VOL 07 ISSUE
4 
April 15, 2008
BACK ISSUES | ° | ¤ | CURRENT ISSUE
VOL 07 ISSUE
4 BACK ISSUES | ° | ¤ | CURRENT ISSUE |
| PEOPLE'S CHOICE: ANOTHER SWELL MUSEUM AUCTION | ||||
 INTO THE MYSTIC by
Rochelle Siobhan Weaver was the popular vote getter during the preview reception for the
artists donating work to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center to auction off in their
annual fund-raiser. Weaver works with mostly white on a black gessoed canvas to
create her ghostly nocturnal sea scapes. The triptych made of three equal
sections measured an overall 48" x 72". It was priced by Weaver at $1100
and knocked down in the live auction for about that same amount. The vessel
is not meant to be a specific craft and features a full set of sails on three masts.
The moon and sea spray form the points of interest in the outer sections. |
||||
  |
FRED: LUCKY RECIPIENT The
Gala committee accepts donated originals from any motivated to give and astute collectors
had the opportunity to purchase artwork from museum employees like Jody Jenkins and
volunteers like head docent Linda Lucky, whose papier-maché dog Fred is shown
awaiting adoption at the left. Lucky's show of a similar kennel of canine characters
sold out while being replenished in the IGCA's rental gallery earlier this year. The committee, headed by Jan Ingram this year, prepared a guide to the numerous artists involved. This included contact information for the artists and a brief statement from each, unfortunately neglecting the information pertinent to each artist's work (title, dimension, medium). There are simple standards for simple communication about objects, and a museum of art is a good place to showcase them. For example, dimensions on labels accompanying exhibits are given in the order of Height x Width x Depth. The range of experience and the ratio of female artists to male are evident in the photo at left. From the left, Betty Atkinson's Winter Creek , ArtSceneAK publisher Donald R Ricker's Pinot Noir, Anna Morgenthaler's Meditation in Blue, and Susan Share's ceramic Spinning. Ricker, who couldn't attend, also didn't collect any information regarding the auction and so there will be no artist math for anyone. At the live auction, attendees reported that Kim Marcucci's Rhythm and Blues sold at $3500, Duke Russell's Parking Spiral at $4000 and a landscape by Steve Gordon topping $5000 (none shown). According to Marcucci, Pinot Noir at least was 'not bid upon'. It seemed a bit over-priced with a minimum bid of $400, and this precious giblet from Ricker's statement was excised from the 2008 Artist Gala Guide: "Please bid generously; the price is set so that the artist's share of your contribution to the museum will cover the costs of enjoying the gala with you." With a few bucks left over for the cab ride home. |
|||
 |
HOLY TRINITY: ST PATRICK'S
TAKE At the Kimura Gallery in the UAA Fine Arts building this month, a
kinetic installation by Jeff Patrick shown as a detail at left was named Frustration /
Aggression / Obfuscation: The Holy Trinity. At the professors-only
opening, just one school-marmish fellow observed the grammatically inverse use of the
colon. Most were intrigued by the rotating set of nine 'clock hands' raking sand
surrounding them into concentric furrows. Sixteen hand turned wood bowls perched on
spindly bases made of threaded rod and plate steel. A set of bowls attached to the
wall held carefully groomed grain. Patrick is known for being inscrutable and defensive about viewer participation in his work, and it seemed wrong to infer that the installation was to be taken as a game-like obstacle course and that the bowls of grain were there for the pecking or at least sowing. PHILATORY:BIG WORD FILINGS Another group of wall mounted sculptures completed the installation, including Philatory of Constant Tension, a detail of which can be seen at left. This word is so big it is not in the Oxford, although Philastorgy is, meaning natural affection. Ferric filings respond to magnets hidden under the gold and silver leafed wood forms mounted in the channel of a section of industrial I-beam. The effect is startling and mystifying somehow suitable to big unknowable words. Patrick seems to be blending the sacred and profane with his play on materials and communicates a simultaneous reverence and impishness. His sense of form has few enough referents to be readily scalable and there is something monumental about pieces such as Philatory and the filing-free version, Tabernacle of Persistent Memory, not shown. There is an acting technique referred to as 'mumferring', which involves nonsense syllables delivered conversationally as background. Artists flirting with obfuscation may never be challenged on what is meant by this affection and become frustrated at not being persuaded to explain their intentions. This seems a fairly passive aggression and observers of the results may still be able to feel its mild fury. |
