tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68636773377389379552024-03-05T12:54:09.429-08:00Publications by Simone KussatzSimone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-41686724392366939802012-03-29T07:15:00.002-07:002012-03-29T07:21:21.901-07:00Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955-1972 at the Hammer MuseumAlina Szapocznikow's sculptures are fascinating. If you haven't seen the exhibition yet, don't miss it. It goes through April 29, 2012.Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-54455900669354684932012-03-01T13:27:00.001-08:002012-03-01T13:29:41.521-08:00Academy Awards 2012 - EpilogueA few words about the media, Billy Crystal, Jean Dujardin, Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, Octavia Spencer, etc...<br /><br /><a href="http://simonekussatz-artblock.blogspot.com/2012/02/epilogue-to-academy-awards-2012.html#!/2012/02/epilogue-to-academy-awards-2012.html">http://simonekussatz-artblock.blogspot.com/2012/02/epilogue-to-academy-awards-2012.html#!/2012/02/epilogue-to-academy-awards-2012.html</a>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-53731319296936595742012-01-26T05:52:00.001-08:002012-01-26T06:38:17.747-08:00Articles in WhitehotmagazineIf you want to find some samples of my work, please check out Whitehotmagazine, which is an international online art magazine, based in Canada, published by Noah Becker.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://whitehotmagazine.com/contributors/simone-kussatz/710">http://whitehotmagazine.com/contributors/simone-kussatz/710</a>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-55930595329531880902012-01-26T05:31:00.000-08:002012-01-26T05:37:10.854-08:00My new blogI started a new blog a few weeks ago that's only for the visual arts.. please check it out. <br /><br /><br /><a href="http://simonekussatz-artblock.blogspot.com/view/classic">http://simonekussatz-artblock.blogspot.com/view/classic</a>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-19068149181264682952012-01-26T04:43:00.000-08:002012-01-26T04:44:41.159-08:00Audra Weaser and Sharon Weiner at Ruth Bachofner Gallery<a href="http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1320444379&archive=&start_from=&ucat=32">http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1320444379&archive=&start_from=&ucat=32</a>&Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-32008704850248524952012-01-26T04:38:00.000-08:002012-01-26T04:40:31.848-08:00L.A. Times: The Invisible Siegfrieds join the L.A. Ring festival Parade<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/15/entertainment/la-et-invisible-siegfrieds-20100415">http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/15/entertainment/la-et-invisible-siegfrieds-20100415</a>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-77122109438908330892011-05-04T17:28:00.000-07:002011-05-04T17:29:33.240-07:00Ann McCoy: The Alchemist of Pfaueninsel at Bleicher/Caporale Gallery<a href="http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1304540677&archive=&start_from=&ucat=32">http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1304540677&archive=&start_from=&ucat=32</a>&Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-88246483958478978082011-05-03T20:55:00.000-07:002011-05-03T20:56:22.499-07:00Mike Saijo's "A Dream Deferred" at Bleicher Caporale Gallery<a href="http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/mike-saijo-bleicher-caporale-gallery/2274">http://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/mike-saijo-bleicher-caporale-gallery/2274</a>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-46634710794327137232011-04-02T08:56:00.001-07:002011-04-02T08:57:26.484-07:00Irish poetry night at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts<a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/04/a-bit-o-irish-poetry-at-jack-rutberg-fine-arts-.html">http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/04/a-bit-o-irish-poetry-at-jack-rutberg-fine-arts-.html</a>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-67771268478824791162011-03-28T14:53:00.001-07:002011-03-28T14:53:52.488-07:00Glen Wexler - Improbable Realities<a href="http://www.fabrikmagazine.com/content/glen-wexlers-improbable-realities/">http://www.fabrikmagazine.com/content/glen-wexlers-improbable-realities/</a>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-32231330357335931732011-03-25T16:42:00.000-07:002011-03-27T08:05:48.342-07:00Interview with cinéaste Stephen Mitchell<div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7BZ76XOoBsnImRwORaxTYW6C5tFk-gBmQTCOfj71Ohs-LEidFOkQvxxcpZ6w58ngRijdGKX_T7HjbUuqYFSpbPR3kwdqqHiwyn123iapH7ZC_a_4qKU0Qoo0wJhTaykeaq0b2mpLckQo/s1600/SM%252520plage%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 