Oklahoma Art Writing & Curatorial Fellowship

Fellow Profile: Netha Cloeter

2012-02-13T08:41:00.003-06:00

The Oklahoma Art Writing & Curatorial Fellows include 12 curators, educators, artists and writers chosen to develop new writing and curatorial projects with guidance from national Mentors throughout 2012.

OK Art Writing & Curatorial Fellow Netha Cloeter

Netha Cloeter
Norman, OK

Specializing in Contemporary Native American art, Netha Cloeter is in her second year of the Master of Arts in Art History at the University of Oklahoma.

Cloeter conducted interviews and is contributing as an author for exhibition catalog chronology for traveling exhibition on George Morrison in conjunction with the Minnesota Museum of American Art.

She serves as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, received the multiple-year Francis Weitzenhoffer Memorial Fellowship, and recently presented at the 2011 Native American Art Studies Association conference.

Before her graduate studies, Cloeter taught at Todd County High School on Rosebud Reservation through Teach For America. She received her BA in Art History and English at Valparaiso University in Indiana.

As part of the Oklahoma Art Writing & Curatorial Fellowship, the public is invited to free panels featuring the program mentors, starting with Impacting Contemporary Culture Through Curatorial Practice: Three Perspectives, February 18 at 1 pm.

Fellow Profile: Theresa Bembnister

2012-02-10T10:14:00.000-06:00

Oklahoma Art Writing & Curatorial Fellow Theresa Bembnister

Theresa Bembnister

Kansas City, MO

Theresa Bembnister’s art writing career spans nearly a decade. Her work appears regularly in the KansasCity Star. She also has published on The Drawing Center’s blog, The Bottom Line, Review Magazine’s ereview.org and The Pitch.

She serves as the Collections Manager for Belger Arts Center. She particiapted in internships across the country, including at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland in Cleveland, OH, and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, NY. Bembnister received her M.A., Art History and Museum Studies from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, and BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute.

As part of the Oklahoma Art Writing & Curatorial Fellowship, the public is invited to free panels featuring the program mentors, starting with Impacting Contemporary Culture Through Curatorial Practice: Three Perspectives, February 18 at 1 pm.

Fellow Profile: Jennifer Barron

2012-02-09T10:12:00.000-06:00

OK Art Writing & Curatorial Fellow Jennifer Barron

Fellow: Jennifer Barron

Oklahoma City, OK

www.jennbarronart.com

Jennifer Barron is an artist, art writer, and educator living in Oklahoma City. She said she “believes in the power of art to impact lives.”

Barron has served as the Community Arts Program Director of the Arts Council of Oklahoma City since 2005. Also an active volunteer, Barron served several years as chair of the Visual Arts Committee for Individual Artists of Oklahoma, helping oversee and select programming for the gallery.

Barron is a contributing writer to Slice magazine, okc.net, and Art Focus Oklahoma. She has curated independent projects at AKA Gallery and the Invited Artists Gallery and was the Emerging Curator for Momentum Tulsa 2008. She received her BA in French and BFA in Visual Arts at University of Oklahoma.

Mentor Profile: Dana Turkovic

2012-02-08T09:48:00.000-06:00

Dana Turkovic, Mentor for the
Oklahoma Art Writing & Curatorial Fellowship

Dana Turkovic is Curator of Exhibitions at Laumeier Sculpture Park and Co-Director & Founder, Isolation Room/Gallery Kit, both in St. Louis. She is also Adjunct Associate Professor in the Art Department at Webster University. In 2005, she received her MA from Goldsmiths College – University of London in curatorial studies.

Though she spent many years as the senior designer for the UCLA Hammer Museum, she has turned her attention to creative curatorial endeavors. She has organized exhibitions in Los Angeles at Monte Vista Projects, in alternative spaces in London and Oxford in the United Kingdom, and in St. Louis at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Boots Contemporary Art Space, Ellen Curlee Gallery, White Flag Projects, and Schmidt Contemporary Art. She has written for publications such as Art US and Review Magazine.

