Kelly Detweiler’s landscapes are part of his Triton Museum exhibition.

A Familiar Cast of Characters Flips the Calendar Forward
By Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

Ever since I first saw Kelly Detweiler’s paintings hanging in Eulipia in the seventies, I have been a fan.  It took quite a few years before I met the artist and even longer to get to know him as a colleague in the teaching world and as a friend.  Through the years his work has borne an unmistakable signature.  His wide-ranging stylization of the figure, from cartoony to cubist, his idyllic landscapes often with anthropomorphic animals, and his still lives with witnesses from art history are themes that have sustained his work.

Still Life with Ghost, by Kelly Detweiler

In his Triton Museum Exhibition, Detweiler talks about working in series, the origins of his work in art history and a rigor learned through his first medium, ceramics.  Making vessels heightened the artist’s interest in the role of the ubiquitous vase in historic still lives.  Over the years, on a series of small works abandoned by students, Detweiler appropriated, reworked, repainted and continually revisited the vase, playing it against the figure and all the historic elements of the still life, and frequently used collage elements.  These small mixed media paintings have been some of my favorites among his oeuvre.  And they have lead logically, in terms of process, into Detweiler’s Calendar Series now seen at the Triton.  I cannot get enough of these images.  I am admittedly biased towards certain aesthetics of graphics and further there are themes in these works that I love.

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Images Transform Utility Doors and Give Downtown a Boost of Energy
By Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

Nneka Idika, A Junior at Lincoln High School, was one of the winners for her artwork,  A Story in History

Unique and surprising images by San Jose high school students have made the streets of downtown San Jose into an exhibition site.  Their twenty five photographs, drawings, paintings and mixed-media works have been blown up and adhered to the many utility doors that open onto the downtown streets.  In the process, they have transformed many lengths of otherwise dreary and architecturally unremarkable urban streetscape into a colorful and vibrant experience for passersby.  Some of these images have a remarkable relationship to the activities of host businesses or public spaces where they are placed, some are wonderfully mysterious, some seem to address other young spirits on the street, and yet others are simply a special and unique creative statement.  From the viewpoint of this art educator, their honest diversity and lack of calculated stylistic postures is a remarkable comment on the open minds and enviable spontaneity of these young artists.

Sarahi Escorza’s Time is Precious, and Edward Balaoro’s Where to Go? are seen on South First Street behind the Fairmont Hotel.

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On April 30, 2009, San Jose State University MFA and MA students from Anthony Raynsford’s Contemporary Art Seminar on Empathy and Embodiment took a field trip to the Cantor Arts Center to view the collection and to hear a Stanford Art Department lecture by art historian and critic Michael Fried in Annenberg Auditorium.  Nancy Sevier and Joveena Prince offer two different reactions to Fried’s lecture and his showing of Anri Sala’s Long Sorrow a film by the contemporary Berlin-based Albanian video artist.
The Long Sorrow
By Nancy Sevier

Video still from Anri Sala, Long Sorrow

Art theorist, Michael Fried, treated the public to an animated lecture at Stanford University. Over the years, Fried has concerned himself with the relationship of the artist and the viewer. He is well known for his essay, “Art and Objecthood,” in which he accuses the Minimalists of the 1960’s, of being “theatrical” and dishonest about the means in which their work is seen by the viewer.

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On April 30, 2009, San Jose State University MFA and MA students from Anthony Raynsford’s Contemporary Art Seminar on Empathy and Embodiment took a field trip to the Cantor Arts Center to view the collection and to hear a Stanford Art Department lecture by art historian and critic Michael Fried in Annenberg Auditorium. Presley Martin presents his impressions of earth artist Richard Long’s 1990 piece, Georgia Granite Circle, included in the exhibition Pop To Present on view at the Cantor Center until August 16th.
Reflections on Georgia Granite Circle
By Presley Martin

