artPark

Glass 3

I spent Saturday in Baltimore at the American Craft Council Show, but during my drive home I made a stop in DC to catch an exhibit in Georgetown called Glass 3. It is a collaboration of three glass art groups: The Washington Glass School from DC, The Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, and Cohesion (a network of glassmakers from Sunderland, United Kingdom). Having spent a number of hours at the ACC Craft Show looking at dozens of talented glass artists doing beautiful things with the craft of glass blowing, it was a treat to immerse myself in the next level of studio glass art. Glass 3 is a fantastic showing of where the studio glass art movement is going. We are not talking about pretty bowls and goblets here. This is conceptually rich museum quality work. Read a review of the show here.

With that said, my main goal was to check out the work of Tim Tate, Michael Janis and Erwin Timmers (all from the Washington Glass School). We will be featuring their work in our April show. This will be a "don't miss show" for all of Central Virginia. So mark your calendar now… April 4... Tim, Mike and Erwin - the rock stars of today's art glass movement - will be in Charlottesville celebrating the opening of their exhibit at Migration.

Images include:  Left, Time Tate - The Envy of the Inertia.  Middle, Michael Janis - Cannot Undo.  Right: Erwin Timmers - Testing Limits.

Other than Tim's, Mike's and Erwin's work, I was impressed with these Glass 3 artists:

Allegra Marquart (DC)

Sarah Blood (UK)

Phil Vickery (UK)

Glass 3 runs through March 9 and is at the Shops of Georgetown (3222 M Street – ground floor).

Amercian Craft Council - Baltimore Craft Show

I spent Saturday in Baltimore attending this year's American Craft Show presented by the American Craft Council (unfortunately, Laura couldn’t join me). It's the premier craft show in the country and featured over 700 artists this year. Laura and I never miss it. My primary reason for going this year was to visit the artists we represent at Migration who were exhibiting. Since most of our artists live all over the country (and not often close to Charlottesville), it's a terrific opportunity to visit with them when they come to Baltimore.

I got to see Jeremy Newman & Allison Ciancibelli. They are our glass artists from Twisp, Washington. Laura and I took their work to SOFA Chicago this past November and did extremely well with it. Jeremy had planned to come to Chicago but ultimately was not able to make it. So it was especially great to see him and his wife, Allison, Saturday. As usual, their work looked great. And, in just the few minutes I hung out with them, a collector bought Ancestry (no doubt, an excellent addition to their collection). I can report that Jeremy and Allison are moving their work to an even higher level. Great to see.

Next, I dropped in on Michael Bauermeister. We also took Michael's giant wood sculptures to SOFA - and he joined us there. Michael is from Missouri, so it has been a real treat to see him twice in the last three months. Michael's booth looked great. Of special note were his wall sculptures. I particularly loved his new water piece. Wood made to look like the ripples moving across water. Beautiful and majestic.

My next stop was to check in on Karin Worden. Karin is a jeweler from California, one of our favorite artists, and someone we always love to chat with. Karin reported an active weekend - no surprise since we think her work is so special and crowd pleasing. Also good to see how her work has developed and where she is placing her focus. Meticulous.

I also stopped in and said hi to Harry and Wendy Besett. They came down from Vermont for the show. Other than talking about - and plotting to resolve - the world's problems, Harry gave me a great tour of their newer work. Most significant is the inclusion of new hues to their landscapes. Really nice art. FYI: We are down to only one of their pieces left at the gallery. It would be a nice addition to anyone's home.

For those of you who may have missed the Baltimore show and don’t regularly travel across the country to look at art, I encourage you to drop by our gallery, Migration, in Charlottesville. We have a wide collection of these artists’ work. Stop in or give us a call.

Having visited our artists, I spent the rest of my time cruising the show aisles with my eye peeled for new talent and other beautiful art. The following are my highlights.

  Janice Ho

Marty Fielding

Joel Hunnicutt

MT Maxwell Furniture Co.

Geoff Buddie & Chris Rom

Maggie Casey

Finally, I was able to say hi to Washington, DC glass artist Erwin Timmers before he started a live demonstration of his eco friendly "green" glass art (an extremely large crowd gathered for it).  We talked a bit about the current show he is in called Glass 3.  More on this later.

