Recovery, or...? Sotheby's Stock down 25%

Sotheby's sales in NYC and Hong Kong (see Art Basel buying into that market in an earlier post). Make no mistake, sales in HK were up 75%, and brought in .447 billion USD, so what happened? Sales did not meet speculative expectation, which had risen rapidly at the signs of recovery. New York sales of Impressionist and Modern art were soft, close to to the low end estimates, and that cause the recovery bubble to pop, and stock to plummet 25%. There is a cautionary tale in this Sotheby's story about overzealousness regarding possible recovery -- and many other influential factors. If this broadens, we could see a very rapid landscape shift.

Sources: [Link], [Link]
.

The Last Original Abstract Expressionist: Hedda Sterne

The only woman in the original group of Abstract Expressionists, and the last one left alive, Hedda Sterne has passed away at 100. She was one of the first, along with Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, Clifford Still, and others, and outlived them all. Her last exhibit was in 2008. She reportedly remained lucid until the end.


See some pictures of paintings here: [Link], [Link], [Link]


Sterne's work has never received the attention that the men Abstract Expressionists [Link] did, but I have a feeling that may be about to change.

--- Luis

The Big Get Bigger: Art Basel Expands

MHC, Swiss Exhibition Basel, the group that owns Art Basel & Art Basel Miami Beach, has acquired a controlling interest in ART HK, the Hong Kong Art Fair. This purchase gives MHC a sizable footprint into the Oriental art fair market that it lacked until now. The 2012 show will be the last under the ART HK name. From then on, it will be known as ART Basel HK.

The current ART HK Director, Magnus Renfrew will stay at the helm. The 2011 ART HK has 260 Galleries from 68 countries.

Sources: [Link], [Link]

April Showers Bring May Flowers @ Charley Parker Pottery

 Charley Parker's Pottery Studio is a wellspring of creativity, with many talented members like Em Silvis and K. Cervenka. The April Flowers Bring May Flowers opening showcases their latest work.

On the right are works by Em Silvis, who is Charley Parker's right hand at the Studio.  Here's a closer view of the chairs on the right, giving a better idea of the carved patterns on the backs.

Em Silvis, "Chairs"

On the right is a large, shallow bowl by Charlie Parker. Note the variety and interplay of colors and complex glazes for which Charley is known.




On the left are beautiful works by other studio members (labels would help with identifying the artists).

Charley Parker bowls

 One of my favorite works from this show.


Congratulations to Charley Parker Studio and its members artists for a wonderful late Spring show.






April Showers Bring May Flowers @ Charlie Parker Pottery- A variety of ceramics on display. Charlie Parker Pottery, 2924 Central Ave. St Petersburg.

An evening at Duncan McClellan Glass

Duncan McClellan Glass

 Duncan McClellan's Castle-like studio (an ex- fish-processing factory) is beautifully converted into a unique, elegant home, social and working space. [Link] Once a month, on the evening of the 2nd Saturday Gallery walk, there's a party and accompanying show.

Joseph & Georgia Pozycinski, "Nautilus Box" 

Joseph Pozycinski and his wife Georgia collaborate making these beautiful sculptures. This one is "Nautilus Box". He started out as an engineer, and she as a marine biologist. As artists, they initially worked in wood and clay before incorporating bronze, other metals and glass. They currently reside in Sparta, Missouri. I had the pleasure of talking at length with Joseph at this opening. A friendly, outgoing man, whose laid-back demeanor and intense devotion to the work, including making special tools and processes is rare.

Joseph Pozycinski, "Heron Bowl"

Each of the Pozycinski's brings their own insights and skill sets to the work. Georgia, I was told, chooses the animals and Joseph is more concerned with the formal aspects of the work, the whole being far greater than the sum of its parts. The combination of biomorphic forms between the animals and twigs/branches with the pure geometries of the glass is stunning. One theme we see in "Heron Bowl" runs through several works, and that is the pairing of creatures and the nesting of eggs. 

On the left is the Pozycinski's "Two-Monkey Sculpture". Like most of the others, this is made of pate de verre and bronze. Pate de verre is the making a paste of glass that is applied to the surface of the mold, then fired. The big advantage to pate de verre is that it enables the artist to control the precise placement of particular glass colors in the mold, and this is one of the things that stands out with these works. In "Crow Boat", below, we see what could be a funerary boat, carrying a load of eggs and guarded in their crossing by three vigilant crows.

