If you could turn back time, if you could find a way…OK, before you hold me responsible for conjuring an image of Cher singing (mea culpa), tell me one thing…Do you think you could live with a beautiful sunrise permanently happening inside your own house ? How about if YOU could make the geology of a landscape appear just by moving in front of it? Could your mind comprehend the multiple strata built by 4.6 billion years of Earth works, if they were shown to you as a small compressed sculpture? And just before you go, what about crystallizing altar wine, ie: the blood of Christ? All these questions are dealt with by Adam Belt and his new body of work exhibited at Quint Gallery in San Diego until July 6th. All these questions deal with Light, Space, Time and the Divine. Quite an ambitious mix if you think of it yet Adam Belt keeps on pushing the boundaries of the Light and Space art movement started in the 1960’s by Robert Irwin, James Turrell and Larry Bell – a holy trinity of artists, if there was only one. To Light and Space, Adam Belt adds Time as if it […]
This is the story of a 100-year old “Living Room” in Williamsburg. An old lady used to live in the apartment but one day, the landlord got the place back, still filled with objects left behind, after life had moved on. Quite good timing for Mr. Landlord, for he had issues at a nearby property he leased to artist Miriam Cabessa. Miriam’s studio was plagued with leaks, requiring more than quick fixing. The landlord suggested she moved temporarily into this nearby apartment so that a plumbing overhaul could be done at her studio. What could have been a big hassle for Miriam turned into an immersive exploration of her art practice. I say practice in the same way one talks of practicing yoga or meditation. Because yoga and meditation are so much more than an exercise class you go to. Miriam settled in her new abode, unpacked her black paint and brushes. Then she paused. She breathed in all the visible remnants from the former tenant: a vintage suitcase, an armchair, a serving tray. Miriam paused, full of breath and started cleaning and tidying, yet unable to erase or let go. So she started to paint over it all, slowly, […]
One quarter mile was the exact distance between Robert Rauschenberg’s house on Captiva Island and his artist studio. As a distance, it is neither long nor short; more like a healthy buffer or decompression zone to move between personal and professional spaces without bringing the frustrations of one into the other. But I have to wonder, does this concept really work for Rauschenberg, an artist who famously declared acting in the “gap” between art and life?
Honoured to travel with the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, I had the opportunity to lunch and look into Nick Cave’s eyes last week. What struck me besides an incredible kindness, was the intensity of those eyes. They translate his double vision of the world perfectly: how intensely he sees and feels the divides plaguing our society and how resolute he is to shake this, with a dance and many Soundsuits.
Nestled in New Canaan, Connecticut, Grace Farms is a bucolic place where art meets architecture in a natural setting of green meadows.
Time we don’t have and don’t take. Time we can’t get back and most crucially time we can never acquire…I knew nothing of Valeska Soares and her art but how apt that her works poetically speak of time and memories. Since I saw her exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum, her pieces have lingered on my mind so much that I am in no danger to ever forget her name. And her world might just bring you a welcome dose of mindfulness as we all get ready for a bit of summer madness…before it’s time to face school supplies again.
The art of Howardena Pindell makes for an explorative journey of the difficulties she encountered as an artist of color in the US, yet this is all wonderfully retraced in her current retrospective held at MCA Chicago. Entitled What Remains to Be Seen, the exhibition shows how her artistic experimentation is deeply rooted in the interaction she observes between dots and grids, two elemental forms she has used since the Space Frames she started with as an artist in the late 1960s.
James Turrell’s installations are made of empty, titanium white painted rooms where embedded LED and fiber-optic lights project an array of programmed changing colors on the walls. Photography is never allowed. Others, like the one I am bringing you today called Dividing The Light, are constructions with an opening cut-out in the ceiling (skyspaces). Spectators can view the sky by day and night, observing its variable color as time progresses but also as the colors of the inside walls change. And that’s where you almost cannot believe your eyes : seeing the sky a given shade of mid-blue one moment, how can it suddenly look grey and diaphaneous as the walls turn purplish red? How can it shift to a darker blue when the walls go from white to yellow to brown, turning the sky almost black and opaque in the process ?