ARTSHIFT San José

ARTSHIFT

Arts Council Silicon Valley Announces Awards

May 16 2008

Six South Bay Artists Receive Prestigious Artist Fellowship Awards

By Josh Russell, Spring 2008

Arts Council Silicon Valley announced the recipients of its Artist Fellowship program, awarding a total of $20,000 to six Bay Area artists. This year, the Arts Council awarded one fellowship in each of five different categories, with two recipients in a fifth category.

After reviewing a total of 56 applications, a notable panel of 15 experienced judges selected the six artist fellows based upon artistic quality, community impact within Santa Clara County , and professional development demonstrated by continued exploration of the respective art form. Over 100 artists have been recognized throughout this program’s history.

Arts Council Silicon Valley is the only funding agency south of San Francisco that awards unrestricted grants to artists specifically for career accomplishments. On Thursday, May 29, the Arts Council will honor these six recipients at an evening reception from 6:00-8:00PM at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara .

Kathy Aoki’s Battle of Kawaii, (landing detail) 2005-2007, with 44 pieces, introduces adult subject matter into a child’s world.

DAVID PACE–THREE CONCURRENT EXHIBIITONS

May 13 2008

Pace Reveals Consummate Technique as well as Compassion
by Erin Goodwin-Guerrero, Spring 2008

Currently, the photography of David Pace can be seen in the Robots exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Art, in the Winter Exhibition in Compass Point at the Sobrato Center in Milpitas, and at the Martin Luther King Library’s second floor gallery space. The three shows provide an opportunity to see Pace’s work over a space of more than ten years. A progression from his quirky humor in graduate school, through changing interests sparked by travel experiences will be seen. Throughout the viewing of David Pace’s photography, from work in Ecktacolor through toned gelatin silver prints, to digital color, one cannot escape the impression of old-fashioned Ansel Adams-style perfectionism in hands-on darkroom technique.

David Pace’s Greg’s Robot Collection, Ecktacolor prints from 1991, in the Robots exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Art, part of the Zero One Festival. (more…)

WHAT IS MARTHA GARDENS?

May 4 2008

The Martha Gardens Art District, both Promising and Fragile
By Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

Artists look for workspace in industrial areas and blighted districts within the urban landscape. Artists and studios create a new aura and cache in the area. Real estate values begin to rise. Redevelopment and gentrification force the artists out. This is an old story that has happened in many cities across the world and San Jose is enduring the same sequence of events.

The San Jose State Art/Metals Foundry on South Fifth Street

ARTISTS’ BOOKS IN MOUNTAIN VIEW

May 4 2008

Conceptually Bound the Mohr Gallery, Community School of Music and Arts — By Julia Bradshaw

A little off the beaten track for San José residents, but worth a trip, is an interesting exhibition of artists books at the Mohr Gallery at the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View.

Assembled by Nanette Wylde, this is the third iteration of Conceptually Bound – a curatorial program that actively seeks out artists books where the binding plays a function in the meaning of the book.

Some books were only available in display cases, a necessity considering the gallery’s proximity to the music school. But well worth spending time with are the books available on pedestals and shelves for visitors to peruse and hold at close quarters – gloves are provided.

I gravitated towards the books with rich internal content of which there is a high proportion in this exhibition. Wylde has selected well, choosing artists who both have an understanding of the book as an artistic and sculptural medium, as well as having a developed sense of content and meaning.

Diane Cassidy’s Taxidermy

HERE COME THE CANDIDATES

Apr 26 2008

ATC Offers Some Promising Previews of the MFA Candidates
By Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

What is ATC? Advancement to Candidacy is a week of exhibitions in the San Jose State Galleries that allow faculty, students and visitors to see current work by graduate students who want approval to proceed to their “theses” — the final body of work that comprises their exit exhibition. This year’s presentations were all over the map in terms of interesting art. At the worst, sometimes it was a one-liner, or boring and meaningless, amateur and poorly crafted, unfocused and/or overly sentimental. The good news is that this work still has time to turn around. And, on the up side of ATC, I found several fascinating shows that made the trip to San Jose State’s Galleries quite rewarding.

