All Art Friday

All Art Friday

Frida Kahlo: Face to Face

If you are in Washington, D.C., this weekend, take time for "A Conversation with Judy Chicago ~ Frida Kahlo: Face to Face" on Sunday, October 24, 12:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m., at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. It is the only personal appearance by Chicago in the D.C. area. Chicago will discuss her new book on Kahlo, published last month by Prestel; she also will be available to sign copies.

The talk is free and open to the public; no reservations are required. The NMWA is located at 1250 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., at the corner of 13th and H Streets. The nearest Metro station is Metro Center.

Kahlo's book will be available at the Museum Shop and also is sold through Amazon.

A schedule of Chicago's book-related appearances elsewhere, including Chicago, Santa Fe, and San Diego, is here.

ACA Galleries in New York City is showing through November 27 "Surveying Judy Chicago 1970-2010" (26 exhibition images are available on the same page).

Exhibitions Here and There

✭ New York's Eleanor Ettinger Gallery is presenting a two-person exhibition, Gregory Calibey and Mark English, through the end of this month.

Exhibition works by Calibey, who shows frequently in New York as well as Boston and London, may be viewed here. The lyrical and beautifully realized paintings by English, who was elected to the Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame and has created 13 stamps for the United States Postal Service, are here.

✭ In Washington, D.C., the Renwick Gallery has mounted a gorgeous show of turned and carved wood by such esteemed artists as Mark Lindquist and the late Melvin Lindquist, David Ellsworth, the late Rude Osolnik, and Mark Sfirri. The exhibition, "A Revolution in Wood", on view through January 30, 2011, celebrates Fleur and Charles Bresler's gift of the 66-piece collection to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Go here for a slideshow of images. A podcast with collector Fleur Bresler, former curator Kenneth Trapp, and artists Mark Sfirri and David Ellsworth is available on the exhibition page.

Information about the Bresler Collection of American quilts is here. A profile of Fleur Bresler, "Fleur Bresler: A Woman of Vision", was published in Turning Points in 2004 (scroll down to page 6 in the pdf).

David Ellsworth, Patan from "Solstice Series"

Ash and Metallic Fabric Paint

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Gift of Fleur and Charles Bresler

✭ Ceramist Warren Mather's unique silk-screened photographic images on glazed ceramic are on view in "Photo Clay: In the Picture with Warren Mather" at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts. The show continues through January 23, 2011. To view images on Mather's site, go here and here. Mather, who created sodium carbonate spray as a substitute for salt glaze firing, explains his process here. His "Musings on My Work" is worth your time.

Also at the Fuller, through March 27, 2011: "Caravan: An Installation by John Garrett". Garrett is a New Mexico-based textile artist whose complex fiber works incorporate materials that are both familiar and unexpected. His large, site-specific installation for the Fuller consists of modular sections inspired by nomadic people of the Middle East and West Africa. Go here, here, and here, for additional images of Garrett's marvelous work. Garrett is in the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery and New York's Museum of Art and Design.

✭ In its new space in London's Savile Row, Hauser & Wirth is presenting the solo exhibition "Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works". On view through December 18 are more than 70 fabric drawings and four large sculptures. Images of the works are here. Accompanying the show is a 352-page catalogue, Louise Bourgeois: The Fabric Works, with 474 color illustrations. (To be released April 26, 2011, the book is available through Amazon as a pre-order. It also may be ordered directly through Hauser & Wirth.) Biographical information may be found here; a downloadable obituary, here. Also see Art21, where you'll find a number of videos and slideshows about the artist and her work.

Artist Health and Safety

As a recent ARTNews article discussed, not all artists are familiar with the health risks of the paints and other products or processes they use in making their art. I've compiled a number of links related to the topic, a few culled from the article for easy reference and others identified in my own research. I've included articles and books.

✓ Arts, Crafts &Theater Safety, New York City — Among other services ACTS provides data sheets on more than 60 technical subjects related to health and safety. Also see its newsletter, ACTS Facts.

✓ Arts and Creative Materials Institute, Boston, Massachusetts 

✓ Art Materials Information and Education Network

✓ California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, "Guidelines for the Safe Use of Art and Craft Materials", October 2009 

✓ College Art Association, New York City — The 2011 CAA Annual Conference will include a session on environmental and health consequences of art studio practice. (Anita Cooney and Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman of the Pratt Institute will lead a studio art open session titled "Green and Sustainable Art". Program sessions are listed here.) Studio health and safety is one of the areas specific to the work of the Professional Practices Committee.

✓ Gamblin Artists Colors Co., "Studio Safety and Solvents" in Gamblin Studio Notes, July 2009 (This is a 43-page document from the Portland, Oregon-based company.)

✓ GLOB, Berkeley, California — The company sells "botanically crafted color paints made from fruits, vegetables, flowers, and spices".

✓ Daniel Grant, "The Materials Artists Use" from The Business of Being an Artist (Allworth Press, 2010)

✓ Green Art  — This site, which emphasizes the use of alternative, non-toxic methods, techniques, and materials, comprises Green Prints, Green Work, and the Green Art Guide, which is described as "a selective guide to websites which  the work of creative artists concerned with ecology, environmental art and social issues in their themes or in the techniques they use." A new section, Green Houses, is in development.

✓ Handbook of Non-Toxic Intaglio, Review

✓  Health and the Arts Program, University of Illinois School of Public Health, Chicago, Illinois — See the comprehensive Online Health and Safety in the Arts Library.

✓ "Hidden Hazards: Health Impacts of Toxins in Polymer Clays", U.S. Public Interest Research Group, 2002 (A link to the complete report is available.) 

✓ Michael McCann, Health Hazards Manual for Artists (Lyons Press, 2008)

✓ NontoxicPrint — See the Health + Safety page for a list of informative articles, as well as an annotated list of hyperlinked art-specific resources on health and safety and related safe printmaking publications.

✓ "Not Dying for Their Art: UK Printmakers Create Nontoxic Techniques" in University of Kentucky's Odyssey magazine.

✓ Siegfried Rempel, Health Hazards for Photographers (The Lyons Press, 1992)

✓ Monona Rossol, The Artist's Complete Health and Safety Guide (Allworth Press, 2001)