184px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588168587358050146" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7BZ76XOoBsnImRwORaxTYW6C5tFk-gBmQTCOfj71Ohs-LEidFOkQvxxcpZ6w58ngRijdGKX_T7HjbUuqYFSpbPR3kwdqqHiwyn123iapH7ZC_a_4qKU0Qoo0wJhTaykeaq0b2mpLckQo/s200/SM%252520plage%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a> </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Although born in Los Angeles and raised in a neighborhood of prominent people in Brentwood California, filmmaker Stephen Mitchell left his hometown - with the movie capital of the world, Hollywood - for Paris and his love for French cinema. Since then he has produced, written and directed twelve movies, created more than a thousand televised one-act plays, judged Best Directing in a Comedy Series for the Cable ACE awards and received a first-look deal with Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. for his TV-series “(Interview)”. <strong></strong><strong></strong><strong></strong><strong></strong><strong></strong><strong></strong></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Simone Kussatz: As an artist it is the dream of many to live in Paris. Could we begin by talking about the two years (1979-1980) you spent there?</strong> </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Stephen Mitchell: I intended to go for two weeks and stayed for two years. I wrote, produced and directed my first project “Montmartre” (in French) and a pilot starring Philippe Léotard while I was there. It was an extraordinary time and in the process I was privileged to meet Lino Ventura, Françoise Fabian and André Dussollier among other mainstays of French cinema of the time. I felt as though I'd come home. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Simone Kussatz: Which French films and directors struck your attention most prior to your career as a filmmaker?</strong> </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Stephen Mitchell: Claude Lelouch frst got my attention with “Un homme et une femme” (1966) and later with “L'aventure, c'est l'aventure” (1972). Jean-Luc Godard's “ À bout de souffle ”(1960) and Jean-Pierre Melville's “Le Samouraï”(1967) were very influential. I still look at these films today and find something new in them every time. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Simone Kussatz: Having worked in France and the United States, what do you think is the biggest difference in American and French filmmaking?</strong> </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Stephen Mitchell: It may be an unfair observation that is entirely too subjective, but I find that filmmaking in America is an expression of business and marketing and that filmmaking in France is an expression of enthusiasm for the cinema - at least in the circles I traveled. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Simone Kussatz: Aside from French films, you have an appreciation of the old Italian and British films. What is it that makes them aesthetically appealing to you?</strong> </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Stephen Mitchell: No doubt there is an element of nostalgia involved seeing the cars and scenery of the era but I find myself being entertained by the likes of Alec Guinness, Robert Morley and Alastair Sim with a subtlety and finesse that I don't find with contemporary actors. Marcello Mastroianni had no equal anywhere and America wasn't producing films like Dino Risi’s “Il sorpasso” (1962). I discovered a literary and cinematic richness in these films. Even actors like Broderick Crawford, Anthony Quinn and Richard Basehart seemed different when they appeared in Italian films. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Simone Kussatz: Between 1985-2001 you shot a 500-and-half-hour episode of the TV –series “(Interview)” and lately with French actors and actresses. What was the idea behind it and how were they perceived here in the United States?</strong> </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Stephen Mitchell: The “(Interview)” series developed a cult following that included the top actors, writers and directors in Hollywood resulting in the sale of many of my original stories to major A-list filmmakers. The people who had been inspiring me with their work were suddenly becoming my fans and seeking me out. It was an amazing experience and brought about a situation where Tri-Star Pictures was paying to see the shows before they aired on local cable. More recently, I began producing the show in French. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Simone Kussatz: At one point you received a phone call from Marlon Brando commenting in French on one of your shows. What is it that he said?