Events and Art Festivals: Things to do this weekend!

Need something to do this weekend? Here are a couple of things around the US and in the UK that will get your art bone moving. If you are not in these areas, as always, look into your city's event listings. These are usually posted on the local government's website! Have fun!

UK Based:

Bristol Wild Dayz

Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery

1 Queen's Road, Clifton
Bristol, UK BS8 1RL

Until the 31st of January 2010

Hours: 10am to 5pm

Here is a slide show of some images

"A photographic exhibition charting the 80’s music scene in Bristol featuring images from the internationally renowned Bristol photographer, Andrew “Beezer” Beese."

US Based:

7th Annual St. Armands Circle Art Festival
411 St. Armands Circle
Sarasota, Florida 34236

30th and 31st of January 2010 

Hours: 10am to 5pm


"Over 175 artists and craftsman display their original artwork. Pottery, Oils, watercolors, ceramics, jewelry, and sculpture. In its first year this show was ranked in the top 50, out of 10,000 shows held each year in this country!"

Water Impressions
Heidi Lingamfelter & Chris Cunningham
Tarrant County College, Northwest Campus
4801 Marine Creek Parkway
Fort Worth, Texas 76179
Until the 20th of February
Exhibition Reception: 30th of January from 11am to 1pm


"Water Impressions is an exhibition featuring new work by Heidi Lingamfelter and Chris Cunningham. All the work installed has been inspired by the common thread of water. Lingamfelter takes a 2-dimensional approach and explores the beauty of water through oil paint, watercolors, collagraphs, and cut paper. Cunningham creates 3-dimensional works by using various types of wood, ceramics, and glass."

Gallery Listing: Chichester

An essential part of learning about art and feeling comfortable talking about art is to actually go to museums, galleries, or art events and immerse yourself in the art community. By visiting art centers you become more aware of what styles you are attracted to as well as what art/artists make you think. 
I have decided that every few weeks I will post a blog on a city and shed some light on some of the galleries in that particular location. This time I have selected the seaside town of Chichester in England. Here is a list of the current exhibitions at some of the contemporary art centers in the area. 


Oxmarket Centre of Arts
Victoria Horkan
25th of January-6th February 2010
Foyer Gallery


Landscapes
Tom Paine
11th-30th of January 2010
Wilson Studio


Heart in Action
Hilary Evershed
25th-30th of January 2010
John Rank Gallery


A Brush with Colour
Julie Tebbutt
25th of January-6th of February 2010
Lobby Gallery


Pallant House Gallery*
Firn
Emma Stibbon
1st of December 2009-22nd of February 2010


A New Breed
WOKmedia
May 2009-March 2010


Otter Gallery
Parameters
Works-in-progress by MA Fine Art students 
18th of January-14 of February 2010

If you are in the Chichester area and have access to a car, you should also stop by the West Dean Gallery and the Cass Sculpture Foundation. Admission is free to all the galleries.

So go ahead and visit Chichester if you are in the region. If you are not in the area, start looking into art centers in your town.** Go and explore, all you need to bring is an open mind!

*The Pallant House Gallery currently features many different exhibitions, including Henry Moore Textiles, The Search for the Real: The Figure from Sickert to Auerbach, Eric Gill: Sacred and Profane, and Modern British Art: The First 100 Years. 
**My city selections are pretty arbitrary, however I will try to avoid mentioning major art centers in cities such as London, Paris, New York, etc (you get the idea). If there is a city you would like me to feature, please do not hesitate to email or leave a contact. 

Artist Interview: The "Bundle Lady"

Bundles: roughly 1 ft cubed in volume (each bundle)

found sheer fabric layered with colored honeybee wax

Untitled Prints: 2x2" (each print)

intaglio and hand coloring

Name: Erika Villarreal, most recently responding to “Bundle Lady”

Current City: Lafayette, IN

Birthplace: Chicago, IL

Education: BA University of Dallas, 2007; MFA Purdue University 2010
Website Link

Preferred Medium: 
This question is too hard! But I like using found household objects to make installations out of them in bright colors. I also like multiples. I love prints very much.

Tell me about your work in one sentence: 
My work immerses itself deeply in the idea of the family and all its constituents, exploring rich metaphor through the understanding of containers, knots, hanging things, bright colors, whispers, yelling, shrinking, expanding, politics, functions, dysfunctions, freeing, imprisoning, parties, piñatas, and the uterus.

Would you prefer to deal through gallery representation or directly with clients? Why?

I don’t even like that word—client. Am I providing a service? I feel like I’m just sharing things I do, know, and make. I want to have a reciprocal relationship with the person viewing my work—one involving dialogue, understanding, and confrontation. Sure, I’d like gallery representation. But I’d love to stabilize myself within communities of regular people more. Art is for people.

What is your favorite forum/method of sharing information about art?

Face to face? That’s how I like to share.

Your work is selected to show in a gallery or museum in the world, where would you choose?

You want to know the truth, Ester? The other day, a man saw some of my colorful little prints and told me that his two-year old daughter would say “Wow!” if she saw them.  My heart FLUTTERED.  This is on my list of Top 5 best compliments about my work. I’m most interested in expanding art audiences, not grouping, ranking, or even choosing them. If I could have constant installation exhibitions in random neighborhoods, like in alleys, for example, I’d love my life! I would love to see what happens if I install 1,000 rainbow colored bundles so that they were overflowing out of a dumpster onto the street. I’d love to pass out surprise prints to people getting off of the train on their way back home from work. There is nothing more exciting, necessary, or pertinent than inserting art into the public realm, especially in 2010.

