ArtSceneAK #710 October 15, 2008

VOL 07 ISSUE 10 October 15, 2008

BACK ISSUES | ° | ¤ | CURRENT ISSUE

DENA'INA PEOPLE: GRANT HISTORIC WINDOW TREATMENT

A Dena'ina Day Around Cook Inlet has been completed and installed by James Grant and his family of studio assistants from Fairbanks in time for the grand opening and AFN conventions at the Anchorage Denaina Convention Center. The results, shown at right, project colored light and shadows on the wall at the right time of day. The stained glass panels are set off by aluminum cutouts at the bottom and a glass bead aurora above. Two separate traditionally dressed figures complete the ensemble. For Grant, whose failing health limits his working capacity, the $130,000 commission was an opportunity to summarize a way of life and his response was prodigious..

Denaina willow fish trap at Convention Center

WAY OF LIFE: JOY IN WORK James Grant has recently completed a large figurative sculpture for the Fairbanks VA Hospital and is also recognized for his drawings illustrating Velma Wallis' books Two Old Women and Bird Girl. Born in Tanana and raised in California, Grant returned to his Athapascan roots and was a sympathetic choice to try to give the ultra-modern, slab sided building some native character beyond the naming of the banquet rooms. Although it is located high above visitors, it rewards the strain of close attention, as can be seen in the detail at right showing the gathering and smoking of red salmon. An authentic dwelling lodge is depicted elsewhere, as are various marine activities, berry picking, and the characteristic Cook Inlet scenery of mountains across the waters.

FISH TRAP: FISH NOT 2 SMRT As the index image for this issue shows, the suspended acrylic molded animals in Helmick and Schechter's Constellation in the main lobby is radially symetrical. The Massachussettes artist team commissioned a large fish trap, shown at left, through the Alaska Native Heritage Center to reflect a complementary shape. The connection is a bit of a stretch and not explicated anywhere so the trap stands on its own in the west end of the lobby, oddly modern and evocative. Fish caught in this form might feel a bit like convention attendees navigating the midpoint of the extensive escalator system.

However insistent and north-facing the design of the new convention center, certainly it was completed on time and under budget. With ever more numerous hotel rooms available in town to be subject to the bed tax dedicated to paying off the contractors who built this cement shell, it shouldn't take long until the tax revenues can be redirected for more operational purposes.

CHUGACH ELEVATIONS:COVIT Montreal artist Linda Covit was moved by the attack on the USA at the World Trade Center in NYC September 11, 2001 to suggest a theme similar to what Anchorage developers Jonathan Rubini and Leonard Hyde commissioned from her for their new building south of 36th Avenue in Anchorage. Instead of measuring lives lost, the numbers tacked to the round poles seen at the left, sprouting like soda straws from the front piazza are said to represent elevations in the Chugach range. Covit lives and works in Montreal.

The lobby and owners offices sport some substantial works by local contemporary artists, including Sonya Kelliher-Combs and Don Decker prominently. Decisions about purchases and commissions were guided by Decker Art Services.

Wanda Seamster artist trading card portrait of Mark

BABY CAKES: SEAMSTER CARDS The immediate predecessor and inspiration for ArtSceneAK was the erudite flyers published by Wanda Seamster known as the Vizual Dog. Seamster is an artist with tremendous drawing skills and an active imagination. In her solo show at the Anchorage Museum, she delivers the results in the form of innumerable artist's trading cards, grouped as shown at left in an assemblage titled Baby Cakes. Fanciful titles accompany each group with a jarring non-specificity that adds to the visual poetry of the show as a whole. "There is never a shortage of ideas, there is always a shortage of time," says Seamster, "Run".

Relationships and mortality, politics and ethnic issues, whimsy, design, and messemblage bubble into being through the workings of Seamster's attention and take on the special intensity of the miniature. In an era bombarded with small images on handheld screens, Seamster's works do not suffer from their scale. Instead, they are crafted to invite the viewer to focus closer concentration, to step into their personal space. An image of her husband Mark recurs (as shown at left) as do self-portraits and pictures of their pets. A group of small found object sculptures accompany the exhibition and a stack of prints are proffered in memory of Torres-Gonsalez.

Seamster has had 21 works chosen in ten jurored exhibitions at the museum and it is a partial recognition of her direct service to the museum and overall contribution to the local arts community to award her a solo show. The notion of attaching former director Patricia Wolf's name to the Solo Exhibition series is working out to be awkward in the sense that it unneccessarily competes in promotional materials with the attention being given to the individual artist's name and reputation. It might be better to establish a gallery that would rotate a dozen solo exhibitions a year and name the space after her.

Karin Franzen Sept 9 Birch Leaves Detail

CRANE DANCING:FRANZEN FABRIX When engineers retire, they ascend to artistry, and Karin Franzen's respect for the divine qualities of life and light have been the motivation for her use of the image of sandhill cranes doing ritual displays, such as in July 19 Fireweed, shown at left. Franzen credits the photography of Christy Yunker, whose obsessive interest in the cranes dance behavior informs the design, as shown in several photos included in an exhibition of fabric wall hangings at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art in Anchorage this month. The pieces combine multiple sheer batiqued layers with top layers that include embroidery and sewn in fabric tesserae. Some use of glittering metallic elements is kept subtle and the various hangings feature different flowers, such as the wild rose, the iris, birch trees, and others.

The detail at left taken from September 9 Birch Leaves, gives an impression of the complexity achieved with the translucent layering and the top level subject layer of attachments. The prices attached to the pieces are between $9,000 and $12,000 and show an understanding of the difference between the hard assets of art and the beauty of a 401(k). A volunteer recorded in the gallery's log book that a couple had called inquiring whether the lot was available as a group without getting their contact information. The inattention to sales at this gallery becomes acute when high school students are relied on to field hundred thousand dollar inquiries. The IGCA has recently renewed its call for volunteers and for member artists to donate art for the gallery to exploit without sharing any profits produced thereby.