</strong> </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Stephen Mitchell: I did not pick up the phone when it rang letting the answering machine take the call - it was almost midnight. After awhile, I noticed that the machine was still recording the incoming message. So, curious, I turned up the volume to hear what was being said. A man was speaking in fluent French but with an abominable American accent about how many Mexicans were living in Los Angeles. I turned the volume off and ignored the call. When the incoming call continued for several more minutes - the machine was voice - actuated and would continue as long as the caller was speaking, I picked up the phone and began speaking to him in French. "Je suis Marlon Brando et j'ai vu votre interview à la télévision." (I am Marlon Brando and I saw your interview on the television). After we talked for a while, he asked to have a copy of the show. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Simone Kussatz: Can you tell us a bit more about the making of them? You said they were aired at Adelphia studios, but you shot them in another studio?</strong> </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Stephen Mitchell: Initially I shot the program in Adelphia's Public Access studio but a number of technical and policy limitations pushed me to establish a relationship with a studio in North Hollywood that became a home base not only for “(Interview)” but for all the programming that emanated from the repertory company for film and television that I had founded. We were taping one show or another almost every day of the week for all those years. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Simone Kussatz: You mentioned that you don’t approve of American TV and didn’t understand the popularity of the TV-series “Friends”. Why?</strong> </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Stephen Mitchell: I watch very little television these days though I am a big fan of “House”. I followed Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry in “Jeeves and Wooster” and I think the writing and acting on the “House” series are inspired. When a new actor would come into the rep company, I would ask which one was their favorite TV show. The answer was invariably “Friends”. Why, I would ask. Because it's funny, they would answer. I'll bet you that it isn't funny, I would tell them. Next time you watch it, laugh every time you hear a laugh on the soundtrack, then come back and tell me if you still think it's funny. They tried it and, without exception, they returned with a verdict of "not funny". The reason for this is that the laugh track serves as a post-hypnotic suggestion that the program was "funny". The instruction to laugh along with the soundtrack as they watched the show impeded the hypnotic effect - they couldn't zone out and receive the implant, because they were remaining alert to the content. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Simone Kussatz: Are your feelings towards American feature films similar to American TV since your correspondence with American filmmaker John Huston gradually ended when you moved to Paris? </strong></div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Stephen Mitchell: My correspondence with him began as a spur-of -the-moment impulse. He was - and still is - a favorite of mine. I wrote to him addressing the envelope to "John Huston, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico" and was stunned when he replied. Previously, I had written to Mervyn LeRoy after seeing him on the “Tom Snyder Show" one evening. A few days later, I received a phone call from him. One has to remind oneself that these towering figures are, at their core, enthusiasts and share our love of film and filmmaking. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Simone Kussatz: You owned a film school and developed a new acting technique, in which an actor has to break up a sentence into phrases and inject different emotions into the text. Why do you think that this makes acting more effective?</strong> </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Stephen Mitchell: The film school and acting technique came about as a way to ensure a quality expansion of the repertory company which was modeled on the old Hollywood studio system. To answer your question, emotions are contagious where words alone are not. The goal of a scene or a film is to provoke an emotional response, whether joy, anger or sadness. For each actor who appeared in one of our films or shows, the goal was to increase his or her following or fan base and that was a function of branding and marketing. Rather than concentrate on the demographics of male/female, education & income, I categorized the constituent audience groups into happy, angry, fearful and sad people. These were the wavelengths that needed to be resonated by each actor's performance and, thus, the technique I authored addressed these issues. