Gianna Commito @ Shaheen Modern

Gianna Commito seems to be having a terrific year.  With two shows, one solo happening here in Cleveland right now, the Kent artist and painting instructors stock is certainly on the rise.

And for good reason. Gianna’s  paintings are an explosion of contemporary art in a more regionally aesthetic leaning Cleveland.  It is refreshing to see art in Cleveland that has reference to the outside and greater art world.  As artists we should know what is happening and it’s clear Commito is  paying attention to both the contemporary art world and to the legacy that precedes her.  Her abstract paintings have a certain apocalyptic formalist feel that can send the viewer into vertigo. Like a camera pointed up at large skyscrapers then spinning around. Angles and corners and divergent and convergent perspectives mingle and point the way but never lead anywhere specific. As if there was an earthquake in an Al Held painting.

The irony of the paintings are the color. I am a sucker for luscious juicy-ness. Commito’s paintings offer up lots and they draw the viewer in with the brights, the contrasts, the rendering of illuminated and shaded. The way the forms are defined keep you looking and engaged while they lead you deep into the forest only to dump you at the roadside in the fog like an unwanted puppy. You kind of feel lost and a little nauseous. But we keep looking.

Catch them while you can at the William Busta Gallery a solo show till March 13th and in a group show at  Shaheen Modern and Contemporary till April 2 where she is beautifully paired with 4 national artists in a show all about abstraction and its current manifestations in painting. Called, smartly, (Untitled)Painting. I  assume a nod to abstraction. It is sure not to be missed since Shaheen can certainly curate a good show.

@ William Busta Gallery

Dandy Warhog?

Exposing myself here as a comic book guy, yes since I was little. I especially and perhaps exclusively love the cover art of DC in the late 60’s early 70’s with an even finer focus on Neal Adams and Berni Wrightson (holler at ya Swamp Thing), ehem…nerd, I know. But the art is really cool, and dark. I mean there are a ton of issues about drug use and not coded, right out in the open-see Green Lantern 85. The themes in the early 70’s are very dystopic and underbelly-ish.

Anyways, I had once purchased a whole box of comics from someone and this was one of the books in the box. A Jughead that has the Archie crew hanging out in an art gallery. An obvious parody on Pop Art at the time.

Jughead says, Archie, every burger is a work of art.  The funny thing is, I think that’s Warhols sentiment exactly.

From Try Harder

I’ve been following from a far the cool happenings at Winkleman Gallery in Chelsea thanks mostly in part to Mr. Winklemans mastery at social networking and generosity via his blog and interest in alternative methods. Right now there is a show that follows in the tradition of our own Spaces Gallery’s last year endeavor, The Plum Academy  where artist/gallery run functions are scheduled much like college classes or think tanks that address cultural issues. It sort of breaks down many barriers and encourages dialogue.

There are some really great opportunities there if you happen to be in Chelsea in the next 2-3 weeks.  I even participated in the Shut Up Already I Will Look at Your Art were submissions are accepted from around the world and a panel of dealers and others will feast on 10 second interval slide shows of the work. It’s the speed dating of gallery submissions. After your art is looked at you get a signed certificate. I haven’t been viewed yet, but I have a feeling I’m going to be in the next batch.

Anyways,  I found on a blog I read called Try Harder, this image from the #class exhibition, a graph showing gallery representation in and out of the art centers in the United States, mainly NYC. Although I am confident being in New York is still the most incredible thing, I find it, if the account is accurate, extremely interesting and also telling of our “it’s a small world after all” landscape. The digital age has opened so many doors and broadcast the pulse of contemporary art across the country so that you don’t have to be at the epicenter to be connected,  it leads to our much lower rents here in Cleveland with the hopes of still getting our voices heard.

