Bloody Little Porcelain Dolls!

Unfortunately, I have not seen any of this artist’s work in person. But, I wanted to share her work, because she’s a working artist who I greatly admire. And, not only do I hope to see her work in person one day, there are several pieces I’d love to own.

 Maria Rubinke is an artist working out of Copenhagen, Denmark. She went to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and the Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation. She graduated in 2008, and has had a number of exhibitions.

Rubinke works in ceramics. She makes classic porcelain doll figurines, but turns that image on its head. The figures are pure white, and glossy. And, contrasts so sharply with the disturbing imagery she thrusts upon them.

This one is titled “Cinderella.”

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This one is “Blind Faith.”

Rubinke has done a few pieces like this, with a figure tearing her hair out so vigorously that she splits her head open. Perfect timing to show how I feel during finals.

But, this figure is my absolute favorite. If I could buy it, I would. Many of her pieces seem to display these figures tearing themselves apart in some way. And, those are the pieces I respond to the most.  Take this piece, for instance. Here is a picture perfect ballerina. To me, this piece seems to be about this seemingly perfect petite little dancer taking a look at herself. But, she isn’t looking in a mirror, she is looking inward. And, it’s a very violent look at herself. She’s ripped out her eyes, and is forcing herself to look at her (now) bloodied and eyeless form. The picture she gets of herself is disturbing, but it’s the fault of HOW she is looking at herself. At least, that is how I see this piece. How about you? What are your thoughts?

Twombly, Twombly!!!

I went to The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art recently. And, while I was there, I was fascinated by the works of Cy Twombly. Cy Twombly was an American artist, who belonged to the same generation as Robert Rauschenburg. He was a painter, sculptor, and photographer. He was born in 1928, died in 2011. In 1954, Twombly served as a cryptographer for the U.S. Army. In 1957, Twombly moved to Rome, where he spent the rest of his life. His work was mostly Abstract Expressionism.

Cy Twombly, Second Voyage to Italy

Twombly lived in Rome after World War II. He ended up being among a generation artists, in 1950's Europe, that were trying to forget about the war. For his inspiration, Twombly used his surroundings in Rome, combined with the new style of American painters. He used these sources, and combined it with his own emotional reactions to them.

His paintings mostly had a solid color background that was usually gray, tan, or off-white. On top of the solid color background, Twombly scribbled. A few of these, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, resembled a chalkboard. And, what looked like chalk, was in the form of scribbling. Many of his paintings use this scribbling style, which sometimes resembles cursive handwriting (a calligraphy style). Other times, Twombly's work resembles grafitti. One of the large paintings, at the Museum of Modern Art, looked like random chalk marks. But, some looked more like cursive handwriting. Though, there were no actual letters represented, just vague shapes that resembled the structure of letters. Later in his career, he would focus more on romantic symbolism.

Cy Twombly, Untitled

Cursive-style piece

When I stood next to a large Twombly art piece “Untitled, 1971,” a museum employee told me that it was worth $1 Billion dollars. That intrigued me. I looked into why Twombly's work would be worth so much money. Twombly was a big influence to generations of younger artists. He is considered a very important artist. He is said to have influenced Jean-Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, Francesco Clemente, and Julian Schnabel. Another reason that Twombly's work is so expensive now, is scarcity. Twombly has a small body of work, only creating about 650 paintings. When compared to artists, such as Andy Warhol who created over 10,000 works of art, Twombly has a relatively small amount of completed works. If every major art museum in the world sought to acquire an important Twombly piece, there wouldn't be any his artwork left.

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1971

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1971

Me next to a $1 Billion dollar art piece

I liked the artworks by Twombly that were more of calligraphic style, that looked almost like cursive handwriting. My favorite piece of Twombly's, n the Museum of Modern Art, was a piece titled “Note I” from the series “III Notes from Salalah” 2005-2007. It had that chalkboard aesthetic, the forms that resembled cursive handwriting, and drips. The calligraphic-style faux lettering looked watered down. And, the letters were dripping.

Cy Twombly, “Note I” from the series “III Notes from Salalah” 2005-2007

The Seniors got something to Show!