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Simone Kussatz: In 2001 your book “How to start a Hollywood Career without having to go there” was published. Why did you think actors would profit from a book like this?</strong> </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Stephen Mitchell: It was my observation that most of the actors in Hollywood originated from other parts of the world. They arrived in Los Angeles without friends or an infrastructure of any kind to support themselves. The book was intended to show those wanting a career in Hollywood how to begin their promotion and marketing while still in the comfort of their home surroundings. It was also intended to steer them clear of some major pitfalls to which newcomers often fall prey. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Simone Kussatz: Aside from a documentary about the tobacco industry, which you co-produced with Charlie Evans Jr, you are doing documentaries about cars, including a documentary about the Ferrari GTO and the Carrera Panamericana. Both subjects involve some kind of danger. Are these documentaries at all linked to a near-fatal car accident that you experienced?</strong> </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Stephen Mitchell: I don't know if I have the full answer to this question other than to say that my interest in fast cars in general and Ferraris in particular developed when I was in the hospital recovering from the accident which was a head-on collision on the Ventura Freeway in Los Angeles. Two people who had been drinking heavily found themselves on the wrong side of the road and ran straight into us. I read a lot of copies of “Road & Track” magazine while I was recovering and became passionate about Formula 1 and European road racing in the process. <strong></strong><strong></strong><strong></strong><strong></strong><strong></strong><strong></strong></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Simone Kussatz: You’re a contributor to “Sports Car Digest” and “Prancing Horse" magazine. What is your fascination about cars and what was the latest article you’ve written for them?</strong> </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Stephen Mitchell: I was first attracted to cars by the aesthetics of their design - I was too young to drive them at the time. Later, I was excited by the dynamics of their performance and the sounds of their engines. The articles that have appeared in the publications you mention centered around my experiences with my Ferrari GTO and my encounters with people in the Ferrari world including Enzo Ferrari himself. </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Simone Kussatz: Thank you so much for your time…</strong> </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Stephen Mitchell: Thank you, Simone! </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong></strong>Copyright © Simone Kussatz </div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">Photo: Courtesy of the artist</div>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-78558522195651414062011-03-14T20:12:00.000-07:002011-03-15T12:19:34.331-07:00Artist Chad Glass<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixraGI8dyUlTzp5faq8AxFYOQ_b3RmtijvUXAni-baQ5ylGPtSERWzhV4L2e7vOSItfk44UzjJ6aPzob9vCHpmBDECExMFQkqJ8f53aX-m_7RNhOk03hIbxOfxVHAqUgG1cc_9LUBs11o/s1600/200323_10150104937053730_576033729_6445493_4342778_s%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 101px; height: 130px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixraGI8dyUlTzp5faq8AxFYOQ_b3RmtijvUXAni-baQ5ylGPtSERWzhV4L2e7vOSItfk44UzjJ6aPzob9vCHpmBDECExMFQkqJ8f53aX-m_7RNhOk03hIbxOfxVHAqUgG1cc_9LUBs11o/s200/200323_10150104937053730_576033729_6445493_4342778_s%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584143114972217186" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixmqYjHDAVgD2J095uhdbW1jAmaa5ZlZuhSDcb8z-SPpncFygenBTX4RR4KNlWds1b6pRhviCU_AwmEk6AzOM0x9yyTJj0yCdF9Ck5jylExutD6Db5fFrbJVTOOaydd7mZ-drNB1uE3ec/s1600/198905_10150104936698730_576033729_6445487_3723760_s%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 130px; height: 101px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixmqYjHDAVgD2J095uhdbW1jAmaa5ZlZuhSDcb8z-SPpncFygenBTX4RR4KNlWds1b6pRhviCU_AwmEk6AzOM0x9yyTJj0yCdF9Ck5jylExutD6Db5fFrbJVTOOaydd7mZ-drNB1uE3ec/s200/198905_10150104936698730_576033729_6445487_3723760_s%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584143005081927794" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicO-OLq4tTXHQ7AxBaniYavIzTuDbMOcPUeRsAGxbi37Z8VE_8IlYMWK4xiaK6gahhFVV6IoIkbuz9kHBwUYwVfPz0yASmGOZKX9de8qdK41mF5As8dABIFne5l9qYlGu9vsO2iZjwneQ/s1600/189503_10150104937488730_576033729_6445498_216443_s%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 130px; height: 