RNC Diary Part Nine: Common Sense @ WTCA

WTCA entrance.

Looking out a window in a dark, unoccupied studio, back on May tenth 2012, on the opening night of Moira Shiver's debut show at WTCA, we had a conversation in part about the then-upcoming RNC Convention and how to approach it as a gallery. Four months later, the show Common Sense had become a reality.





Designed to show "the voice of the people", the exhibit showcases the work of many artists in a variety of media. There are many works that are direct, perhaps blunt in a propagandist sense, but also many that are more complex.

WTCA window.

Summer is a problem at the West Tampa Arts Center. The main gallery can be air-conditioned (via two window units), but the hallways are not, and were on the warm side on my late-morning visit.The show was juried by Carolyn Kossar, Rob Rowen and Taylor Ikin and includes Ligorano and Reese, Abigail Markov, Alison Terndrup, Betty Colburn, Bradley Arthur, Elizabeth Plakidas, Ernesto Piloto Marquez, Fotios Zemenides, Frank Bolock, Jason Shiver, John Gurbacs, Julio Garcia, Mark Signorelli, Michael Jernigan, Mishou Sanchez, Richard Girard, Sheree Rensel, Susan O'Hara and Warren Carrico Gibson.



The Ligorano and Reese work has already been reviewed here [Link]. Here's a few highlights from the exhibit at the WTCA.

Bradley Arthur, "Your Move"

 Many artists make works specifically for a particular show, often around topics they otherwise rarely touch upon. This is a natural and accepted practice based on demand characteristics and market forces. Bradley Arthur is no stranger to this theme (among many others) of socio-political commentary.

 Bradley Arthur is a sculptor of international stature, a yoga instructor, and has fought for artist's rights. His work in Common Sense is conceptual in nature, as in "Your Move". Made on chalkboard, it is basically a game of tic-tac-toe, with earths and crossed ICBMs. The game is at a stage where it is soberingly clear who will win the game.

John Gurbacs, "Iceburg"

John Gurbacs, "Apple Pie"

John Gurbacs' paintings are in local museums and in collections around the USA. He has addressed social issues and often contrasts natural with man-made forms. One of the outstanding qualities of Gurbac's work is the high quality of his painting. "Iceburg", an oil on canvas, is a two-part composition. Just below the horixontal midline, there's an image of a car on the road. Note how there appears to be a ripped-out part along the lower right of the painting. That is also painted, deconstructing the illusion of realism -- and commenting on the car itself.
  The upper part is an iceberg, with a schematic of a car in yellow layered over it.

"Apple Pie" is a parable about American class inequality using the national dessert to show it.

Mishou Sanchez, "Freedom Yell"

 Mishou Sanchez, whose work has been reviewed here many times and recently, is an architect and an artist. "In Freedom Yell", shown at left, the bust of a red-headed young woman in a three-quarter view (in olive drab?) holds her hand to her mouth and yells "Freedom!". The style is reminiscent of Russian Constructivist photography, a style popular between the end of WWI and the 1930's [Link]. One of the fascinating things about Ms. Sanchez' work is the tension between her strong sense of design and her considerable passion. The field thus created is an energized, mercurial space for her art to generate a range of possibilities .

On left, a mixed-media sculpture, Susan O'Hara's "State of Affairs" consists of a clay torso with a cavity at its base. That cavity is papered in back with a red, white & blue "God Bless America", a small elephant and a tea bag visible in the lower left. The face on the figure looks agonized.

Work by Ernesto Piloto-Marquez

Ernesto Piloto-Marquez has been reviewed here before. He is one of those rare artists who can seamlessly meld words and images in an equal and riveting manner. In "Sacred", shown at left, a female figure in white sits on a red chair. Three snakes are visible, one wrapped around her.  She holds a heart in her lap in a stylized gesture. Above the upper edge of the frame, a fence and a house. If you click on the image it becomes large enough to read the background text, which is basically saying that what can happen is up to us.

 






Congratulations to all the artists in Common Sense, to the WTCA, the jurors and Moira Shiver for a good show.

--- Luis

"Common Sense" has been extended and will culminate with a Closing Reception from 6 - 10 PM on Saturday, September 8th. All at 1906 N. Armenia, Tampa.





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RNC Diary, Part Eight: Post! @ Cafe Hey

Post! Was a politically themed show aimed at RNC Convention insiders, leaders and media. Most political art tends to be towards the monosemic and sententious ends of art. Propagandist, if you will. In this genre, this is not so much a shortcoming  as it is a rich tradition. Cafe Hey and the role it played during the convention has been detailed here [Link]. There were over 60 works shown. Here are a few highlights....

