Art

MASS MOCA: Spencer Finch exhibition and fun Berkshires weekend

September 16, 2007 No Comments

Our weekend in the Berkshires was splendid! We rented a little house with some friends, went hiking, cooked great meals, drank wine and whiskey, and visited MASS Moca, a modern art museum in a converted factory in the Northern Berkshires. The space itself is worth a visit with its exposed brick walls, high ceilings, and industrial feel.

My favorite work was by Brooklyn artist Spencer Finch who explores how people perceive lights effect on an objectâ€™s color, the boundaries of the human field of vision, and the influence of language, memory, and the subconscious.

His works re-create specific light conditions experienced at a different place and time. Above are photos I took of two Spencer Finch installations, â€œSunlight In An Empty Room (Passing Cloud For Emily Dickinson, 2004)â€? and â€œCandlelight (2007)â€? at Mass Moca (hereâ€™s more info).

Below are some other pictures from the trip.

Fed Up

September 12, 2007 5 Comments

I love food! I love cooking it, eating it, seeing it, photographing it, and painting it. For most of us food is a very emotional topic. Many people can describe their sordid and often painful relationship with eating. I try to grapple with that in my work. There are more from this series on my site.

Here are some more of my food photographs on flickr.

*I think I’m going to leave this post up for the weekend. Monday I’ll post photos from my trip to Mass Moca contemporary art museum in North Adams Massachussettes. I love the Berkshires!

Gary Hume: American Tan (paintings)

September 11, 2007 2 Comments

45-year-old Gary Hume a British post-pop painter, paints glossy ambiguous images on aluminum. His recent show at White Cube in London, features extremely cropped images of cheerleaders mid twirl, leap, and split.

It takes your eye a moment to recognize the body parts within the flat swaths of color, line and form. Thus, they become enigmatic, distilled down to their essential details causing the viewer to furrow their brow in concentration trying to decipher not only the pose and limb but also the tension of who and what we are looking at.

A cheerleader is so familiar and such a part of our visual lexicon but Hume imbues each figure with mystery, decontextualizing them while at the same time taking away the usual objectification of the female subject on his sleek aluminum surface.

Here’s a comprehensive article about the show and Gary Hume that fellow art lover/blogger Mike sent my way knowing I’d dig. Thanks Mike!

Cloths-line Sally

September 8, 2007 No Comments

A little sketch book spread.

Pedro Reyes’s Capula Sculptures: Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle.

September 4, 2007 2 Comments

On Labor Day we attended a wedding in Seattle at the Olympic Sculpture Park. The reception was held inside a huge room with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the art and natural scenery.

Suspended from the high ceiling were two amazing and interactive sculptures entitled Capula XVI and Capula XVII by Mexican artist Pedro Reyes. Woven strings of vinyl stretch taut over angular and round white metal, creating the look of a bird cage mixed with a 1970â€™s hanging basket chair. The vinyl makes the piece pliable and inviting.

Initially guests eyed the sculptures inquisitively as they entered the room, circling them and gently poking at them as though they were alien ships, watching other guests gingerly slip inside their round opening and settle into the anti-gravity center. Once inside it felt pleasant to be floating and gently swaying, the weight of your body pressing into the vinyl like a reclining beach chair. (more…)

MASS MOCA: Spencer Finch exhibition and fun Berkshires weekend

Fed Up

Gary Hume: American Tan (paintings)

Cloths-line Sally

Pedro Reyes’s Capula Sculptures: Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle.

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