|||
 |
FAUX FUR TABLEAU: FILMIC Ethan
Kruszka, styling himself as the Fluff Constructivists, recently engaged in some
avant-garde film making in Anchorage, in private homes and at the International Gallery of
Contemporary Art. "A radical vanguard would be best suited to a place
geographically removed ...( i.e.) New York, London, Berlin and Tokyo are
predictable; Anchorage is not." Thuy Dana Vo and Bradley Knowles took part in the performance event, featuring a white sweat suit and various tableaux such as the one shown at left. Made up of false fur taxidermy and improbably draped with various fabric shards, the pieces are "an environment that allows for interaction, dialogue, and narrative construction analogous to film". According to the statement, "a weirdly guised advertisement and celebration of the project". |
|||
 |
DANCE: UAA STUDENTS The
north section of the IGCA and the rental gallery held select works from the University of
Alaska Anchorage sculpture students. Prominent among them was this delicately shaped
basswood piece by Jessica Itse, Dance, shown at left. The pose seemed hommage
to Martha Graham, the flat face carried a regional connection, and the connection between
the manneristically lengthened leg through the narrow cross section to the apple shaped
base looks easy and is not. Fran Ulmer has recently been named chancellor at UAA, with a quarter million dollar salary. It is hoped that she will be receptive to the spirit of the Art In Public Places statute with regard to the building spree being embarked on at the University. Top UA dog Mark Hamilton is on record opposing any compliance with the law by the University, which he claims is outside authority by virtue of the special status of the University's Regents. However specious this reasoning, in good conscience an institute of learning would include works of art in new construction budgets for the very reasons degrees are awarded to art students at that institution. |
|||
 |
UNTILTED:MT VIEW ART VIEWED The Untitled painting by Erin Pollock shown at left was part of the Big Love show over the last few weeks at the MTS Gallery in Mountain View. As Trailer Art Center board member Gretchen Sagan delivered a powerpoint presentation recently on the lengthening history of the Gallery and the building held by the Anchorage Community Land Trust (a subform of the Rasmuson Foundation), it became evident to Umberto Cresca that "you already have the creative group". Cresca and Greg Cook head up an artist coop in Providence RI called AS220 which they started with $800 and now is a campus of buildings with a million dollar yearly budget and over a dozen paid positions. Sagan was briefing a group that had been flown up to observe and comment joined by Linda Ketcham and Cristy Bell representing a Small Business program at UAA. Katherine Vann and Wendy Helms represented ArtSpace, an arts purposed landlord that has revamped abandoned urban buildings using government funds and subsidized artists studio residences in Minnesota and Seattle. Sam Miller, a numbers man and venture financial expert observed professionally on behalf of his company Link Leverage. Each presented briefly, presumably to report their impressions in the future after digesting them. | |||
- ARTIST OPPORTUNITIES- 4/18/08 deadline ALASKA BOTANICAL GARDEN seeks consignments for garden art show in mid-June. Details online. Contact GregLyallATgci.net 4/25/08 deadline PORT OF LOS ANGELES Cabrillo Way Marina call for artists. Budget $250,000 RFQ online. San Pedro, CA 5/28/08 deadline ART FOR ALASKA'S PARKS third year top prize $1000 many restrictions. Details online. 8/15/08 deadline GOVERNOR'S AWARDS IN THE ARTS nominations Any Alaskan individual, organization, or institution that has advanced the humanities in Alaska and the world. Details online. open deadline MOA % FOR ART and MAT-SU BOROUGH SCHOOL DISTRICT invite artists to register with a new public art registry. Application and details online .