Work by Alicia Everett

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities", by Alicia Everett, consisted of rows of sheep, with the title/quote from Voltaire in the middle of the upper third. Follow the rows of sheep down to the lower right, and the sheep are seen entering a slaughterhouse. Behind it, a small puddle of blood is visible.

There were international entries in this show. Victor Marques Lins sent this in from Sao Bernardo do Campos, Brazil, titled "Hail to The King". A suited death's head figure wearing a suit sits on a throne. Behind him, smokestacks blacken the sky. The skull of the figure is missing its crown. A close look reveals instead of brains, it is a pencil holder. A commentary on one of the core histories of our time: Global corporate dominance. Note the claw-like right hand of the figure and its psycho-grin.

Angela Mark, from Boston, MA sent in "Hey Dude Where's My Country". A flag-draped figure wanders in a wasteland. In its hand is a tiny peace flag. The eagle overhead appears to be swooping in to attack, its talons extended. Like many others in the show, this work is saying that we're in a post-apocalyptic era.

"Do not Question Authority", by Antifa Klein Pankow, shows the ultimate extension of political power: Violence. In this case, the trickling down of violence to the citizen on the street. An ominous, shield and baton wielding helmeted riot cop is about to strike. On the shield is the RNC symbol. Luckily, this did not come to pass.

Congratulations to all the artists and to Cafe Hey for a strong and topical show with perfect timing --- and location.

--- Luis

Street Art: State Theater Mural by Pale Horse & Tes One

Mural by Pale Horse and Tes One

The State Theater at 687 Central Ave. in St. Pete is a popular alternative music venue of long standing in the community. Behind the building is an alley. On the backside of the Theater graphic illustrator and artist Chris Parks, who owns Pale Horse Studio and Tes One, who defines himself as a traditiona./digital graffiti artist and graphic illlustrator collaborated on a mural. It is big and graphic enough to be clearly visible from 1st ave N. They designed it, then it was projected onto the wall and painted by the Vitale Brothers.


As with most St. Petersburg mural collaborations, there's little fusion of the styles of the artists. The result  is like two juxtaposed works by two artists with some attention paid to where they meet. Chris Parks  did a snake and a rose.

Tes One did a partial abstraction and the head of a woman, very similar to the one he did in the Graffiti Show at the Morean.

Congratulations to Chris Parks, Tes One, the Alvarez Foundation and the State Theater for this newest addition to St. Petersburg's growing family of large and legal street art.

RNC Diary, Part Seven: The Elephant in The Room I

"Joe Griffith is a genius, and you can quote me on that"

                                                                                     --- Tracy Midulla Reller

The first part of this review took place at Tempus Projects. As the RNC Convention approached, Joe Griffith and Experimental Skeleton put together a collaborative collage not so much about direct political imagery, but as it turned out, about the mindset as the convention and Isaac neared.







There was a large table with gallon jugs full of glue, stacks of magazines, many scissors and more in the center of the room. Both collaging stations were busy and surrounded by thousands of bits of paper. One time at the table sat Katherine Gibson, Director of Gallery 221 @ HCC Dale Mabry, and Mishou Sanchez, artist and architect, each working on their own addition to the collage, which was put on large 2.5m tall boards. This made them portable and facilitate the second part of this story. Sanchez, ever the designer, made a an unusual 3-D sculptural addition, which she took outside and singed with the flame of a lighter.

Work by Mishou Sanchez.

A second, smaller table was set up in the back of Mitzi Gordon's Bluebird Bus, at left. The bus looked happy to be at the blue hour, just past the afterglow into the evening (r.). 

Joe Griffith told me the project was titled the Silverfish Revolution, a means of doing away with their large collection of art magazines and recombining them into a conceptual image of the group. The collage was to also be a time capsule. It had been "seeded" with sixty works of artists invited to contribute.



Giancarlo Endina provided DIY cigarrette-sized boxes in which people put in collaged images of things they found negative. They formed a small forest of objects on two shelves, as seen on the right. The girl on the left shows her work, in which she placed a renaissance cut-out. She said she had a love/hate affair with the period in art history.

Perhaps due to the RNC Convention, the engaging nature of the collaging process, or making art collectively, this was one of the most successful participatory art events I've seen in this area.
Congratulations to all participants, Joe Grifith, Tracy Midulla Reller, and Mitzi Gordon for a wonderful show & happening.

