Monthly archives: August, 2012

Exhibitions Abroad: On and Upcoming

August 31, 2012 0 Comment

West Sweden
100 Beginnings
Through September 9th
Dalslands Konstmuseum

 

Dail Behennah installation Dalslands Konstmuseum

One Hundred Beginnings detail

The installation features Dail Behennah and highlights 100 ways of starting a basket, some works made of copper wire and some enamel.  Thicket, for example, is a three-dimensional drawings of twigs, made of iron wire. Dalslands Konstmuseum, Upperud 46440, Åsensbruk, Sweden. For information: phone +46530-30098; website: http://www.dalslandskonstmuseum.se.

 

Scotland
Weaving The Century: Tapestry from Dovecot Studios 1912-2012
Through October 7th
Dovecot Studios

Weaving The Century: Tapestry from Dovecot Studios 1912-2012 is the first major exhibition of tapestry in Scotland in more than 20 years. Curated by Elizabeth Cumming, the exhibition features more than 60 tapestries, rugs and designs spanning 100 years of Dovecot history including iconic and rarely seen works.The works in the exhibition represent the broad range of visual styles and technical weaving styles. In its 100 years, Dovecot Studios have collaborated with dozens of leading contemporary international artists including David Hockney, Paul Gauguin, Elizabeth Blackadder, Sir Peter Blake, Edward Wadsworth, Cecil Beaton, Graham Sutherland, Louise Nevelson and Claire Barclay.  Dovecot Studios, 10 Infirmary Street, Edinburgh, Scotland. For information: phone: +44 (0)131 550 3660; website: http://www.dovecotstudios.com.

Wales
Michael Brennand-Wood: Forever Changes
Opens September 22nd; ends November 25th
Ruthin Craft Center

 

Forever Changes is an exhibition documenting Michael Brennand-Wood’s practice over 40 years. Forever Changes will feature many previously unseen, new and important works with the emphasis very firmly on the ideas behind each piece. The exhibition will include installation, sculptural, relief, studio and commission works. It will be accompanied by a 200-page illustrate book that will present a biography of the work, exhibitions, events, places and concepts that have shaped Brennand-Wood’s practice. Ruthin Craft Center, Lon Parcwr, Ruthin LL15 1 BB, Denbigshire, North Wales, United Kingdom. For information: phone: 01824 704774; website: http://www.ruthincraftcentre.org.uk/comingsoon.html.

Canada
Anthropomorphism
Through October 2012
Musée des Beaux-arts de Montréal, Lilane and David M. Stewart Pavilion

INVADERS by Norma Minkowitz, photo by Bobby Hansson 1991

Norma Minkowitz’s work, Invaders is one of the works included in a themed grouping on anthropomorphism in a permanent decorative arts and design gallery at the Musée des Beaux-arts de Montréal. Also included are works by Niki de Saint Phalle, Gaetano Pesce and Pablo Picasso. Musée des Beaux-arts de Montréal,1380 Crescent Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; (514) 285-1600; website: www.mbam.qc.ca.

Process Notes: Permanence and Impermanence in Public Art – Randy Walker

August 18, 2012 0 Comment

Randy Walker, Conceptual Rendering for
Filling the Void

In March 2012, Randy Walker was the first grantee of the McKnight Project, which is funded by the McKnight Foundation and Forecast Public Art. The McKnight Project grant of $50,000 supports the creation of publicly accessible temporary or permanent artwork in Minnesota by a Minnesota-based mid-career public artist. Projects may be in any form or discipline, including performance, dance, storytelling, photography, film, sculpture, painting, etc. http://forecastpublicart.org/grants-mcknightproj.php.

Randy Walker, Conceptual Rendering for
Filling the Void

Walker, in partnership with YouthLink, a drop-in center for homeless youth, is installing a public art sculpture, Filling the Void, that the grant website describes as “a way finder and creative outlet” for the Kulture Klub Collaborative (KKC) http://www.kultureklub.org/about.html. KKC is an independent arts organization that brings together artists and homeless youth in the Twin Cities through multi-disciplinary workshops, open mics, cultural presentations and art outings. Walker’s project, Filling the Void, will consist of a permanent steel framework, a three-dimensional grid, that will act as a loom for a series of temporary fiber installations to be completed collaboratively by Walker and kids from YouthLink. After these initial installations, the framework will be programmed by KKC.  Future artists-in-residence will decide, together with the young people involved in the program, how, and in what media, the framework should be used.