BEN HUNT’S LAYERED MEMORIES

Apr 23 2008

Artifacts of Family and Roots
By Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

Ben Hunt’s MFA exhibition, The Grey Area, at San Jose State, is a knockout on the visual level. Indeed the entire space is dominated by the grey walls and an uncertainty between past and present. It is, conceptually, an enigma and an unsettled search for personal history.

Ghost House by Ben Hunt

PASSIONS SPRING ETERNAL

Apr 7 2008

Love Art Laboratory
By Julia Bradshaw

Costume designer Katea Petro, bride Elizabeth Stephens, bride Annie Sprinkle, and corset designer, Ms. Antoinette conspire to design the green theme nuptials.

Collaborators, lovers and multiple-married couple Elizabeth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle invited all to join in their wedding preparations in the new ICA print studio on Saturday 5th April. With the bride encouraging wedding-veil decorations of a pair of lovebirds, a green cocktail umbrella, peacock feathers, a hand-painted shell and multiple green beads – a no-holds-barred involvement in creating wedding clothes developed. Participants in the sewing-bee created a wedding-staff and leather waistcoat decorated with buttons, beads, feathers and shiny, green bric-a-brac for Bride Elizabeth Stephens. Others attached beads, abalone shells and hand-made paper beads by Carmela Rizzuto to Bride Annie Sprinkle’s wedding skirt. And Sprinkle modeled a magnificently constructed green corset created by Ms. Antoinette as she read poetry to the people in the gallery and spoke of her own love story. A feast of Green Food kept the energy levels up. As Elizabeth Stephens said “we couldn’t do this without the participation of the people who came today. Everyone has contributed to make this a fun, beautiful and sexy event.

RECALLING THE MOMENTIOUS SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES

Mar 22 2008

Fred Spratt: Color and Space at the San Jose Museum of Art
By Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

Fred Spratt came to the West Coast and brought a big vision with him. He taught his students to think and dream big, and impacted his teaching colleagues and San Jose State University, as well. He inspired me as a student and I later had the opportunity to exhibit some of his paintings from the seventies, when I was the Director of the Euphrat Gallery at De Anza College. He loved hanging around with artists and celebrating the arts.

With a major commitment to his own work and an ambitious professionalism, Spratt moved for a while in the seventies to Los Angeles and commuted to his teaching life in San Jose. There, he cultivated the art world of Los Angeles, and executed some major works in his studio in an old Vic Tanney gym. After retirement, he opened Frederick Spratt Contemporary Art on South First Street in San Jose, and contributed another dynamic to the struggling visual arts scene in San Jose. He gave exhibition opportunities to artists in a community where there were little or no other places for solo shows. He sold art. He brought major arts stars like Ed Moses, Milton Resnick and Robert Graham to the San Jose scene.

San Jose art patrons and long-time friends, Rose and Norman greet Frederick Spratt at the opening of Fred Spratt; Color and Space

Even through the many years where he devoted himself to serving the art community, in his heart Fred Spratt never ceased being an artist himself. Spratt’s work from that recent tumultious period of art history, when we passed from one major epoch to another, now on display at the San Jose Museum of Art, is both a significant document of art history and an homage to a major figure of the Silicon Valley art community. (more…)

ART PARTY PAR EXCELENCE

Mar 9 2008

Anne and Mark’s Art Party to remember!
By Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

If you were among the few art lovers who did not attend the March 2 art party on South 16th Street, here are a few of the highlights: In not one large house, but two, every available space was used to hang 2-D art or display sculpture. Even the streets became part of the gallery, with art cars adorning the passage between the houses. In one backyard setting, art trailers with a “love nest” theme, red satin cushions, fur, twinkle lights and glitter prevailed. Hundreds of people (it appeared) mingled and enjoyed the art, drink and food. Canapes served on trays! Outdoor bars and barbques! Everything was plentiful!

Ben Hunt donated his talents as a bartender and the works of Gianfranco Paolozzi, including Journal on Wood were seen behind the bar.

