The elephant in the room

A little late to notice, but it seems that the Pittsburgh Post Gazatte has another arts reviewer. Most of the reviews are written by Mary Thomas, who has been writing for the Post for years.

I admit that I rarely look at the Post's art reviews. They are somewhat sporadic and generally buried. Like most regional newspapers, the Post doesn't even have a visual arts link in their menu banner. And it seemed to me that the majority of the coverage was on the museum and institution blockbuster shows.

But I read Terry Young's review of the Mattress Factory's India this morning --

When we look at the intent of the larger exhibition, in relationship to institutional funding in Pittsburgh, we find an ill-informed curator and director who found nothing "New," as the exhibition title suggests, or even contemporary, but instead brought back mediocrity labeled with the exotic misnomer "India."

The title "India" fulfills a multicultural prerequisite for contemporary arts funding, the original intent of which, like that of the Mattress Factory itself, was supportive of cultural and aesthetic change decades ago but now serves as a linguistic barrier excluding actual contemporary ideas of cultural and aesthetic change. Read the article

Oh ouch, I thought. The elephant in the room is finally seen. While I do believe that non-profit funding is a great avenue for promoting work that is unusual, I do tend to agree that "institutional funding" creates a whole other set of aesthetics and influences of what is seen in our non-profit cultural organizations. At any rate, I ran a search and found this Pop City article about an exhibit, Appalachian Spring Summer and Fall, that Mr. Young put together a couple years ago. From the article --

After leaving Pittsburgh for New York, London and Berlin, Young realized that “how it was everywhere” in the art world was much more trend- and commercial-conscious, and much more gallery oriented. While artists in the art-world capitals were opening vast shows, selling pieces, and striving for an ever-looming specter of fame and success, the artists Young grew up around in Pittsburgh were generally just getting on with the business of making art. Read the article

Well, but, what's wrong with selling your work? It's almost like he's saying it's okay for Pittsburgh artists to be left out of the "booming art market" that artists in other cities enjoy. Because that's what makes our region's art so, well, regional. I would also point out that this perception of Pittsburgh artists is also what keeps them from competing in the larger arena and forces so many talented artists to leave the region.

I am here because I sincerely like this city. But I also sincerely believe that art makers should enjoy the same attributes of success as members of any other profession. I don't believe that poverty is an appropriate ground for the seeds of creativity.

Look for the Union label

The Intrepid Art Collector broached a subject in her blog this week that I find painful. - Do Artists Need a Union?

The simple answer is, of course we do. Actors, writers and musicians have a union. Why not us? But answers, no matter how reasonable, don't always translate to action. There are insurmountable difficulties in putting a visual arts union in place.

A "Booming Art Market" notwithstanding, the vast majority of visual artists are not able to assign a monetary value to their work that is commensurate with their efforts. The local markets simply won't bear it. Conventional wisdom in local and regional art markets is that sales over $1000.00 for an individual artwork is unrealistic and if you want to sell your work than you should keep it under that ceiling.

Gallery representation does not guarantee that you will get a reasonable asking price. Most patrons that walk in the door with the intention of purchasing are accompanied by the intention to haggle the price down. Most want at least a 20% discount and some ask for 30% and upwards.

The justifications for these attitudes towards purchasing artwork are myriad. Some believe that, since art is an innate talent, the artist should be happy that anyone even wants to see their work. Making money off of it is just a bonus.

It's not just the individual patrons either. Art organizations have the same attitude about visual artists. Not too long ago, a call for artists from a local organization went out to put together street-level art and entertainment for a conference in our fair city. The performing groups of musicians and dancers were given $1000.00 for taking part. Visual artists that were chosen to decorate the windows of empty storefronts were given $500.00. Their materials had to come from that budget too.

The problem is that visual artists really are so cash poor that they are willing to work for the level of compensation that is offered. Anything being better than nothing. Unlike the performing arts, mass market avenues do not exist in the visual arts. That is not to say that performing artists are all trying to appeal to mass markets: it's just that there is more capital in those fields in general, which does change the environment.