Turkovic will speak about her curatorial practice along with Elizabeth Dunbar & Hamza Walker at the public panel "Impacting Contemporary Culture Through Curatorial Practice: Three Perspectives" moderated by Shannon Fitzgerald on Saturday, February 18, 1-3 pm at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

Mentor Profile: Hamza Walker

2012-02-07T09:31:00.000-06:00

Hamza Walker, Mentor for the OK Art Writing & Curatorial Fellowship
Photo by Dawoud Bey

Hamza Walker has served as Director of Education and Associate Curator for The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago - a non-collecting museum devoted to contemporary art—since 1994.

He has curated group exhibitions such as The Age of Aquarius, 2011; Black Is, Black Ain't, 2008; and Meanwhile in Baghdad..., 2008. His monographic exhibitions include Gerard Byrne: A Think is a Hole in a Think, 2011; Matt Saunders: Parallel Plot, 2010; Allan Sekula: Polonia and Other Fables, 2009; Paul Chan: My Laws are my Whores, Katerina Seda: It Doesn't Matter, 2008; and Katharina Grosse: Atoms Inside Balloons, 2007, among others.

Walker is also on the faculty of The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. He has written articles and reviews for such publications as Trans, New Art Examiner, Parkett and Artforum. Walker recived the 1999 Norton Curatorial Grant and the 2004 Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement, the Menil Collection. In 2010, he won the prestigious Ordway Prize for recognition of his contribution to Contemporary Art.

Walker will speak about his curatorial practice along with Elizabeth Dunbar & Dana Turkovic at the public panel "Impacting Contemporary Culture Through Curatorial Practice: Three Perspectives" moderated by Shannon Fitzgerald on Saturday, February 18, 1-3 pm at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

Mentor Profile: Elizabeth Dunbar

2012-02-06T09:19:00.000-06:00

Elizabeth Dunbar, Executive Director of
Diverseworks, Houston, TX,
Mentor for OK Art Writing & Curatorial Fellowship

Elizabeth Dunbar is the newly named Executive Director of Diverseworks Art Space in Houston, TX. Formerly she served as Associate Director and Curator at Arthouse at the Jones Center in Austin, TX, where she oversaw an ambitious program of exhibitions, commissions, site-specific installations, publications, and public programs and events. Previously she was Curator at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and Assistant Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Focusing on international emerging artists, she has organized more than thirty exhibitions and projects in her career. One of Dunbar’s core interests is collaborating with artists through the commissioning of new works. Important commissions include the film production Matt Stokes: these are the days, the participatory garden planting Fritz Haeg: Edible Estates Prototype Garden #5, the architectural intervention Florian Slotawa: One After the Other, and the collaborative site-specific installation Ping Pong Diplomacy with Phoebe Washburn and Stephen Hendee.

Other notable projects include the first major survey exhibitions for artists Dario Robleto, Gajin Fujita, and Hubbard/Birchler. Dunbar holds MAs in Art History and Museum Studies from the City University of New York.

Dunbar will speak about her curatorial practice along with Dana Turkovic & Hamza Walker at the public panel "Impacting Contemporary Culture Through Curatorial Practice: Three Perspectives" moderated by Shannon Fitzgerald on Saturday, February 18, 1-3 pm at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

Preparation: Key Texts

2012-01-16T11:25:00.001-06:00

As we prepare for the start of the 2012 Oklahoma Art Writing & Curatorial Fellowship, the Fellows and staff are awash with stimulating art reading. From periodicals to essay-filled tomes, we are examining perspectives and exhibitions from across the art field. We are reading to keep up with current ways of viewing, presenting, and understanding art. On a practical note, we are also reexamining how exhibitions are organized.

Our discussions about and experiences of art in Oklahoma only grow more interesting with these varied perspectives. You are welcome to join our inquisitive reading. The two main texts are editor Paula Marincola’s What Makes A Great Exhibition and editor Raphael Rubinstein’s collection entitled Critical Mess: Art Critics on the State of their Practice. I will post further readings and lists as they are available.

Also, I hope you’ll join us for the public panels featuring the interesting and varied visiting mentors, who are contemporary curators, critics, and scholars from across the country. The first event on February 18, 1-3 pm features curators’ perspectives and takes place at the OKC Museum of Art. Curators Elizabeth Dunbar from Diverseworks in Houston, Hamza Walker from The Renaissance Society in Chicago, and Dana Turkovic from Laumeier Sculpture Park and Isolation Room/Gallery Kit, St. Louis. Read more at www.write-curate-art.org.