Would you rather have your work well known in the art community or well understood in the general population?

Aw, can’t I have both? The tough thing is I need to survive. My artwork and working within communities feeds my soul but what will feed my tummy and pay my bills? I think this is a reality that cultural workers, if not all workers, are confronting in this recession: How can I reconcile my need to feed my soul with the need to pay the rent? But, seriously, Ester, if this were a perfect, magical world with rainbows, ponies, no war, stable economy, everyone is at peace, then my preference would be to have fans mostly in the general population!

Who are your artistic influences?

The following childhood activities have influenced my practice: playing in my basement with brightly colored metallic papers, building houses out of cardboard, writing parodies to songs, putting on plays, making videos, and drawing everyday. I never took a single extra curricular art class as a child but I made art everyday, almost! It was great and I highly recommend it. In terms of artists that have influenced me, I’m really engaged by the work of Swoon, Kiki Smith, Louise Bourgeois, Maria Alos, Bertram, Joseph Beuys, Le Grav, Robert Rauschenberg, Helio Oiticica and children who draw monsters.

Styles and Movements: Modernism

I am going to begin this section at a point where most people begin losing touch with art history, Modernism. The most basic definition of Modernism is that it concerned itself with the innovation of practices, theories, or characteristics during the 19th century.  Most scholars place the beginning of Modernism to be around the 1860s. Modernism was connected to industrial, scientific and political revolutions in European countries, especially in France. However, it spread to almost every discipline.


Artists were also among those revolting. Prior to this time visual artists had undertaken the task of producing commissioned works using traditional (still lifes, portraits, and landscapes), religious, or historical themes. Modernism gave the artist free will to portray the sentiments of the time in new styles, such as the Impressionist style. Artists associated with Impressionism were Éduourd Manet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Claude Monet. 

From it’s beginning roots in Europe, Modernism eventually spread throughout the Western world and reached Asia. It continued to be the dominant stylistic phenomena, until it was succeeded by Post-Modernism in the late 20th century. However, there is a split among art historians on this subject. I will eventually discuss this shift in art history, but if you are interested at the moment, check the art critic Clement Greenberg’s essays on the subject.

To find out more about Modernism, I highly recommend going to your local library and checking out Gardner’s Art Through the Ages  (I like the 10th Edition).(1) It is a massive reference book on art history and a great place to begin your art education.




(1) Richard Tansey, Fred Kleiner and Horst De La Croix, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 10th Edition. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1995. 

Gallery Exhibition and Event: Animators of Tomorrow

Animators of Tomorrow 

"Showcasing this year's emerging young talent"

The Sidney Cooper Art Gallery
Canterbury, UK 
January 9th - January 23rd 2010
Email 
Exhibition Website

The exhibition displays the work developed by over 500 children during animation workshops commissioned by Canterbury Christ Church University as part of the Creative Campus Initiate and produced by Anifest's 'Home Grown Talent', KRAN'S Riverside Project 'Home to Home' and over 50 schools in Kent.  The exhibition space at the Sidney Cooper Gallery was organized in a very inviting manner that showcases the children's work and illustrates the different stages in the process. The walls trace the path from conception to animation. 


I was lucky enough to experience the exhibition during one of the Cut out animation workshops, 'The Games Come to Town!' which took place on Saturday 16th of January. The children, with the help of two group leaders, created concepts, drawings, and animations of Olympic events in just four hours. It was incredible to see how quickly they were able to use the technology to put the animation together from simple construction paper cut-outs. These programs help to boost self-esteem among children and support the future of the new media arts. It was evident that the children were proud of their work and enjoyed the experience. 


Overall I highly recommend this event and exhibitions like it, because they are wonderful ways of engaging the audience. They also attract diverse viewers, from families to teens to the elderly. Exhibitions like these are excellent forums to learn more about art in a very relaxed and inviting environment! This a great opportunity to get entire groups of people interested and involved in the arts. 


So go over to the Sidney Cooper Art Gallery before the 23rd and check this out! For those of you stateside, museums and galleries are beginning to promote education events like these quite often. For example, the Dallas Museum of Art has the Center for Creative Connections, which hosts events in its creative lab throughout the year. 

Not Another Art Blog!

But really, why do we need another art blog?

I have spent the better part of ten years studying art history and studio art, but even I find keeping up with the current trends in the art market daunting. Aside from needing to read every new review, article, and thesis, it is incredibly difficult in our globalized world to keep up with the international, national, and the virtual art world.*

So I am starting small. This blog was made in part to help educate others and in part to guide me. I believe that the "everyday Joe" is intimidated by the contemporary art gallery, just as a latte-sipping, beret-wearing gallery owner might be intimidated by a football game. Its only natural that people like to stick with what they know.

In hopes to one day become an advocate for the arts in the 'real' world, I thought I would try to keep up with the arts in a less formal and more inviting forum. So I open up myself to your thoughts, suggestions, praises, and complaints about where this journey should lead.

Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots. -Frank A. Clark

Okay, now to the nitty-gritty, here are a couple of notes on the topics I will choose. Due to the fact that well-known artists, museums, and art centers have been covered by every art blog, art museum, and curator, this site will focus on local modern and contemporary artists, exhibitions, and events.** This will provide me with a challenge and you with rare tidbits. However, local may mean something different to you than to me. I live in several different places in one year, depending on season, holiday, and job,  so my topics will range from city to city. Enjoy!

*If you do want to read every article, my links are a good place to start!
**Although for most of my topic choices this is true, I will need to cover a range of well known and less known styles and movements.