Picasso at the Nasher Museum at Duke

We finally got round to visiting the Picasso exhibit and it was a treat.  Without going into too much detail it is quite impressive, displaying Picasso's humor, imagination and breath-taking range of expression.  It also reveals a bit of his development over time from an early impressionist piece of a cafe scene (1900), a traditional portrait, "Head of Fernande" (1906) up until his later years.  It doesn't necessarily stick to the language connection but that does give the show a broader picture.  Definitely worth a visit.  Amy White at the Independent Magazine has an excellent review.  Steve from Durham has some interesting thoughts and a few pictures on his Take the Bull by the Horns blog.

Here's how the Nasher describes the exhibit:

"August 20, 2009 - January 3, 2010.

The Nasher Museum presents a groundbreaking exhibition examining Pablo Picasso's lifelong relationship with writers and the many ways in which language affected his work. "Picasso and the Allure of Language" comprises some 60 works in all media by Picasso, as well as select examples by fellow artist Georges Braque, and photographs, letters, manuscripts and book projects by a diverse group of artists and writers. Together, these works illuminate Picasso's deep and multidimensional interest in writing and language, and challenge the notion of what have been considered "highlights" of his lifetime of work."

Show opening soon at Red Bicyle Coffee

I will have a show opening this weekend at the Red Bicycle Coffee Shop on the corner of MLK/Airport Rd and Homestead Road -- physical address is 2805 Homestead in the little shopping center with Chapel Hill Wine.  It's where the old coffee shop was located.  I'll hang the show either Friday or Saturday and it will be up through December.  I may try to have a event but I'll keep everyone posted.

I will have some new things, some old things and for the first time some photography (priced conveniently for the holidays!) A couple of samples are below.

Come Out and Play!

Go to my Carrboro Art Scene blog for info on the 8th Annual Come Out and Play Sculptor show outside of Carrboro. The opening is this Saturday, noon til dark and continues each Saturday though September.

A new art collective gallery coming to Chapel Hill

Karen and I attended the public meeting at the Chapel Hill Town Hall for the proposed Franklin Street Art Collective. I was fairly impressed with the homework they had done and the balanced view they took. I haven't examined the business plan yet but they seem to be using conservative financial assumptions -- a good thing. Amazingly enough they hope to be open by November!

Details (including the presentation, business plan and artist application) can be found here on the Town website but here are a few details:

- 30-40 artists in the collective who put up $500 to start, $20 month and pay a 25% commission on sales. Members are expected to work 6-8 hours month and make a 2 year commitment.
- An undetermined number of consignment artists can show their work but will pay a 50% commission.
- Artists can apply for both membership and consignment at the same time.
- Both categories will be juried and none of the those judging are involved in the collective.
- The application says that you must live within a 25 mile radius of Chapel Hill but I do not believe that is a hard and fast rule.
- They continually harped on wanting to have the highest quality art.
- Michael Brader-Araje, the building's owner, is a hero!

CANCELLED! Here's the announcement for my Weaver Street Show

Bad news-good news-bad news-good news

BAD NEWS 1: Weaver Street Realty double booked August so no opening this Friday
GOOD NEWS 1: I'll now have a show there in December just in time for people to buy holiday presents

BAD NEWS 2: I worked all weekend and spent a ton of money on frames, mats, etc. getting ready
GOOD NEWS 2: I now have a bunch of stuff ready to go.

Que sara, sara

A show coming up at Weaver Street Realty

I will have a small show at the Weaver Street Realty opening during the 2nd Friday ArtWalk in Carrboro/Chapel Hill. That'll be Friday August 14 from 6-9 at 116 East Main Street in Carrboro. I'll have adult refreshments to entice those who don't care about either 1) art or 2) my art. I have no idea what I'll be showing (some/most will be new) but there will be more info forthcoming. If you don't get my emailings about shows and wish to, just drop me an email. Hope to see you there!

Below is an old one that I've never shown so I might show it. From 2007 I think.

Explosion. Acrylics and inks on matboard. 21 x 15

Picasso at the Nasher

A heads up for an upcoming show at the Duke Nasher Museum. "Picasso and the Allure of Language" opens on August 20th with a gala reception at 7 pm. For more information go the Nasher site.

The Nasher Museum presents a groundbreaking exhibition examining Pablo Picasso's lifelong relationship with writers and the many ways in which language affected his work. Picasso and the Allure of Language comprises some 60 works in all media by Picasso, as well as select examples by fellow artist Georges Braque, and photographs, letters, manuscripts and book projects by a diverse group of artists and writers. Together, these works illuminate Picasso's deep and multidimensional interest in writing and language, and challenge the notion of what have been considered highlights of his lifetime of work.

If you want to attend the opening I'd suggest going to the site and getting a ticket soon. The show runs through January 3, 2010.

2nd Friday Artwalk Carrboro/Chapel Hill

Don't forget the upcoming 2Friday Art Walk July 10 from 6-9. As always there will be plenty to see up and down Main and Weaver streets as well as Franklin Street and other locations. I highly recommend the opening at the Century Century, 100 N. Greensboro, of new oils by my friend and former roomie Steve Silverleaf. I think Steve's one of the most talented artists we have in this area and I'm very excited to see the new pieces.

The Artist and the Model - New work by Steven Silverleaf. The show is comprised of oil paintings and drawings in mixed media. The work concerns his ongoing investigation of the seated figure. The show is suitable for all ages.