ASCA Art In Public Places with over $19 million dollars in commissions required by AK Statute 35.27 from the last three years' capital projects budgets alone. Print out ArtSceneAK's select list from this link.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCULPTURE TECHNIQUES by John Mills This new edition of the 1991 resource remains a stark indictment of contemporary assemblage and installation practice, with its abundance of information and graphics regarding the mysteries of carving, casting, moulding, and other trade wisdoms. New materials are covered, such as resins, foams, and one excellent photo of a Paul Manship group of Polar Bears is worth the price of the book alone. Lots of Rodin, Henry Moore and Giacommetti examples. ArtSceneAK recommends molten metal. NEXT: MAY BELLISIMO CONTACT ArtSceneAK: Aggravated again?! Ecstatic?! Let us know you love us or hate us. Help correct attribution errors that you suspect. Tell us about your upcoming event or artist opportunity. Let us know about your website.
cf also ART IN ALASKA
|
MAYOR'S AWARDS:
APPEL, REED, WSOP The Lorene Harrison
Lifetime Achievements Award recognized Keith Appel, whose sculpture at the Northern Lights
ABC school at Dowling and Lake Otis is shown above right. Appel's biography has him
present and instrumental during the establishment of a roll call of contemporary art
fixtures, including the Anchorage School District art program (started with $1500 for 42
schools), the UAA art department and even the decision to include a Fine Arts Building as
part of the developing campus. The Artists in Schools program was presaged by his 'Appel
boxes' of art instructional materials flown out to rural schools, he served as a founding
board member of the Alaska State Council of the Arts, he worked with Con Bunde and Connie
Boochever to establish the State 1% for Art statute and program, as well as being involved
in some of the first purchases (and most recent) by the state Contemporary Art Bank. He
was partners with Ward Hulbert in Anchorage's first contemporary art gallery, Art
Inc. He ranks high on the list of those Alaskans most often awarded public art
commissions. He remains an avid outdoorsman and big-game hunter.The Wild Salmon on Parade group was acknowledged at the Museum with the Mayor's Champion of the Arts Award. Jo Lamson, Chris Kemper and Melinda Taylor were credited along with Gary Brooks of IBEW Local 1547. Fishskin basket expert Fran Reed was recognized as Outstanding Individual Artist. Reed's recent solo show at the Museum, and popularity with outside jurors were noted, and she thanked her husband Dick, various people who had offered her opportunities over her career, and her current doctors and supporters. She was applauded at length and came back to wave to the crowd like a homerun slugger. Talk about repectable Appel & Reed both cautioned younger artists in the audience that opportunity was still worth working towards. A few noted that the transition from territory to state would not take place again. Award your worthiest colleagues in the BACK ISSUE Index .
Thank you and Welcome to a new subscriber in Fairbanks. From Anchorage "Please join us! All I could see from where I stood by Christina Anne Barber at the Snow City Café through April." --- Indra Arriaga From Mat-Su College: "Portrait and Landscape Oil Painting Workshop by Dean Larson May 19-23 $175. Larson grew up in Palmer and is well known nationally." --- Suzanne Bach 907 745-9755 sbachATmatsu.alaska.edu From Anchorage via Saatchi Gallery: "If and when prints of this fine work (?!) appear please let me know. Thanks." --- Moshe Zorea From Anchorage: "IGCA invites members to participate in a new program Art/Challenge. Monthly challenges and guidelines available." --- Chelsea Bailey From cyberspace: "I've built ArtBreak for artists to share and sell their work 7.5% commission very simple and cool. I'd like to invite you to check it if you like it." --- Zach From Anchorage: " You are invited to the Unveiling of the Art April 22 6:30-7:30 pm at Creekside Park Elementary, 7500 East 6th Ave. Jennifer Jolliff is working with the 3rd, 4th & 5th grade students and teachers to create an amazing mural." --- JJ From Anchorage: " Sometimes I wonder why I keep doing it but it is often fun ... the 7th annual Paint-Out in Seward Friday through Sunday June 13-15. Details 277-3712" --- Andy Sonneborn CAUTION: DON'T look at these links if you don't want to see dog starvation, human demise, and reproductive malfeisances masqueraded as art world wide in the last week alone. Creepy.
|
|||
text & photos © 2008 Donald R Ricker ; artist's works pictured ©2008 to artists credited.
ArtSceneAK is published by Donald R Ricker and sponsored by
, a partial listing of links to Museums,
Galleries, and individual Artists around the state. Note to same: If you find your site
listed, please consider adding a link to ArtSceneAK.net to help both of our search engine
ratings. If you do not find your site listed, please let us know! 
|