--- Luis

PS. I have no idea who did this...

RNC Diary Part Six: Sanctuary

"There was music in the cafes at night
And revolution in the air..."
                                                  Bob Dylan, Tangled up in Blue


It's a  pearl tucked just north of the Insterstate at 1540 N. Franklin St. A place in a landscape Hopper would have loved to paint at dusk. Every night during the RNC Convention it was busy. Lots of young men and women in dark clothing, looking a little tired, lost and sunburned. It reminded me of Rick's Cafe Americain in Casablanca. Spook types hanging out among the regulars. Neighbors from Romneyville passing time. One tall Georgia boy, a 'street medic' looked lonely, eyes glazed. He wondered in a barely audible soft drawl if Americans would ever be able to speak with each other civilly again. A skinny man in his fifties, gray hair tied into a knot, asks to sit at my table, and began lecturing on peak oil and global warming while I sip my Cafe Americano. I tell him about when I used to wait tables at a place Nixon ate, and he asks me why I did not poison him. "I'm not a killer, Sir". The walls are covered with political art (to be reviewed here soon). Viewers in black moved from one work to the next in a sequential procession, like a serpentine belt in an engine in slow motion.The silvery aluminum tables outside were packed with people, many more are sitting on the sidewalk, their backs to the wall. A couple made out on the concrete in plain view. She had an exotic face belonging on a Goddess rising from the sea...he a taut body and dreadlocks.

Cafe Hey

Three guys arrived. One stood impatiently behind the guy lecturing on peak oil for some time, until noticed, then all moved to another table. I spoke briefly with a well-known local artist, an older man and his wife. Cafe Hey opened its doors in solidarity and kindness to protesters. In order to feed the hungry, they created a 'special' consisting of a huge bowl of rice, beans, Cuban bread and coffee, all for under four dollars. I sampled one, and it was easily big enough to feed three people. They fed the soul with music, like that of Jun Bustamante, and head with performance artist Vermin Supreme's take on memes. The conversation was the opposite of that ongoing at the RNC Convention. With few exceptions, honest, down to earth and with genuine concern for the world and its future. There was a wave of rumor rippling through about a flash mob near a checkpoint. Some got up an started walking in that direction. Others stayed.

In this Convention, this was where the wild things convened, sought -- and found -- sanctuary.

RNC Diary Part Five: Voter Suppression March

Centennial Park in Ybor City was teeming with a wide variety of people carrying signs for various causes under the umbrella of protesting Florida Governor Rick Scott's purging of the voter rolls, which many have intepreted as voter suppression.

Here are a few photographs from this gathering/protest march...

 

 

 

RNC Diary Part Four: Ligorano & Reese Ice Sculpture

Hurricane Isaac's proximity caused artists Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese to move up their installation titled "Morning in America" one day at Lykes Gaslight Square Park. It consisted of the words "Middle Class"carved in Ice, on an elevated platform made of long, flat ice blocks. The carving was being done with an electric chain saw. The kind of tool that made police a little nervous on the eve of the RNC Convention. The flying ice shavings cooled the air, but the work was taking longer than anticipated. A police woman conferred with another cop, and they gave a warning, and graciously extended the chainsaw-use deadline. Marshall Reese sweated profusely from the energy required to sculpt the ice.



He had help. A crew of three kept the workflow going smoothly, passersby looked on, a few reporters took notes, video'd and photographed them. This work is a combination of the conceptual, the carving and erection of the installation, which unlike many, is done in real time before viewers, then the slow, anticipated melting. It gains meaning and momentum as it disappears. In the West Tampa Center for The Arts, whose Director, Moira Shiver, helped to bring this work to Tampa, it is referred to as a "temporary monument".  The blocks were heavy and slippery, but the experience of the artist and crew enabled the work to proceed with a certain elegance.





It was literally morning in America, at the axis of the weirdness of a Political Convention. Across from where the sculpting was taking place, there was a large artist's tent with a video camera recording the work. Laboriously, cut by cut, the grooved letters began to take shape.

Ligorano & Reese, "Morning in America"

The following pictures of the melting work were graciously provided by artist Alicia Everett...

Photograph by Alicia Everett

Photograph by Alicia Everett

 Congratulations to Ligorano & Reese [Link], WTCA and Moira Shiver for an installation with a perfect sense of timing and a strong metaphor for our time.

--- Luis