101px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicO-OLq4tTXHQ7AxBaniYavIzTuDbMOcPUeRsAGxbi37Z8VE_8IlYMWK4xiaK6gahhFVV6IoIkbuz9kHBwUYwVfPz0yASmGOZKX9de8qdK41mF5As8dABIFne5l9qYlGu9vsO2iZjwneQ/s200/189503_10150104937488730_576033729_6445498_216443_s%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584142891669395890" /></a><br /><br /><br />I met Sacramento-born storyboard artist and co-owner of ANKA Gallery Chad Glass at one of the Stephen Mitchell's Elysee Wednesday meetings at Caffe Primo at Sunset Plaza. Since I love to play the piano and currently don't have one Chad Glass caught my attention when he showed us drawings of an abandoned piano that he had seen sitting on the corner of a street. Therefore, we started communicating over FACEBOOK through which following conversation came up. <br /><br /><br />Chad Glass: You seem to like art and artistic things, what is some of your favorite types of artwork? Are you an artist?<br /><br /><br />Simone Kussatz: I'm a journalist who writes about art. I'm also a creative person. I feel good, if I take pictures and if I do a painting here and there or put things together like in a collage, but I'm not an artist the way we define artists in Germany, which is someone who does this on a professional basis and makes a living from it. But then I'm a writer and I do this on a professional basis and some people consider writers to be artists. My favorite type of art? That's not an easy question. I can tell you what I don't like. I don't like kitch and tacky things. I don't like sexually provocative or aggressive art, exploiting the body. That doesn't mean I don't like nudity, but it needs to be shown in a certain way. I'm someone who appreciates subtleness, depth and art that has some kind of a higher meaning - perhaps a humanitarian element. I like to see emotions and the human condition in general. If it's relevant to world events, I like that too. I don't know... it needs to intrigue me.<br /><br />Chad Glass: I draw storyboards here in LA and have an art gallery in Portland, Oregon. I co-own it and founded it. I also show my own work there. It is here: http://www.ankagallery.com/<br /><br />Simone Kussatz: Thank you... I'll look it up. I liked the abandoned piano you had drawn and showed at Stephen Mitchell's Elysee on Wednesdays.<br /><br />Chad Glass: Thanks. Those drawings mean a lot to me and are highly symbolic.<br /><br />Simone Kussatz: Can you say a bit more about that? In which way are they symbolic?<br /><br />Chad Glass: It is death. It is a musical instrument that will never make music again. Its physical body was destroyed and it passed into another form, into a pile of wood several weeks thereafter.<br /><br />Simone Kussatz: very nice. I can completely relate to that.<br /><br />Chad Glass: If you've ever seen someone die there is a beauty in it as well as an ugliness. The piano was beautiful in its last days, with its insides exposed, the beautiful craftsmanship, the amazing work and sculptural forms of its mechanisms. But is was at once ugly in its death throes and destruction. The forces destroying it were hostile to it and to life. Life itself is brutal and this physical world is hostile.<br /><br />Simone Kussatz: I've not watched someone taking his or her last breath, but I've seen my grandfather before the stages of death, and my little brother when he was dead. And the idea of an autopsy after death, cutting one's body open and looking at all the organs, makes me now think about the inside of the piano you drew. An autopsy is a last look at our amazing machine and the mechanism that takes care of us - the brain that sends us all the messages how to move our arms and legs, etc, the heart that pumps the blood to the lungs. And then all of a sudden this machine stops working and withers. It's difficult to find sense in it. Therefore I could not agree more with you about life being brutal and the physical world being hostile, trying to cover up these facts and feelings by bombarding us with superficiality. <br /><br />Glass Well: Yes the body is a machine, a shell. When it is dying and is then dead the idea of it being only a vessel is very clear. It is unequivocal. Whatever was "in it" is definitely not there anymore.<br /><br />Simone Kussatz: Thank you for our conversation. Shall the piano be a symbol for all the people who lost their lives during the tsunami. An image of a beach with abandoned pianos comes to my mind... what a quiet and long and sad sound.<br /><br />Chad Glass: That is a very beautiful and lushly melancholic image. Thank you.<br /><br /><br />Simone Kussatz: I forwarded my link to my friend and colleague, art critic Peter Frank.. This was his response: "Vielen Dank! I like his drawings, both for subject and for form...."<br /><br />Chad Glass: Simone, I continue my gratitude and thanks for your article about my drawings. I am grateful for your attention in this matter.