- ARTIST OPPORTUNITIES-

11/7/08 deadline MTS GALLERY at the TRAILER ART CENTER call for exhibitions and 'performance art' proposals for the 2009-10 season.

11/8/08 event CAREER DEVELOPMENT FOR VISUAL ARTISTS at BP Energy Center in Anchorage $30 includes 'networking lunch' pre-register with ASCA 1-888-278-7424 or 907-269-6610

This column is a core part of ArtSceneAK raison d'etre and administrators are encouraged to use it to spread the word. Opportunities are posted to current issues as they arrive.

For students of the process, the Municipality of Anchorage has posted a Public Art Policy Manual online. The relevant Muni Code regarding Public Art are available online (choose Title 7), and further regulations

record capital budgets and no increase in staff

ASCA Art In Public Places with over $19 million dollars in commissions required by AK Statute 35.27 from the 2004, 2005, and 2006 capital projects budgets alone. Record appropriations exceeding these amounts were made by the AK legislature for FY 2007 and 2008 as wel

ll.

ANCHORAGE: LIFE AT THE EDGE OF THE FRONTIER by Clark Mishler and David Freeman A veteran Anchorage photographer sticks his lens in everywhere and the result is a clear impression of why Anchorage residents are proud of their unique town. ArtsceneAK recommends reading this to psyche up for your next visit.

NEXT: ARS NOVA

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.

Alaska current cloud cover

cf also ART IN ALASKA alaska art and connections , 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!

GIINAQUQ: LIKE FACES, NOT giinaquq --- like faces --- temciyusqaq skeptical one

At the tender age of 19, French explorer Alphonse Pinart was kayaking among the Alutiiq villages in the Aleutian Islands and Kodiak and spent six months getting to know the people. He collected poetry and ceremonial masks, even commissioning some pieces. Some of the eighty masks he acquired were already a century old at the time, 1871. The Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center and later the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak are hosting a selection from the collection, which has been in France for a hundred years, through the combined efforts of Helen Simeonoff and Sven Haakensen Jr among others, including curators and staff at the Château Museé du Boulogne-sur-Mer.

In the photo above right, Temciyusqaq or The Skeptical One muses on its change of venue. A real sense of reverence is engendered by the funereal lighting and compact display. The opportunity for artists to encounter objects rather than photographs was paramount for Will Anderson, President and CEO of Koniag Inc, one of several generous and committed sponsors. AMRC Director James Pepper Henry suggested a future exhibit featuring contemporary reactions to the first round of masks accompanying a second set from France. Some masks, including Chumliiq (The First One), not shown, were accompanied by words from songs. "My house up there in the Universe, you don't know it ... My helper, I am approaching you from above. I keep trying to come."

Let the spirits help you find your way in the BACK ISSUE Index .

SCARY ART

Thank you in advance to any subscribers and supporters willing to email us with their two cents worth on what we're doing right and what we could be doing better.

From NYC: "We are pleased to represent the Merwin E (Bun) Anderson Collection of Alaskan paintings. Contact us to receive our upcoming catalogue." --- A.J.Kollar Fine Paintings, LLC

From Fairbanks: "Sounds like you are cutting the mag˝ine off, which would be a big mistake, because it is an independent voice in the art world." --- DM

From Anchorage: "The mission of Young Alaskan Artists in Cahoots (YAAC) is to support the personal process and creative endurance of its members, welcoming all creative people, including visual artists, performers, musicians, and writers." --- Anda at 230-9052

From Kiev: "Our new art project Palette of Freedom is association of artists from the different countries of the world on the basis of the full freedom of self-expression. At support of Secretary of the president of Ukraine, under patronage of mayor Kiev" --- Abramova Ludmila, director of culural centre ArtLine

From the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington: "Thank you for your support of the Brink award. Perhaps in later years the award might encompass artists living in regions further away." --- Misa Jeffereis (eligibility limited to artists in WA, OR, and BC)

From Catalan: "Muchos de mis comentarios sobre el arte contemporáneo y su banalidad fatua es lo que viene a decir el manifesto que a continuación os pongo." --- Arte de libertad

From Anchorage: "I will be appearing tommorrow and most Fridays until the end of the year for painting demonstrations at Charlie's Club 25 Coffee Gallery on 4th and D in Anchorage. I set up by 9AM and stay until the painting is done." --- Carol Lambert

Public Art 4Culture is still accepting applications for the new volume of their Artist Registry in three categories (Parts, Sites, and Plans) for pre-qualification for a variety of public and private art commissions.

From Anchorage: "I must reply at least once ... your term Salon is so delicious and I would participate if a piano was available." --- SZ

From online: "Would be a proud for us can enjoy of an artist like you in our community. Is for that I wish encourage to sign up and be a new member of the meseon community. (It's free.)" --- Silvia Alonso Ruiz

From Anchorage:"Treat yourself to color, creativity, and camaraderie. Tuesday or Thursday Oil painting classes scheduled mid November to mid December. Class sizes are limited. " --- Linda Infaznte Lyons, details online

Michaelangelo Lovelace Stand and Be Counted

From Cincinnati: "Here is my latest new painting Stand and be Counted. I hope you are a Obama supporter: Art and Politics" --- Michaelangelo Lovelace

If experiencing an Election Cycle of more than 4 years, call your doctor immediately. DRR

Search ArtSceneAK

text & photos Š 2008 Donald R Ricker ; artist's works pictured Š2008 to artists credited.

BACK ISSUES | | CURRENT ISSUE