CSUN Video Walk

At sundown, the art department showed its Annual Video and Digital Media Art Exhibition (in the courtyards of the Art Department), this included experimental film, video, photographic and digital compositions/video billboards. There was also a Video Festival of 20+ shorts being shown in one of the rooms. Two of my shorts made it into the Video Walk. "Place" and "Corner" both were shown. I watched the festival films and was totally inspired by the ideas and quality of the shorts being produced from all over the world.

Angles Gallery

Because Tom LaDuke would be lecturing to our class, and because he was having an opening the Sunday before the lecture, I thought it would be good to see his art in person. Besides, Samantha Fields indicated that it would be hard to understand his work purely by seeing the slides only. The monochromatic quality of the images are such that a personal experience can not be replaced. In his landscape paintings, LaDuke creates vast atmospheric voids with thin strips of land at the lower edge. Hans Burkhardt writes, "These low horizons contain an array of degraded Southern California landscape elements: crisscrossing high-tension power lines, mile-long warehouses, office parks and studio lots, thousands of pinpoint headlights. As a counterpoint to the manmade landscape, we catch an occasional glimpse of silhouetted mountain peaks and treetops. Most of the paintings are executed in military enamel on aluminum, their exquisite details precisely rendered in fine pencil and watercolor. The great skies are shrouded in smoky, matte tones of dark mocha, cocoa or gunmetal grays, representing night, fog, smog or infinite space. Reminiscent of the Northern European landscape tradition with their melancholic, engulfing voids and near abstraction, they create a portentous mood verging on the apocalyptic." He also makes sculptures out of clay that look very lifelike. I liked the juxtaposition of the sculptures and the paintings.

CSUN Student Exhibition

The student exhibition in the main Art Department gallery is once again a stunning example of the fine work being made here on campus. Two of my pieces made it into the juried show. The one pictured here is a mural photo painted with watercolor and pencil, titled, "The Towers of Babble and Deceipt."

Armenian Genocide Poster Exhibit

An exhibit of Posters about the Denial of the Armenian Genocide by the government of Turkey at Woodbury College opened today. There was supposed to be a panel discussion (I was on the panel) but that was canceled apparently because of a conflict in schedule with another Genocide panel on Darfur. The exhibit has both modern and historic posters of the Genocide. The historic posters told of the event and different campaigns to finance rescue efforts to "feed the starving Armenians".

The Getty

Yesterday I spent an afternoon at the Getty and enjoyed the work of Tim Hawkinson, PH Emerson, and the gardens surrounding the building. Hawkinson's work was represented by 4 new pieces called Zoopsia this work takes everyday household tems and turns them into "hallucinations of animals". They comprise a dragon drawn on paper, a bone structure made out of Crayola Model Magic, a bat made out of plastic bags and ties, and my favorite, a giant octopus made of photos of body parts. Another interesting piece that he has at the Getty takes up the entire main entrance, a giant sound machine made of anything you can think of from Home Depot that renders a score, much like a player piano every hour.

P.H. Emerson made "naturalistic" images of the Norfolk Broads, a rural part of England from 1885 to 1895 and is known for his stunning Albumen and photogravures. It was great to see them in person after looking at them in books for so long.

Apex Gallery

While shopping on the West Side, I stopped in to check out an on going exhibit of photographs by Paul Strand. I had always thought of his work dealing with the portraits of immigrants, but this exhibit opened my eyes to the extent of his work in the figure and in form in general.

Black Maria Gallery

On our way to a theatre production, I stopped in on an opening at the Black Maria Gallery in Atwater. The exhibit titled the "Cult of Childhood" was on display. "The dance and mix of opposing ingredients into a squeamish cocktail will turn a cringe to a grin, allowing the playful and wicked, the cute and barbaric, the poison and sweet, the vicious and curious, the child and creep to live happily in the underbelly of childhood". Though the work of many artists were on display, I found Alex Noriega's work to combine a beauty and wimsical quality to create a decoritive yet meaningful work. His drawings are about beauty and it’s overdoses. The composition of his work and use of warm colors invite the viewer in. But upon closer inspection, not so welcoming environments surface, exemplified by smokestacks, urban landscapes and robotic machines. I enjoyed the craftsmanship in the painting and was inspired to work more detailed in my own art.