<br /><br /><br />Simone Kussatz: And thank you for creating something that has personal meaning to me... thinking about abandoned pianos, makes me now also think about abandoned people and abandoned talents. I love to see your drawing also as an image of an abandoned soul... and in that also lies beauty and ugliness..<br /><br />Chad Glass: Excellent, it is all of that.Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-27972143047245819292011-02-01T10:00:00.000-08:002011-02-09T13:21:30.032-08:00Interview with Indian photographer Manjari Sharma<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisPvvvxUFjV0O0DD3e6ZTW68-K_-cYdG2TwWvSQhCaMn4vFKeBlwi9ZGgiouXH2xayaPzZx1Lognx_Byh2wnXEUOZxarg6QqNvOfiddr0DQ9RjmKwdlC7h5A-INDrBNnOH88CXA7bnW-M/s1600/tn[1].jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568788490811184002" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 100px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisPvvvxUFjV0O0DD3e6ZTW68-K_-cYdG2TwWvSQhCaMn4vFKeBlwi9ZGgiouXH2xayaPzZx1Lognx_Byh2wnXEUOZxarg6QqNvOfiddr0DQ9RjmKwdlC7h5A-INDrBNnOH88CXA7bnW-M/s200/tn%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZCAdJNxYg-rZrkZmI854XgHStL79xuCRDsQjE1ar4gMWnFrYOHbfNJFq1rFHKeu3Mw58Pkzxe4B0fGP-XV39pnFG9y4p3Se50u9Sw9FgKEy6UDY7ZgUjgm1a1IAtBu_au1J9FFx_hnvQ/s1600/tn[2].jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568785785232592082" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 100px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZCAdJNxYg-rZrkZmI854XgHStL79xuCRDsQjE1ar4gMWnFrYOHbfNJFq1rFHKeu3Mw58Pkzxe4B0fGP-XV39pnFG9y4p3Se50u9Sw9FgKEy6UDY7ZgUjgm1a1IAtBu_au1J9FFx_hnvQ/s200/tn%255B2%255D.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6WbsVwzjoYsluoKN_VaGudVUzMJA-8UseNKsPNg3-svvdLjV1N58AeXn402uH6dc4CssOqOPbRLSzZoafpgOLVa2gJ_6bIwNtkXZ13xflRyKvofETjs6Ev4SertLkPSsMUusWtFkruUs/s1600/tn[1].jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568785556303250802" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 100px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6WbsVwzjoYsluoKN_VaGudVUzMJA-8UseNKsPNg3-svvdLjV1N58AeXn402uH6dc4CssOqOPbRLSzZoafpgOLVa2gJ_6bIwNtkXZ13xflRyKvofETjs6Ev4SertLkPSsMUusWtFkruUs/s200/tn%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Interview with Manjari Sharma conducted over the phone: Los Angeles - Mumbai<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><br /><br /><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN">The New York city based photographer Manjari Sharma is one of the artists that is currently represented at Kopeikin Gallery in Culver City along with American photographer Steve Fitch. Born in Mumbai, the 31-year-old Sharma just returned from Santander in Spain, where she was invited to coordinate the photo entries for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Espacio Nudage</i> </span>- a multi disciplined event, dedicated to emerging talent in design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Trained in India and the US, Sharma’s work has been published in numerous international and national magazines and newspapers, including the Times of India, Geo magazine and PDN (Photo District News). Her work has also been used on a Pinguin book cover. In addition she helped to research a National Geographic Project based in India, was a guest at India’s CNBC, and a 2009 winner of the Strand photo contest in New York. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><i><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibrifont-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;color:#366388;" >Simone</span></i><i><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibrifont-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" > Kussatz: In both of your series, “Shower” and “Water”, of which some of your works are <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span>currently exhibited at Kopeikin Gallery water plays a key role. Can you tell us more about that?</span></i><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:13;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Manjari Sharma: <span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';">Both those projects were photographed six months apart. Both were not planned, but it was hindsight that made me do them. As far as the Shower series is concerned, to begin with, it's very rare that one has a window in a bathroom in New York City. So at first, it was a formal and visual thing as I saw this light coming through and felt fascinated what it did to my marble walls in the bathroom. The water falling down on my subjects is what transformed this project. