Determining Domain at Intersection

Sanaz Mazinani, Redacted March, 2011 (detail)

Determining Domain, Intersection for the Arts, November 7, 2012 – January 19, 2013. A group exhibition exploring complex issues regarding intellectual property and image ownership.

Years ago, I worked with Intersection on a show about the origins of various symbols (the peace sign, the AFL-CIO handshake, etc...). Since then, we have been discussing, on & off, an exhibition that investigates IP/copyright issues like infringement, appropriation, derivative works & parody/satire. The time has finally arrived, and the show will be opening 11/7!

Features work by Bigface, Scott Kildall & Nathaniel Stern, Sanaz Mazinani, Farnaz Shadravan, Stephanie Syjuco, and Scott Tsuchitani.  Marc Greenberg will be leading a copyright workshop for artists in early December (still TBA). See Intersection's site for calendar and more information.

Thomas Denmark's Murder of Crows

Cover of "Art of Murder of Crows"

At the Alternative Press Expo (APE) a couple of weekends ago, I had a brief chat with Thomas Denmark, an artist and game designer, who has designed and illustrated (among other things) a card game called Murder of Crows. The object of the game is spell “murder” and when assembled in order, the cards tell a witty short story.  The gothic style of the illustrations and the humorous and slightly twisted characters, weapons & locations are a great update on “Colonel Mustard with the candlestick in the library.”

A totally random selection gave me (M) A rotting stench filled the air (U) on Lynchburg street when (R) Finnegan Faust (D) due to an inferiority complex (E) used chopsticks to impale (R) Tom Thornbritches. People are killed with poodles, nail clippers & frozen turkeys, with all kinds of wacky motivations.

I wasn’t able to find much out about the artist as his web presence seems to be in transition. He has done illustrations for a number of collectible card games: Mentalist Companion, Orkworld RPG,  Legend of the Five Rings, Warlord, Dungeoneer, Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering and A Game of Thrones, and has a day job as an artist on several video games. He does have a number of beautiful illustrations on his blog at http://thomasdenmarkportfolio.blogspot.com/

Comic Art Show Article in Fall IJOCA

Catalog cover featuring Warhol's Dick Tracy.

My article about the Comic Art Show, which was at the Whitney Museum's downtown gallery in 1983, has finally been published in the International Journal of Comic Art (Vol 14, No. 2, Fall 2012). I thank the following people for sharing their memories, giving me input on my numerous drafts, or other assistance:

John Carlin, Art Spiegelman, Gary Panter, Sheena Wagstaff, Ann Philbin, Brian Walker, Leonard Rifas, Denise Lederman, Kristen Leipert, Marc H. Greenberg, John Lent, and the Frances Mulhall Achilles Library and Archive at the Whitney.
  
The IJOCA's articles are not published on-line.Here's a link to a (legible, but not fabulous) pdf scan of the article.

Bode & Walker, Metalmorphosis at 1:AM

Mark Bode mural on the 6th Street side of 1:AM gallery. Photo by Mark Bode.

Last week I saw Mark Bode & Metalman Ed Walker's show Metalmorphosis at the 1:AM gallery at 1000 Howard Street in SF (August 24-September 22, 2012).  While Bode's previous show at 1:AM was sort of a straight-head father and son retrospective, this show brings Vaughn and Mark's creations to life in a new & vivid 3D style. The show features 60 small-scale to life-size pieces depicting Vaughn Bode's major characters, which Mark and Ed created with sheets of aluminum, acrylic, Montana Colors' Alien spray paint and lettering enamel. It also features 18 three-dimensional metal sculptures by Walker.

One of the most interesting things, to me, was that Mark also drew backgrounds and dialog balloons  behind and around the characters on the gallery walls in pencil, giving the characters more context and narrative. The 1:AM gallery is an intimate space, and it felt to me like I had walked into a 3D comic. Highly recommended!

More info: 1:AM Gallery | SF Gate

If you can't see the slideshow above, click here to see it on Flickr.

Stephen Galloway, Beth Moon at Corden Potts Gallery, SF

Works by Stephen Galloway. Photo from a previous exhibition at the Bolinas Museum.

Yesterday I was checking out the galleries at 49 Geary and noticed several shows focusing on nature and natural forms. The most striking of these was Roots, Shrubs and Moss, an exhibition of the photography of Stephen Galloway, artist and photography professor (Sonoma State) at Corden Potts Contemporary Photography (suite 410; up 9/6 - 10/27/2012).

Galloway's works show plant forms in loving detail, with every leaf, branch and root shown to its best advantage. They are life size or larger, with the plant element floating in clean white space. This gives the viewer an opportunity to luxuriate in the forms, textures and colors of the natural world.  The rich color and crisp detail of the c-prints, face-mounted to plexi, left me feeling that the plants had an live inner glow, yet they also seemed somewhat preserved/fossilized in the process. A review of a previous show in ArtWeek (Brenneman, 2006), explains that he arranges the materials on a light box, and then uses a mounted camera/scanner to photograph it.  Maybe it's the light and amount of information this process allows him to capture that gives his works such a luminous feeling.

Beth Moon. Odin's Cove series. Platinum/Palladium Print, 28x22" 2012.

