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ECAA Artists in the News
Filling the Bloom Projects Gallery at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum through
February 8, 2009, Richard Aber presents his newest site specific installation, Shrine.
Following on the sculptors presentation of Stupa as part of the 2008 State
of the Art
Gallery in downtown Santa Barbara, Shrine continues the elaboration with sculpture
forms
fabricated using canvas and gold paint by Aber. Drawing upon an array of complex, resonate
ideas and sources, Aber explore fundamental tenets of culture and beliefs through his minimalist
forms and alternative construction methods. Organized by CAF Director and Chief Curator,
Miki Garcia Shrine, in her words, evokes notions of sanctity, greed and power.
New graphite and silverpoint drawings by Susan Manchester are on view at the Monterey
Museum of Art through February 22, 2009. The exhibition is organized by MMoA Chief
Curator Marcelle Polednik and is intended as recognition of Manchesters accomplishments as
an artist residing in the Monterey County. Featuring more than dozen new works, the exhibition
features both drawings of figures and botanical subjects. Polednik states,
the exhibition
encompasses a variety of subjects and a range of materials, tracing a more complete picture of
the artists practice. In doing so, it also highlights an underlying theme time as an agent
of
transformation.
A selection of photographs from Thomas Zikas Bathers series was recently featured
by
Klara Jung of the Kunstverein Wiesbaden, Germany in the Fall issue of the UKs Next
Level
magazine. Londons avant-garde Kilimanjaro
Magazine will feature photographs from
Zikas Human Factor series.
George Legradys current installation project, We Are Stardust, is being featured
at the Art
Center College of Design in Pasadena, California in an exhibition entitled, Observe, in
collaboration with the NASA Spitzer Science Center. Legrady was also featured in an
exhibition entitled, China in Transition for Stiftung
Ahlers Pro Arte in Hanover,
Germany.
Gary Langs work is currently being exhibited at the Crisp Museum, Southeast Missouri State
University. The solo exhibition entitled, Gary
Lang: Out Standing Time, will focus on
works created during the past five years since the artists move from New York to California.
To accompany the exhibition will be a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by David Pagel,
Los Angeles Times art critic and chair of the Art Department at Claremont Graduate University
in Claremont, California, and an introduction by Dr. Stanley Grand, director of the Crisp
Museum.
After a recent solo exhibition, entitled Cecilia Paredes:The Final Garden at Michela
Rizzo
in Venice, Italy, the artist was honored with the International Artist Guest Award the FIA
Ibero
American Art Fair in Caracas. The Ibero-American art fair in Caracas is held yearly since
1992, always with an artist as a guest of honor. Cecilia will have three spaces to exhibit her
photo performance works and one site specific installation specially made for FIA. In previous
FIA editions, international guests artists have included Jaume Plensa, Patrick Hamilton,
Fernando de Szyszlo, Vic Muniz, Guillermo Kuitca, Marcos Lopez and Luis Gonzales Palma,
among others.
This week Photolucida
announced their Critical Mass 2007 Book Award Winners. Joni
Sternbach was awarded best Hardbound book for her project "SurfLand. Critical Mass is
an
annual juried competition sponsored by Photolucida.
The aim of Critical Mass and all
Photolucida programming is to promote the best emerging and mid-career artists working
today.
Works by Rick Stich, Thomas Zika, and R. Nelson Parrish are to be included in an
exhibition entitled, Surf-Inspired, at the Carnegie
Art Museum in Oxnard, California. The
exhibition will feature paintings, photographs, and sculptures by California artists creatively
inspired by the ocean. The show is on view from June 7 - August 24, 2008 at the Carnegie
Art Museum.
