12.11.2009
Glass Sculpture at Art Basel: A Summary
Emboldened, the year-end art fairs held during last week’s Art Basel Miami fest included several offerings of glass sculpture for the acquisition-minded collector.
Among the sculptures shown were works by American glass sculpture titan, Marvin Lipofsky (left) Soviet Series 1989, blown and sandblasted glass, presented by San Francisco’s Micaela Gallery at SCOPE Art Show, Bullseye Gallery’s exclusive presentation of glass sculpture at Art Miami (showing April Surgent, Jessica Loughlin, and Richard Whiteley, among others), Yoichi Ohira, the Murano expatriot from Japan, showed elegant forms (represented by Barry Friedman), and lastly the cast glass work of Nicolas Africano (represented by Nancy Hoffman Gallery).
Why are we excited about finding glass sculpture in the rarefied halls of Art Basel? Primarily, because the world of the glass sculptor is strangely insular, often isolated from more commonly accepted fine art mediums such as bronze and painting. Some would attribute this to its modern association with craft; however, the excruciating labor required to master the medium, its mystique dating back to the Crusades, and most recently, pockets of artists sequestered in the Pacific Northwest and Northeastern Atlantic coasts, as well as remote areas of Denmark (Ebeltoft) and Italy (Murano) are the more likely reasons. The communal nature of mastering glass sculpture requires like-minded artists, wholly dedicated to the fragile and fickle medium of their choice, and while a lucky few have been inducted into the collections of the Smithsonian and the Museum of Modern Art, most glass sculptors have retained unusual independence from art world trends, and have been steadfastly working at developing their art, honing their vision and preparing for their moment of fame. As a result, until recently, the glass sculptor seems to have received only a sideways glance from strict formalists who clung to the didactic that glass sculpture is a craft not a fine art - never mind that today’s contemporary glass sculptor marches in step with works by Christopher Wilmarth, Larry Bell, Josiah McIlheny, Judith Schaechter, and Bella Feldman, among others.
Sculpture continues to receive a warm embrace by the international art crowd during Art Basel week – whether in Basel or Miami - as evidenced by a proliferation of works by Anish Kapoor, the introduction of the above-named glass sculptors – Lipofsky, Surgent, Whitely, Ohira and Africano – and who will forget California artist Pae White’s Art Basel commissioned city block long installation inspired by the shanty towns of Mumbai, Rio and Shanghai?
Someone asked me if I saw a trend with the arrival of glass at Miami’s Art Basel this year. Well, one didn’t have to look far, as it seems every fair from Art Basel, Art Miami, Design Miami (The Swarovski Crystal Palace installation featuring more than 1,500 crystals on display as the leading piece of artwork), PULSE and SCOPE showed glass sculpture in some form or another. The truth is, when the tired old arguments of its medium are removed, glass, like any sculpture, when expertly used, is a beautifully captivating material that possesses a particularly unique relationship with light. 2009 is a good year to welcome glass as an accepted medium for fine contemporary artmaking. It’s a good year to have such a wealth of glass sculpture presented to the art world cognocenti.
11.26.2009
11.24.2009
Hello, Miami!