The same gallery had a couple of photos up from the Odin's Cove series by Beth Moon, who recently exhibited there. The subjects of the photos are a pair of Ravens, which is a subject dear to my heart, and I am sorry I missed seeing more of her work. In her introductory notes, Moon explains the close relationship between the mated pair (they mate for life) and the dynamic that developed between herself and the birds.  I have the same relationship/experience with a pair of Ravens myself, who have adopted my ocean front balcony as part of their territory and come over everyday for some peanuts and a chat. By an odd coincidence, I recently connected with another artist named Kim Munson, who lives in the San Jose area and happens to draw and paint Ravens as well.

Other shows I noticed focused on natural forms were the works of Ryan Bush at Modernbook Gallery, and the works of Charles Burchfield and Ralph Eugene Meatyard at the Fraenkel Galley.

True Blue - Simone Gad & Ingres

I was knocked out by this beautiful painting/collage by the LA artist Simone Gad, who is participating in the True Blue show organized by Charity Burnett at Sangria Fine Arts (LA, opening 8/31/12). True Blue features small pieces by over 60 artists who have become friends, or have invited friends, through social media.

Simone Gad. hommage a ingres painting collage.
copyright simone gad 2012/all rights reserved

First, a little context from Simone about her body of work: "I started out as a fabric artist in 1969, and then moved to making collages on fabric/then collage and assemblage with painting about hollywood icons during the 1970s thru the 1980s. In the 1990s, I started to incorporate art history collage elements into my works -acrylic on canvas with objects, then self-portraits, the holocaust clowns with pinups series from 1998 to 2012, small pinups with building facades also, the art history collages in the 2000s as well as making paintings without collage, continuing my self-portraits series, and now - fudogs paintings, chinatown, and pinups with rescue animals drawings on paper".

As an art historian, I was fascinated with the inclusion of Ingres in this work. Simone explained her concept, beginning with the title: "The painting I have in True Blue is an homage to Ingres and the Princess - hence the title - Hommage a Ingres.I have always loved art history and have incorporated from time to time collage elements in my paintings of building facades re Belgium Art Nouveau - since Brussels is my birthtown; Old Los Angeles structures - ala Victorians, Craftsman homes, some Art Deco, and Chinatown Plaza pagodas, etc... in my funky expressionist style of heavily built up acrylic in layers on canvas. I love Ingres' paintings and bought this postcard of Princesse Albert de Broglie during one of my trips to the Metropolitan Museum in NYC, which I incorporated into one of my buildings of Atwater Village/Los Feliz area of So California. The Princess wearing her lavish blue gown, inspired me to make my building facade in the same shade of blue".

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, Montauban 1780–1867 Paris). Béarn (1825–1860), Princesse de Broglie. 1851–53, Oil on canvas, 47 3/4 x 35 3/4 in., Robert Lehman Collection, 1975, 1975.1.186 Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I have always loved this painting, and took this occasion to refresh my memory of it. The Princess, who was renowned for her elegance and beauty, sat for one of the last commissioned female portraits Ingres undertook. He also painted her sister-in-law, the Comtesse d'Haussonville in 1845 (hanging right down the street at the Frick Collection). Unfortunately, the princess died of consumption at age 35. Her husband kept this portrait in a prominent place, draped with dark curtains in tribute to his lost love. Simone and I discussed this story, and agreed that this kind of loyalty is the very meaning of "True Blue."

Simone has an upcoming solo show (her 4th) at the L2kontemporary gallery (Hill Street, Downtown LA) January 5 - February 9, 2013. This page from her previous show at the Bleicher/GoLightly Gallery features a great photo of her studio. Other works by Simone can be seen on the bluecanvas site.

Karrie Hovey & The Other New York 2012

Karrie Hovey, an SFSU MFA alumni who just finished a residency here in SF at Recology (previous post here), has just installed her work at the Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse and Onondaga, NY September 22, 2012 - January 6, 2013), for their multi-venue biennial The Other New York: 2012. Shown in at 14 participating venues (museums, outdoors, & other public spaces) the project is intended to showcase artists in Upstate & Central New York, and encourage interaction between the artwork and the public.

Karrie's work builds on some of the past projects I've loved, such as Mum, a piece she began while doing her residency at Recology, utilizing the endless supply of discarded books they received.

Karrie Hovey, Utica, NY (b. St. Johnsbury, VT, 1971).
Mum (detail), 2012. Site-specific installation, salvaged books, variable.

About Mum Karrie says: "In many parts of the world the chrysanthemum (a mum) is seen as a flower of mourning and grief, while in other cultures it is a joyous flower of rejuvenation. I have constructed a field of chrysanthemum inspired forms from discarded books. Playing off an alternate definition of “mum” as a command to not speak, the repeated pattern mourns the loss of physical books and laments the silencing of their content. On the other hand, given the current efforts made to digitize all printed volumes, many written works that historically have had limited availability are giving a new life. I see books as a symbol of potential and knowledge, a resource for personal and societal growth. I reference a circular trunk-like form to suggest the forests of trees destroyed in the creation of the books".

Karrie Hovey. ...the Garden Grows : Cultivate Garden 1

In addition, she installed ...the Garden Grows : Cultivate Garden 1, a work that reuses cast-off materials from retail stores (such as wrapping paper and shopping bags) to construct a fantasy garden.  Encypher is a map project based on the museum's floor plan, area freeways, and other local topography, with materials supplied by Golden Artist Colors and The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation. She explains her process in the video below:

if this video isn't working right, click here to see it on YouTube.

Karrie Hovey. Encypher.

See more of Karrie's work on her web site.