I went to the Senior Show at the Robert Else Gallery, on campus. It is a collection of works by the graduating classes of both this past Fall 2016, and this Spring 2017. It is only open until May 12th, 2017. The artworks of these two graduating classes are on display both in the Robert Else Gallery, and the R.W. Witt Gallery, in Kadema Hall at Sac State. The Galleries are open from noon to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday. The reception will be during the Art Ball, this coming Friday May 12th, 2017. The Senior Show displays art from 20 graduating art students. These are some of my favorites.

This is a piece done by Julia Kropinova. Kropinova mostly works with acrylic and spray paint. She also experiments with other materials. Her biggest inspirations are artworks that are surreal or expressionist. I like the movement in this piece. It reminds me of the ocean's waves, while also looking more like a landscape. It gives me the sense of strips of fabric, blowing in the wind. There's so much detail, and you can see different material in the piece.

These two pieces are done by artist Crystal Ruiz. Ruiz had these, or pieces very similar to these, in a solo exhibition on campus called “Without Understanding.” If you'd like to read more about that show, read this blog about it, by a fellow student, here. I love how this artist plays around with the rigid quality of the geometric shapes, and the softness of the fabric. The fabric is draped over the geometric shapes, and then bunched up around them. It's an interesting juxtaposition.

This is a piece by Forest Aliya. Aliya works with mixed media, and paint. She has a fondness for different forms of light, and rays.

And, this amazing piece is done by Lauren Daulton. I love this figure, it is so elegant.

Well, Whoop De Doo, to YOU!!!

I recently went the Verge Center for the Arts. Until May 14th, the verge is hosting an installation by Whoop De Doo. Whoop De Doo is a non-profit organization that came from New York. It is a large-scale collaborative project. Whoop De Doo is a traveling project, that is artist-led. They create installations, and live performances. They film the live performances. The video of the live performances becomes part of the exhibition, for the rest of time in the gallery.

Whoop De Doo travels internationally, and partners with different organizations wherever they go. The exhibition is tailored to the needs of the groups they partner with. At the Verge Center for the arts, Whoop De Doo partnered with The Royalty Dancers, The BlyueRose Dance Project, and Ballet Folklorico de Sacramento.

The exhibition is full of fun props, and stage pieces. The pyramid, that is behind a faux-brick wall, actually opens up. Performers would be tucked inside, and come out for a fun entrance. There are large black plastic cylinders that hang from the ceiling, that would lower to cover performers. There's a giant kitty litter box, cacti, and a mine with pickaxes and miner hats complete with flashlights strapped to the top. The entire thing has a very fun atmosphere.

Luis Campos-Garcia "Creation Beyond Borders"

 

Before even uttering a word, this is how Luis Campos-Garcia began his recent lecture at Sac State. He is playing an Ocarina, a wind instrument with some roots in ancient Mexico. Campos-Garcia grew up in Mexico City, and later moved to the U.S. He has many influences, that are Mexican artists. There were many public artworks in Mexico City that inspired Campos-Garcia. He talked about how there is a lot of murals, etc. in Mexico City. And, the artists' work there was incredible for him to walk around and see.

Campos-Garcia was also inspired by nature. He briefly worked as a day-laborer. And, as he developed his own art, he came to a conclusion about art and politics. Campos-Garcia says that art should be political. I found this interesting, because of the guests that we recently had in our classroom. There were a few people that recently came to speak to my Contemporary art class. They were from M5 Arts, the people behind Art Street. If you'd like to read more about Art Street, read my blog entry here. The M5 Arts curator, Seumas Coutts, talked about he tries to avoid politics in art. He said that, he thinks, people will associate it with propaganda. Coutts looks for aesthetics, and emotions, that the work gets out of the artist. But, Campos-Garcia stated that everything is affected by politics. He says that even the materials we use as artists is impacted by politics.

Campos-Garcia talked about art and social movement. And how, even though art by itself doesn't cause social change, it goes along with social movements. His stance on art and politics seems to influence the type of art he makes. Campos-Garcia works in printmaking. He likes it because you can easily make multiples. These multiples can be spread, and used for different things like posters for marches.

Campos-Garcia also talked about the sharing of supplies, for printmaking. And, how artists would get together at a party. And, they would all step on the printmaking plates, to transfer the ink from the carved plates to paper. Campos-Garcia also participates in “Mobile Art Galleries,” for Sol Collective.

The DNA of Art!

Bryan Valenzuela lectured at Sac State recently. He talked about being inspired by a lot of early 1980 artists. He was very inspired by Chuck Close. He talked about how he would go the Sac State library, and check out many, many, portfolio books. Valenzuela also said he gets inspiration from walking.