Joseph and Georgia Pozycinski, "Crow Boat"

Carrie Jadus, "Amelia"

Carrie Jadus, "Backstage With Kitty"

Carrie Jadus is a self-described narrative painter. Her images are encoded with stories. On the left is a portrait of  aviatrix Amelia Earhart. We all know her story, and here is also the metaphor of the perils pioneering women face in any endeavor, including crashing/getting lost and disappearing. This is a relevant theme for our time. Jadus' work has a strong decorative component and is beautiful as well as telling a tale.

Carrie Jadus, "Charles"

Roser Park is one of St. Petersburg's hidden gems. It is a neighborhood tucked into a ravine (yes, a ravine in St Pete). It was built in 1911, partially on Tocobagan Indian mounds by Charles Roser. Here, Ms. Jadus has painted a portrait of the man through a rendering of his creation.

Duncan McClellan, "Vinyard"

This is one party well worth going to, because of the current exhibit, the everpresent first-rate McClellan glass works, those of others in his stable, and most of all, the people. 

On the right is Christian Zvonik's "Know Your Audience", just one example of the strong work that Duncan's gallery represents.

Jamie Baldridge, "Orchimedcs"

There were large photographs by Jamie Baldridge, rich with psychological and alchemical symbolism.

















Then there's the party. Gallery owners, artists, collectors, gallery goers, and fascinating people of every stripe frequent these parties.





The space is unusually elegant, true to its industrial roots, and perfectly amenable to socializing.



Congratulations to Duncan McClellan Glass for a great show and grand party.

--- Luis

Pareidolia @ West Tampa Arts Center

Pareidolia was the theme of this show at the West Tampa Arts Center. For one definition see here [Link]. The official one was the provocative theme of the show: "the the real, dark and otherworldly". I had the pleasure of running into WTCA Director Maida Millan and BoD member and premier Tampa Poetess Silvia Curbelo at the show.

WTAC entrance.

The West Tampa Art Center is an old cigar factory building on Armenia in Tampa that was rehabbed into a furniture business on the ground floor, and artists' studios above. It is one of the roomier venues for the arts in the area. Many of the artists also open their studios to visitors whenever there is a show, so the viewer's experience is expanded and varied.





On the right is a view of the main gallery at the WTAC. This is where the show was held. Keep in mind that the building has very spacious hallways whose walls are also used to display art, giving the space a lot of potential for large exhibitions.

D.R.S., "Persistence of Time"

 A quadtych photograph by D.R.S. of branches, sticks, logs and things one would find around a cabin or logging camp, with a snowy backdrop.  The various forms of the wood and their function, from the natural to the harvested and trimmed form still carry traces of its origins.

Don Compton, "Decomposition I"

Don Compton's "Decomposition I" is a large (about 3.5 x 6.5 ft) sculpture with a metal "skeleton" and a porcelain head, looking like the remains of a large predator after its soft tissues have rotted away. No longer threatening, only a remnant of what it once was.

Don Compton, "Ride it like you stroke it"

 On the left, another Don Compton sculpture, "Ride it like You Stroke it", a play on the common saying. A ceramic and metal life-size sculpture of a Harley that attracted a lot of attention.






At the space by the DJ stage and entrance to the main gallery space there was a performance involving a face-painting against a matching backdrop.

Don Compton, "Foreign Policy"

 On the left, one last Don Compton sculpture in the form of an American Flag made of spent shell casings, titled "Foreign Policy", an openly political and dark work about current national reality.

Keith Parsons, "Untitled"

 Keith Parsons' "Untitled", depicting an elderly woman who appears to be nearing the end of her life, along with other older pictures from earlier days, shows what most of us are loathe to confront, the eventual decline of our bodies and minds. This is not an easy thing to do for many reasons, but it was handled extremely well in this instance.

Tina Koufas-Eisbacher, "Stairway to Hell"

 Ms. Koufas-Eisbacher's "Stairway to Hell" involves a bit of fashion, voyeurship, religion, and a little modeling mayhem. One of the things that makes this triptych work are the flip-flops between positive and negative in the panels.

Jillian Corey-Katz "Nowhere Fast, or How it Was Two Years Ago"

Jillian Corey-Katz, "Shot Out"

Jill Corey-Katz's work in this exhibit is at one level, a personal documentation of life as an addict -- as a participant. I spoke with Jill about her work at the opening, perhaps unfairly comparing it to Nan Goldin's work. These pictures are in the snapshot style visually, unlike Goldin's, which are more conventionally formal, but conceptually, they are like Ms. Goldin's, in the sense that these are snapshots, in many ways like the ones people take of their families, and, like Goldin, she includes herself in at least some of the pictures. This was Jill's family at the time, and as such they are loving mnemonic fetishes of her loved ones, events in their lives, etc. No, they do not look like the average family album pictures, but think of this: In the most trying conditions, people cluster together, form relationships, however tenuous, and these pictures are, in spite of their darkness, a strong affirmation of life. They are honest, free of affectation, and insightfully contemplative.