Call for Experimental Writing

2011-09-26T14:23:00.001-05:00

Our always-innovative colleagues at Charlotte Street Foundation issued a call for a writer/critic/curator/artist for an experimental writing project. I am fascinated to see the resulting projects.

The writer can propose the format and indicate a preferred approach. Funding is available for travel to Kansas City and an honorarium. The initial proposal deadline is October 15.

Love, Art, and Service

2011-09-13T16:58:00.000-05:00

This College Art Association Art Journal interview features ICA Boston's curator Helen Molesworth in conversation with artist Taylor Davis. Molesworth discusses her inclinations, background and passions for art. The way she articulates her commitment to the work, artists and institution provides insight into an exceptional contemporary curator's practice.

http://artjournal.collegeart.org/?p=2255

Reminder: OK Art Writing & Curatorial Fellowship application deadline is September 23. Find submission information and Mentor biographies at www.write-curate-art.org.

Countering Crisis

2011-08-22T10:35:00.000-05:00

Eric Zimmerman argues on Glasstire.org that declarations of crises in criticism and art are really responses to change. He calls on us all to simmer down, not unlike those with concerns about the economy.

His post is especially apropos for us since the one of the primary texts for the OK Art Writing & Curatorial Fellowship is Critical Mess: Art Critics on the State of their Practice. We are looking to adding to the discussion with current readings.

Call for New Fellows

2011-08-10T16:03:00.000-05:00

The Oklahoma Art Writing and Curatorial Fellowship seeks applicants for 2012 Fellows. Building on the successes of the 2010 inaugural program, the 2012 Fellowship offers 12 participants the opportunity to cultivate their skills and knowledge by offering access to leading regional and national curators, critics, and academics. Public panels and intimate, hands-on workshops will focus on curatorial practice, the role of academia and criticism and publishing.

Read more about the program and eligibility here: www.write-curate-art.org

Questions in Criticism

2011-06-27T13:25:00.000-05:00

Upon leaving the the editorship of ...Might Be Good, Wendy Vogel's last letter from the editor considers a recent book called Judgment and Contemporary Art Criticism. Her letter addresses many key issues of the day in art criticism as well as offering an editor's view.

As we gear up for the 2012 installment of the Oklahoma Art Writing and Curatorial Fellowship, this type of article helps frame our discussions. Thanks to Vogel and ...Might Be Good for their ongoing discourse.

Fellow Sarah Jesse Essay about Amy Blakemore on Review

2011-06-14T10:09:00.000-05:00

OK Art Writing & Curatorial Fellow Sarah Jesse published an essay about the Amy Blakemore exhibition at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art on Kansas City's Review. Well done Sarah.

Muralism Meets 21st Century Oklahoma

2011-03-28T13:48:00.000-05:00

Carlos Tello, Beyond the Centennial, 2010, Photo by Mike Scanlan

In the aftermath of controversial new immigration laws in nearby Arizona, here in Oklahoma City we celebrated the dedication of an impressive new mural by Carlos Tello permanently installed at the Oklahoma State Capitol. The timing could not be more conspicuous. Tello is a native of Mexico who taught himself the medium of fresco painting in the tradition of Diego Rivera. He moved to Oklahoma City in 1992 and has since become a naturalized US citizen. This is particularly poignant given the shrill political debates going on about the role of immigrants in American society.

Entitled Beyond the Centennial, Carlos Tello’s vibrant imagery and bold composition depicts the primacy of the land as the source of life and progress. In warm earth tones, images of fossils, soil microbes, prairie grasslands, and native fauna are masterfully composed in the lunette shaped mural. In the upper left corner indigenous First Nations are represented by a male and female figure, the original inhabitants and stewards of the southern plains bioregion. From a point of deep perspective, a covered wagon is led by a muscular horse carrying a Sooner ready to stake his claim in one of the many land runs that brought white settlers to the state. The economic and environmental exploitation of the land is shown in a scene of a migrant farm family escaping the barren fields of the Dust Bowl. The right side of the mural balances the color scheme in cooler tones of blue, violet and green representing the state motto, “labor conquers all.” We see featureless gloved industrial workers, towering oil derricks, a farmer at harvest, a medical researcher, an astronaut on a spacewalk, and a firefighter doing search and rescue in a complex constructivist composition.