Most of Valenzuela's work is pen and ink drawings. He uses a lot of layers in his work. And, he makes everything he can by hand. He sews together pieces of canvass. This began as a money saving tactic, using scraps to make a large canvass instead of having to buy one. That is what he describes as “extending your process,” the idea of going out on a limb and expanding what you're doing.

Valenzuela also gets a lot of his inspiration from text. He starts out many of his pieces by using a base layer of text. He then adds layers of paint, and builds up different layers in that way. He also puts detailed drawings over the top of the layers he has built up. He started taking text, and uploading it into photoshop. This let him write in larger scale more easily, and allowed him to manipulate the text in creative ways. Valenzuela describes the text, that forms the base for most of his work, as being like DNA. He says it is like a conversation with the things that are happening in the image, a sort of language running through life.

Valenzuela created a public artwork for the new Golden 1 Arena, downtown. He talked about this process. He wanted to represent our two rivers, the Sacramento and the American. He went to a glass studio in Munich to make these glass sphere. The spheres were mostly blue, to fit the water theme, but also had other colors flowing through them. The glass lets light filter through them, and is very beautiful.

Teagle, Rinder, and Museums!

Rachel Teagle, the founding director of the newest art museum at UC Davis, spoke first and told us about the new UCD Manetti Shrem Museum that opened 5 months ago. Innovation was a key to this museum.

Teagle talked about how you need to enlist lots of partners to open a successful museum. She also talked about making a great argument for the plan you come up with. When you imagine what your museum will look like, you should invite the community to imagine with you, and research the needs of the community. Visit other Art Museums, both new and old, near and far. Develop a clear sense of what you can add to the art environment. Many museums enlist famous architect’s, The Broad Museum in Michigan went with Arch Zola Adid. They had decided to go local with their choice.

Teagle talked about how they took their core values, for the first generation faculty artists, from UCD to fall in line with the spirit of defiant provincialism. From this group, they enlisted their memories to get the history of the art/artists. Poor to no records were found. The museum has 5 gallery rooms, a lecture hall, and a wet studio. 25% of the space is educational.

Lawrence Rinder, from BAMPFA, spoke next. This museum was originally placed on the Berkley campus in 1881. The Bacon Hall Library and Museum is the oldest on the west coast. Its mission is to inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through art and film. The issue here was different than the one at UCD. The issue was to take an older established museum and make it locally connected and globally relevant, engaging audiences from the campus, community, and beyond.

In 2013 BAMPFA moved to its current location in the former UC Printing Plant built in 1940 and vacant. BAMPFA has two film theaters , a performance forum, cafe, four study centers for art and film, a reading room, an art-making lab, and various gathering areas. Connected both to campus and the burgeoning Berkeley Arts District and located just a block from the Downtown Berkeley BART station. Mission statement:"inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through art and film. We aspire to be locally connected and globally relevant, engaging audiences from the campus, community, and beyond."

How Deep Does the Red Square Go?

I went to the Crocker Art Gallery, and saw a piece titled "Deep Red Square (Homage to Josef Albers)." It is a large square, that looks to be about 4 feet by 4 feet. The piece was made in 1980. Richard Anuszkiewicz is the artist that created this painting. It is made with acrylic on canvas. The piece consists of a red square in the middle of a blue background, utilizing complemetary colors. Red lines radiate outward from the square, to the edge of the painting. They are straight, usually diagonal lines. It reminds me of a starburst. At the corners, on the outer edges of the red square, the red lines get closer together. The lines start to bleed together, and shine a red color from the outer corners of the red square to the inner corners of the painting.

The lines feel like an optical illusion, they made my eyes feel a little strained. But, it was very beautiful. I took pictures, but it doesn't turn out the same as looking at the piece in person. You can really see the line work in person. As you move around the painting, the lines look like they are moving. You really need to zoom into the picture to see all the lines in it. Just looking at at the full photograph pushes the fine lines so close together, that it's hard to really see them. The large size of the piece, in person, is a vastly different experience.

I liked this piece, it really alive as you walk around it. It is placed in the middle of an otherwise blank wall, in the museum. It is bright, and vibrant. I liked it, but I don't think I'd like to own it. Looking at it for too long strains my eyes. It is an illusion, without the elements of a traditional illusion. It is supposed to just be about the act of seeing.