Richard Long, Georgia Granite Circle, 1990
Photo by Presley Martin

Walking quickly through the Cantor Arts Center, I couldn’t help but be struck by Richard Long’s “Georgia Granite Circle.” While there were many works that were interesting and warranted further attention there was no

doubt that I would spend my fifteen minutes with the circle of granite. Having grown up in a scientific family and spending summers in the New Hampshire woods that are strewn with granite boulders I recognized the rocks as granite immediately. Indeed when I sat with the work many childhood memories came flooding back to me. More than anything I could imagine how it would feel to walk across the mass of rocks. I would have to struggle to keep my balance walking on top of the granite chunks as they moved under my feet.  As a child I was also an avid rock collector so I was drawn to the many small glinting crystals in the granite. These are good specimens, the kind I would have taken home as a child. Indeed it occurred to me that Richard Long’s main emphasis with this work may be nothing more than a celebration of the childhood joy of rocks. It also made me remember throwing stones into lakes and rivers, where one goal was always to throw the largest stone you could. While all these reactions to the work engaged me and drew me in I wouldn’t say I lost myself in the work, or was embodied in the granite. I definitely empathized with Richard’s and indeed all humans love of rocks.

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A MIX OF A BIT OF EVERYTHING and FUN FOR EVERYONE
By Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

The monthly artwalk known as First Fridays, where galleries in San Jose’s Sofa District stay open late on the first Friday of the month was joined by the SubZERO Festival to bring the flavor of Zero1’s digital art biennale to the street.  All joined in the street with crafts booths, robots, gallery exhibitions that spilled outdoors, food, costumes, fundraising, music and fun. Cafes, billiard halls and empty storefronts brought more art inside with an occasional band as well.  Artists, patrons and sponsors mingled, all seemingly pleased with the mix of merchandise from ceramics and jewelry to designer couture, and art mixed with entertainment.

The new streetscaping on South First, between Santa Clara and Reed Streets added an upbeat aesthetic to the historically grungy mental image of the Sofa District as an old cast-off sofa at curb’s edge.  The purple jacarandas blooming profusely enhanced the ambience.  Dining on the widened sidewalks, new planters with greenery and flowers  and a new parking plan for south First Street are just part of a larger plan for beautifying and improving downtown San Jose.

Connie Martinez, Executive Director of 1stAct Silicon Valley (center) tried to ignore her disabled car and a sick cat to enjoy the SubZERO Festival.  Ken Kay, of Ken Kay Associates, with wife Jing, returned from China to attend the Festival.  Kay is the Urban Architect responsible for the pilot project and redesign of the Sofa District.

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BGD’s First Figurative Show is Diverse with Strong Narratives.
By Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

At Bill Gould Design in San Jose, the annual bash that brings clients in for an open house and celebrates Bill Gould’s commitment to the visual arts took a new turn with a new exhibition exploring a figurative theme.  Wayne Jiang, Lucy Trager, Charlotte Kruk, Katherine Levin Lau and Eugene Rodriguez all approach the figurative with a slightly different focus.  Curator Kathryn Funk began with the intense self-portrait montoypes of Katherine Levin-Lau and quickly decided to show a number of other interesting figurative artists, developing the first theme show in the newly expanded office, fabrication and exhibition space.

Wayne Jiang’s Self Portrait with Plumeria

Wayne Jiang, whose small scale landscapes of lonely, beautifully and somewhat surreally lit urban nightcapes were superb at Heritage Bank, again delights us in this series of figures in lonely, alienated, situations.  Jiang seems to find the moment in a larger narrative when every person is alone; sadness is lurking nearby, yet there is poignancy.  His figures are introspective, maybe bored, tired, and sleepy, at the point of withdrawal.  Painting mostly darkened situations, with artificial light, Jiang painstakingly and beautifully disperses light throughout a room with reflections on glass, upholstery, walls and the light-and-shadow folds of fabric.  The rendering of his own figure in a chair, his face and hands, the bookcase, wall and floor in Self Portrait with Plumeria, is wonderfully soft and three-dimensional at the same time, with an unseen light source on the left.  The bookcase, filled with the detail of books and papers, and the night scene in the window behind the figure are more fine elements of this painting. Read the rest of this entry »