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">In Indian culture the water of the Ganges River has a great significance. <span style="font-size:0;">The holy water</span> as it is said, washes away your sins. The project was about inviting people to come into my shower but interestingly as people showered it almost felt as if it were a confessional. As soon as the water hit their faces and bodies, they started to relax and would often discuss intimate things like relationships with their parents, love lives and moments of their childhood, or life lessons that you wouldn't share at a bar or another public place. In a strange unplanned way the water series in a way was a macro look at the relationship of people with the water and the shower series was a micro look at the same.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Kussatz: Did you tell your subjects in which pose to get?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Sharma:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibrifont-family:'Times New Roman';" >Sometimes it was a natural capture and sometimes I had them do over a pose I just noticed they naturally have.</span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibrifont-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:13;" > </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Kussatz: In your shower series you have people of different ethnicities? Was there any particular purpose for that?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Sharma: I’ve always felt very drawn to multicultural people. Once the project became clear to me, I wanted to capture that personal relationship between people and water and to showcase that to people from all over the world, so that they can relate to that. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Kussatz:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Your “Water” series was made on the beaches in Rio de Janeiro. They were shot from this great angle. Were you in a helicopter or standing on top of a mountain?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Sharma: No, I was shooting them from the 17<sup>th</sup> floor of a hotel room looking at a private beach. And then there were these men standing in a very isolating position.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I can’t swim and felt intrigued by looking at people feeling so comfortable in water. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Kussatz: So they actually didn’t know you were shooting them?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Sharma: No, they had no idea. But you can’t see their faces. It’s more about the form from a distance. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Kussatz: I like the pastel colors. Can you say more about that?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 7.5pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Sharma: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibrifont-family:'Times New Roman';" >I've changed the color palette with Photoshop. I wanted them to have a simpler palette so as to not let the details distract the viewer from the concept.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibrifont-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:13;" > </span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:13;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Kussatz: Did you have a particular reason to shoot in Brazil?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Sharma: No. I was just traveling. I was a bride’s maid at my friend’s wedding. As an artist you have to be prepared to make your art wherever you are. And when the moment strikes you want to be ready to use your tool. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Kussatz: I truly enjoyed your work and also found some beautiful images in your portfolio. I think it’s important to put light on emerging artists. I was wondering who influenced you artistically?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Manjari: I was influenced by a variety of artists. If you look at art your whole life you don’t know what kicked in. But I would say mostly by Irving Penn, but also by Greg Miller. I was his assistant for one year. He’s really great at the relationship with his subjects. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Kussatz: Thank you very much for our conversation. I look forward to meeting you in person for the closing reception at Kopeikin Gallery on February 12<sup>th</sup>. </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><em><span style="font-family:Calibri;">Published in Whitehotmagazine February 2011. </span></em></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><o:p>Copyright (c) Simone Kussatz</o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><o:p>Photos: Courtesy of the artist</o:p></span></i></p><br /><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><o:p><span style="font-family:Calibri;"></span></o:p></p><br /><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span></span></p><br /><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><o:p><span