FirstView
Wednesday, December 2 | 11am-6pm
Free for VIPs or $100 donation to benefit The SCOPE Foundation
PressView
Wednesday, December 2 | 11am-6pm
VIP Cocktail Reception
Wednesday, December 2 | 4-6pm
General Admission Fair Hours
Thursday-Saturday | December 3 - 5 | 11am-7pm
Sunday | December 6 | 11am-6pm
SCOPE Art Show Inaugurates its First Curatorial Committee
David Hunt, Independent Curator and Critic, New York
Franklin Sirmans, Chief Curator of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Naomi Beckwith, Assistant Curator, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
Kate McNamara, Curatorial Assistant, PS1 / MOMA, New York
Benjamin Godsill, Curatorial Associate, New Museum, New York
SCOPE Curatorial Committee Presents: The SCOPE Film Program
Wednesday, December 2 | 11am-6pm
Patty Chang, Rather To Potentialities, 2009
Thursday, December 3 | 11am-7pm
Edgar Arceneaux, An Arrangement without Tormentors, 2004
Friday, December 4 | 11am-7pm
Robert Boyd, Conspiracy Theory, 2008
Saturday, Decem
ber 5 | 11am-7pm
Jordan Wolfson, Infinite Melancholy, 2003
Sunday, December 6 | 11am-6pmKon Trubkovich, Double Entrance/Double Exit, 2009
SCOPE Presents: The Arctic Circle
Wednesday, December 2- Sunday, December 6
SCOPE Presents: The SCOPE Sculpture Garden
Wednesday, December 2- Sunday, December 6
The Eighth Edition of America's Most Prestigious Art Show, The Highlights
From December 3 through 6, 2009, Miami Beach, Florida, will be home to the 8th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, the international art show. More than 250 leading galleries from North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa will take part. Chosen by renowned gallerists of the Art Basel Miami Beach Selection Committee, the galleries will show works by more than 2,000 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Special sectors are devoted to very recent artworks, curated exhibits, performance, and art in public spaces.
This year, the layout of Art Basel Miami Beach will be extensively redesigned, including larger spaces for many galleries, and a new floorplan designed to improve the gallery exhibition and visitor experience inside the convention center. Art Galleries, the main section of the show, will feature more than 180 galleries from all continents.
For Art Basel Miami Beach 2009 the Selection Committee has chosen 28 galleries to present an Art Kabinett - separate areas within the booths of the Art Galleries sector, providing a space to exhibit both single artists' works and thematic group exhibitions spotlighting the curatorial skills of the gallerists. The projects in this sector of the show feature a wide array of artists, ranging from emerging artists such as Jakub Julian Ziotkowski, Haegue Yang and Latifa Echakhch to historical figures like Marcel Duchamp, George Grosz and Jack Tworkov. Further highlights include projects by Olafur Eliasson, Anish Kapoor, Richard Prince and Wim Delvoye. Group shows include exhibitions titled “Ninety Years of Bauhaus” and “Aspects of Pop Art”.
The Art Nova sector serves as a platform for the galleries of Art Basel Miami Beach to present works produced in the last two years, by a maximum of three artists. This year 64 international galleries have been chosen for the sector by the Selection Committee. Works by more than 130 artists from around the globe are on display, including 17 solo shows, featuring artists such as Marc Bijl, Valie Export, Rashid Rana, Dan Attoe, Michael Beutler, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Jose Dávila and Marine Hugonnier.
The Art Positions sector - focuses on special projects by young artists and galleries, and formerly situated at Collins Park - will now be sited in the center of the Miami Beach Convention Center and features works by artists such as Renate Lorenz, Falke Pisano, Ulla von Brandenburg, Agathe Snow, Egill Saebjornsson, Reena Spaulings and Marcel Broodthaers.
Art Projects, curated for the first time this year by independent curator Patrick Charpenel of Guadalajara, Mexico, features 13 projects by internationally renowned artists such as Santiago Sierra, Claire Fontaine, William Pope.L, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Franz West, selected from proposals by the galleries of Art Basel Miami Beach. The projects will be installed in the outdoor public spaces of Miami Beach, within close proximity to the Oceanfront area and the Miami Beach Convention Center.
The totally new Oceanfront environment will be created by Los Angeles artist Pae White, commissioned by Art Basel Miami Beach and Creative Time, the legendary New York-based public art organization, and host a daily program including the Art Basel Conversations, Art Perform, Art Video and Art Film. For the 2009 premiere of the Oceanfront, Pae White will create an immersive and interactive cityscape that will provide a new experience with each visit. By day, large color blocks will dominate the landscape. At night, these colors blocks transform into a shadowy group of buildings that house various merchants and performers.