James Scheuren & Cecilia Steel at Off-Grounds Gallery

I made a stop at University of Virginia's Off-Grounds Gallery this weekend. I'm kind of fascinated with this little space and like to check out what is going on there. Unfortunately, it takes a little shoe leather to stay up on its happenings – I wish there was better advertising for the shows. Yet, it is an invaluable learning opportunity for UVa art students to get their work out there in a commercial gallery setting.

I also like to analyze the exhibits. Not necessarily for my own purposes, but, I think it is important for someone from outside the University to review the work. From my experience, art students get a bulk of their reviews from friends ("Oh my gosh! You are like sooooo talented. I could never draw an apple to look that real. Do you think you could draw a picture of this beer bottle for me?"), their parents ("Oh, honey, we are just so proud of you. No one in our family has ever had any artistic talent. I don't know where you get it from."), and teachers ("Uh, right, yes… Good use of tonal contrasts and color. You get a B-."). Bottom line… It’s a real challenge for a student to get objective criticism. Even harder in Charlottesville where there are only a few art critics in the mainstream media. With that said, I offer my opinions in a constructive manner and with no hidden agenda.

So, I trundled over to the Off Grounds Gallery with pen and paper in hand and checked out the photography of James Scheuren and Cecilia Steel. My first impression was good. The last exhibit there was haphazardly hung and unprofessional. This one was smartly hung - I say this because each photo measured 16"x16", was framed exactly the same, hung perfectly in align and spaced equally apart. Although appealing to my Monk-like need for order, this uniform presentation ultimately gave the grouping of 32 photos a homogenous feel. I almost lost interest in the first minute. But I broke it down, examined the individual pieces, and made it make sense.

The obvious theme here is Nature in one form or another. James Scheuren's 16 photos seemed to speak of the age old battle of Man versus Nature. But was it about urban decay? Urban renewal? Or maybe the plight of the environment? Hard to tell. I found intrigue in the strong images of a landscape zambonied by a line up of bulldozers making room for the next Wal-Mart. And, the most powerful images offer signs of Nature springing forth from the raped landscapes. In those, I felt hope and a promise of Nature overcoming Man's destruction. For me, Scheuren's best photo, titled "27 November 2007", pictures a sweet dew covered field of grass belittling the mechanical power towers cast in the unfocused distance. The effect is accomplished by Scheuren resting his camera on the ground allowing us to stand eye-to-eye with the blades of grass. It is this altered perspective that makes this piece stand out. Virtually all the others are taken from the obvious and readable point of view of a person standing on the ground before the images. Mixing up vantage points would satisfy a need for drama. Without it, the images are all too easily readable and don’t say much.

Going back to the homogeneity issue… All of Scheuren's photos are simply titled by the date they were taken. Sixteen photos taken from June 2007 through December 2007. That’s fine. What bothered me, however, was that the photos all look like they were taken on the exact same clear, sunny day. Possibly just a few hours apart. There is very little atmospheric variance or change in the weather. No foreboding storm clouds on the horizon. No darkness in the destruction. No mist shrouding the steel and concrete constructions looming over us. No tension. No drama. Just clear, sunny days.

In Cecilia Steel's photos I had a much better sense that Nature is the clear winner in its struggles with Man. Made me feel better inside. For Steel, manmade objects are pictured in a state of decay instead of birth. Linear elements are overcome by the organic ones that surround and overtake them. Pretty and a little easier to look at.

Steel's raises the level of her art in the photos that shorten the focal point. As in "Footpath", she has rendered the backdrop a mere abstraction of leaves and the focal point rests on a single unobtrusive branch. Takes a moment to read, but is effective due to the beauty of the colors and patterns captured.

Unfortunately, Steel runs into the same problem as Scheuren: A majority of her photos seem to have been shot on that same clear, sunny day. Early fall, maybe? When Steel submits herself to the weather, she is more successful. Two photos stand out: "James" includes a discernable change in weather - maybe a misty morning or the moment following a light rain. Regardless, "James" is more about neglect, desperation and loneliness and less about the beauty of the natural world. The same with "Stasis"; its touch of fog and predominant use of red make this image unique.

As I stood in the middle of the Gallery, the 32 photos framed identically, lined up perfectly, spaced exactly, and captured on what felt like the exact same cloudless day did not represent two bodies of work to me. The art of landscape photography should convey that single special image captured at that single special moment. The intensity of the light, the shadows, the mist in the air, the hues of the sky, the altered perspective… they all must play a part.