Jillian Corey-Katz, "Arte de McFly 1"

Congratulations to WTAC, Maida Millan, and all the artists for a memorable exhibit.

 New Work: Pareidolia @ West Tampa Arts Center - 1906 N. Armenia Ave. Tampa.

This End of The World Weekend: May 20-May22

[I should have titled this, "Things to Do Here When You're Dead or left behind by the Rapture".]

"Splatter" @ Silver Meteor Gallery - An appropriate way to meet & greet the Apocalypse with a great and funny gory play. The last two performances will be this Friday, May 20, and Saturday, May 21 (if we're still here, of course). $7 Admission. Starts at 10:00 PM. 2213 E. Sixth Ave. Ybor City. 813.210.3281
_______________________________________________

The Last Live Paint? "Art on The Bay" @ The Pier/St. Pete Museum of History - Sixty-two artists in practically every media will be there to welcome the Four Horsemen in a beautiful waterside setting. Opens at 11:00 AM. Music (free) and food (for sale) available. Saturday May 21st. 335 2nd Ave. NE St. Pete. Free.
_______________________________________________

St Pete Museum of Fine Arts, three exhibits - Here's the world ending and I have two years left of membership. Seriously, the Museum has (1) the Familiar and Fantastic, a photographic exhibit from the Dandrew-Drapkin Collection. Through June 12th.(2) The Human Touch, an excellent exhibit of figurative work, through Sept 4th. (3) New Folk, Contemporary self-taught Art, all by folk artists. $17 admission. Hrs 10 AM - 5 PM Monday-Saturday, and Noon-5PM Sundays. 255 Beach Drive St Petersburg. Remember to take lots of quarters to feed the ravenous meters.
_______________________________________________

Experiments in Truth @ HCC Ybor Art Gallery - Sculptor Michael Massaro addresses the subject of violence among other things. Though June 2. Free. Opening Reception today, Thursday, May 19th, from 5:30PM to 8 PM. 14th St and Palm Avenue, Ybor City.
_______________________________________________

Live Art on the 600 block -  Monthly sidewalk artfest with live music, artists working and more. 600 Central Avenue, St Pete. 10 AM - 6PM, Free.
________________________________________________

New Talent @ Brad Cooper Gallery - Cooper brings us six artists from his stable that haven't been shown before in his Ybor gallery. Cherie Dacko, Darwin Leon, Craig Morris, Beth Shadur, Susan Wood, and Vincent Amicosante. 1714 E. Seventh Ave, Ybor City. Closes Sept 24th.
________________________________________________

Generations, USF Artists, Past and Present @ Clayton Galleries - 4105 S. Mc Dill Ave. Tampa. Through June 4th.
_________________________________________________

[This post is unfinished. More to come]

2011 Student Survey: USF, UT and HCC Ybor, Part II: USF

This was the MFA show at USF's Contemporary Art Museum. The show was unusually strong conceptually compared to the others. Since the artists were writing theses about the work, this is not surprising.

Francis Marquez, "Chonga suit, Salsa suit, Fran suit" 

There was a fourth suit, not shown in this picture, titled "Nude suit", which, curiously, did not include a mask, like the ones pictured here. These suits by Francis Marquez are humorous but at the same time they seriously deal with issues of identity, masks, make-up/hair/etc., and clothes as a kind of secondary skin.






 Ms. Marquez also had an accompanying video to go with the suits, showing herself wearing them and giving them life, dancing to music. The whole installation and video had a very light, airy feel at one level, while addressing more serious questions simultaneously at other levels.

Zak Hemsteger, "The Pitfalls of Incessant Mastication"

 Zak Hemsteger's "Pitfalls of Incessant Mastication", all handmade earthenware, glaze, paint and wood installation consisted of many ceramic statues on a lengthy wooden table.

Close-up view of part of installation.

On the right is a close-up view of a small part of the table. Note that some of the sculptures are surreal (like the homunculus in a wheeled bird skull), but many allude to farming and the industrial age as well. Silos, canals, small bridges, a man atop a wishing well, and much more. The title suggests too much analysis or thinking can lead to the work and/or what is shown in it.