Randy Walker, Conceptual Rendering for
Filling the Void 

“Filling the Void will be an exploration of permanence and impermanence in public art through a collaborative process,” says Walker. “As an artist who works with both durable, long-term materials and more temporal fibrous materials, I will investigate how a work of public art might bridge the gap between the ephermeral installation and a traditionally static, unchanging sculpture.  I believe there is a fertile middle ground, where a work of public art might be regenerated, renewed, and recreated periodically in different ways, by different community members, and even different artists,” he adds. “I am interested in how the ‘minimal routine maintenance’ so often invoked in the commissioning of public art might be an opportunity to celebrate a work of art, re-engaging it in the future, rather than the mere preservation of the object.”

Randy Walker, Conceptual Rendering for
Filling the Void

It is Walker’s hope that the sculpture will be a permanent framework upon which ever-changing installations will take place, in the same way YouthLink is a permanent fixture for the ever-changing homeless population it serves.  “It is a visible, public space that will be claimed and defined by a vibrant and creative population that lacks a space of their own,” Walker says.

Randy Walker, Conceptual Rendering for
Filling the Void

The images here are conceptual renderings, showing several possibilities for fiber installations, and potential ways the framework might be engaged using non-fiber media. They also provide insight into a piece of the grant application process, the importance of designing a presentation that enables decision makers to share the artist’s vision.

Randy Walker, Conceptual Rendering for
Filling the Void

Coast to Coast — Exhibitions Around the US

August 7, 2012 0 Comment

Here’s a round up of exhibitions throughout the US that are worth traveling to see.  They are listed in date order — a few of them close this month or next; others are open through the fall.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Craft Spoken Here
Last Week – through August 12th

Artists in the exhibit include: clockwise; WATERFALL by Lenore Tawney; SPIRALS AND PATHS by Rebecca Medel; CERAMIC 42 by Yasuhisa Kohyama; BODY LANGUAGE by John McQueen; SEASIDE by Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet; RAY by Mary Merkel-Hess

With Craft Spoken Here, curated by Elisabeth Agro, the Nancy M. McNeil Associate Curator of American Modern and Contemporary Crafts and Decorative Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art seizes the opportunity to experiment with its craft collection and to understand craft in an international context. Some 40 contemporary works from 1960 to the present in ceramic, glass, metal, wood, lacquer, paper and fiber—some by living, acclaimed artists, including Lenore Tawney, Rebecca Medel, Yasuhisa Kohyama, John McQueen,  Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet, and Mary Merkel-Hess and others by lesser-known creators—are on view. Representing the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe, the works highlight formal qualities that cross cultures, time, and media. Hear Agro describe the evolution of the exhibition and the installation of Tawney’s Fountain of Water and Word, in a podcast at the art blog.

Philadelphia Museum of Art
Perelman Building
2525 Pennsylvania Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19130
phone 215.763.8100
www.philamuseum.org

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
At First Light: The Katagami Sculpture of Jennifer Falck Linssen
through September 16, 2012

Handcrafted vessel of katagami-style handcarved paper. Materials include archival cotton paper, aluminum, waxed linen, paint, varnish, freshwater pearl, and sterling silver.

Utilizing the ancient Japanese paper carving technique of katagami, Colorado-based artist Jennifer Falck Linssen creates three-dimensional sculptures that explore the beauty of line and the delicacy of nature. Since 2003, Jennifer has been shaping katagami stencils into three-dimensional vessels and sculptures, combining the katagami paper carving with more traditional metal-smithing and basketry techniques to create contemporary sculptures that transform the two-dimensional stencil into a unique three-dimensional art form.