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Wonderful Small Scale Works Reveal the Multidimensional Latino Art Community
By Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

A recycled book with mixed media entitled Basking in the Land of Milk and Honey by Lisa Ramirez

MACLA’s 11th Annual Invitational Latino Art Auction occurs this May, with more than eighty solid works of art to be sold.  The artists are Latino or the artists’ themes are related to the Latino experience.  Some of the images play with ongoing iconic forms from the Latino lexicon.  Some are very original explorations and personal interpretations of life as a Latino or in the Latino community. Others, such as Pilar Agüero Esparza’s Hawk from Sisters and Lisa Ramirez’ Basking in the Land of Milk and Honey are lovely works of art that cannot necessarily be cast into any category or camp.

The show opened for the First Friday of May, and there is still plenty of time to see it.  Besides that fact that it is an interesting survey of the current directions of well-known and local Latino artists, the work — most being small — is affordable!

Katrina Forecast, Little Dead Riding Hood and 4 dvds by John J Leaños

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For an exhibit in the lobby of San Jose City Hall, Robin Treen wrote about the beginnings of public art in the United States and in San Jose:

Twenty-five Years of Award-winning Public Art
By Robin Treen

Italo Scanga’s 1988, Figure Holding the Sun, in front of the Museum of Art was one of San Jose’s early acquisitions.

As San Jose’s Public Art Program celebrates its 25th anniversary, the promises of a new century have captured our imaginations. The boundaries between art and technology have become porous, easily traversed, setting the stage for an intense exploration of new media including digital and informational technologies, and hi-tech processes. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, and drawing on its richly diverse heritage, San Jose’s Public Art Program is well positioned to address the inevitable tensions between local and global outlooks, changing cultural values and new artistic idioms.

The Camden Community Center incorporated many public artworks into its campus.  Above: Michael Stutz’ Hand in Hand

Art created in common areas—the earliest form of public art—dates to the dawn of civilization, and serves many societal functions. In addition to recording and commemorating history and important events, public art fosters a sense of identity and social cohesiveness, expresses religious and cultural beliefs, and symbolically asserts both cultural and territorial dominance. Perhaps more significantly, art, in its many forms, is the manifestation of such unquantifiable compounds as imagination and inspiration, the most ethereal and mysterious of human endeavors. From Stonehenge to the Sphinx, from the Great Wall of China to the ancient Nazca Lines in Peru, from the statues on Easter Island to the Serpent Mounds in Ohio, ancient civilizations have left their mark on the earth as well as the consciousness of untold generations. We are moved and awed by the power of monument.

East Los Streetscapers, Commemoration of the founding of the Pueblo de San Jose Guadalupe, in Gore Park

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Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Euphrat Museum of Art
De Anza College Campus, Cupertino, CA
February 17–May 5, 2009
by Robin Treen

Agnes Pelton, Light Center, Courtesy of the Euphrat Museum

In February of 2009, the Euphrat Museum of Art celebrated the opening of its new facility on the De Anza College campus in Cupertino. The new exhibition space, along with a performance hall and an art history center, form the Visual and Performing Arts complex. The inaugural exhibition, Looking Back, Looking Ahead, was curated by the Museum’s long-time Executive Director Jan Rindfleisch, and sets an intriguing tone for the institution’s future. At first glance, Looking Back, Looking Ahead seems a bit disjointed, a In February of 2009, the Euphrat Museum of Art celebrated the opening of its new facility on the De Anza College campus in Cupertino. The new exhibition space, along with a performance hall and an art history center, form the Visual collection of disaparate parts that represent rather than reflect the immediate and obvious diversity of the local community. However, a closer look reveals a surprisingly strong subtext, rich with frequent areas of overlap among the various facets of the exhibition. Subtle and intuitive, Looking Back, Looking Ahead deftly touches on such compelling issues as migration and immigration, the preservation of culture and identity, the place for and value of traditions in a world constantly in transition, experience both personal and universal, and the elusive quality of memory. The legacy of this exhibition will be enduring.