Rob Fladry, "Take the gun, leave the Canolli, a Cat's a Better Mother Than You"

Rob Fladry's video work shows a single frame from Gone With the Wind juxtaposed to one from The Godfather continually changing. Two films about vanquished cultures and families of survivors. The effect of the dual video is to construct a third, purely visual narrative in the viewer's mind, one that does not exist in either of the donor movies.

View of Museum gallery.

Jordi Williams, "Universal Alignment"

Jordi Williams' "Universal Alignment" consists of a large tricolor sugar substitute  mandala [Link] in a slight spiral pattern. Suspended via monofilament fishing line from the ceiling are several fishing pyramid type sinkers, painted white, ever-so-lightly touching the sand. The artist says the sinkers "...map the intersection of every Ley line in the Western hemisphere". Ley lines are explained here: [Link]. I'm not entirely convinced, but it is a stand-out installation.

Ryan Foster,"Books", 2010-2011

Detail from "Frustrated Creation"

Ryan Foster had a series of hyperreal oil paintings based on various contemporary themes of the post-industrial age, like Books, Behind That Big Red Curtain, Religionists Hate the Future, and several others. These works had a great conceptual and stylistic coherence in a very individuated manner.

Bruce Monroe, "501, 310, 077, 972, MMWR, 2011"

Rob Monroe's"501, 310, 077, 972 MMWR, 2011" is a sculptured in the form  of a male human figure from hand-cut fiberglass and covered in polyurethane. It looks like it is covered in armor, and in a somewhat alert, defensive pose. The lighting is critical to this piece, in that its shadow is significant to the work.

Ellen Mueller, "Waiting Room".

On the left is Ellen Mueller's "Waiting Room", an installation looking like every generic waiting room that ever existed, complete with a plant (fake-looking, but I didn't check), magazines, inoccuous painting on the wall, and the TV, which showed videos made by Ms. Mueller whose scripts come from survival manuals. The woman doing the narrating and demos is reminiscent of a stewardess, and incredibly funny in a very understated/straight way. Ellen also had a series of readings from her "Book of Enid", which was a story and drawings of a woman who tries to go back into the past and prevent a disaster from happening. There were cards from the Book of Enid by the magazines. The artist also recruited people to populate her installation, which when I came in, thought was a real waiting room!


Congratulations to all the artists in the show, and those reviewed here.

--- Luis

Street Art: Facing North and side-by side...

This looks like an old Iron-on Resistance work on a now-empty building that used to carry art and antiques. Identities, histories, conditions and narratives of a structure encoded on its skin, just like the lines written on our faces.

About ten feet to the left of the work above lies the remains of an earlier work, partially torn away, altered in meaning by being fragmented.

In physics, there is a much-debated law of the conservation of information, meaning that information is never lost, that it remains somehow encoded in the universe. This work brings that to mind.



--- Luis

2011 Student Survey: USF, UT and HCC Ybor, Part I: HCC Ybor

  Every year our Universities and Colleges churn out another crop of graduates. The stark reality is that about five per cent of them will be working in the arts a decade from graduation. That's sad, but Art is a very difficult way to make a living. In no way is this series of reviews to be taken as any kind of comparison, or as a comprehensive survey, only as a peek at potential emerging artists. The USF was an MFA show, the UT a BA show, and HCC Ybor an AA.  All of these shows are already closed. I saved the reviews until I got to all of them.
______________________________________

Gallery View

The 37th Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition was held at the HCC Ybor  Gallery, closing on May 4th. The Gallery is coordinated by Carolyn Kossar, and you can check to see what's on exhibit here: [Link].



 

Peter Spoto, "La Femme Urbaine"

On the left, Peter Spoto's "La Femme Urbaine" is a digital photograph of a young woman's face with graffiti over it. The effect is greater than the sum of its parts. The woman's direct, unflinching look combined with the street art go beyond a mere portrait into something tribal-looking and symbolic of what it means to be young and urban today. 

Austin England, "Within Dreams" left section

 Austin England's "Within Dreams" is a mixed media work that is daring in the way it uses a corner space, mixture of control and flow, and its coherent mythology.

"Within Dreams", 2nd view, middle section.

"Within Dreams", right section.

Cor Fehringer "Wolves, Bears, Cubs, Otters. Oh My!"

  Cor Fehringer's human figures wearing animal masks, complete with what appear to be some X-ray painting of inner structures harken back to cave paintings recontextualized into present-day identity/persona issues.

Susan O'Hara, "Emerging".

On the left is Susan O'Hara's "Emerging", a small alabaster sculpture of unusual simplicity and formal, Modernist-looking elegance.  I suspect the title has something to do with the artist herself.






End, Part I: HCC Ybor.

--- Luis