I was invited to choose a best of show by Irina Negulescu for a juried exhibition: Sensuality - Objects of BeautyThe IN Gallery (1878
Main Street, SD 92113). Irina works very hard to support artists in her gallery and to also sell her own work. She is to be congratulated and supported for her efforts in having this showing space in Barrio Logan.
Irina Negulescu
Irina Negulescu
Selecting work for best of show is a very subjective process. My choice was Broni Likomanov whose drawing you see at the top of this page as well as the sculpture below. The drawing immediately reminded me of the Austrian artist Egon Schiele whose work is known for its raw sexuality. I ran a gallery in London in the seventies and became familiar with work from this period. He lived from 1890 – 1918 and I often saw his art come up in auction. The women depicted here might not truly meet the shows theme of Sensuality, but you know this is a woman who can take care of herself. The artist is not exploiting her for her beauty. Likomanov is holding nothing back and I think the honesty of the work shines through. I have a master degree in sculpture and so the fact that this artist is also a sculptor might also have also influenced my choice.
Broni Likomanov
I want to congratulate all the artist in this show and remind you that not only should you think about supporting artist by buying their work, but even saying an encouraging word is a great help. So make your own personal best of show selection and let the gallery know.
Rich Steward
Leah S. Bassett
Ansley Pye
Cassandra Schramm
Daniel James
Evgeniya Golik
Khalid Alkaaby
Randy Crawford
The gallery is open 5pm to 9 pm every second Saturday of the month during the Barrio Art Nights and by appointment 6192788410 info@theingallery.com And for this show: Tuesday December 17th through Saturday 21st 12-6PM shows ends on Dec 28, 2019.
I do lots of art about hands and fingers and there is a reason why we love our fingers. We can see them every day, with no mirror. They are in focus no matter how good or poor our eye sight.The are always in close reach. They have been with us forever...we started sucking on them from our first days, maybe even within the womb.
Decorating the nails on our fingers goes back centuries. The small size of the canvas has just stimulated the intricacy of the designs, techniques and materials. The past has set high standards, but recently nail art has found its way onto contemporary fashion runways. At OMA, we see a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Creative Nail Design (CNDtm). This local company started in a garage by Dr. Stuart S. Nordstrom, but is now international. This fun exhibition Tiny Canvases: The Art of the Nail demonstrates that there is no place too small for fine art to exist.
On view at the Oceanside Museum of Art until Feb 9, 2020.
Judy Tuwaletstiwa is a story teller and a story collector. She works with objects both found and shared but she also creates original things. Her point of view can be densely detailed or shiningly simply. Sometimes she starts at the beginning with the end in mind and other times the work seems to reveal itself only when it reaches its destination. The work on display is varied in medium, but it all solidly comes from her. She has a complex brain but it seems to be surprisingly uncomplicated.
I only know the actual work from the current Lux Art Institute exhibition where she is artist in residence until Dec 15 and the show will be on display until Jan 11, 2020. A native Californian, she now resides in New Mexico.
This set of works are based on objects Tuwaleststiwa has documented with stories for each one. We were allowed to choose our favorite and take away a copy image of the work. We were also invited to leave her one of our own stories, The series is called Where Does Art Come From?
The artist at her reception making a connection with her audience.
One of my choices was these scrapes of chalk gathered from a grandfather's frugal use as a tailor.
The diary of a fictitious character Patty Thompson which was aged with burnt edges.
I thought of Agnes Martin when I saw the first of this series of memorials to commemorate a found dead crow. It begins with a very deliberate structure determined by the artist, but as the series continues, you can almost see that the crow is dictating how the remains should be placed. I ended up feeling the artist had not only channeled The Crow but also the spirit of one of my other favorite artists Eva Hess. This gave me a strong feeling of connection and context.
We measure our day from sunrise to sunset.
What if a day was a million years?
Might we hear the heartbeat of a rock?
Might we feel grains of sand forming?
Detail of above which sadly does not show the true black nature of these chips of fused glass but shows you what the surface looks like close up.
Detail and side ways view of structure that makes certain fragments rise off the surface of the work.
Tuwaleststiwa has a way ofsimplifying something complex and relating one work to the next. We see the hand print below (glass on canvas), then the full rendered hand in glass, then the photo with hands in one scene, and then not multiple photos but the one photo divided into different focus points. Different points of view, all hers, but all as if they are coming from different people.
Ruah, Hand 2: Breath Spirit Wind
This all red work was inspired by her Hopi husband story of murals in a sacred place. They were painted over generation after generation. Next to the work is a slide presentation of all the layers that were added,one on top of the other, before getting to this final destination. The video images part 1 and 2 are only a very few of the more than 100 images that were captured over time.
Continuing Painting 2
I encourage you to go and see the work for yourself, have a conversation with Judy Tuwaleststiwa and/or contribute a story like I did. Please watch the video of Tuwaleststiwa speaking of her art on her website https://www.judytuwaletstiwa.com/about Here is Judy Tuwaleststiwa speaking during a residency at Corning Glass with Michael Rogers about her Jewish background which also describes part of her process of creation.
The French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau created 822 paintings in his lifetime (1825 to 1905). On show at the San Diego Museum of art is about 40 of these works by a favorite artist of the current SDMA director Maruja Baldwin Executive Director Roxana Velásquez. It is hard to put yourself into the cultural decades when Bouguereau enjoyed his most ardent support both in France and the USA. In his own words, he was painting pictures of lovely nudes and cupid because that is what the buying public wanted. These are the works that we often see on the chocolate boxes of Victorian England and the Gilded Age in the Americas. As times changed, he did not alter his style and suffered accordingly. But his skill as a photo-realist would have been appreciated again if he had lived in the 60th and it is not hard to see him as a surrealist either. His fantasy life was brought to life in his works which were allegorical and mythological and classical. The loveliness of his technique does wear thin as one sees painting after painting in this show. The nude women depicted are not really sexy, but out of context they could be soft porn which might have been an attraction in the stately drawing rooms of the rich. They seem to exploit their subjects now and you wonder if pedophiles might have been attracted to all the hairless, naked young subjects. A perfect rendition of a dress suitable for Princess Diane, a lovely hand or foot, a show stopping Madonna and child, make this a worthy show for today's audience. And the SDMA is not ignorant of the sales potential for these images and related french goodies for sale at the end of the exhibition space. The VIP reception was, as always, a feast for the senses. The "Strike a Pose" room was a fun way for this show to have an interactive component...although stripping was not in any way encouraged! The exhibition is co-organized by the Milwaukee Art Museum and The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art/ Exhibition is showing at SDMA from Nov 9, 2019 to March 15, 2020.