There must be mainstream interest in order for visual artists to gain enough support to implement unionization. Mainstream interest in the visual arts is limited to the occasional news story about some outrageous sum that is paid for a masterwork. Also, if enough artists were making a reasonable living on selling their work, it would increase the pool of resources for the visual arts community, emulating the other creative communities that have implemented unions.

Charlie Finch and Google Alerts

Yanno, this article by Charlie Finch was published on Friday in Artnet. I know that there have already been several responses from art bloggers everywhere about this article. But what I want to know is whether or not Charlie Finch has this set up on Google Alerts? Do you think he has an rss feed on technorati for this article?

The future of the Three Rivers Arts Festival

Last year, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservatism and Natural Resources began work on renovating Point Park, which is at the tip of downtown's Golden Triangle, sitting at the confluence of the Ohio, Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers. Three Rivers Arts Festival, as well as the Regatta and several other annual events, were negatively impacted by the renovation. Three Rivers Arts Festival had a much smaller footprint and various parts of the festival, like the Best of Pittsburgh show, were spread over downtown. But since this was only temporary, the coordinators found the spaces and worked around the renovation. But now, there appears to be some glitches in the renovation plan. From the Post Gazette -

New guidelines are being developed for the use of the state-owned park and unless those guidelines are revised, the festival "will most likely not be able to operate in Point State Park," said Elizabeth Reiss, the arts festival's executive director. Read the article

The article goes on to explain that the regulations have not yet been finalized and that a meeting is scheduled with the organizers of these several events to discuss their concerns. Hopefully, the meeting will bring a greater understanding of the needs of event organizers and the concerns of PA -DCNR.

There is very little diversity in the visual arts in downtown Pittsburgh, with most venues operating as non-profits or as co-op galleries. Although the festival emphasizes the performance components more so than the visual arts, at least it does present a wider range of visual arts than what is usually found in downtown. The artist market houses fine crafts and arts and most of the vendors are marketing their work to individual purchases. It brings a more diverse mix of art appreciators to downtown and that is a good thing. Frankly, I am tired of ugly, shock and derivative art that appeals to a very small group of the public. Downtown really needs this festival.

Andres Serrano

There is an article about this in NYT.

I am so undecided about this issue. I couldn't see anything in the pieces that were destroyed that I would go out of my way to view, let alone support. The subject matter was really the only challenge to the work. It seemed fairly straightforward and formal. Maybe that's part of Serrano's aesthetic, I don't know. This kind of work just doesn't do anything for me. All it did was raise a lot of questions --

1 Who does validate this work?

2 Does one group have the right to decide what can be shown at a venue?

3 Why would someone choose to view this work?

Survey show @Digging Pitt

Inside Out Six: Selections from the Flat Files
I've been meaning to post about this show for a while now. I though I'd better get it up now, since the exhibit will be closing on Saturday, August 18.

JohnFobes' pinhole photography and Jon Lewis' work is very eerie, but still gives me an opportunity to create my own narrative. I really appreciate that aspect of these works. Eric Stern's work is always interesting, with its emphasis on calligraphy, adding visualization to definition, connotation and combustion.

The exhibit has a nice range of mediums and aesthetics. There are more artists; you should check it out before it comes down.

John Fobes
Eric Stern
Jon Lewis
Inside Out Six: Selections from the Flat Files
Digging Pitt Gallery
MySpace
Pittsburgh Arts - Digging Pitt Gallery
4417 Butler St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15201
p 412.605.0450
f 412.605.0451 Gallery Hours
TH 12 - 9
FR 12 - 7
SA 11 - 7
SU 11 - 7

Welcome to my neighborhood

Yes, well, the following was in my MySpace bulletins. The bulletin came from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, who also have a MySpace page --

We are writing you today to promote a new semi-annual event in Downtown Pittsburgh: 30 Below, a showcase of artists all age 30 or under. This is no ordinary art exhibit, but instead, an engaging week of exhibition and events that will attract a variety of ages to the downtown area. We are working to make this exhibit an exciting new attraction for the Pittsburgh art community.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for more information.

