FIRST THURSDAY; 10.07.04
General comment: Tonight's shows are laced with anti-war and anti-administration sentiment, ranging from subtle to ghastly-- not the usual fun First Thursday. Artists are upset; even artists who normally make art that has nothing to do with politics are sneaking imagery into their work. Compelled to temporarily redirect their talents, a significant percentage of this month's art addresses the current the state of domestic and international affairs. Going editiorial like this is never easy and never pleasant (even to write about), but like the perennial canary in the mineshaft, artists often lead the way where public opinion is concerned, and put into visuals what the rest of us only imagine.
In other news, the crowd was lighter than usual; a number of galleries have opted for mid-month openings instead. Not to worry, though-- there's never any shortage of art to opine about. So let the opination begin as off we go, albeit in muted anticipation, to review October's autumnal artistic array...
Dolby Chadwick Gallery : Gary Ruddell; Reckless Dreamers.
Comment: First off, I'd like to thank Gary Ruddell for the opportunity to use the words "teeter-totter" and "seesaw," neither of which I have ever put into writing before. Ruddell is known for his paintings of isolated youthful figures in muted dreamy landscapes, for creating free-floating fantasies open to interpretation. In this most recent work, he introduces teeter-totters to symbolize life's seesaw motion, its ups and downs, backs and forths-- it's repetitive oscillating nature. But I like the teeter-totter series for their perspectives, especially those compositions devoid of excess landscape and brimming with shadow. They twist my inquisitive hovering spirit in a wistful mellow vertigo.
Art.
Artist explaining art.
Art.
Art.
Art.
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Gallery Paule Anglim : Enrique Chagoya; New Drawings.
Unquestionably the best show of the night. Chagoya's art is always relevant, investigative, exploratory, often charged, but tending towards a benign intensity-- more contemplative than inflammatory. Here, however, the gloves are off, outrage permeates; blood, death, horror, pointlessness, and perhaps even insanity run rampant and unabated. But what elevates Chagoya's art from angry to awesome is his ability to conceptualize and execute, through superb draftsmanship, defiant reminders that shock and awfulness must never be allowed to triumph over our imperative to create, beautify, order, and elevate ourselves beyond primitivism and chaos.
Art.
Art.
Artist (left).
Art.
Art.
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Toomey Turrell Gallery : Clinton Fein; Numb and Number.
Comment: No Mister Nice Guy art at Toomey Turrell, just pure blunt force trauma. Clinton Fein's imagery may go as far beyond the line as any in expressing sentiments about the current world situation, and about the United States, the War in Iraq, and the Bush administration in particular. If you want to see complete and total venom conveyed through art, see "Numb and Number" and visit Fein's seditious brainchild, annoy.com . This is the type of stuff that buckets you a first class trip to oblivion in many parts of the world, but not here in America, The Land of the Free. No matter how bad things get, we still have the right to say what we want. And we have this too: VOTE.
Art.
Art.
Art.
Art.
Art.
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871 Fine Arts : Performance Photographs from the 1970's, Including Works by Dieter Appelt, Joseph Beuys, Coum Transmission, Hermann Nitsch, and Ulay.
Comment: I am exhausted with this war art. Time for a refreshing neocortical bender at 871 Fine Arts. It's where the pros go to chow down on arcane art world minutiae, in this case, Performance Photographs from the 1970's. So here we all are, the conversation has somehow dribbled onto the topic of circumcision, when in walks one Dr. Patrick D. Hazard, fresh off the plane from Weimar via Philadelphia, a pure performance piece in and of himself, who lets fly with a spontaneous rip on why the Bauhaus was a flop, citing Mies van der Rohe and his drafty kitchens as incontrovertible proof. I would have taken a few pics of the show had I not been glazed in stunned amusement by Hazard's self-propelled monologue. So without further ado, please join me in welcoming the distinguished Dr. Hazard...
Subsequently...
Furthermore...
Hence...
In summation...
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RX Gallery : Hyper-Pop; Recent Work by Michael Thrush.
Comment: Young, fresh, compentent, big, bright, borderline congested, oil-on-wood, collaged pop-culture iconography. I thought the compositions might be airbrushed or serigraphed, but then I zoomed in close and saw the tight neat brush strokes. Thrush hails from Atlanta, a recent MFA graduate from Savannah College of Art & Design; this is his West Coast debut. I know the paintings are big and good and all that, but the prices seem a tad altitudinous for an artist so early in his career, precocious though he may be.
Back to the political quagmire, also on the RX docket is Global Presidential Election , a voting project founded by Kenneth Hung and Time Blue. It's your chance vote for one of thirteen dictators, including George W. Bush, to dominate the world. The program allows voters, for varying fees, to add or subtract votes from their choice of global leaders. For example, the Absentee Ballot Program subtracts 150 actual votes from the candidate of your choice for only $2. The voter information guide is well worth the $5 asking price.
Art.
Art.
Art.
VOTE.
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Crucible Steel Gallery : For the People, A Street Art Celebration.
Artists: the london police, swoon, above, d*face, fury, insa, rainman, alist, adam neate, k2, empte eyes, pumps, pete doo little, eskae, g, logan hicks, microbo and bo 130, mackplakt, ephameron, dist, flower guy, kyle goen, peace, zoe, josh macphee, chun 1, adam 5100, Chris Stain, and others.
Comment: A most entertaining assortment of graffiti, street art, stencil art, painted spray cans, paintings, works on paper, an artified phone booth, painted athletic shoes, and ancillary miscellany. Various messages, intents, meanings, agendas, exhortations, manifestos, and philosophies are included at no additional charge. These local, national, and international artists come together in large part through the internet, and by way of Empte Eyes productions, Stencilarchive.org , and God Bless Graffiti Coalition . Hmmmm. Artists organizing over the internet-- there's an advantage "street" artists definitely have over "fine" artists. How about fine street artists?
Art.
Art.
Art.
Art.
Art.
Art.
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More Galleries:
Lone stone soaks by David Parker at Robert Koch Gallery
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Peaceful patchwork by Yutaka Yoshinaga Don Soker Contemporary Art
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See you next month...
