When the lights went out at the opening of Craig Olson’s show at the Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, a painting called “Baba Yaga’s Question” dissolved from a red-and-green cloverleaf-shaped panel into a field of unearthly luminescence. Everyone clapped.
October 2012
Posted inArt
Playful, Sinister, and Simple Ceramics
Just north of UC Berkeley’s campus, hidden away in a small patch of woods, is the Berkeley Art Center, currently showing the exhibition Local Treasures: Bay Area Ceramics. Wanting to know more about the Bay Area’s art scene — craft included — I felt compelled to visit. The beautiful, small building has quiet grounds sprinkled with larger ceramic works. The current show includes eleven artists working in clay, with pieces ranging from simple functional pots to complex installations. The exhibition is an eclectic grouping of artists who most likely wouldn’t be shown together if not for the local theme.
Posted inArt
Steeped in Tradition but Straining Toward the Future
MANILA, Philippines — There is a sweet dish in the Philippines called halo-halo, a rainbow of beans, fruits, and jellies mixed with ice and topped with ice cream. Literally translated, it means “mix-mix,” as if repetition were needed to reassert its delectable cacophony of flavors. Walking the halls of this year’s ManilART was a bit like working through a tall glass of halo-halo.
Posted inNews
Bushwick’s Bogart Salon Recalibrating, Not Closing
Earlier this week, Bushwick Daily reported some sad and surprising news: the Bogart Salon gallery would be closing on October 29. Only it turns out — happily! — this isn’t true.
Posted inOpinion
A Subway Platform Becomes a Front Porch
I’ve always enjoyed riding the subway impossible distances — out to Coney Island, say, or the Far Rockaways — largely because the cityscape and the scenery change so much along the way. Traveling out to the ends of various lines transports you away from the New York City you know.
Posted inArt
How Much Do You Know About Psychogeography?
Every day New Yorkers wander the gridded streets of the city, traveling to and around subway stations in the morning and under neon signs at night. The study of how a geographic environment like this affects us emotionally and behaviorally is called psychogeography.
Posted inArt
Uganda’s 2nd Annual Contemporary Art Festival Fills Pop-Up Storage Containers
KAMPALA, Uganda — All over Kampala, and in many parts of Uganda, you’ll find them: shipping containers. From and to all over the world, shipping containers arrive and go out. Some stay, serving as a storage container on the side of a road, repurposed for whatever the contents. Others go. But, for this foreigner at least, they make up part of the city’s character.
Posted inArt
View from the Easel
CHICAGO — Five artists from New York, Ontario, Utah, and Wyoming open up their studios for Hyperallergic readers.
Posted inArt
The Impossible Joy of Finding Meaning
BERKELEY, California — Ratio 3 gallery’s new show of work by Lutz Bacher is a must see. The large, skylight-lit, raw gallery space is perfect for Bacher’s captivating installation of audio, visual, and sculptural work. Upon entering the gallery one immediately focuses on the small black spheres scattered about the floor. After a hesitant test, the black orbs turn out to be squishy balls. Along the walls are framed black and white astronomy prints cut out from a book. As one weaves their way through the balls (or in my case, kicked my way until I was asked to avoid touching the work) the visual connection between the galactic formations and the floor installation was obvious.
Posted inArt
This Weekend, Brooklyn Heads to Montreal for a Monthlong Art Festival
This weekend, a slice of our New York community will be traveling to Canada for Brooklyn Montreal, a two-city festival celebrating contemporary art.
Posted inArt
There’s an Emoji for That
CHICAGO — Instead of saying to yourself, “There’s an app for that,” repeat after me: “There’s an emoji for that.” In our technology-inundated world of constantly being glued to the glowing screens of our iPhones and Androids, more apps are not the answer to our first-world problems. What we need is more communication. What we need, in other words, is more emoji.
Posted inOpinion
Fleeting Glimpses of Scientific Knowledge, Turned Into Art
Words and writing, even those you’re seeing here, are an imperfect vehicle for communication. There’s always a disconnect between the writer and their audience; meaning is translated through a medium that’s easy to misunderstand or misinterpret. Spanish photographer Alejandro Guijjaro’s Momentum series proves that point with poignant photos of partially erased chalkboards.