For much more info please go to the 2ndFriday website.

Steven Silverleaf. The Conversation I. Oil on board, 27x35

Valasquez and El Greco at the Nasher Duke Museum

We went to the big "El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III" exhibition that just started at the still relatively new Nasher Museum at Duke U.

The El Greco's and Velázquez's were (mostly) wonderful and sometimes breathtaking. Pieces like the El Greco Fray Hortensio Felix Paravencino and Argote avoid all of things I disliked in many of the minor pieces. Dislikes? Well, the religious imagery weirds me out, the use of the odd and out of place details in the outer edges of the pieces makes no sense, and the painting of children so that they look like bizarre small adults is creepy. I was impressed with some of the Maino pieces and the Cotan still lifes.

El Greco's St James (Santiago el Mayor) shown below with its rich green cloak and lovely long hand was my favorite.

Another reception for July 11th ArtWalk

We will have a second reception for our exhibit of (mostly) new pieces at the Carrboro Century Center during the upcoming 2nd Friday ArtWalk on July 11th starting at 6 pm. Please stop by; we'll have wine and cheese and good company. Ticket not required!

The June 13th Reception

I am embarrassed to admit that I haven't posted anything about the reception. We had an excellent turnout -- perhaps 75-100 folks -- and a good time was had by all. Plus we sold a few pieces which is nice. A big Thank You to the patrons!

More pictures from the show are at Flickr.

The exhibit looks good....

...if I say so myself.

The room works well for a public use space not designed for art. We have about the right number of pieces to fill it up without looking crowded. I'm hoping that everyone enjoys the show and the camaraderie. Here are a few photos. A couple of mine...



And some of Karen's...



And finally I might have a few t-shirts that I make using black tees and bleach. Like this one...

Here I'm going to test the Zemanta blog system

Image via WikipediaSuppose I was writing a blogpost about Jules Olitski. Would Zemanta find materials -- links, photos, reviews -- that were relevant to what I was writing? So I start typing.....

"Olitski was an abstract expressionist/color field painter. I recently saw some of his work at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. He impressed me the most but I was also thrilled with Helen Frankenthaler, and Morris Louis (painting to the right) amongst others. Their juxtaposition with the AbEx crowd like Rothko, Hoffman and Motherwell worked well. I'm still amazed what the Color Field painters could do with thin coats of acrylics. Blah, blah, blah....."

I'm also pretty amazed at what this Zemanta was able to do! (For example adding the link to the official Olitski site.) On the other hand it didn't find any photos of Olitski's paintings nor the recent NYT article including his daughter Eve, but it did a remarkable job of following the gist of this post.

The show is now up

Karen and I hung the show this Saturday and I think it looks good. Come by this Friday 6-9 for ArtWalk if you can but the show is up through July.

Here's a new one of Karen's that is in the show.

After Olitski. Acrylics on canvas. 24 x 30

My pieces in the upcoming show

You can take a look at the pieces that (probably) will be in the upcoming show. I reserve the right to swap out a couple but most likely a subset of these 16 will be there.

Oh and here's a brand new one....

Blue Steer. Acrylics and salt on canvas. 18 x 24

A New Show!

Karen and I have just been accepted to do a joint show of recent work at the Carrboro Century Center. We only have two weeks to prepare but we'll be ready. Everyone is invited. There should be 25 or so pieces in the show which will run from June 7 through the end of July.

The opening reception will be during the 2nd Friday Artwalk in Chapel Hill-Carrboro on June 13th from 6 to 9.

"A controlled moment of light"

Jules Olitski, "Tin Lizzie Green"

“Color as Field: American Painting, 1950-1975” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum through May 26.

What a wonderful exhibition this is! The Color Field "school" was the bastard stepchild of the Abstract Expressionists and what a stepchild they were. The show includes some of the AbEx artists such as Gottleib and Motherwell who were also a part of Color Field as well as Rothko and Barnett Newman who were obvious influences. (In a nod to Karen, I will note that most Newman's are boring as hell, but his "Horizontal Light" shown in the exhibition is really wonderful.)

Jules Olitski was the great discovery for me. His pieces of monumental size just sucked me in, especially "Tin Lizzie Green" above. Morris Louis' "Floral V", Jack Bush's "need to find name in catalogue" and several of Helen Franenthaler's were other standouts.

The NYT review is quite good (except for the unfortunate Olitski is "poorly represented" comment) and the slide show is representative of the show. The title of this post is a quote from Larry Poons in this podcast from the Smithsonian page. Other podcasts are here. NPR's story is here

Arts blogs and resources

Here a few art blogs that are fairly interesting. The bloggers were all interviewed for a recent issue of Art in America.

Art blog mostly about Philly but still of general interest
Tyler Green's blog about modern and contemporary art
A Portland, OR based blog
And a Seattle-based blog

Finally an artists website called DeviantART mentioned on CNet

I'm not totally sure what DeviantART actually does for an artist but it is worth a look at least.

Controversy

So it happened...complaints about some of my pieces -- sex, drugs and rock n' roll.

Actually it's only the sex. The Carrboro arts committee is very supportive and I hope everything stays up. I don't want to cause problems for the committee or the town of Carrboro because they have been great to me. But, damn it, I have Cheney as a Medusa f*&^ing a skeleton for a reason and that reason being that they (this administration) are the ones who are obscene. My little protest pales compared to the evil they have foisted on the world.

Stay tuned....

The invite to my art opening...