Thank you!

Kaitlyn Wittig
Curator
724. 689. 3652

Emily Fear
Assistant Curator
412. 302. 9119

I'm not quite sure where they are coming from with this under-thirty thing. It's not like the under-30 crowd is under-represented in the downtown exhibition spaces. Future Tenant, for instance, is even run by college students. And the downtown gallery crawl is definitely geared to that age group. All you have to do is stand on the sidewalk outside any of the venues and you can partake of under-30, age-appropriate music. In fact, the entire event seems to be geared to lure the perceived evasive young hipster to the downtown scene.

Can you spell a-g-e-i-s-m?

Links,

Yanno, I have heard, and read, more about the place of women artists in the arts over the last year than I have heard in the last ten. There really is something in the air. The New Hazlett Theater is honoring women artists in a year-long festival. The Dinner Table has its own permanent display. There are local and national shows, dedicated to women artists.

Lisa Hunter continues to be a supporter in the Intrepid Art Collector. Her recent post resonates with me. Eva Lake, one of the artists in the upcoming Blogger Show, has interviewed Lisa for her Art World Podcast.

Check this stuff out.

Half for me, half for you

Recently, Edward Winkleman posted his thoughts about the commission rate that galleries take on sales. I, for the record, have never seen it as an obscenity for galleries to take half on sales. I operated a small gallery in Portland OR a gazillion years ago. It was very short-lived. But it wasn't because we were taking a low commission. It was because of buying habits. Gallery sales are driven by trends; the hot artist, the hot gallery. I will be the first to admit that I was the worst person to open a gallery.

But still in all, when gallery sales are low, there is absolutely no difference between 30% and 50%. Nobody is making a living, not the gallery owner and not the artist.

There are a lot of non-commercial spaces that don't rely on gallery sales. And there is something to be said for putting work out there that challenges and ignites dialogue. But here it in a nutshell: you have to be independently funded as an artist to pursue this path. And hey, that is just a different form of marketing, right?

Anyway, after you read the post on Edward Winkleman, take a trip over to detroitarts and check out the open discourse about this subject. Detroit seems to have the same kind of art-buying public that we have in Pittsburgh. I can so sympathize.

Disaster? what disaster?

If an artist creates work that nobody sees, does it have an effect? Probably not, huh?

Why the art world is a disaster - by Roger Kimball

You can read the entire article yourself. I found a lot of merit in what Roger Kimball says in his article. What I didn't see was a solution or a perceived direction. He isn't the first to say what he has about the current directions in the arts. But this is a very succinct statement, clearly argued.

If there is a solution, it certainly isn't addressed in this article. But it looks like I'm a little late to the table with this one. Edward Winkleman has a post up with a note to look at the discussion on Artblog.net. Happy reading.

George Bellows

It's been a season of last minutes. I got to the Frick on Sunday, the very last possible day to see the George Bellows exhibit.

It was a striking exhibit, three rooms of beautiful drawings and prints. Very active compositions, great observations. The materials he used in his drawings were of special note. He combined two or three drawing materials to achieve the effects. I am sorry that I didn't get over sooner. I would have made at least one more trip.

Besides, I like the Frick. It's a beautiful campus.

Three Rivers Arts Festival

At the last possible minute, I took a trip downtown to visit the Three Rivers Arts festival: the festival ends on Sunday. Controversy surrounds this year's festival, from the reduced footprint of the exhibition to the censoring of one of the works.

The Best of Pittsburgh exhibit is held in PPG's Wintergarden this year. The giant atrium lends itself more to installation than to the plastic arts, and there was plenty. The Post Gazette review is a good overview of the exhibit. My stand-outs were Rise Nagin's installation and Josh Tonies' mixed medium works.

The art community is alarmed by the trend of the Three Rivers Arts Festival. Recently, the curator for the Best of Pittsburgh exhibit, who also coordinates the juried art exhibit as well as other visual arts components to the exhibit, was eliminated from the festival staff. Katherine Talcott did her best to bring more of the visual arts into the festival by expanding the festival's footprint to other venues in the downtown area. However, this tactic was not very successful because the core of the festival had migrated to food and entertainment years ago.