FROM THE SIXTIES TO ‘96

Mar 2 2008

“Eye on the Sixties” at the de Saisset Museum
and “New York Artists” at Michael Rosenthal Gallery
by Erin Goodwin-Guerrero, February, 2008

The beginnings of postmodernism and the flurry of artistic daring and inspiration in diverse media that characterized the sixties through the nineties are featured in two current exhibitions worth seeing. At Santa Clara University’s de Saisset Museum, “Eye on the Sixties: Vision, Body and Soul” is a selection of work from the notable California collection of Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson. The de Saisset shows the Anderson Collection with an exhibition of works from their own collection, distinguished by important West Coast works from the same period. At the Michael Rosenthal Gallery in Redwood City, in “New York Artists” we see many of these same big name art stars that have made postmodernist history represented in a selection of prints from 1996. This timely exhibition also was executed in a presidential election year.

The simultaneity of these two exhibitions is, for me, nostalgic. As an art student in the sixties, I was liberated from my conservative roots, first, by coming to San Francisco, and second, by discovering a fit for my eclectic style in the new possibilities within printmaking and postmodernism. More than thirty years later, this is an exciting convergence of core material that I recommend to my own students in order to see and understand what the rebellion against Modernism was all about.

Roy Lichtenstein’s Oval Office, 1996

ASSEMBLAGE WITH A PURPOSE AND WIT

Feb 7 2008

Altered Objects at Santa Clara University
By Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

(UN)COMMON: THE ART OF ALTERED OBJECTS, presented by Renee Billingslea, is a selection of mostly small sculptural works by five artists who deal mostly with a concern for justice and social equality. The exceptions are Tony May’s two small sculptures concerned with his cat and Diane Jacob’s, Repatriation, which is a large book. As it happens words and type also play a prominent role in this excellent exhibition at the Art Department’s Gallery of Art and Art History at Santa Clara University.

Billingslea’s point of departure was to gather assemblage work on a small scale, compatible with her own current sculptural direction. Artist Lisa Kokin affirms the value of “both recycled materials and a hand made quality in the digital age.” She says “I’m very low tech and appreciate labor intensity and showing the artist’s hand.” On content, she continues, “I have a continuing preoccupation with social conditions, ethical uses of photography…”

Renee Billingslea’s open books on the history of slavery and racism

MACLA LOOKS AT MIGRATION AND DREAMS

Jan 18 2008

Daring to Navigate Treacherous Waters

by Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

MACLA has never favored the superficial and decorative nor been shy in presenting art that is loaded with content and controversy. The power and importance of artists speaking clearly in a visual language is demonstrated remarkably in this exhibition. Shifting Dreams, Migrating Realities provides an opportunity for a community under attack to speak through its art about the struggle for economic survival, cultural identity, respect and hope for the future. We are reminded of the political and social history of both the United States and Latin America. We are asked, in the context of this exhibition, to overcome a wave of national paranoia, and sensibly revisit our relationship with humanity at large. In our shrinking global village, this seems so urgent. Perhaps you as a viewer will engage the simple realities presented in this exhibition about international migration, and be moved to speak out about our national priorities.

Consuelo Jimenez Underwood provides a light moment with her oversize Flower Tortillas (with leaves and flower petals woven into the fabric).

Underwood’s Frontera Basket, made of barbed wire and perfectly sized for her tortillas, acknowledges the difficult struggle to preserve traditions in a new country

ART AND WAR

Dec 9 2007

How is War Seen by Women, Soldiers, Artists?
by Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

Just when I began to wonder if the Viet Nam War had exhausted all our energy for antiwar art, a passionate body of art appears to address the topic in both old and new ways. Perhaps, without the sense of urgency that sprang from the draft in the Viet Nam era, there has been a delayed reaction. Or maybe the artists were making the art all along, but it took longer to bring the artists work to the fore in the form of exhibitions. As an artist who greatly appreciates the power of art to point at our actions when they demand scrutiny, this series of shows is so welcome.

