VOL 02 ISSUE 01   January 10, 2003  

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                  -OPPORTUNITIES- 

1/16,18,23,30/03 seminars LOS ANGELES  METRO ART COMMISSIONS Workshops to  inform artists about up-coming opportunities and how to apply www.mta.net/metroart

1/28/03 deadline MOA POLARIS K-12 RFQ Seeking qualifications (slides) for $120,000 budget  Contact Jocelyn Young 907-343 6473

1/31/03 deadline CITY OF DENVER RFQ Seeking qualifications (slides) for future Public Art projects  www.denvergov.org/artculturefilm

2/11/03 deadline MOA WENDLER RFQ Seeking qualifications (slides) for $150,000 budget Contact Jocelyn Young youngjh@ci.anchorage.ak.us  

NORTHWEST COAST INDIAN PAINTING: HOUSE FRONTS AND INTERIOR SCREENS by Edwar Malin ArtSceneAK wonders if your neighborhood's covenants allow anything other than beige house paint. Edward Malin does a good job of explaining art's interconnectivity with life..

NEXT:  SIGNS OF STRESS

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Chromoculus is the title of a similar piece made for Terra Moretti Terzo Millenium Premio Internazionale di Scultura in Erbusco in northern Italy that King ranks close to the top of his aesthetic reckonings recently. The photograph at left is of a working print for the Chugach structure hanging on the to-do wall at King's studio. Imperfect photography gives the idea of the precision ideation. The external ring truss and base mount support attachment points for stainless steel cables tensed by stainless steel rods into a convex chape that supports triangular pieces of specially laminated refractive glass. This high strength material reflects the chroma of the rainbow depending on the angle between the light source and the viewer. As a result, the sculpture appears to be changing colors thematically as it is encountered. Integral to King's design, the mirror effect of the laminated glass is extruded or ray-traced to determine where reflections will fall on surrounding structures.   Clearly, the science of light and the computing power of modern architectural design software are dear to King's philosophy, and the net effect is to bring light to life in close harmony with the site. He threatened to 'do it longhand' if necessary to achieve results he expected of his various works in progress or from the flat files full of previous commissions.  The size and scale of his work, exemplified by the South Broad Street Pillars in Philadelphia, involve budgets, management, materials and labor skills which make King stand out for his grasp and initiative. Ths Chugach sculpture is being fine tuned for the two equinox and is intended to be installed in August 2003. It would be appropriate to have some significant public celebration of what will briefly be the newest, most expensive addition to Alaska's public art collection.

GLASS MASTER URBAN RENEWAL Ray King is a Philadelphia local boy with a strong preference for his home town. His four story brick building in a delapidated part of Old City is part of a trend of artists and restaurants renewing an area where rents have fallen. The photos of his shop show  details of previous sculptures and the industrial nature of  King's work.  He puts plugs of colored glass into concrete walkways,and has a distinct line of refractive jewelry that is kinda Memphis as can be seen in the light standards shown at near left.  The current issue of the German Neuie Glas features a story about Ray King..

PHILADELPHIA ANCHORAGE LINK Ray King's glass work had already been commissioned by the state of Alaska in the 80's for the Fairbanks campus of the University of Alaska. Philadelphia's Arts and Culture department administers an 'Up to 1 % for Art' program among the first of the Municipal ordinances of this type in 1959. Its collection of public sculptures numbers more than 500 works, half of which were donated by private funds. Prominent outside the New City Hall on Archer street is Philadelphia Firsts, a story sculpture on a pole installed 1998 by George Greenamyer.  It depicts the progress of civilization into the wildlands of the Delaware River Valley with a profusion of characterizations seen in sillouhette at left. The 40' stature of William Penn tops the tower of Old City Hall in the background.