Recently, two pieces by Susan Manchester were accepted for inclusion in the permanent
collection of the Achenback Foundation for Graphic Arts at the California Palace Legion
of Honor in San Francisco, California. The first to be acquired was a conte figure drawing and
the second is one of Manchesters .925 silverpoint botanical drawing. Adapting Old Master
techniques, Manchester explores the concept of botanical illustration through the ancient art of
silverpoint drawing. Silverpoint, sometimes referred to as point dargent or punto
dargento, is an arcane drawing method dating from the 12th century. A silver wire
is used to draw a variety of line and tone on a receptive surface that has been
prepared with gesso and Chinese white watercolor. Rather than sitting on the paper
surface, the silver line incises the surface, resembling an etched line. Silverpoint
drawing has been said to be the bridge between etching and drawing. The appeal
of a silverpoint drawing is in the oxidation of the .925 (sterling) silver. As it
tarnishes, the drawing continues to develop richness and depth for at least six
months after the drawing. Manchesters work represents an aesthetic triumph balancing
technique and form.
Featured in not just one but two group exhibitions simultaneously, the photographic work of
Ethan Turpin is currently on display at the Elverhoj Museum in Solvang and at the
Contemporary Arts Forum in Santa Barbara. On
the Edge: A New Generation of Artists
from the Santa Ynez Valley features Turpins Buzzard Hill: Summer Solstice on Ballard
Fields Ranch. The large format photographic collage presents an inventive self-portrait of the
artist, which visually connects the valleys pastoral summer landscape and the artist to the
celestial occurrence. Dynamically marking both time and location, the photograph is one of a
series of self-portraits that the artist takes annually. In contrast, Turpin explores themes of
globalism with his new photographic project, Stereocollision. Selected by jury from
a pool of
more than one-hundred artists, Turpins work is one of five artists featured in True
Metier:
Call for Entries 2006-7 now on view though November 4, 2007. Using digital manipulation
and compositing techniques, Turpin manipulates period stereo card views, reinventing this
nineteenth-century technology to create low-tech, hyper realities that plumb political and
economic tumult and ideology. His project takes the form of a Victorian parlor, which radically
subverts the gallerys purity and invites long, leisurely explorations of the three-dimensional
world Turpin has created.
Santa Barbara has long had a reputation as a photographic town and now the works of more
than forty-five distinguished artists are currently installed in the galleries of the Santa Barbara
Museum of Art. Organized by Karen Sinsheimer and Rita A. Ferri, Made in Santa
Barbara: Contemporary Photographs will reveal surprises and treasures
and remain on
view though October 7, 2007. The exhibition includes a stunning large-format, pigment print
photograph and collage by ECAA artist Mary Heebner form her ethereal Khmer Face
project. Also included in the exhibition is dynamically generated computer visualization installed
in the Emmons Gallery by George Legrady. And, last but not least, a rare folio of hand
manipulated silver-gelatin prints entitled Pictures/Stories by Gerald Incandela who is
currently preparing for an upcoming solo exhibition with ECAA in October of 2007.
Also on view currently in Santa Barbara is: Sonotube®
Forms: Contemporary Art
and Transport at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum.
In this
exhibition, the sonotube, a staple in any gallery, artist studio, or museum storage
space, is used as a central motif to address the way portability, economy, and ease
have become essential factors in the growing expediency and itinerant art world of
traveling exhibitions, international art fairs, biennales, and so forth. Featuring 35
artists from around the world, the exhibition features works by ECAA artists Robert
Heckes and Peter Cole. Cole speaks of his motivation for Dark Star Souvenir
as, Like the crazy guy on your block who never throws anything away, a lonely
traveler amassing souvenirs, or an artist collating and redistributing experience, I
have taken the trope of collecting to an extreme. As they mount each other in a
thicker pile, the objects necessarily fold themselves in order to occupy the inner
form/empty space of the tube. This condensed mass is like an imploded star, now-
useless objects and circumstances transfixed or immobilized by their combined
gravities. Sharing a similar passion of collecting gone wrong, Heckes large-format
collage painting, Sundowner is made from thousands of vintage playing cards
utilizing the vintage feeling patterns and logos to create a expressionistic depiction
of Las Vegas a city of excess and commoditization.