Myrtle Beach Museum of Art
3100 South Ocean Boulevard
(across from Springmaid Pier)
Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
phone 843.238.2510
fax 843.238.2910
www.myrtlebeachartmuseum.org

East Hampton, New York
Accumulations NOW
through October 6th

Dawn MacNutt is one of the artists included in Accumulations NOW

Accumulations: NOW bills itself as, “[s]imply, the best of craft. NOW.” Cuurated by Jack Lenor Larsen, the exhibition at LongHouse Reserve features 500 works made in the last 100 years, including a number of important pieces from the collection of the late Dena Katzenberg. Artists shown in the NOW collections include, in fiber Anni Albers, Jun-ichi Arai, Dawn MacNutt, Ed Rossbach, Peter Collingwood, Ethel Stein, Helena Hernmarck and Chunghie Lee; in clay Hans Coper, Toshiko Takezu and Peter Voulkos; hollowware by Chunghi Choo; and furniture masters including Judy Kensley McKie and Edward Wormley. You can see the exhibition catalog and installation shots, here: Accumulations_Now_Catalog.pdf and here: http://www.longhouse.org

LongHouse Reserve
133 Hands Creek Road  East Hampton, NY 11937
phone 631.604.5330
http://longhouse.org

 

San Francisco, California
Fiber Futures: Japan’s Textile Pioneers
Part one through October 6th
Part two October 13 – December 29th

Takaaki Tanaka in front of his work at Fiber Futures when it was in New York at the Japan Society

If you missed this remarkable exhibition last fall at the Japan Society in New York (or in an earlier incarnation in Japan) you’ve got another chance. Fiber Futures explores a new art that is emerging from a remarkable fusion of Japanese artisanal and industrial textile making. Coaxed from materials as age-old as hemp and newly developed as microfilaments, a varied array of works by 30 artists from multiple generations, including Hisako Sekijima, Takaaki Tanaka, Naoko Serino, Hideho Tanaka, Naomi Kobayahsi and Kyoko Kumai, are on view in this important two-part exhibition.

Museum of Craft and Folk Art
51 Yerba Buena Lane
San Francisco, CA 94103
phone 415.227.4888
http://www.mocfa.org

Minneapolis, Minnesota
In Our Nature: Tapestries of Helena Hernmarck
through October 14th

Helena Hernmarck 2009 FOREST PATH , wool and linen, 6′ 7″ x 6′ 7

In Our Nature: Tapestries of Helena Hernmarck, is an assemblage of 19 large-scale tapestries by  legendary trompe-l’oeil weaver, Helena Hernmarck. Monumental works immerse the viewer in the best of nature: lush blooms, rich green forest scenes, and sunny poppy pastures. Hernmarck’s work represents a lifetime of closely honed weaving technique that combines intensely sensitive attention to color with one-of-a-kind combination of textures creating layered, shaded effects. The tapestries in In Our Nature: Tapestries of Helena Hernmarck are on loan from three major arts museums, several corporate and individual collectors, and from Hernmarck’s own collection.

American Swedish Institute
2600 Park Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55407
phone 612.871.4907
http://www.asimn.org

Olympic Art News: David Watkins Talks About Designing the Medals for the 2012 Games

August 5, 2012 0 Comment

London 2012 Olympic medals designed by British artist David Watkins.
The Olympic medals disk circular form is a metaphor for the world. The front of the medal always depicts the same imagery at the summer Games – the Greek Goddess of Sport – ‘Nike’ – stepping out of the depiction of the Parthenon and arriving in London.

Turns out that our family friend, and very talented artist, Davis Watkins, was selected from among 100 artists to design the medals for this year’s Summer Olympic Games. For the Olympic bronze, silver and gold medals, Watkins developed a striking geometric design, juxtaposed with imagery on the front of the medal, which has since 2004 depicted Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, stepping out of the Parthenon. His design for the back of the medal features a 3-dimensional emblem that suggests the built structures of a modern city, a background grid that radiates energy, a ribbon-like form representing the River Thames, and a square, to balance the circularity of the design. Get a behind scenes view of the design process at the Crafts Council’s web page: Striking Gold, http://onviewonline.craftscouncil.org.uk/striking-gold, where Watkins and his student Lin Cheung, who designed the medal for the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games are interviewed. If you are in London, the medals are on display at the British Museum through September 9th http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/london
_2012_games_medals.aspx.

David Watkins, photo by Tom Grotta

With Wendy Ranshaw, Watkins is part of an art power couple (like Frida/Diego, Pollack/Krasner, and in our field, Stocksdale/Sekimachi, Rossbach/Westphal, Kobayashi/Kobayashi, McQueen/Mensing; Brennan/Maffei, etc.) If you get as far as Wales, you can see Wendy Ranshaw’s solo exhibition of jewellery and objects, Room of Dreams, at the Ruthin Craft Centre — also through September 9, 2012 http://www.ruthincraftcentre.org.uk/08artists.html.