Carlos Tello, Beyond the Centennial, 2010, Photo by Mike Scanlan

The most fascinating part of the mural however is the dramatic “Every Man” figure that dominates the center of the composition. The perspective we have of this powerfully built universal figure is from above. “Every Man’s” outstretched arms and hands hold an outline of the state. In the foreground is the round Osage shield from the state flag with two symbols of peace: the calumet and the olive branch. In the background on the far horizon of the state’s future is a swirling cloud of dust, obscuring our collective destiny.

As Tello explained to me, what makes it a mural in the spirit of Rivera, Orozco and Siquieros is the fact that it is public, and monumental in scale, while embedded with social and political meaning. It represents an important contribution to our state’s artistic life made by an immigrant who has digested the complex past and projected the uncertain future of our young state. Beyond the Centennial can be seen in the alcove of the Hall of Governors at the Oklahoma State Capitol.

Learn more about the mural here.

Brian Hearn on the Lightning Field (and other things)

2011-03-21T13:34:00.000-05:00

Oklahoma Art Writing & Curatorial Fellow Brian Hearn's final project describing his experience at The Lightning Field appeared on the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture blog.

Hearn regularly contributes to the blog about cinema and art. Here he recommends documentaries about visual artists: http://namac.org/node/25574.

Robert Storr Lecture March 24, 2011 with City Arts Center

2011-03-14T13:32:00.000-05:00

Attention art writing and curatorial fans, Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale University School of Art, artist and critic, will speak at SandRidge Energy 11:30 am, March 24. The title of Storr’s lecture is Contemporary Art and Collecting. The event is part City Art Center’s annual lecture series.

The lecture is open to the public and there is no charge for admission, however, personal RSVP is required to ensure access to SandRidge Energy’s 28th floor. For more information or to RSVP, please contact Brooke at City Arts Center, (405)951-0000 or brooke@cityartscenter.org.

Oklahoma Art Writing & Curatorial Fellows read Storr's brief article in Frieze Magazine about the purpose of criticism and a bit about his career: http://www.frieze.com/issue/print_article/a_desk_job/.

Storr is an artist, critic, and curator. In 2006 he was appointed Professor of Painting and Dean of the School of Art at Yale University. Mr. Storr received a BA from Swarthmore College in 1972 and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in1978. He was curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, from 1990 to 2002. In 2002 Mr. Storr was named the first Rosalie Solow Professor of Modern Art at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Mr. Storr has taught at CUNY, the Bard Center for Curatorial Studies, Rhode Island School of Design, Tyler School of Art, New York Studio School, and Harvard University. He lectures frequently in this country and abroad. He has been a contributing editor at Art in America since 1981 and writes frequently for Artforum, Parkett, Art Press (Paris), and Frieze (London).

He has also written numerous catalogs, articles, and books. Among his many honors he has received a Penny McCall Foundation Grant for painting, a Norton Family Foundation Curator Grant, and honorary doctorates from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Maine College of Art and Lyme Academy. His awards include the American Chapter of the International Association of Art Critics, a special AICA award for Distinguished Contribution to the Field of Art Criticism, an ICI Agnes Gund Curatorial Award, and the Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History from the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art. In 2000 the French Ministry of Culture presented him with the medal of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

He is currently Consulting Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and in 2007 was chosen commissioner of the 2007 Venice Biennale, the first American invited to assume that position.

See event information here.

Fellow Sarah Jesse Published on Review

2011-02-09T17:34:00.002-06:00

See Oklahoma Art Writing Fellow Sarah Jesse's latest article on eReview.

Essay: Writings at Moore Veterans Memorial

2011-02-01T08:37:00.005-06:00

Writings at Moore Veterans Memorial

Bryant and SE 4^th Street

Moore, Oklahoma

Josh Buss

Inscription on granite obelisk, Moore, OK

Words inscribed in granite and bronze are abundant throughout the Moore Veterans Memorial. Most are confined within ill-considered sentences.

May This Hallowed Ground Honor The Sacrifice Of America’s Veterans, Civilian, And Their Families- Past, Present, And Future. We Will Never Forget.

