All Art Friday

All Art Friday

It takes a leap of faith and willingness to fail. . .

~ Walt Pascoe 

November 7, 1958 - December 21, 2015

Fairfield, Connecticut

This edition of All Art Friday is dedicated to the wonderful painter Walt Pascoe (1958-2015), who left our world several days before this Christmas past. He was among a number of artists I have been privileged to interview (see "Conversation with Artist Walt Pascoe", Parts 1 and 2), and I will be forever grateful for his kindness and generous spirit, his eloquence, his deep and engaging intellect, his friendship, and his inspiring art (see my poem "As If"). Rest in peace, Walt. You are missed.

All Art Friday Spotlights

✦ Are you planning to be in New York City this month? Take time to see lacquerware artist Gen Saratani on the 6th floor studios at the Museum of Arts and Design. He will be demonstrating the traditional Japanese art of Kingsugi on January 26-29. (View program details; note that times vary.) Sara Japanese Pottery in New York City carries Saratani's work.

Gen Saratani on FaceBook

✦ New online: "Richard Diebenkorn: The Sketchbooks Revealed". The sketchbooks are a gift to Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, by Richard Diebenkorn's widow, Phyllis Diebenkorn, and the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation. Marvelous! (My thanks to painter and friend Deborah Barlow for the link.)

Richard Diebenkorn Catalogue Raisonne

✦ The Royal Shakespeare Company is now part of Google Cultural Institute. Explore the behind-the-scenes galleries.

✦ View the online exhibition or watch the video of "Wonder" at the Renwick Gallery.

✦ The conceptual installation Adeline's Portal (2013), by Beth Lipman of Wisconsin, is on view through the end of the year at Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia. Inspired by the life of Adeline Myers, who lived in the 19th Century, the installation, which includes a birdcage and a needlepoint sampler, is made entirely of glass. Lipman's glass sculptures (also see images of Adeline's Portal at the museum's exhibition page) are extraordinary.

Here's a video of Lipman with Glenn Adamson of New York City's Museum of Arts and Design:

✦ The British Council has created an online site for the exhibition "Henry Moore Comes Home". (The physical exhibition, at the British Council's London headquarters, continues through February 19.) In addition to a brief introduction to exhibition themes and Moore's prints, the site offers a video tour of the show.

Exhibitions Here and There

✭ One of the Washington, D.C., area's consistently excellent art exhibition venues is Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville, Maryland. This month offers three exhibits (opening night is tonight, 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.): "In My Mind, It is Always Summer", presenting wax-based abstractions by Sondra N. Arkin; "Abstracts in Bloom", showcasing Paige Hirsch's abstract collaged and large flower paintings; and "In With the Old", a show of recycled and re-purposed objects by Bob Bradford. All three shows are up through January 28.

Artists & Makers Studios on FaceBook and Twitter

✭ "Notes on the State of Virginia", an exhibition of Suzanne Stryk's place-based assemblages on topographical maps, may be seen through the end of the month at the Athenaeum Gallery, Alexandria, Virginia. In addition to the assemblages, the show, inspired by Thomas Jefferson's book of the same title, features a video and a wunderkammer ("cabinet of curiosities"), a table-top installation comprising sketchbooks and organic specimens from Stryk's studio.

Note: Look for my January 21, 2016, Artist Watch column at Escape Into Life, which will feature a selection of images of Stryk's exceptional work.

Athenaeum Gallery on FaceBook and Twitter

✭ Opening January 15 at Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery at the Smith Center, Washington, D.C., is "The Night and the Desert Know Me", a presentation of Iraqi and Western artists' responses to past and current Iraqi poetry. Curated by Shanti Norris and Mary Sebold, the exhibition is part of a unique book arts and cultural festival; it runs through March 5. Featured are artists Shakir al-Alousi, Najwa al-Amin, Qais al-Sindy, Ahmed Alkarkhi, Mawada Allak, Joan Belmar, Wafaa Bilal, Spencer Dormitzer, Michael Platt, Phyllis Plattner, Vian Sora, and Nasir Thamir. Among the poems that inspired the artists are "Rain Song" by Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, "Iraquis and Other Monsters" by Dunya Mikhail, "The Mirror" by Kajal Ahmad, and "Gilgamesh".

Other festival events include a curator-and-artists talk (February 13, 3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.) and an evening of poetry with Dunya Mikhail (March 4, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.). For more information about the festival, see the Al-Mutanabbi Street Website. The festival was conceived as a way for artists to stand in solidarity and celebrate freedom of expression.

Al-Mutanabbi Street on FaceBook and Twitter

Smith Center for Healing and the Arts on FaceBook, Twitter, and YouTube

✭ On view through January 24 at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, is "Marks Made: Prints by American Women Artists from the 1960s to the Present". More than 75 works by such esteemed artists as Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Anni Albers, Vija Celmins, Elizabeth Murray, Susan Rothenberg, Pat Steir, and Yvonne Jacquette are showcased. To celebrate the exhibition and the museum's 50th anniversary, two limited-edition prints by Elisabeth Condon and Jane Hammond, were created. (See the MFA's Store page for details on purchasing the prints.)

Museum of Fine Arts on FaceBook and Twitter

✭ South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings is showing through February 13 "Cathryn Mallory: Liminal Surrender", described as "an ongoing exploration of the dualistic nature of cloth and materiality as a form of symbolic communication about the body and emotional states of being." In addition to examining notions of entrapment, oppression, absence, and presence, the exhibit looks at the relationship between structure, form, surface, and process to convey how dress and ornamentation influence social structures, rituals, and identity. A list of works is available at the exhibition link above.

 

Cathryn Mallory, Swell of Sorrow, 2011

Bird Netting, Cable, Copper Wire, Thread

Cathryn Mallory, Professor, University of Montana, and Director, Gallery of Visual Arts

South Dakota Art Musuem on FaceBook and Twitter

✭ Emerging artist Rachel Rose is enjoying her first solo exhibition in the United States at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City. The exhibition, "Rachel Rose: Everything and More", continuing through February 7, features Rose's high-definition color video, which uses the artist's own footage and found material. The exhibition, which has received significant reviews, is ticketed.

Read associate curator Christopher Lew's essay, "A View", about Rachel Rose and her examination of how meaning is created. Also see Charlotte Burn's article, "Rachel Rose: Artist Sets Out on Gravity-Inspired Space Odyssey", in The Guardian (October 26, 2015).

Whitney Museum on FaceBook and Twitter