Let me step into my time machine....

I lived in Portland OR for many years. When I first arrived, they had an arts festival in downtown. The streets were closed to traffic, huge tents were installed, and a range of artists and artisans presented a a diverse selection of art. Entertainment was generally provided by buskers and a few local restaurants had booths to feed the hungry masses. As the years rolled along, the arts component diminished to be replaced by more and more food vendors. Within five years of my arrival, the festival had been moved to Waterfront Park and had been re-named Food-Fest. Seriously.

So, it could be worse. Instead of the death knell of visual arts and the rise of performance-based art, TRAF could become some gargantuan food festival. At least there is some art involved in the festival. At least the artists and artisans of the artist market still have a place.

The Undressed Art

The Undressed Art: Why We Draw
Peter Steinhart

I finished reading The Undressed Art about a week ago. It's taken awhile for what Mr Steinhart wrote to really sink in. The book is an easy read, at least for me because I do have an interest in the subject. I have been going to drop-in model sessions, off and on, for over twenty years. I've been coordinating them for the last several years. (Follow the tags for Barely Brunch and Drink and Draw at the end of this post)

Mr Steinhart concentrates on the function of life drawing in training an artist to see and examine. I think that Mr Stenhart wrote a very in-depth view of these model sessions from this viewpoint. While I have found this to be a primary function of attending drop-in sessions, I think that there are other motives for going to theses sessions.

I use these sessions to experiment with materials. While a small part of me hopes to hone my hand and eye skills in drawing from life, a larger part of me finds a greater satisfaction in examining the relationship with the model.

Another reason I go is for the companionship. It is the one place that artists meet in a work environment. There is a lot of give and take in theses sessions, where you can pick up the odd technique or information about the use of an unfamiliar material. I know from looking through this blog that it seems like working from live models consumes a lot of my artistic life, but it doesn't. I am willing to put the effort into these endeavors because I have learned so much from both the models and my peers.

Sometimes, if I am stuck on an issue with a current body of work, I go to extra drop-in sessions. The immediate reaction of hand to paper sometimes opens a level of my subconscious that resolves whatever difficulties I am experiencing.

For another take, read Serendipity's review.

Women in the arts

The New Hazlett Theater is beginning a year-long festival, celebrating the contributions of women to the arts in Pittsburgh. You can read the entire Pittsburgh Post Gazette article, announcing the inaugural fundraising event, but here is an excerpt that I found interesting --

The city lags behind the national average of women in executive roles at public companies -- holding 10.9 percent of the jobs, to the nation's 15.6 percent -- but makes a much better showing in the arts. Almost 60 percent of executive roles at Pittsburgh's cultural organizations are filled by women, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette study last year.

The festival, Women in the Arts: Founders, Pioneers, Instigators, continues with a multi-day symposium in September and performances in September, November, January and February.

This is a continuing theme this year in Pittsburgh. In March, 709 Gallery mounted the Women's Work exhibit. Just a month ago, an anonymous artist posted signs around the Carnegie Museum asking --

Where are the names of notable women on the facade of the Carnegie Museum? Some suggestions for inclusion are written on Easter eggs and hidden in and around the museum. How many can you find?

More information about this project, as well as a statement from the artist, were posted in the Digging Pittsburgh Arts blog. Coming up this October, Future Tenant will mount Power, another exhibit that is working to expose the contributions of women artists in Pittsburgh.

There's something in the air, isn't there?

Dorothy 6 in Braddock

It's been a few years since I've been to Braddock. A lot has been happening there over the last couple years, with the opening of an artist's studio building and several art events. Bus service from my residence to Braddock is a long, drawn-out process and I am at the mercy of public transportation. However, if you have the wherewithal to attend functions at Dorothy 6, I would highly recommend it.