Anuszkiewicz became an important figure in this art movement, called Op Art (or, Optical Art). Op Art gives the illusion of motion. It was partially a reaction to Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism. 

A Close-up of "The Sickness"

“The Sickness,” by Rich Beckermeyer is in the Sac State Library’s Gallery right now. Beckermeyer is a photographer, filmmaker, and writer.

His work in this exhibition consists of very large photos, in the form of Dibold Metal Prints. This is where the ink is infused into the metal, aluminized metal. This makes the prints durable, water-proof, and shiny. Beckermeyer used his grandfather, and his failing health, as his subject. His goal was to engage with the overall conversation of aging, care, and end of life.

Many of his photographs are very close up, and all of them are very large. This gives such an intimacy to the viewer. It’s done in gray-scale. The achromatic nature of the work gives it a little bit of emotional distance, and sets a tone of the past and memories, to the work. And, the shine to these types of metal prints always strike me as really springing them to life. It adds dimension to it, which highlights different aspects of the picture, as you move around.

We can see the small flakes of skin, coming off of the grandfather’s back. The oxygen tubing is blown up so large, and still is not contained inside the frame. The blow-up of a page of the bible is mostly blurry, because the grandfather was losing his sight, but it was still a huge part of his life. Making these items, these moments so large gives them such an emotional weight. You can feel how much these items meant to the artist, and/or his grandfather.

I personally really liked the print titled, “His Caregiver Walking Away From Her Childhood Home.” Nothing seems cleaned up for the shot. The tree branches he included in the shot add to the feeling of age to this home, further highlighted by the gray-scale of the photo. The caregiver looks contemplative, with a touch of sadness. It was one that I kept going back to. I tried imagining what was going through her head. And, it could be a myriad of things, even when only put into the context of the rest of the show.

“The Sickness,” will be at Sacramento State’s Library Gallery until March 18^th, 2017

My time at Art Street

As an artist, I tend to feel like flinching when someone goes up and touches another person’s art. Much of the time, art is made to just be observed. But, going to Art Street, and seeing different pieces that were designed to be interacted with, was a change that quite interesting. I had to get over the knee-jerk reaction of “why are you touching things?” That was a difficult feeling to get over. I’ve taken art history classes, where you learn of all the art damaged or lost forever. In the early 19th century, some frescoes from ancient Egypt and ancient Greece were stripped of their original color for aesthetic purposes, aesthetics of that time period. Art being handled, or exposed to camera flashes, etc. can slowly damage art over time. And, the art is someone else’s creation. I would usually feel strange, seeing people touching my work. But, art isn’t only one thing. Art is everywhere. Art is an experience. Art can be anything. DuChamp famously took a pre-made urinal, and signed his name to it. A joke, yes. But, also a statement, anything can be art. And, having art that engages more than one of the senses makes for some pretty interesting experiences. There’s a room with nooks cut out of the walls, lined with pillows to sit on. The nooks have headphones, with meditation style music playing through them. The room has a giant zen garden in the middle, lit up by green and yellow lights softly shimmering across the room. Another piece was made of moss, in a picture frame mounted on the wall, with a sign that says “Please touch me.” One piece, that was particularly popular with children in attendance, was a collage (in pieces) on several turnstiles. Depending on which way each of the turnstile collages were faced, and where you were standing, determined what type of collage you will see. Kids ran through these giant turnstiles, pushing them around and around, like they were playing in rotating doors. Having art that not only engaged your senses, but could be fun, is extremely smart. Kids are having a good time, and being exposed to art. I wasn’t just standing around, talking about the pieces, wondering if I could take a picture. I was standing inside the art, playing with it, feeling it. Everyone was having a good time, kids were going up to the open mic. Adults were closing their eyes, and really listening to the experience. We weren’t just staring, we were climbing inside, and living the experience. I think this kind of art needs to be around us much more than it is. Going to an art gallery, or museum, feels like a chore sometimes. Something to educate us, or our children. But, once you are there, you go out of your way to keep quiet. You’re afraid to take photos of the work. Adults with children are always on alert, making sure the kids aren’t wandering off breaking things. This isn’t a conducive environment to enjoy the art you came to see. And, it’s mostly boring for the children. I remember being dragged to museums. I didn’t want to be there. But, experiences like this make people interested in it, engaged with it more fully. It was a lot of fun.