art shows & news

Mover and shaker Jim Denevan sees the big picture. Like a movie director, all of his works — whether they be manipulations of sand and earth or more human-oriented experimental projects — seem to share a common thread of small details benefiting a larger whole. His food project, Outstanding In The Field, features a world-wide moveable feast that takes place in rural areas and unlikely scenery.

Visit his website for notes on how he accomplishes all of his projects.

Scion Installation Five: Self-Portrait Philadelphia Preview from Scion ART on Vimeo.

Whoever is Scion’s Art Director or Head of Marketing is a genius. They always manage to sponsor extremely innovative art events to appeal to an audience that, in my book, probably wouldn’t even be the ideal Scion-purchasing candidate, but what do I know? They’re obviously still alive and kicking. Showcasing artists like AJ Fosik, Patrick Martinez, and Christina M. Felice, their show, National Art Tour Installation 5: Self Portrait, will kick off in Philadelphia on Friday, July 3rd, from 7:00pm to 11:00pm at T&P Fine Art. This diverse mixed-media show will showcase self-portraits by artists from around the country, and will end at Scion’s 4,200 square foot Los Angeles installation space. Talk about epic. All of the artwork will be auctioned off there, with proceeds going to Creative Capital, an organization that helps artists thrive through grants, workshops, and more.

Watch the video above for a good sample, or hit up Scion’s website for more information.

www.myspace.com/aaaajaaaay
www.patrickmartinez.com
www.felicephotography.com
www.creative-capital.org
www.scion.com/installation

Austin’s Hideout is an improv comedy club, concert venue, art gallery, and coffee shop all in one. A recent stint in this all-in-one haven led me to the eye-catching works of Hope Perkins, who, in this particular case, morbid curiosity and neon colors transform the taxidermied heads of animals into cleverly-named, slightly strange works of art. Truly awesome.

www.hideouttheatre.com
www.hotpinkpistol.com

Don’t be alarmed, folks! The bees aren’t really holing up in telephone booths because they’re dwindling in numbers anyway! This is just the product of California’s Bumblebee at work, turning abandoned phone booths into beautiful art installations. Here are the thought-provoking words he had to say about his work:

“Telephone companies have been abandoning their public telephone booths by taking out the phones and leaving the structures beehind. (Probably due to the rise in cell phone users.) I want to reuse these structures as a way of communication with the public once more by replacing that empty space with paper-mache beehives. To me, this symbolizes the irony beehind the question, ‘where have so many of the bees gone’ and the theory that cell phone signals have been misguiding their normal patterns of migration.”

www.flickr.com/photos/theuglyyou

On first glance, it might be easy to write off the work of Seattle artist Jane Lackey as mumbo-jumbo, but when one studies the materials she uses, her interests in neuroscience, genetics, and speech patterns, pieces like those from the above series, Survey, seem to make a bit more sense. Using paint, tape, and stickers, Lackey has constructed these textured pieces reminiscent of subway maps. In reality, they are representative diagrams of the conversations between twelve individuals in an artist residency in France. Abstract, sure, but it is interesting to know that every single dot and every line on the pieces have some kind of significance.

Lackey will be a visiting artist at Pratt Fine Arts Center on March 12th, at 6:30pm.

www.janelackey.com
www.pratt.org

Take Part In Art, a regional celebration of the arts, is taking place in the Seattle area through March 1st. That means: it’s almost over.

Here’s what you can do to take advantage of this event while it’s still going on.

Henry Art Gallery
2-for-1 admission for the duration of the event. See video Installations by Ben-Ner, Herrera, Sullivan, and Sussman & The Rufus Corporation!

Nordic Heritage Museum
2-for-1 admission for the duration of the event. Knitting Along the Viking Trail features work by renowned Swedish knitting designer Elsebeth Lavold whose work reinterprets and adapts Viking craftsmanship, giving new life to this most celebrated aspect of Nordic cultural heritage.

Pratt Fine Arts Center
New students get 10% off all classes by using the coupon code “TPIAF09″ before the event ends. Choose from classes in glassblowing, cast glass, flameworked glass, metal sculpture, bronze casting, stonecarving, jewelry, woodworking, printmaking, painting, drawing and more.

Seattle Architecture Foundation
Get a two hour walking tour, usually worth $15.00, at a pay what you want rate (minimum of $1.00).

Seattle Asian Art Museum
Pay what you want for the duration of the event. See exhibits like Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur, which features 58 artworks will present new facets of Indian painting that flourished in the royal courts of Rajasthan from the 17th to the 19th century.

Seattle Art Museum
Pay what you want for the duration of the event. See Edward Hopper’s Women and more permanent exhibits.

Wing Luke Asian Art Museum
Enjoy free family day on Saturday, February 28th, which includes free arts and crafts for kids from 1:00pm to 3:00pm! All other days, get 2-for-1 admission.

