Back in the Spotlight Doug Simay’s Collection at Sip art Space

by Patricia Frischer

Ernest Silva  - Deer on a Raft, 2001, print on paper

The 12 artworks in this exhibition at Sip art Space until March 28th represent about 1% of the collection of Doug Simay.  His dedication to looking has given him a keen eye and every object is considered and placed in this display with that same acute sense of purpose.

He explains in his own words why these works are Back in the Spotlight. “For well over 30 years, I was a very active participant and collector in Southern California’s art world. My collection is very large (some would say huge) and that has necessitated actively storing acquired art objects given my full household. It is from this storage that I rotate works within my living environment. The works in this exhibition come out of storage and thus the title. “

This is a man who wants to de-access in a responsible manner, the art he has so lovingly brought together. As he ages, he does not want to burden family or friends with making decisions about such a large holding. Giving these works a safe home would bring them full circle and might give him a sense of another job well done.

In respect for that art, you will read a bit about five of the works on view, including the shortest possible biography, a quote from the artist, and a description of the work.  Please take the time to see the show, think of giving a piece a new home by deciding why the art is important to you.

 Ernest Silva  - Deer on a Raft, 2001, print on paper (above)

1949 -  2014 born in Rhode Island, lived and worked in San Diego
MFA  1974 Tyler School of Art of Temple University. Phil. Penn.
“I'm a representational artist. Not in the sense that my work looks photographic in the way the eye sees, but primarily that I work with images of people and images of the natural world—whether it's landscape or the ocean. I tend to see myself as a visual poet….”  

This is the sweetest little deer, saved or abandoned on a raft in choppy water. The marks are almost cartoon like and  have that sense of fantasy  and wonder that makes you question what sort of journey this is.

Norman Lundin – Green and Red Tablecloth and Two Bottles, 1986, pastel on paper
Born in Los Angeles, CA, in 1938; lives and works in Seattle.
MFA, 1963  University of Cincinnati

“Any object depicted that has significant emotional associations will tend to dominate (which is exactly what i don’t want to happen). The objects are not there to be described; they are there to explain the space.”

This pastel on paper is just as the title describes, but the artist after 1986 worked for years to get the same effect in oil painting. The wrinkles in the cloth and their horizontal stripes, the verticals lines on the wall,  the spacing of the bottles, the light reflected on the top lip of each, the light switch, these are what defines the space and the space is the subject.

 

David Hines   - Still Life with Red Drape, 1996,  oil on canvas

Born in Nova Scotia in 1978, lives and works between there and New York.
M.A 1977 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
“Painting, no matter how realistic, refers back, via the artist's handiwork, to the artist.” 

A very hard-edged table, what we used to call a parson’s table, is softened, or covered, or caressed by a very red cloth.  The luminous light seems to glow from within.

 

Roger Camp - Zebra Yellow, 1990, Cibachrome photograph

Born  in 1945
MFA, 1974 University of Iowa

“I felt like an outsider because of the art world’s bias against photography AND because I was a color photographer,” 

Brown and very tanned skinned swimmers all in red swim suits and all with yellow caps, all facing away from us except for the one capless man facing us with black and white sunglasses. The man is so tall, these must be children around him. He is speaking but is he warning them or urging them on?

 

Bruce Cohen  - Untitled, 1987, lithograph

Born in Santa Monica, California in 1953,  lives and work in Santa Monica, CA
BA, 1975.College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara

 “It (Light)  gives me an initial motivation, and then other things start to develop”

Two magenta irises in a vertically black and white stripped vase with a window to the left casting light on the wall, and on the back of the vase. The flowers look stylized, but not realistic.

 

Back in the Spotlight Doug Simay’s Collection at Sip art Space
215 S. Pacific Street, Suite 104, San Marcos
By appointment only March 1 to March 28
Vicki Walsh  858-336-6678