Picked RAW Peeled: Einar and Jamex de la Torre, Julio Orozco at the Athenaeum

by Kevin Freitas

Currently on view at the La Jolla Athenaeum Music & Arts library through May 7, 2011 is “hoy-yee-tah  (joyita/small jewel)” presented by the San Diego Visual Arts Network (SDVAN) in conjunction with the 2010 San Diego Art Prize and featuring works by Einar and Jamex de la Torre and emerging artist Julio Orozco.  I will be focusing primarily on the work of the de la Torre brothers in this review. 

Orozco for his part primarily suffers from a poor installation.  Many of his pieces are sandwiched in between larger works of the brothers, put in a corner or left on a window sill in an incoherent and random manner.  As a viewer, it makes you question at times whose work is whose.  I would have liked to see a more intimate and concentrated showing of his photographs and digital prints, and at least partially isolated from the rest of the exhibit. 

That being said, Orozco didn’t do himself any favors either with a selection of works that appear to be fragments of a larger idea.  Presented individually, they seem incongruent and unintelligible.  Thankfully, the series "Untitled comic pieces from the project ‘HISTORIOGRAMAS’ " save this exhibition from completely disappearing.  Their muted colors and eerie out-of-focus atmospheres are strong; they beckon the viewer like some bejeweled Siren.  A more detailed account of Orozco’s work can be found on the SDVAN website or here.

Julio Orozco - Untitled comic pieces from the project ‘HISTORIOGRAMAS'

Einar and Jamex de la Torre

Admittedly, I have limited familiarity with the work of Einar and Jamex de la Torre. Why the work of such popular and prolific artists has evaded my radar is perhaps a question to be explored.  Is it that the work does not speak to me personally, or is the work itself simply mute?  At this point, I can only draw upon the cultural references and knowledge I possess for the basis of my critique.  My apathy however in attempting this review disturbs me; I would like to know why.  Consider this essay then as a response to that ‘why’.  More chum for the literary waters if you will.  It’s a bit self-indulgent but I believe absolutely crucial (the process of discovery at least) to a better understanding of their work and its intentions.  And if through a purely quizzical approach I succeed, then that in itself has its own rewards. 

Picked RIPE: Art Meets Fashion Online Competition

Daily Art Nag for April 28, 2011

 from the Union-Tribune and Jonathan Horn


photo: Peggy Peattie







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Daily Art Nag for April 25, 2011: Eli Broad



Related video:

Eli and Edye Broad's "joint venture"

Investing in Science

A peek at Eli Broad's art collection

Daily Art Nag for April 24, 2011



© Janine Antoni - Conduit, 2009 (Detail)
Copper sculpture with urine verdigris patina, framed digital c-print



Which of these artworks would you buy? - San Diego Union-Tribune
Make sure you check out the reader comments - Kf

Janine Antoni

A+ Art Blog: The Birthing of Art Meets Fashion

Besides the fact that this event takes more than 9 months to gestate, I feel that it is much like carrying a fetus to term. Strange for me to say perhaps, as I have never born a real child, but just look at the process and make up your own mind.

It is always easy to procreate with a partner and whether you call it a marriage or a friendship, I could ask for none better than Felena Hanson who is the Fashion Designer coordinator for Art Meets Fashion. We turn to Krystel Tien, Fashion Show coordinator with the aid of Loren Smith Productions for our baby shower i.e. the fashion show launch. This is the celebration for all the participants and a few special guests. We are anticipating the more extensive shows in the various venues and giving the project its extra push into the world.

You need a Midwife standing by to aid you through the process and Rosemary KimBal does proof reading, mans a desk, gives me a ride…what ever I may need most. Amazingly she is also making with the Valentine Viannay the scarves commemorating the project and also fabric for the dance performance and even doing a demonstration of Giant Brush painting at the Art Walk (the event draws 150,000 on one day) where she will help us promote Art Meets Fashion.

Picked RAW: Mine the Chatter

Escondido Arts Partnership Municipal Gallery

Daily Art Nag for April 22, 2011: Doug Simay in Antwerp

L - Les frites, R - A.R. Penck

http://simayspace.typepad.com/photos/belgium/index.html

Picked RAW: Art in the Streets - The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA Los Angeles

Wild Style mural by Zephyr, Revolt, Sharp. front row: Doze, Frosty Freeze, Ken Swift; middle row: Patti Astor, Fred Brathwaite, Lady Pink; back row: Lil Crazy Legs, Revolt and Sharp; directed by Charlie Ahearn, photo by Martha Cooper.