Dorothy 6 is in a small, concrete block building, topped by the Mayr's residence. Next door is a church that has been converted into a performance space. Both spaces have unique qualities, both are exceptional.

There is a small garden area in front of Dorothy 6. On Friday, the space was filled with people and fire.


The performance venue, next door to Dorothy 6 --
I took this image at the back of Dorothy 6. The silouettes are from the paper cutouts in the installation.
The reason for being at Dorothy 6 on Friday night? Swoon is in Pittsburgh, collaborating with Leslie Stem and Chris Stain on a new installation --
You Can Never Hold Back Spring
April 27 - May 27
Dorothy 6
416 Library St., Braddock
By appointment: 412-951-0622

Images from the installation --



"There are so many spaces that don't really need to be brown," renowned street artist Swoon told the New York Times in 2004. Inspired by sources including German expressionist wood-block prints, her life-sized, realistic and often stunning paper cutouts were wheat-pasted in Manhattan streets and alleys, where their decay furthered the art. Gallery shows in Europe and the U.S. followed, as did write-ups in big art mags.


Swoon
Swoon
Swoon
Swoon
Swoon
Swoon
Swoon

Too busy

So, there it is. This is a well thought-out article and an interesting social experiment. Unfortunately for me, the vid player that the Washington Post used crashed my browser, so I was unable to watch the clips. Gene Weingarten, who wrote the article, gave a very full sense of the environment and the music. I wish I could hear and see the clips, though.

Not enough time for beauty, not enough time for living instead of working. That's really sad.

Mixed review for a mixed exhibit

Kurt Shaw's review of In Full Bloom in the Trib. Refreshers are here and here.

Chocolate Jesus

Chocolate Jesus Outrages Catholic League


Chocolate Jesus, KFed & Spears, And My Trip


Chocolate - it's the tool of the oppressors darn it!

In Full Bloom @SPACE - images from the exhibit

So finally, here are the images from the In Full Bloom exhibit at SPACE. I may have to go back. There are over a hundred works from forty artists in the exhibit. It is difficult to take a show like this in all at one time. I saw a lot of the work at drop off and I've been back to the gallery twice since the opening. It's the kind of exhibit where you see something new each time you go, as much because of your mood as the sheer number of works.
Kevin Wenner

I had mentioned that I was going to shoot Kevin Wenner's piece after the opening. Pretty luscious, huh? Speaking of luscious works, check out Ed Parrish's work, below. This was a pretty ambitious undertaking. Someone mentioned to me that he created this piece for the In Full Bloom exhibit.
Ed Parrish
Ed Parrish -- detail
Masha Vereshchenko

Maybe it was my mood, but I was really drawn to the lush works in the exhibit. Masha Vereshchenko's delicate ink drawings on this heavy-textured paper pulled me in. This deserves more time and I look forward to visiting it again.

Amir Rashidd

This piece really drew me in, too. The dichotomy between the loose ground and the tight rendering of the figure appeals to me.

I wish I could credit this one. The work is hung very high on the wall and I couldn't read its label. Also, my image doesn't do the color justice, so use this as an incentive to go and view the exhibit.

More details about the exhibit can be found here and here.

Mixing Images @Trinity

Things are starting to warm up in Pittsburgh. Everybody is coming out of their winter cocoons. On Saturday, I thought I woud get to Trinity gallery as soon as the artist reception started so that I could say hello to the artists and maybe get a few clear shots of the work. The gallery is smallish and can get crowded very quickly. This was the scene when I walked in the door.With that said, I apologize for the images of the work that follow. Some of the work that I wanted to shoot, I couldn't get a clear shot of. So I had to settle.
Jesse Sharrard
Jesse Sharrard
Jayne Osgood

I am looking at the postcard for this exhibit and there is no closing date or gallery hours, so if you are interested in seeing the exhibit, please contact Dan Gaser at Trinity. I thought Jayne's small mixed medium piece, above, was charming. Jesse's work was pretty dynamic.

Mixing Images
Jesse Sharrard and Jayne Osgood
Trinity Gallery
4747 Hatfield Street
Pittsburgh PA 15201