Transforming the striking Dudelange steelworks in Luxenbourg for through August 19, 2007 is
an exhibition entitled De L'Europe organized by the Centre National de l'audiovisuel
featuring the work of Thomas Zika and twenty-four other photographers gathered from
Europe and the Americas. The prestigious curated exhibition features artists that hail from a
diverse range of backgrounds, cultures and sensibilities, and it is the diversity of their view
regarding Europe and its citizens that constitutes the character of the works presented.
Accompanied by a catalog, the exhibition explores Europes development at the turn of the
century. To learn more please visit: http://www.cna.public.lu/2_PHOTO/index.html
A new sculpture/painting hybrid by R. Nelson Parrish has been selected for High 5:
Emerging Art in America for the CW Network in Burbank, CA. Reflecting the national
TV
networks, 18-34 demographic, the exhibition features only emerging artists between those
ages. Selecting outstanding example of artwork from five different geographic areas, the five
nationally recognized curators are Kristan Kenney of PICA, Portland, OR; Matthew Higgs of
White Columns, New York; Regine Basha of Arthouse, Austin, TX; Ben Heywood of the Soap
Factory, Minneapolis and Katherine Kanjo of UAM, Santa Barbara, CA. Each curator
selected five emerging artists for inclusion in the exhibition. Noted LA Times critic David Pagel
is contributing an essay for the soon to be published catalog, and will be selecting one artwork
from each geographic area for inclusion in the CW Networks permanent collection.
An example of the Exposures series by Davis Birks has been added to the
permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The work was vetted
by noted curator of photography, Anne Tucker. With Exposures, Birks explores the
boundaries between photography and painting with his innovative reverse painting
technique that confounds viewers with their taunt surface and strong suggestions of
ranking light. www.mfah.org.
A large format drawing by Ann Diener has been selected for inclusion in an
exhibition entitled Art on Paper 2006 at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in
Greensboro, NC. The biennale presentation of works on or made from paper
showcases more than one-hindered unique works by both emerging and
established American artists, and has become a benchmark exhibition. Curated
this year by Zandra Eden, the exhibition represents a forty year partnership between
the Weatherspoon Art Museum and paper manufacture XPEDX to recognize
outstanding efforts in drawing and paper based arts. To learn more visit,
http://weatherspoon.uncg.edu/exhibitions/exh_detailf.asp?WamExID=84
New paintings by David Florimbi premiered at Frank Pictures Gallery in Santa
Monica, CA in September. The show entitled, Forces of Nature, featured
paintings which continued the artists exploration of the concepts of originals and
copies in an age of mass media. Utilizing photographs of moving images of
surfing, car racing, and horse racing on television as a basis for his paintings,
Florimbi presents serial images that consider motion and power. In my latest
series, Florimbi states, Ive used Muybridges revolutionary photographs as a
departure point, and using paint, photography, and film, tried to capture the myriad
of unseen moments that occur inside the briefest flash in time. To see a review
visit, www.davidflorimbi.com/press/laartistseries.html
Joan Tanner: On Tenderhooks, a fifty-five page catalog has been published to
accompany an exhibition of the same name by the Otis College of Art and
Design, Los Angeles. With introductory essay by Ben Maltz Gallery director, Meg
Linton and an analysis of Tanners twenty five year career by Michael Darling,
Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Seattle Art Museum, the catalog
also features an interview with the artist by Julien Robson, Curator of
Contemporary Art at the Speed Art Musuem in Louisville, Kentucky. The richly
illustrated catalog documents the two-year process of creation of the monumental
sculpture installation by the artist that was on view July 22 to September 23, 2006 at
the Ben Maltz Gallery. With a notice by Peter Frank and a forthcoming review in
Sculpture Magazine, the exhibition furthers the recognition of Tanner as an
important conceptual artist working in Southern California investigating the visual
paradox of architectonic order and themes of disintergration and imperfection.