Now located at the Oceanfront, the Art Basel Conversations will be inaugurated by an Artist Talk premiere, which this year features Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. For the following Art Basel Conversations, topics include “Museum Directors: Change in Generation”, “Art Collections in Latin America” and “The Future of the Museum: The Portable Museum”.
Art Video, curated by Creative Time, will involve screenings of videos by Tom Sachs and The Neistat Brothers, Marc Horowitz, Jill Magid, Kon Trubkovich, followed by discussions with the artists.
Art Perform features an intensified program of longer performances by rising international artists. This program will again be conceived by curator Jens Hoffmann, director of the CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco. It will take place on Thursday and Saturday at 9 pm and feature performances by Kelly Nipper, Kris Martin, Simon Fujiwara, Claire Fontaine, and Mario Garcia Torres / Loris Gréaud.
This year's Art Film event offers an exclusive work-in-progress sneak preview of the feature documentary film “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child.”, preceded by a panel with a selection of the film's participants, moderated by Bob Colacello. “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child” is directed by Tamra Davis and features a long and never-before-seen interview with Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) shortly before his death. Art Film is curated by Zurich film connaisseur This Brunner.
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11.15.2009
Phillip Hua installation for San Francisco Art Commission's Art in Storefronts
The third installment of the San Francisco Art Commission's Art in Storefronts program launches on lower 24th Street in the Mission District with a community reception on Friday, November 20 from 7-10 p.m. A new economic development initiative, the program engages San Francisco-based artists with the challenge to reinvigorate four neighborhoods hard-hit by the recent economic downturn. These are neighborhoods that have suffered more than their fair share of economic depression on the San Francisco real estate scale, as a result, the program, initiated by Mayor Gavin Newsom, offers an opportunity to both property owners and artists to foster a renewed community in their neighborhoods with the hope of attracting investment and renewing property values.11.14.2009
Marvin Lipofsky: Pick of First Thursday!
Review by Kathryn Arnold: Marvin Lipofsky handles glass and color with the ease a painter might handle paint on a canvas-- an analogy pointing to the supreme technical skill this artist exhibits. His organic shapes at times resemble shell-like formations and point to inside/outside interior/exterior relationships. If glass was not such a fragile material, the sensation of wanting to pick these up hold them squish them would be almost unbearable. Candy-like colors are reminiscent of those seen in the depths of the ocean (National Geographic has educated me in this regard) so perhaps one can touch upon primordial beginnings. Yet they are what they are -- each shape also referencing itself without allusions to the outside world. Luminous objects of 'being' in most cases.
Review by DeWitt Cheng: Berkeley's Marvin Lipofsky is an eminent glass artist, having helped pioneer the medium back in the 1960s. This show assembles work of the past four decades. Organic/complex form, plus ravishing color -- a must-see for those who admired the Chihuly extravaganza at the DeYoung. I take several pix of the artist, whose sense of humor I enjoy, but seem to have lost them somehow.
Comment by AB: Glassmaking at it's finest. Highly recommended. Pick of First Thursday. Artbusiness.com.
Images: (top) The artist, Marvin Lipofsky with Chico Group II 2004-2005 #5; SF • Tacoma Group 2006-2007 #5; ‘Glass Ambitions’ International Glass Symposium V, Series 1994 #2 (photo, Kathryn Arnold); L’viv Group 2001-2002 #2; Frauenau Group 2000-2002 #4; Chico Group II 2004-2005 #5 (back, Soviet Series 1989); Fratelli-Toso Series: Split Piece 1976-1980 (photo, Kathryn Arnold).
11.12.2009
Taliaferro Jones is back from the Cheongju International Craft Biennale!
Back from exhibition at the Cheongju International Craft Biennale, Taliaferro Jones will participate in Ontario Craft ’09 with Luna (2009), a kiln cast crystal sculpture.The Ontario Craft Council's juried biennial exhibition will open Friday, November 13th, ongoing through December 30th. The opening reception, in Toronto, is this Friday from 5:30-8:30 at the Ontario Craft’s Council, 990 Queen Street West. For more information, please go to: http://www.craft.on.ca/Programs/Exhibitions-upcoming.