I'm an artist

I have seen quite a bit of writing lately, perhaps its been around and I am only  now finding it, about the cultural views and monetary rewards for being an artist. I have even touched on the subject in regards to gallery structure, taxes and just generally motivation for keeping going year after year.  But somewhere recently I heard the question, “What do you say when someone asks you what do you do?” Casual acquaintance, brunch talk, right? So I mean, I am an artist, that’s what drives my motivation for everything, that is what I read, write, make, look at, think about. But I always end up saying…well I do design work for insert Company Name here. I feel kind of like a sell out, dirty…because I am an artist dang it, I exhibit, I am in the studio 3 or more times a week. But it’s not how I  “make my living”.

I will say that lately more so than ever I have been catching myself from saying Artist because I have been as involved as I have ever been. But still in different company, here comes the cultural part, I find that I have to do an awful lot of explaining if I say I am an artist. Not that I mind, but ultimately many people think of an artist much differently than what I think of. You know, artist as thinker, as culture critic, as heir to a long line of historical context carefully positioned to take the end of their rope and add-on to it. Those sentiments get lost in translation. Although I feel like that shouldn’t, it’s no ones fault, it’s just that art is misunderstood and comes in so many forms that the mass idea of art is either tchotchkes, sunday painting or high brow stuff that “I ain’t be understanding cause, well, anyone could of been making that pile of sand on the gallery floor.”

So what do I call myself, a corporate sponsored and subsidized cultural producer who trades services and time for funds that allow for the creation of visual objects? Meh, too much. I’ll probably, until, I  make a full living as an artist, just say I work for……

Where's HMNA?

Sorry folks, I have a lot happening at the moment besides trying to drive to the day job, and no I am not writing this on my iPhone while driving in the blizzard on 71. I will be back to posting next week.

Enjoy the weekend!

PPOW artists

I like demystifying the artist.  The whole pursuit of the artist has a certain mythic air around it. With no clear path to follow and the extreme counter society vibe to artistic practice not to mention the fairly private nature of creating, artists can seem like leprechaun’s or gremlins. ha-ha.

But its true, and that is why I love any glimpse I can get into the artists process and life. Which is also why I want to post this, the PPOW gallery, on their artists stable page, posts not only samples of each artists work but also a photograph of their studio. It’s fascinating and engaging and a great why to add a layer of understanding to the work by showing some of the underpinnings of the practice.

So check it out and see some good art and where it is made.

I’ve always been interested in art that is a manipulation of space, something that makes the viewer rediscover or even just notice a place or see it like they haven’t before. I also like the idea of found materials being organized and manipulated to create order from chaos or just to excercise the human ability to form aesthetics, to change and manipulate in a thoughtful way. It’s all very human.

With that in mind I find the current project at Spaces, the SpaceLab artist and local Clevelander Corrie Slawsons project to explore abandoned and desolate lots in Cleveland and manipulate the spaces with found objects and other vibrant elements.  Sounds like the implementation of formal technique from her training as a painter will bring life and represent the possibilities of these cast off plots with just a little human attention. I see Corrie’s attempts as an optimistic diamond in the rough mentality. Artistic gentrification where the history is not lost nor forgotten but rather celebrated and updated.  Hers is a mentality of celebration of possibility over exploitation.

I am reminded of Kevin Landers the NY photographer who explores the cities streets. He has a few pictures that I think of, the ones of the famous “Happy To Serve You” cup to name one, where the cast off worn beauty is taken out of context and photographed on a white background ala Richard Avedon portraits where one is forced to focus on the object as artifact and to imagine its journey and contemplate purpose. Slawson is also going to present found objects in the gallery which to me will be like an exhibit of “ancient” Cleveland, the northeastern Ohio Pompeii.

Either way this SpaceLab exhibit is ripe with social and local concerns. A strong mix of community awareness, grassroots efforts and aesthetic realization. A real multilayered experience. Be sure to check it out and to participate there are multiple times where folks are encouraged to help during a work party. So get involved and discover the possibilities of art and of our city.

Here are more details from Spaces:

SPACELAB | CORRIE SLAWSON | Work Party 118

Gallery Installation at SPACES: January 29 – March 26, 2010

Work Party 118 On Site Installation: February 20, 2010, 10 – 2 p.m.