This impotent message carved into an overt symbol of virility neatly summarizes the memorial. Engraved on a fifteen-foot-tall black granite obelisk it indicates that a suburban street is hallowed ground, everyone who has or ever will live in America should be honored and that we will never forget. The rest of the memorial makes clear that we have already forgotten. Every detail, from its placement at a busy intersection to equally thoughtless design decisions, communicates that our culture may not be worth fighting for. Employing the same aesthetic as chain restaurants and big box stores, it blends seamlessly into the surrounding suburban sprawl.

The 45th Infantry Brigade and the 45th Infantry Division Museum were contacted and times were set up to photograph individuals who volunteered to serve as models for the proposed carved soldiers.

My neighborhood, adjacent to the memorial, is heavily populated by air men and women serving at Tinker Air Force Base. This local connection goes completely unrecognized. Instead four statues of heavily armed infantryman carved from tree trunks with a chainsaw stand in for the Veterans supposedly honored. The planners apparently found flight suits and helmets inadequate accessories for warriors.

It’s time that we recognize that ours was in truth a noble cause. – President Ronald Reagan

Inscribed beneath the wooden statue of a Vietnam-era infantryman, this quote is more poetic than most of the writings. It is also a slogan used by a skillful politician to exploit cultural divisions during the run up to the 1980 presidential election. Contrary to the president’s view, many Vietnam veterans believe that the war was a tragic mistake. This insertion of a political agenda into a place supposedly meant for remembrance further illustrates the lack of consideration given to words.

Completing the Soldiers’ Memorial took vision, dedication, and skill. It is a fitting tribute to the sacrifice of our fellow citizens.

Word counts of plaques thanking planners and funders more than doubles those referencing veterans. The result is a tribute to the petty ambitions of local politicians. Neither vision, dedication nor skill are manifest in this place.

This Area Under Video Surveillance

Two street signs in the memorial parking lot declare an authoritarian distrust of visitors’ intentions. Maybe a memorial without meaning needs protection from vandals.

Oklahoma Art Writing and Curatorial Fellows wrote essays, reviews and profiles throughout the 2010 program. This was part of the final essays for the program.

Review: Volume Without Mass

2011-01-25T09:22:00.002-06:00

Volume Without Mass: Alyson Shotz at the Nasher

Sightings: Alyson Shotz

Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX

October 2, 2010 – January 2, 2011

Kelsey Karper

Alyson Shotz, Wave Equation, 2010, Stainless steel wire, silvered glass beads, aluminum

In the inaugural exhibition of the Nasher Sculpture Center’s new series Sightings: New Art at the Nasher, Brooklyn-based artist Alyson Shotz takes to transforming and redefining the gallery space using minimal, nearly invisible material. The exhibition’s two sculptural installations alter viewers’ optical perceptions, which constantly change relative to shifts in light or a viewer’s position in the room. The influence of artists like Lygia Clark is apparent, as the presence of a viewer is key to activating the full potential of the work.

Shotz, who began her university studies in geology and has continued interests in cosmology and astrophysics, explores optical illusions in most of her work. An example of her exploration of optical illusion, Wave Equation (2010) is deceptive in its volume. Although it fills most of the room, requiring viewers to walk around the perimeter of the gallery, it has the illusion of being present while at the same time not there. Hundreds of strands of stainless steel wire are threaded with silvered glass beads and suspended from circular aluminum frames hung from the ceiling. The strands don’t just hang, though. They arc, bend and rise suggesting forms such as jellyfish, waves or perhaps a portal to another dimension.

Having both a translucent and reflective quality, the silvered glass beads bring light into the forms. Large windows on two of the gallery walls let in an abundance of natural light. As the light gradually shifts over the course of the day, the sculpture responds. Individual strands of the beaded wire recede and disappear as others reflect light with subtle shimmer.

The element of sound provides additional dimension to the work. Collaborating with composer Simon Fisher Turner, Shotz created a soundtrack for the piece that underscores the otherworldly sensation. The calm, ambient sound seems as though it could have been recorded during a deep space exploration or an underwater expedition.

Alyson Shotz, Double Torque, 2010, Yarn and pins on wall

In another room, Double Torque (2010) creates the illusion of a quickly moving, swirling vortex. Variegated blue yarn is stretched between straight pins nailed into the wall with precise placement and spacing. The installation draws on the work of Fred Sandback, whose yarn drawings created perceptual illusions. In Double Torque, the carefully placed pinpoints connected by a single line of yarn is a combination of drawing and sculpture. Light is again introduced into the form, this time casting shadows that give depth to the patterns created by the yarn. Despite their delicate nature, the materials of Double Torque appear determined to tie the wall into knots.