11.11.2009
TOBIAS TOVERA: Artist Talk
| TOBIAS TOVERA: Transmutation Unfolding, Paintings. Artist Talk. | |
Please join Artist Tobias Tovera, who will present a discussion of the concepts behind, and the process of, making the Transmutation Unfolding paintings, on display now on the Plaza Level of 555 California Street, downtown San Francisco. Introspective, Tovera allows considerable time for contemplation and meditation. During his talk, Tovera will discuss his background, studio practice and process, paths of research and exploration, and engage in a session of questions and answers. The discussion presents an informal opportunity to offer the public insight into Tovera's large-scale beautifully conceived and well-crafted paintings. When: Friday, November 13, 2009, 6 pm Where: 555 California Street, San Francisco (Plaza Level) To download Tovera's PDF portfolio, please click here. Exhibitions at 555 California Street are curated and organized by San Francisco art advisor Jan Casey of Casey and Associates. Image, above left: Tobias Tovera. Falling Deeper, 2009. Acrylic pigment on panel. 48 x 48 in. All images are courtesy of the artist and Micaëla Gallery, and protected by all copyright/trademark laws everywhere. ©1997-2010 micaëla and micaëla gallery, its name, logo and all website content are copyright/trademarks of micaëla gallery llc. | |
11.10.2009
Douglass Freed
| Finding a Market for Large-Scale Art, by Ligaya Figueras
For artists working in bigger formats, the current economic climate means the market for large-scale artwork is limited. “Few people have the wall-space and eye-space (the ability to move far enough back in the space to see the painting properly) to acquire them,” states Lauren Rabb, owner and director of The Gallery at 6th & 6th in Tucson, Arizona. To meet these new challenges, artists who work in a larger scale should consider corporate settings as another market for their creations. Larger pieces grace lofty entrance lobbies and other gathering spaces at convention centers, restaurants and casinos. Banks, office buildings, condominium lobbies and upscale hotels are also privately owned properties with massive public spaces in need of adornment. “They present an opportunity for elegance and scale,” comments Miles. Acclaimed landscape painter Douglass Freed of Sedalia, Missouri has always produced large-scale works. His paintings are in the collections of numerous corporations, including Sprint, Hewlett Packard, Pella, McGraw-Hill, Maytag, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Missouri and banks throughout the Midwest. In fact, most of his sales these days are corporate commissions. “Corporations are the patrons of our time,” says Freed, who in 2008 completed a massive 108 x 320 in. river landscape for the Emerson Electric Corporation headquarters in St. Louis, and Epoch, a 96 x 120 in. painting that hangs in the new Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Make Me a Match
“We make decisions about theme, budget, direction. Art consultants are not supposed to be pushing inventory. We are a research team,” explains Daniel-Putnam. Pinnacle Entertainment, which owns and operates gaming entertainment facilities throughout the U.S, works exclusively with Daniel Fine Art Services to choose artwork for its properties, such as the recently completed $507 million Lumière Place entertainment complex in St. Louis and a $67 million expansion of the L’Auberge du Lac Casino Resort in Lake Charles, Louisiana. “The art has to capture the style of the property and blend with the design,” states Pam Gates, Pinnacle’s manager of procurement for design and construction. “The L’Auberge du Lac Casino Resort has a Texas Hill Country lodge theme, so we were looking for local Louisiana art.” According to Freed, private institutions and companies are attracted by the composition of his pieces. The artist states, “Though I am a landscape painter, I’m truly an abstract artist. My artwork draws you in; it is accessible because the paintings are about time and light. … Meditative paintings work well in big, modern, contemporary concrete spaces, and I have the ability to do large, monumental paintings whereas most landscape painters are easel painters.” Freed also keeps the titles of his works ambiguous and universal. For example, he titled the Emerson piece Rise/Set to imply an early morning or late evening. “Everyone has had the experience of a lake or ocean in early morning or night,” he says. Getting a Foot in the Lobby Art consultants need to find