It must be so difficult for artists in a war zone to make art when they are surrounded by violence, yet some of the art indeed comes from such contexts. And, as old as the subject may be for artists in general, exhibitions at several institutions in the South Bay reveal that artists have not lost their commitment to decrying the horrors of war, nor has the war in Iraq failed to capture their attention. Some of the art also asks us to step back from the politically correct attitudes of the liberal art community and simply explore the images on the formal level, or to identify with the soldiers’ experience.

Freedom’s Price employs a feminine camouflage pattern on the outside, but the old standard - “Home, Sweet Home” - is still secretly guarded within.

California to Bangkok and Back

Dec 5 2007

WHAT IS THE VALUE OF CULTURAL EXCHANGE?

LINKED AND OVERLAPPING EXHIBITIONS AT THE NATALIE AND JAMES THOMPSON GALLERY AND AT WORKS, SAN JOSE

by Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

Sittichai Prachayaratikun and Tongchai Srisukprasert have been given ridiculously short visas in the USA. With the help of a cadre of students, faculty and technical assistants, they are working against time to produce a complex installation in the Natalie and James Thompson Gallery at San Jose State University. Their two works merge in the space - Sittichai’s work uses two vertical walls that connect at a corner and Thongchai is creating a horizontal cross that connects to each of the four walls slightly above the mid-point. Both works refer to death in some way. The entire installation is overwhelmingling red, as is the ceiling of the Buddhist Temple, and which forthe Thais is the color of death. The concepts are, for both artists, responsive to concerns for “world environment”, yet iconographically very personal, and an extension of previous work done in Thailand and elsewhere.

Sittichai and Tony May confer during installation activity.

THE LANDSCAPE OF WAR

Nov 24 2007

The Landscape of War – San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art – Panel Discussion

By Julia Bradshaw

November 11th, 2007. Remembrance Day. And artists do not allow us to forget. At the San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art on the 11th November, writer Rebecca Solnit gathered a panel of artists, journalists and scholars to discuss their work around the government-termed ‘war on terror’ and its current excursions into military dominated foreign policy. As a listener, it was stimulating to hear from people who are actively trying to make a difference in our consciousness whether it is by wielding a pen, a camera or working with the very old art of woodcut.

Artists participating in the show at SJICA are actively commenting on current conflicts overseas and also the position of the United States as a dominant and economic power. In this show, guest curated by Anne Veh, it was enlightening to see how visual artists masterfully create political commentary in a visually engaging manner. Indeed, what is the place of art with regards to war activism? Does it have any impact? Panelist and artist Trevor Paglen said that “art doesn’t do anything [but] it creates a culture of visual dissent.” Paglen takes photographs of remote military and CIA locations using photographic means usually reserved for Astro-Photographers. His photographs of clandestine military installations are blurry and indistinct as his camera equipment attempts to capture light and break through the atmospheric haze from distances of 22 miles or more. Through photography, Paglen is uncovering the layers of secrecy surrounding government operations. His projects are an insistence on truth and the images at SJICA are a meager indication of the depth of research and investigative geography with which he documents hidden military landscapes.

Trevor Paglen’s Unmarked 737

KEN MATSUMOTO AT THE TRITON MUSEUM

Nov 23 2007

KEN MATSUMOTO - “A Reason for Being”
By Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

What is a reason for being? Perhaps, it is simply to appreciate the nature or history of a material through realization of form. Ken Matsumoto explores this question and others he may only begin to articulate in his current exhibition at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara.

In explaining his vessels made of bricks and mortar Ken Matsumoto tells the story of Dr Ishikawa’s house to illustrate this point. “Dr. Ishikawa had bequeathed his home (located 50 yards down the street from my studio/gallery) to the Japanese American Museum of San Jose… the home was used as the museum for several years until recently when it was razed to make way for the construction of a structure more suited to the mission of the JAM. …my friend Jimi Yamaichi, harvested from the destruction, stacks of red clay bricks, thinking that they would be of use. …Jimi agreed to let me use some of them.” Honoring the memory of Dr. Ishikawa through the metaphor of a vessel constructed from bricks and mortar from his own house is the vessel’s reason for being, however it is only the beginning of Matsumoto’s exploration.

Ken Matsumoto’s Bricks and Mortar

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