Shotz has created works with striking presence using very delicate materials. Both installations respond to the unique conditions of the space, situated carefully within the rooms to incorporate the profusion of natural light. This attentive consideration of the space makes each work both experiential and not entirely knowable. An individual visitor may never get to experience the myriad of shifts each work displays, dependent upon the conditions of light.

Using almost nothing Shotz defines forms - and the space around them - in a way that invites viewers to question their own perceptions. Challenging traditional ideas of sculpture as solid objects, her work occupies space in a commanding but diaphanous way, possessing great volume without mass.

Oklahoma Art Writing and Curatorial Fellows wrote essays, reviews and profiles throughout the 2010 program. This was part of the final essays for the program.

FREERIDING: Fellow's Curatorial Project

2011-01-18T08:18:00.001-06:00

Temporary Services, Booklets by Temporary Services, 1998-2010

Oklahoma Art Writing and Curatorial Fellow Alison Hearst's curatorial collaborative just opened an exhibition at Texas Woman's University's East/West Galleries in Denton, TX. FREERIDING features works that reflect on or incorporate an act of giving or taking and is on view through February 10, 2011.

Works by the Art Guys, David Bergholz, Christine Bisetto, Richie Budd, Candy Chang, M. Kate Helmes, Kristin Lucas, Temporary Services, and Lawrence Weiner, and a project organized by curator Daniel Baumann are included. The curatorial statement states, "The nature of these exchanges eclipses mere interaction and involves a deeper commitment on the part of the artist and viewer in that each gains something, relinquishes something, or engages in a reciprocal trade."

FREERIDING is organized by Alison Hearst and Leslie Murrell of Subtext Projects. Learn more on the Subtext Projects website.

Fellow's Review Published on eReview

2011-01-14T12:17:00.000-06:00

Oklahoma Art Writing Fellow Lee Piechocki, writing as Alaska Noyes, published his final essay on eReview recently. The review has generated a large volume of comments and discussion.

Review: Altered Books

2010-12-07T08:50:00.001-06:00

Altered Books
Curated by Elizabeth Brown
[Artspace] at Untitled, Oklahoma City
July 9– October 9, 2010
Author: Sarah Atlee

Guy Laramee, Le Pont, 2008

encyclopedia, wood, 8 3/4" x 14 3/8" x 11 3/8"

At Altered Books, the objects in question coil, explode, meander, shrink, and do anything besides sit on shelves and mouler. Curator Elizabeth Brown has assembled a diverse collection of sculpted books that aren't just tweaked, they're transformed.

Books come pre-packaged with content before anyone undertakes to sculpt them. It could be mundane, as with Doug Beube's twisted phone books, or sacred. Linda Ekstrom's source is the Bible, perhaps the most loaded material in the world. The objects' original subject matter doesn't overshadow the created forms; the words, visible or implied, and their containers produce compelling results together. Guy Laramee's Temple a Biblios (2) is built from a stack of encyclopedias, tomes that once stood with authority, but have been eschewed in favor of Wikipedia.

There is an elephant in this room. Contributing artist Beube spoke to the relevance of books' physicality in a time when readers are seeking other methods of information delivery. Words on pages are becoming a precious resource; so are paper, leather, linen, and thread. Altered Books compels viewers (likely readers) to consider the future of books. After we've shed the habit of holding stacks of paper, we can recycle them into art.

Review: No Man’s Land: Christian Boltanski

2010-11-30T08:41:00.000-06:00

No Man’s Land: Christian Boltanski
Park Avenue Armory, New York
May 14 – June 13, 2010
Author: Mary Kathryn Moeller

Christian Boltanski, No Man's Land, Mixed Media Installation, 2010

At the Park Avenue Armory in New York, French artist Christian Boltanski created a chilling installation exploring themes for which he is well known: life, death, memory, identity, and loss. No Man’s Land begins with a wall of rusty biscuit tins and the sound of overlapping heartbeats. Upon entering the hall, viewers encounter a morgue-like wasteland of plots of discarded clothes. Each area is lit with a low-slung florescent light as if the coats and sweaters are being autopsied. In the center is a huge pile of clothing nearly as tall as the 60-foot crane behind it. Every few minutes the crane reaches down to pluck some of the clothes; raising them to the apex and then releasing them back onto the pile. It is like watching a predator play with its food or being inside some horrible arcade game. Each time the action is repeated it is more sickening than the last as the constant roar of heartbeats begins to beg the question: what became of people? The individuals who once wore these clothes have been lost and all that remains now are their heartbeats and jackets, catalogued neatly in biscuit tins. In No Man’s Land, Boltanski has given viewers a powerful and terrifying reminder of the fragility of life and the inevitability of anonymity in death.