artwork for their clients quickly and efficiently. To reduce the amount of legwork required, they tend to go to trusted sources. “When I am looking for artwork, I visit galleries and studios, go online, and talk with people in the art community.” states art consultant Mary McElwain, owner of McElwain Fine Arts who also served as the art advisor to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City on the commission awarded to Doug Freed. Art advisors tend to work through galleries, so artists who have gallery representation have an advantage against artists who attempt to work independently with art consultants. Freed’s Federal Reserve Bank project, for instance, was handled through Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art Gallery in Kansas City, one of a dozen galleries across the U.S. that shows his paintings.The Web is another channel that enables artists and art consultants to get connected. “It’s all Internet,” says Daniels-Putnam, whose company finds artists from all over the world via the World Wide Web. “It used to be slide registry. Now it’s ‘look at the artist’s Web site.’” One major artist list that interior designers and art consultants review is ArtistRegistry.com. The site is administered by Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), a non-profit regional arts service organization dedicated to the creative advancement and preservation of the arts in western states, although any artist who is a U.S. resident can showcase his or her art on the site. Besides making it easy for consultants and buyers to discover them on the Web, artists can seek out those who make purchasing decisions for corporate facilities. McElwain suggests that artists find out which architecture and design firms in their area specialize in large spaces and that they send a targeted mailing to the head of the design department at these firms. The American Institute of Architects Web site ( www.AIA.org ) posts a directory of AIA members in every city. Marketing materials can also be sent to art consultants, some of who, like McElwain, are members of the International Association for Professional Art Advisors. The organization provides guidelines and standards for professional art advisors and serves as a network for communication among art advisors, curators and art service professionals. Members are listed on the IAPAA Web site ( www.IAPAA.org ). Another helpful resource for developing a targeted mailing list is the “Corporate Art Market” section of the Artist Help Network Web site (www.ArtistHelpNetwork.com ). Contributing writer and communications consultant Ligaya Figueras specializes in business writing, marketing and media relations for visual and performance artists, writers, nonprofit organizations and specialty service providers. She can be reached at figuerasl@sbcglobal.net . Copyright 2009 Ligaya Figueras. First published by Art Calendar magazine (www.artcalendar.com), the business magazine for visual artists. Used with permission. |
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11.09.2009
Peter Bremers is at SOFA Chicago
Sponsored by the Tel Aviv Litvak Gallery, Peter Bremers has once again shared his sculpture at SOFA Chicago.Bremers works with a team of assistants who carry out his ideas at the furnace that the artist acquired on extensive travels in Asia, New Zealand, Africa and the Antarctic. Perhaps Bremers's most compelling works are the recentIcebergs & Paraphernalia. Inspired by the majesty and fragility of the changing Antarctic landscape, created the Icebergs & Paraphernalia series in kiln cast glass as an homage to the earth, to express respect and give thanks that such wonders still exist, despite human intervention. [image right: Icebergs & Paraphernalia 2007-119, 2007. 90 x 56 x 17 cm]
Bremers's work is featured in the public collections of Boymans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, The Netherlands and National Glassmuseum in Leerdam, The Netherlands.
11.08.2009
Scott Kildall is at Eyebeam
On October 13, Scott Kildall began his two-week residency as Eyebeam's guest reblogger. Among other things, he will conduct a brief study of common points along a number of disciplines, including art interventions, astrophysics and virtual worlds. He will examine concepts of 'space' and its understanding (and change) over the last 10 years. Wow. The complete compilation of one of his works, 'Video Portraits,' is on exhibition as part of our Winter Salon 2009 through January 2, 2010.
11.07.2009
SF Art News features Carol Lawton!
