hubris, The Wynwood Art District. Read More >>
February 18, 2010		Diversions Vietnamese Art: A Fusion of East and West    As I wandered the aisles of a large art fair in a stupor of sensory overload, a riveting display of Vietnamese art suddenly lifted my mental fog. This glorious gallimaufry of exotic Asian themes and m...Read More >>
February 08, 2010		Diversions An Evening with the Apprentice to the Gods    The New York Times rightly called Reuben Nakian (1897 – 1986) “One of the most distinguished American sculptors of the 20th Century.” Though Nakian died twenty-five years ago, on the night of January...Read More >>
February 04, 2010		Diversions Downtown Los Angeles’ Art Walk Finds its Stride    If you haven’t already heard, there is now what might be considered a near deafening buzz, surrounding Downtown Los Angeles’ Gallery Row district, and it’s very own, once a month event, known simply a...Read More >>
January 27, 2010		Diversions Brett Whiteley Studio    Brett Whiteley Studio - providing a traveling scholarship, education programs, and a stage for emerging poets - is giving back to the Sydney arts community. Read More >>
January 20, 2010		Diversions Masterpieces From Paris    Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne & beyond: Post-Impressionism from the Musée d’Orsay National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. The advance publicity campaign for this blockbuster exhibition branded it ...Read More >>
January 13, 2010		Diversions Bendigo Art Gallery    The Bendigo Art Gallery is situated in the central Victorian gold rush town of the same name. A feature of the town is the imposing Victorian architecture, which is indicative of the wealth and prospe...Read More >>
January 07, 2010		Diversions Spatial Relationships at the Miami Art Museum    I often say great art, is like a clay vessel: it is not what the vessel is as much as what the vessel will hold. Artwork showing at the Miami Art Museum seems to echo my own personal treatise. Until ...Read More >>
January 06, 2010		Diversions Reviewing Joerg Doering’s Nostalgic Pop    Adamar Fine Arts in Miami Florida was elated to introduce Nostalgic Pop, Joerg Doering’s exhibition of large-scale, past and present iconographic images of Pop Culture. Read More >>
December 15, 2009		Diversions Soho Galleries Sydney    Soho Galleries Sydney was established in 1995 by Nigel Messenger. Featuring contemporary works by Australian artists, the gallery provides a platform for new and emerging talent. The gallery also exhi...Read More >>
December 03, 2009		Diversions Rupert Bunny    It has been nearly twenty years since the last major exhibition of nineteenth century painter Rupert Bunny, an Australian in Paris. Between November 21st and February 21st 2010, the Art Gallery of New...Read More >>
November 27, 2009		Diversions Darkwave at Black Cat    The Black Cat Gallery, located in Culver City (adjacent to Los Angeles), is a unique gallery venue that promotes original Fine Art, Fashion, Film, Live Music and DJs, and Performance Art. Read More >>
November 17, 2009		Diversions 900 Eyes Looks in at Maitland Region Art Gallery    When one first enters the Maitland Regional Gallery’s – The Anthony Gallery it is like walking into a stadium with yourself in the spotlight, as 900 Eyes look straight at you silent and knowing. ...Read More >>
November 04, 2009		Diversions Art Tube: An Interactive Look Behind the Scenes    The ultimate search for humans to express, perceive, and understand is evolving to the communication platform of visual cutting edge videos. Art Tube is our highlighted site, which is a website with ...Read More >>
October 30, 2009		Diversions Impressions of the Getty    An afternoon at the Getty Museum of Los Angeles evokes many contrasting impressions. Though its purpose is to be a city museum, it sits on a site inaccessible to regular street traffic. Looking out f...Read More >>
October 14, 2009		Diversions Can you Imagine    What has red wings and can be formed into just about anything you can imagine? The answer is the Red Bull “Art of Can”. This artistic challenge put forth by the energy drink company, Red Bull, will d...Read More >>
September 29, 2009		Diversions The Blago Project    With a political past as entertaining and tragic as we’ve ever seen and with hair that is the envy of Elvis impersonators and hair challenged men everywhere, the former governor of Illinois, Rod Blago...Read More >>
September 16, 2009		Diversions Opening Reception Night at the Bergamot Station; Twenty + Galleries Participate.    Enthusiastic crowds converged on the Bergamot Station in Santa Monica on September 12th, with close to twenty contemporary galleries staying open into the evening hours hosting their new exhibits. As ...Read More >>
September 09, 2009		Diversions SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE: New Melanesian Art    This exhibition is historically significant as it is the first exhibition of Contemporary Melanesian art with a regional wide focus to show in Auckland, New Zealand. Read More >>
September 02, 2009		Diversions Chicago: The Jewel of the Midwest    New York and Los Angeles have long been considered the art Mecca’s, both locales revered as the main centers of art in the US. However, Chicago experienced its own art renaissance which produced a bu...Read More >>
August 18, 2009		Diversions Does Art Really Matter?    In the midst of our collective concerns about the economy, terrorism, health care, and global warming does art really matter these days? <...Read More >>
August 10, 2009		Diversions New Russian Art, A.D. 1909    These color photographs were all taken in the Russian Empire between 1909 and 1918. Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii was a Russian photographer born in 1863. After studying chemistry with Mendeleev and ...Read More >>
August 05, 2009		Diversions The Perspective of an Unseen World    In Turkey 1953, Esref Armagan was born with no eyes, but his visual perspective on the unseen world has brought new insights to the minds of well known psychologist and neurologist across the world. ...Read More >>
July 22, 2009		Diversions Dismal Streetscapes + Avant-garde Art = Ingenuity    In many cities, economic conditions have forced once burgeoning and attractive commercial corridors to stall. Closed stores are leaving in their wake blighted streetscapes and communities in aesthetic...Read More >>
July 09, 2009		Diversions The Art of Liberating the Human: Part 2    The Art of Liberation through letting go and spreading hope has two uniquely different artists relinquishing thousands of pieces of artwork out on the street. Adam Neate is a British born artist, wh...Read More >>
June 15, 2009		Diversions The Art of Liberating the Human - Part 1    Quote by Spencer Tunick - "A body is a living entity. It represents life, freedom, sensuality, and it is a mechanism to carry out our thoughts. A body is always beautiful to me. It depends on the ...Read More >>
June 15, 2009		Diversions The Perfect Height    Recently, I moved into a new home and as I was unpacking and putting items in their permanent locations, I was faced with the quandary of where to place my ever growing art collection. I am sure many...Read More >>
April 27, 2009		Diversions World's Largest ArtPrize    The City of Grand Rapids, MI is a buzz with the potential of the newly announced ArtPrize. ArtPrize invites artists of all kinds from around the world to participate in an unprecedented competition th...Read More >>
April 20, 2009		Diversions Feast your Eyes on These    On one of my trips to Chicago, I had the pleasure of meeting Scott Urban of Urban Spectacles. He creates custom made wooden spectacles with meticulous attention to detail. Scott started by making spec...Read More >>
March 30, 2009		Diversions Underground Artists    Rather than going through the traditional outlets of art galleries and art fairs, street artists share their art in a guerrilla type application. Due to legal ramifications, they usually choose to rem...Read More >>
March 02, 2009		Diversions Green is the New Black    It seems our world is refocusing on being green. It is interesting to see how green technologies are being used by artists today. Some might say this started in the 1970’s when Robert Smithson underto...Read More >>
January 05, 2009		Diversions Uploaded Magazine Launches New Website    Uploaded Magazine has launched its new website in an effort to start a dialogue about the role of art and technology and how they relate to art galleries and the art industry at large. Uploaded Magazi...Read More >>