Oklahoma Art Writing and Curatorial Fellows write essays, reviews and profiles that will appear on this blog throughout the year-long program.

Review: PhotoFest 2010

2010-11-23T08:31:00.003-06:00

PhotoFest 2010: The Power of Place featuring Rachel Papo, Lori Nix, Marc Yankus and Brett Weston

JRB Art at The Elms, Oklahoma City

September 3 – 25, 2010

Author: Kelsey Karper

Rachel Papo, Military kiosk counter, Shaare Avraham, Israel,
2004 from the series Serial No. 3817131

The Power of Place features the work of four artists, each depicting a sense of place through photography. A standout of the exhibition is Rachel Papo, an Israeli artist, whose two bodies of work on display are at once distinctively independent and astoundingly related.

Rachel Papo, Look-out duty at the observation tower, Tsaelim, Israel,
2005 from the series Serial No. 3817131

Serial No. 3817131 documents the interrupted lives of Israeli girls who are required to serve in the military from ages 18 to 20. Titled with Papo’s own serial number from her time of service, this series reveals the longing and isolation felt by these young women. Although placed within a strict and regimented world, Papo is able to capture the occasional fleeting moments of girlish playfulness and femininity amongst them – even while they are carrying a rifle.

Rachel Papo, Three 2^nd Class Girls Backstage, St. Petersburg, Russia,
2007, from the series Desperately Perfect

In her second series, Desperately Perfect, Papo finds a commonality between the young women of the Israeli army and the girls of the renowned Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia. The grace and sophistication of the young ballerinas is evident even in a still photograph. In Lunch, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2007, Papo captures the girls in line for their meal. One girl turns towards the camera, her eyes meeting the lens straight on and the corners of her mouth turned slightly up. With a simple glance and her delicate posture, this one ballerina personifies the imposed balance between the playfulness of girlhood and discipline of the ballet.

Rachel Papo, Lunch, St. Petersburg, Russia,
2007, from the series Desperately Perfect

Although living in different worlds, both the Israeli soldiers and the Russian ballerinas are faced with a predetermined vision of femininity and place. At pivotal points in their lives, each is placing a sense of nationalism above personal identity.

Oklahoma Art Writing and Curatorial Fellows write essays, reviews and profiles that will appear on this blog throughout the year-long program.

Review: Painting Séance

2010-11-16T09:37:00.001-06:00

Painting Séance

Works by Ryan Mosley

Grand Arts

Kansas City, MO

6/4 – 7/24/2010

Author: Alaska Noyes

Ryan Mosley, Waiting For Romance, Oil on Canvas, 2010

Ryan Mosley’s strength is his balance. Both intuitive and learned he has a preternatural understanding of the painting game. An understanding that elicited Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones to say Mosley does something rare, “think not just paint”.

Mosley is a painter’s painter, trained at the Royal College of Art in London, and employed as a guard at the National Gallery, his work echoes with historical referents: Manet, Courbet, Guston, Arcimboldo. His paintings are decisively figurative, depicting quite the cast of characters. But large swaths of scumbled paint, geometric patterns, and generalized forms teeter his paintings on the edge of abstraction

Like any good postmodern painter he culls the troves of art history, pop-culture and his own life for inspiration. The paintings at Grand Arts were created during a short residency at the gallery and are imbued with a Londoner’s playful musings of the American west – cowboy boots, mustachioed men, jugs, hats, cacti, and banjos.

Mosley’s paintings are a balance of painterly skill, faux naiveté and real naiveté, humor and sinisterness, figuration and abstraction, attraction and repulsion, brio and ennui. He creates a soup that is not easily definable or traceable.

Oklahoma Art Writing and Curatorial Fellows write essays, reviews and profiles that will appear on this blog throughout the year-long program.