Michael Yochum from SF Art News dropped in Thursday night. It was a surprise to pick him out of the crush (literally many bodies on a sweltering Indian Summer San Francisco evening), and it's always good to see Michael - especially so when he picks out one of our fave pieces and tweets it! 11.04.2009
Thomas Scoon's Chicago exhibition with Ken Saunders closes
Thomas Scoon's latest solo exhibition has just come down from Chicago's Ken Saunders Gallery. Scoon’s new work explores his figurative yet abstracted sculptures comprised of cast glass and granite. The granite and glass elements are stacked to create figurative compositions so that when the pieces are grouped together in installations, they immediately develop a sense of camaraderie and dialogue. Purposefully intended by the artist, he accordingly entitles these sculptures, Companions. Selecting from blue-green, amber, or clear glass, the figures have an ethereal quality while conjuring sensibilities likened to figural sculptures of Easter Island. There is an unquestionable element of an earlier, primeval time, with his work. Scoon's granite elements are found in New Hampshire, where the artist resides. New Hampshire, of course, is The Granite State, and the stones have spectacular traces of quartz, mica, and iron running throughout. Juxtaposed against the translucent glass, the granite quartz and mica acquire fantastic sheen and shimmer. Scoon's work is always inspired by nature and its elements—the organic qualities of the quartz combined with the cool colors of the glass creates harmonious and exciting combinations.
11.03.2009
Quebec blog features Marie-Lou Desmeules!
Yesterday morning, a blog item from Pat White, a writer from Quebec, popped up in our emails! It's fabuloso to see press about our artists - and it takes things to a different level to see our new exhibition, Winter Salon 2009, written up in French! L'artiste québécoise Marilou Desmeules expose à San Francisco au Winter Salon 2009 | PatWhite.com. You don't read French? Many of us don't, but Marie-Lou's native language is French, so I'll post this for her as I found it. Briefly, Mr. White states, "Marie-Lou Desmeules, originally from Quebec, currently residing in Berlin, is an artist delighted with the extraordinary."11.02.2009
Artdaily.org notes Tobias Tovera's "Stunning Repertoire of Work"
10.26.2009
Marvin Lipofsky Survey 1969-2009 - Last Week of Show
10.13.2009
Tobias Tovera at the Plaza, 555 California Street, San Francisco
Tobias Tovera's work is now featured on the Plaza Level of 555 California Street, San Francisco through December. Tovera's beautiful paintings are marked by richly saturated color dramatically suspended in pure white space, emphatically marking the study of time, or the current moment. His expansive use of saturated color, beyond the strict confines of his space, draw the viewer into an arresting fraction of time that is at once meditative, soothing and visually stimulating. Tovera is a young artist who earned his BFA from CCA in 2001. When: October 13 through December 25
Where: 555 California Street, San Francisco (Plaza Level)
To download Tovera's PDF portfolio, please click here.
9.22.2009
Jenna North: The Weather Series, Paintings. Artist Talk.
9.06.2009
Peter Foucault at art.tech at The Lab
Today is the last day to see Peter Foucault's presentation of his latest iteration of his interactive robotic drawing machine Attraction/Repulsion:Redux at art.tech at The Lab! art.tech is a festival of art, performance, sound, workshops, demos, and lectures featuring cutting-edge artistic experiments created with and related to technology. This vibrant showcase of local, national, and international artists working at and across boundaries celebrates technological experimentation, open source methodologies, collaboration, accessibility, and interactivity. Bringing together established and emerging talent in the fields of new media, digital culture, mixed reality, tangible interfaces, robotics, gaming, sonic sculpture, experimental music, activated objects, physical computing, and electronics, art.tech creates a platform in San Francisco for a dynamic locus of exchange within a thriving global community of innovators. Showing with Peter are artists Javier Sanchez, Aaron Oldenburg, Bryan Von Reuter, Rob Ray, Alex Potts, Luther Thie, Jonathan Grover, Shawn Wallace, Rachel Beth Egenhoefer, Retronyms, Olle Essvik, and Justin Hoover.
For details, please go to www.thelab.org/events/374-