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Lewis deSoto’s Journey
By Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

Entering the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art’s Project Room at the beginning of the Lewis deSoto retrospective exhibition Before After, a video documents the creation and adventures of the artist’s car, the DeSoto Conquest (parked outside the Gallery).  The car is a fictitious example of a restored “sexy” Detroit prototype car, and references the artist’s conflicted relationship to the Conquistador of the same name.  In discussing the personal obsession that drove him to realize this complex work of art, deSoto does not mince words in naming the brutal legacy of rape and murder his ancestor Hernando deSoto left in the new world, from Peru through the southern United States.  Built on the body of a 1965 Chrysler, the Conquest includes such added and meaningful decorative motifs as a symbolic gold sword.  One of several ironies in this project is that deSoto’s recreation of this concept car is so convincing it wins awards at vintage car shows.

Lewis deSoto: the Restoration…his deSoto Conquest

The video interview also includes a description of deSoto’s second conceptual vehicle, a 1981 (the year that Indian tribes received the right to build and run gaming casinos) GMC pickup called Cahuilla after the Southern California tribe to which he is also related. Embellished with gambling and money-related motifs and a sound loop of casino sounds, the pickup again points to a questionable American consumer value system and recalls the troubling history of “the Hispanic” and the Native American on our continent. The Cahuilla, like the Conquest, never appears contrived. Oh-so-believable and innocent, funny and sad!

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New Works by Sarah Edwards and Gregory Ito
Empire Seven Studios
By Ann Sherman

Installing the show at Empire Seven Studios

The word “temple, “ when referring to a place of worship or sanctuary, comes from the Latin templum—itself derived from the Indo-European root tem, to cut or divide. The ancient Roman priests or augers circumscribed and set apart sacred ground, from which they took their readings of the heavens. If the word is used in relation to the area on each side of head behind the eyes, the source is the street Latin tempula, a riff on tempora, the plural of tempus, a word that meant both time and that part of the head where the pulse could be measured. When Times Converge, the collaborative installation by Bay Area artists Sarah Edwards and Gregory Ito, coalesces these etymological tributaries by crafting a space in which their own readings of the natural world find expression in a measured, timebending blend of ancient and contemporary imagery.

The focus of each artist complements that of the other: Edwards’ work concentrates upon elements of the earthly landscape—air, water, land, trees and mountains. Ito turns his gaze to the night skies and lunar phases. Together, they have converted the warehouse gallery into a kind of cosmographic contemplation zone.

The combined elements of Ito’s and Edward’s work create a sanctuary.

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Greg Miller’s Taste Better (54″ x 72″, 2008) oil, paper, resin on panel

Greg Miller Shows at William Turner

by Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

Faculty and graduate students at San Jose State’s School of Art and Design in the early 80’s remember Greg Miller as a big darling, a good looking talented artist with a great, patient personality.  He was in the SJSU Graduate MFA Program and one of the principles in the establishment of Word Works.   Founded by Jessica Jacobs around the use of actual words and text in painting, Word Works was San Jose’s second gallery to address Postmodern issues at time when there was no Museum of Art and the only other alternative was landscape watercolor.  Word Works began to show cutting edge art and embraced performance and installation, bringing in big name artists from outside the nascent art scene in San Jose.  Works Gallery and the Institute of Contemporary Art were later offshoots of Word Works.

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Assemblage Rules in Santa Cruz
By Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

In February and March of ‘09, the considerable art scene of Santa Cruz put together a coordinated effort to bring out many the manifestations of construction, assemblage and collage in art.  Solo exhibitions, and groups shows presented the work of dozens of artists - mostly from the South Bay area - in an exhaustive array.  The great celebration of collections, found objects, and art making from a combination of un-arty sources and artistic impulse was led by the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History where all three floors were dedicated to this show.  Such important artistic contributors as veteran assemblage masters Bev Rayner, Robert Larson, Stan Welsh and Philo Northrup were shown alongside some stunning work by newcomers such as Genevieve Hastings.

Philo Northrup’s Basic Religous Piece

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