Stereo Lecture

I was able to make the seminar on stereo video that Astra recommended and met a number of stereo enthusiasts there. John Rupkalvis (818-848-9601) invents different cameras and computer apparatuses to film and view in stereo. Also I met Eric Kurland (818-623-9577) who creates mobile movies often in stereo. Both gentlemen showed ways to create the affects that I have been looking for and now I am eager to create. Ray Zone who is known for pioneering comic book stereo even defined the affect when both eyes are not seeing the same image as "retinal rivalry". I thought that was quite exciting too. Overall, I really found a great source of information and excitement at the seminar.

Lightbox Gallery

On a field trip with my graduate painting class, we went to see our instructor, Samantha Fields's, exhibit of her current work. It was very impressive to see these large canvases in a space with high ceilings. Samantha goes out into storms and photgraphs the cloud patterns and then paints them in airbrush in the studio on canvas. Her work is getting around and has become popular (prices rising!). Her next series is about wildfires!!!!!

The Male Gaze

I have started looking and researching on this topic and have found a website that is a good starting point:

www.sauer-thompson.com/.../ archives/001591.html

He shows good examples and explains them.

Andy Schwartz Collection

Andy Schwartz has been working at Cristy's for years in their photo department. In the process, he has purchased work that has made him one of the few collectors with a mass of historic photos that are rare and priceless. Some photos I have only seen in text books are hanging in his house. Cameron, Stieiglitz, Sticken, Strand, Emerson, Weston, Adams, to only mention a few. It was a real treat to see these images up close and personal at his home which he so kindly opened for our class to visit.

Skin+ Bones

This exhibit of "parallel practices in fashion and architecture" is a stunning representation of trends that combine structure and texture to create form. Cross uses of materials that seem unlikely make powerful impressions in both apparel and structural objects. Unfortunately, I was not as impressed as the critics. I am sure it is my ignorance of such matters, but the only thing that interested me were the nude models in Burkas, an idea that I had wanted to do for some time which now seems redundant. My wife who is a costume designer on the other hand went twice to the show to fully capture its extensive information, enjoying it completely each time.

World Trade Center

I have been discovering new ways to view videos. It seems that you-tube (in general) has shorter viewing times and attracts mostly shorts. Google video offers longer viewing times and a chance to present an hour long video. I found myself interested in this one in particular. It's about how the three World Trade Center buildings fell down. The third one fell without being hit by a plane! You must see this. Someone orchestrated this event from the inside, lets not forget that Osama Bin-Lauden was once a CIA man. The moment I saw those towers fall with such precision, my first thought in my head was "Musad". The actions that followed and are still in motion make me believe there was a plan to this madness from the beginning.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4026073566596731782

Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images

The play of words and images reverberates true in this exhibit of artists that compliment Magritte's work. "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" has come to represent so much more than Magritte ever imagined. The exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is beautifully designed by artist John Baldessari and incorporates themes from Magritte's work into the carpet (clouds) and ceiling (freeway overpasses), even the attendants wear bowler hats.

Inside, they've hung many of Magritte's famous works, and, accompanying these works, they've placed dozens of contemporary sculptures and paintings that rip off Magritte, making fun of him or paying homage to him or commenting on him, by using his work to make new work. The work that was most inspirational to me was a little accordian fold brochure entitled "Word vs Image" in which Magritte compares the relationship of words and images from a phenomenological perspective. It might be worth seeing this show twice.

Photo LA

As Usual, this is the place that inspires me to get into the photo gallery business as an artist. It is a great place to see what is going on in the industry and who is hot. Large close-up portraits (that I have been doing for years) are suddenly hot. Like the one shown here by Pieter Hugo. Also a lady does these totally photoshopped images that look like bad stretched absrtactions.... I found out that all my Helmut Newton signed images and books are worth good money. And I re-connected with some gallery owners and even a contact in China.

Neistat Brothers

I was wondering if You-Tube had anything interesting on it and I ran across the Neistat Brothers. They make shorts that are science based and strange.

Gallery and Museum Log

I didn't want to come back, but once I got here I felt at home.

Starting today, this Blog will focus on Gallery exhibits and Museum shows that I have experienced. This week I thought I would start with the show at LACMA of Magritte. Unfortunately the Museum is not open on Wednesday. So I thought I would swing by the "great scene" in Culver City. I found only one gallery- representing cell painters and selling cartoon art. Hum, maybe some research is in order. I know there are some cool galleries in this area, but I just have to find them.