Anchorage has its own Greenamyer sculpture, at the Dempsey Anderson Hockey Rink on West Northern Lights Boulevard.  Three Lit Houses shows the subject objects above a heavy industrial structure on a whimsical wheeled support. Perhaps the title is a reference to three goals scored in hockey.  The Philadelphia Greenamyer is much more colorful and fun in person, while the Anchorage piece is spare and somewhat unapproachable. 

Eugene Thompson, Public Art Director, in Philadelphia, is developing recommendations for refinement to the spare language of the original enacting legislation. Issues of maintenance, of designated public fund  management to receive money that should be encumbered by the law for public art, and the development of a community constituency for the program are among those shared by Jocelyn Young, director of the Anchorage program. In fact,  Thompson has communicated with  Young on the subject. Alaskan artists interested in opportunities in Philadelphia can get listed with the Arts and Culture department by visiting their site. Philadelphia also supports its robust public collection with a mural program run by Parks and Rec and through the Fairmount Park Art Association.

EX-LIBRIS UAA PRINT CLUB EXCHANGE Jacqueline Robinson needed more artists to fill the walls with the University of Alaska Anchorage Print Club's third annual small print exchange. At a print dimension of 5"x 3" she realized that there was a lot of lineal space to fill at the Campus Center Gallery. Through use of the internet, she was able to attract nearly 100 artists to contribute editions of 16 to the exhibition and exchange.  Artists from as far afield as Estonia and Argentina as well as from a variety of states in the US joined about a dozen Alaskan participants with enthusiasm to present a show that is sure to please the bookish. Ex Libris means "from the library of" and the phrase accompanies small illustrations which are commonly placed inside the back cover with the owner's name written in a space provided.

The print club and guest participants found a less constricted way to respond to the notion  and in many cases the artistic effort overshadows the intellectual intent to obscure reaches where in other instances the idea was there but the format wasn't directly evident. Even so, all fell within the construed size limitations, and a walk through the astonishing variety of creativity and techniques is richly rewarding.   The show is open weekdays until the 23rd of January 2003.

Heather Shumar, president, Ed Mighell, club representative, Jacqueline Robinson, vice president, and Z Denise Gallup, secretary,  are shown enjoying a break together at the opening. The many prints are grouped in mysterious ways to help make the sheer number of them more accessible. Shumar's version combined mezzotint and silkscreen and Argentinan Hilda Paz Levozan mixed linocut and digital.    Each participating artist contributes their 16 prints and receives in turn a mix of 16 prints from the other artists. Because they are created directly for artists to exchange, no values are assigned to these desirable items. Collectors who enjoy hand pulled prints will want to take advantage of seeing this world survey of artists during the brief time it is available. 

IGCA MEMBER ARTIST SHOW DOWNTOWN Fifteen male and thirty female artists were designated as members of the 501(c) International Gallery of Contemporary Art invited to open their new location in Anchorage with representative pieces. The more accessible 427 D Street address let weekend visitors enjoy the cornucopia of the largely inexplicable or banal presentations. A video of Loose Feet presented by Gordon Terpening was a lame effort at involving technology which is proper and necessary, but betrayed the Achilles' heel of this genre by being too boring to watch.. Ted Herlingers Supreme Majority was a facile flag reference to iconic work from the post world war II era by Jasper Johns. Susan Joy Share's Prestige dangled beads and glass resins in a spidery way in the corner, fully engaging its limited space.  ArtSceneAK gives a nod to the unseen presence of Nuré & Meghan Missallati, proprietors of the former D Street Café and good friends to artists that established the address as an art destination in previous years by hosting monthly solo exhibitions.

No, Thank YOU to Helga Berry who offered images and information about the IGCA and Camille Conte who asked politely: "Can I send you information about two workshops I'm doing?"  Her workshops "teachers performers the basics of promotion! "  Deadlines and publishing perquisites can't insure that we use everything sent to us, but we still love to hear from you.

Have blue funk, look through the back issue Index.

Thank you to an enthusiastic guest reader who used the form at left to alert a friend in Taos NM  they thought "might like a glance at some of the visual art happenings here".