Comprised of temporary and salvaged materials, Tanners large-format sculptures
are as heroic as they are precarious. The exhibitions name underscores the strain
contained in moments of transition and contradiction, yet, Tanner compositions are
visual follies which, in Lintons words, are metaphors for seeking perfection and the
inability to attain it. Catalogs are available from ECAA and Ben Maltz Gallery. To
read Peter Franks notice visit: http://www.laweekly.com/art+books/art-pick/joan-
tanner/14436/
Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo of Lead Pencil Studio assembled a full-scale
architectural double of the Maryhill Museum of Art made entirely out of scaffolding
and construction netting. Maryhill Double, a Creative Capital funded project, was
built on private ranch land one mile due South of its namesake and across the deep
chasm of the Columbia River Gorge. The 6,000 square foot temporary monument
resided in the stark Oregon grassland for three months located ninety minutes east
of Portland. Attendees were able to transpose themselves mentally from the original
museum enclosure to its double and back again in a contemplative exercise that
focuses attention on the intangibles of contained space, scale perception, land use,
authorship and institutional history. Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo are a Seattle-
based collaborative team who explore the intangible conditions of architecture at full
scale by employing lightweight construction materials. They were selected as an
Emerging Voice in 2006 by the Architecture League of New York, completed
residencies at the Center for Land Use Interpretation and the Headlands Center
for the Arts and have been awarded numerous grants. To learn more visit,
www.leadpencilstudio.com
Mani Wall and A Sacred Geography is on exhibit at the UCLA Fowler Museum of
Art. The Mani Wall project is the result of a creative collaboration by artist Mary
Heebner, her husband, photographer Macduff Everton, and their anthropologist
daughter, Sienna Craig, who, in 1996, let them on horseback to the walled
Kingdom of Lo in Nepal's Mustang District. Inspired by the rugged landscape of the
region and the walls of painted boulders etched with Tibetan prayers (mani), the
exhibition
includes Heebner's recent paintings on paper; Everton's panoramic photographs of
Nepal and Tibet; and a display of twelve pulp-painted folios that feature Craig's
sonnets, in Heebner's limited edition artist's book, A Sacred Geography: Sonnets of
the Himalaya and Tibet. Mani Wall and A Sacred Geography is presented in
conjunction with the debut of a major, traveling exhibition The Missing Peace:
Artists Consider the Dalai Lama. Both exhibitions will be on view through
September 10, 2006.
Seattle born and Puerto Vallarta based artist, Davis Birks has been invited to the
Vermont Studio Center Residency Program for the Fall 2006. Founded by artists in
1984, the Vermont Studio Center is the largest and most international residency
program for artists and writers in the United States. To learn more, please visit:
www.vermontstudiocenter.org. Additionally,
Birks was represented by Charro
Negro Gallery of Guadalajara, Mexico at ScopeHamptons Art Fair July 14-16,
2006. His work is currently featured in an exhibition entitled, Artistas Citados at Nina
Menocal Gallery in Mexico City.
The prints of Roy Lichtenstein are currently featured in an informative exhibition at
the Henry Art Museum, Seattle, Washington from February though May 2006.
Entitled, Roy Lichtenstein Prints 1956-97, From the Collections of Jordan D.
Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, the exhibition is organized by Chris Bruce of
the Museum of Art/Washington State University. Accompanying the exhibition is a
publication of the same title with contributing essays by Chris Bruce, Dave Hickey,
and Elizabeth A. Brown. An edition of Still Life with Portrait, featured above, is
included in the exhibition and catalog, for which Elizabeth Brown writes, the head is
limned in a particular style, one you might find in those ubiquitous saddle-stiched
recipe brochures from the 1950s sent out by Betty Crocker Foods and Good
Housekeeping magazines. This is the way everyone thought (thinks) Lichtenstein
drew in the 1960s, but he never did. To learn more visit: www.henryart.org
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