1983

Wild Style mural by Zephyr, Revolt, Sharp. front row: Doze, Frosty Freeze, Ken Swift; middle row: Patti Astor, Fred Brathwaite, Lady Pink; back row: Lil Crazy Legs, Revolt and Sharp; directed by Charlie Ahearn, photo by Martha Cooper.

1983



Art in the Streets


MOCA's 'Art in the Streets' exhibition brings unwanted neighborhood effect: graffiti vandalism

Tagging outside an L.A. street art exhibit fuels debate


Street artist 'Space Invader' believed detained in L.A. vandalism case

Picked RAW Peeled: Museum Lecture Series: Dr. Bram Dijkstra

by Marilyn Mitchell

Bram Dijykstra, Ph.D. gave a stimulating lecture at the San Diego Museum of Art this past Friday and the thesis of his talk was the nude in Western culture.  He has recently published a gorgeously illustrated book called "Naked" which is about the nude in America's art history.  Dr. Dijykstra is a cultural historian and his talk focused on American and European art, which allowed for a broader historical perspective than his book.  Dr. Dijykstra stressed that as a cultural historian, he is most interested in how art fits in with its particular time.

One of the beginning images he spoke about was one from a Dutch painter of the 1600's.  It depicted a husband and wife in realist detail.  Dr. Dijykstra pointed out how the two are set as equals in the composition.  The two are portrayed as smiling, healthy and well-to-do financially.  They appear as true partners to each other.

By the end of the 1800's, the real and the ideal began to clash philosophically.  Artists often considered realist works as vulgar.  He quoted a critic of the time as stating that nudes should be depicted as ideals because otherwise they are shocking to modesty.  Dr. Dijykstra argued that this philosophy was related to the gender and sexual politics of the time.  Women were no longer considered equal partners to men.  By the 1700's painters emphasized the sensual.  An image of Donatello's "David" from the mid-1400's was shown as an example of how in the past, men could be shown as sensual.

Picked RIPE: El Anatsui - When I Last Wrote to You about Africa

from the Davis Museum at Wellesley College


El Anatsui, Plot A Plan III, 2007, Aluminum and copper wire
Photo courtesy: Jack Shainman Gallery


















The Davis Museum and Cultural Center is pleased to present the U.S. debut of El Anatsui: When I Last Wrote to You about Africa, the artist’s first career retrospective. Surveying nearly five decades of the artist’s internationally renowned career, the exhibition features some sixty works in wood, metal, ceramic, painting, print and drawing.

El Anatsui (b. 1944, Ghana) is best known for his most recent sculptures, shimmeringly beautiful and elaborately wrought large-scale wall hangings made from discarded liquor-bottle tops. Drawing on traditional idioms and contemporary art practices, his work resonates materially and symbolically with the cultural and historical conditions of West Africa.

From its earliest to its most recent examples, Anatsui’s work is characterized by the complex and surprising manipulation of materials, labor-intensive methods, and a signature use of color, line and form.

Read more


Additional articles here and here. 

If you find yourself in Wellesley, MA make sure you go see this exhibit.  El Anatsui is one the most phenomenal artists of our time. Kf

Daily Art Nag for April 18, 2011

from Jen Graves and the SLOG News & Arts

Read—usually seen in block letters—is the signature of a graffiti artist wanted in several states.  His hardcover little black book, The Reader, is a cult hit and "a mix tape of the last 100 years of graphic design."

The description comes from artist Elias Hansen, a longtime friend of Read's who's now curating Read's first-ever gallery show (at Lawrimore Project, opening tonight during art walk). The show will be collages, screen prints, and pieces painted directly on the walls (maybe some will appear on Seattle streets?)—but don't expect the artist at the opening. For the last few days he's been working in secret inside the gallery, where the windows have been papered over.

http://www.operationmadman.com/

Read more. 

I got my copy in the mail today. kf

Picked RIPE: Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ" vandalized

from LeMonde.fr and AFP
 

photo: Agence France Presse

















Read more (French only) and apparently, not the first time (in English).

Daily Art Nag for April 17, 2011 Redux: The (U.S.) Flag

L-R: Dread Scott "What is the Proper Way to Display a US Flag?", Jasper Johns "Three Flags",
N-GOM, Flag Rules and Regulations

Dread Scott and related articles here and here.

Jasper Johns

N-GOM

Flag Rules and Regulations