MidTown Installations on view: February 20 – March 26, 2010

Both installations are free and open to the public.

I think this article from the NYTimes is what critique is all about.  Someone who is thinking about the state of the arts and forming a well articulated and critical opinion. I am sure there can be many argument off shoots of inclusion/exclusion but the fact is this is an important article on the arts and anyone interested in cultural production especially American cultural production should take a peek and read it.

Going through a moment of personal music metamorphosis in which a ton of the music I have been listening to just isn’t relevant any more. Perhaps I am at a stage of personal evolution or my iPod just needs some freshening up. I am less of a trend music listener and more of a lasting brilliant album resonating listener. So an album I like may find its way into my mix for a few years before becoming sour, some stay around longer, some for just a summer maybe. Like  Of Montreal, really great last summer but, like a piece of gum, just couldn’t retain the flavor.

Anyways the music reevaluating project or MRP as I call it found me playing truckload of art by Cracker over and over one night. I always enjoyed the song but it made me laugh in its parody since lately there has been a cloud of artist cynicism around every corner. Plus the original version was by Terry Allen, himself a painter and sculptor who I think penned the song out of his obvious view on the art machine.

But the whole experience got me to thinking about songs about art. That got me to make a list and to call some friends with some input. And here is the list of songs about art-artists-making art, some funny, some inspirational some just good music…

1.Cracker cover of Terry Allens -Truckload of Art
2.Art Brut-Modern Art
3.Dead Milkmen-Instant Club Hit
favorite line-”I met Andy Warhol at a really chic party-blow it out your ear girl cause you work at Hardy’s”
4.Simon and Garfunkel -Frank Lloyd Wright. A pop song about an arcitect, a eulogy non the less, its wonderful, too bad it would never happen now, like The Killers writing a song about Philip Johnson.
5.David Bowie-Andy Warhol
6.Snakefinger-Save Me From Dali
7.Don Mclean-Vincent. Awesome song about Van Gogh
8.Paul Simon- Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War
9.Don Byron-Basquiat. This is just plain awesome
10.David Amran-Pull My Daisy.  Robert Frank…come on

I also have an album from Smithsonian Folkways called There Is No Eye, music for photographs. A great compilation of roots music that accompanied a book by John Cohen of photographs of American Musicians.

Well, I am sure there are a ton more, in fact I could research it all day, but I’ll stick with the ones I know off hand. Feel free to add more. And for now I am going to load up on my new musical drug of choice…Detroit Techno.

I was just remembering the day I met Mary Ellen Mark last night. I had been leafing through some of my books for some winter inspiration and I came across a copy of A Cry For Help. Not one of MEM most celebrated bodies of work but a very poignent one about homelessness and poverty. Inside there was the inscription, For Brandon, Best Wishes.  It got me thinking about how important it is to listen to artists talk when ever possible because it demystifies artists and also artists can be really really cool and insightful when they talk.

I was just graduating from art school and she was speaking at the Columbus College of Art and Design. Two of my closest freinds drove there books in hand to hear her talk.  We ended  up being the only “fine-art” photographers there, the majority were design students who knew her as a “photojournalist” ( she like many play both rolls, having had her work published in many newspapers and magazines). In fact I bet many hadn’t heard of her and were just attending to hear a photographer talk.

I remember she showed her series on Indian Brothals. She was great, a real inspiration. Afterward she was signing posters that the college had printed up. I approached her with the book and she was thrilled that I had it and we talked for a bit ( as long as the line would let me before the natives got restless). Anyways she was so generous and happy that I supported her work that unlike the poster signatures that merely got a scribbled MEM, I got an inscription.

I always try to go hear artists. Its like a support group sometimes, inspirational, bonding and motivating. In fact coming up at the Akron Museum in April, an HMNA favorite, Todd Hido will be giving a talk. He is a fantastic and accomplished photographer with roots in Ohio. See the website for more details.