After I became resigned to the fact that most of the boutiques on Los Angeles’ infamous Melrose strip sell clothing for pretty much the same three kinds of people, I stumbled upon The Congregation of the Forgotten Saints. This shop, which caters equally to goth-glam men and women and to those stepping in line with My Chemical Romance’s fashion senses, doubles up as an art gallery. From month to month, the shop holds an art show centered around a different and completely atypical theme.

Their current show, curated by fellow artist Jeremy Cross, supported/produced by Wild Card Productions / The Metal Awards & Forgotten Saints Clothing, and on behalf of Art Core Presents, is dedicated to “Forgotten Saints”. Over 40 artists from around North America have their works on display for this show, with almost all of the works being considered at least slightly blasphemous to a religious individual. The show’s tagline? “Saints that never were, but should have been.” This “should have been” extends to robot saints, monster saints, mythological saints, goofy saints, and pretty much any kind of saint you can think of.

Here are a few selected pieces from that show which really stood out as inventive or simply well-crafted.

Vince Locke’s Saint Ebba is a painted Cthulu saint.

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Filipino/German artist Ted Von Heiland’s Saint Solace is a mixed-media sculpture that features the only cyborg-esque saint of the show.

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Thomas Pendleton and Anthony Lawson’s St. Mangina features… well — a rubber vagina — over the face of a saint. I wish I could share the entire artists’ statement on the piece, because it’s hilarious, but suffice it to say that it starts off with a cleverly punned, “GLORY HOLELUIAH.”

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Illustrator Jeff Rebner flexes his comic book muscles with “Aleistor SamHain,” a black-and-white skeleton-faced saint.

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With more than 35 other pieces on display at the shop, be sure to visit it if you happen to be in Los Angeles.

www.forgottensaintsla.com
www.bastardart.com
www.myspace.com/wildcardprods
www.myspace.com/themetalawardshow
www.myspace.com/artcorecfs
www.vincelocke.com
www.vonheiland.blogspot.com
www.ministryofink.com
www.boneseeds.com
www.rebnerwerks.com
www.myspace.com/thedirtylounge

Seattle’s Imagekind is now offering a Artful Romance Contest to all who love or want to poke fun at Valentine’s Day!

Submit your images, get it judged, and hopefully you’ll win something for all of your hard work.

GRAND PRIZE
Flip Mino HD, with your choice of printing on it, Flickr Pro Account OR one year Imagekind Platinum Account, your artwork featured on Imagekind’s homepage, $50 gift certificate to Imagekind for prints of your choice.

1ST RUNNER UP
$50 gift certificate to Imagekind, your artwork featured on Imagekind’s homepage.

8 RUNNERS UP
Your artwork featured on Imagekind’s homepage.

Imagekind is an artist’s dream. Simply post your work, state your restrictions, and start selling without putting up any money up-front! If your works sell, you get money. If they don’t, you don’t lose anything. It’s a win-win situation.

www.imagekind.com
www.imagekind.com/newsletter/artfulromance/index.html

Oscar luncheons, gift bags, extravagant over-arching grandeur in the midst of economic crisis, blah blah. Things are getting somewhat interesting, though, as Minneapolis, Minnesota’s cute little Zeichen Press will have their cards represented in the much-savored gift bags.

Above is an example of my favorite one of the cards, simply because horseshoe crabs are amazing, amazing things, and letterpressed cards, in all of their textured glory, are amazing, amazing things as well.

Hollywood folks who will receiving Zeichen Press cards include Richard Jenkins, Brad Pitt, Kate Winslet, Angelina Jolie, Meryl Streep, Danny Boyle, Stephen Daldry, David Fincher, Ron Howard, Gus Van Sant, Robert Downey, Jr., Philip Hoffman, Michael Shannon, Penelope Cruz, Viola Davis, Taraji P. Henson, Marisa Tomei.

Zeichen Press offers an array of hand-made letterpressed goods, including cards, coasters, and CD sleeves.

www.zeichenpress.com

Most of us have probably been to craft fairs. They’re usually the same ol same ol rehashing of vendor after vendor setting up on fold out table after fold out table. Raised in Craftivity, curated by Maria Buszek, features crafty art that is less practical and more exciting. Whether it be embroidery, woodworking, beadwork, ceramics, or knitting that artists like Elaine Bradford, Orly Cogan, Maggy Rozycki Hiltner, and KnittaPlease embrace, literally every one of the artists on display are ridiculously inventive with their creations. Raised in Craftivity is a long-running show for a reason; it not only tells, but shows visitors that crafts can result in much more than tea cozies and aprons.

The show is on display from now until March 7th, 2009, at the Wignall Museum in Rancho Cucomonga, California.

Elaine Bradford’s Locked Antlers features yarn and buttons wrapped around real deer heads.

Orly Cogan creatively embroiders naked beings over pre-printed fabric in Butterfly Song Triptych.

www.chaffey.edu/wignall/upcoming.shtml