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.