style="font-family:Calibri;"></span></o:p></p><br /><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span></p></div></div>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-41781794838983954062011-01-25T19:41:00.000-08:002011-01-25T19:46:47.444-08:00Interview with American sculptor Brad HoweAppeared in Luxury Life Magazine on January 12, 2011 (Pg. 98/100-103)<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://issuu.com/luxurylife/docs/luxurylife_winteredition_8">http://issuu.com/luxurylife/docs/luxurylife_winteredition_8</a>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-5536938427734003442011-01-25T17:24:00.000-08:002011-01-25T17:37:56.114-08:00Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) Pacific Design Center<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXaOofx54B1Y-wowLsUCViQCkLuMIJPAU3l89OpH7KFQ-j7Z_5JiJgYfUOl-Sf8qKcrmsRHjJProzIXzcaqtBIprR0yS5bkl0CVwkxo_8Oz5GCgeSkwLm9EMOXT7HjgDwQAgAN5RGAQ7I/s1600/IX41.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566302599834256866" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXaOofx54B1Y-wowLsUCViQCkLuMIJPAU3l89OpH7KFQ-j7Z_5JiJgYfUOl-Sf8qKcrmsRHjJProzIXzcaqtBIprR0yS5bkl0CVwkxo_8Oz5GCgeSkwLm9EMOXT7HjgDwQAgAN5RGAQ7I/s200/IX41.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div align="left"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPkApehEHI29rCbM-m27JdeRIEJmD4okf60tfAmI3LR3_1L-AONT-PjJbr-u9PE2hLKmhEwO7ZgXwQJuPFjtVfUHXYoAGRPMR7XVhcHKZPkG1OIMCYiVuzI04CrPr0qjgyFn-Ek9FdKzI/s1600/IX-19.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5566302492095219906" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 158px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPkApehEHI29rCbM-m27JdeRIEJmD4okf60tfAmI3LR3_1L-AONT-PjJbr-u9PE2hLKmhEwO7ZgXwQJuPFjtVfUHXYoAGRPMR7XVhcHKZPkG1OIMCYiVuzI04CrPr0qjgyFn-Ek9FdKzI/s200/IX-19.jpg" border="0" /></a> </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="justify">According to the Oxford dictionary "A genius is a person who is exceptionally intelligent or creative, either generally or in some particular respect." Viewing the compelling compositional, mathematical and architectural sketches of the Greek composer, Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) at MOCA Pacific Design Center, we are not solely exposed to beautiful artifacts, but excerpts from the creative processes of a genius mind.<br /><br />However, some might ponder why the works of a composer would be exhibited in museums such as the Drawing Center in New York, the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montréal and now at MOCA Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles rather than in symphony halls? Or why, instead of looking at sketches, there wouldn't be more outdoor performances such as last year's performance of "Persepolis" in the Los Angeles State Historical Park?<br /><br />For one thing there has always been a strong link between the visual arts and music. Russian painter, Wassily Kandinsky, who was himself an accomplished musician, used color in a highly theoretical way associating tone with timbre, hue with pitch and saturation with the volume of sound. The German writer, Wolfgang von Goethe, once described architecture as frozen music. And Xenakis who used the aural curved surfaces of his first major composition "Metastaseis" as an inspiration for the curved walls of the Philips Pavilion, could have not embodied Goethe's metaphor more literally.<br /><br />Furthermore, music notation has mostly been hand-rendered, like calligraphy. In Western tradition, there are the five lines of the staff, which look like a grid, with dots representing pitches (high and low) and other configurations symbolizing durations. This per se can be visually beautiful. However, what makes Xenakis' sketches unique is that he was not drawing sound in the common manner, but was working through strategies to apply physics and mathematics as a way to organize sound, using set theory, group and game theory, probability theory, in particular stochastic processes, which he then graphically plotted out. His multi-media works presented on paper often contain tiny handwritten notes in various languages - Greek, French and English - and different ink-colors.<br /><br />The exhibit at MOCA Pacific Design Center, curated by Sharon Kanach and Carey Lovelace, is compromised of two parts. On the ground floor, the exhibit's narrative begins with the early years of Xenakis, including a family photograph of him with his two brothers and uncle in 1933, Xenakis as a Greek resistance fighter in 1944, a picture of Xenakis at Le Corbusier's studio in Paris, photographs and studies of the Philips Pavilion and the Dominican Monastery of Sainte Marie de la Tourette, a typewritten letter by Le Corbusier to Xenakis stating that Xenakis's services were no longer needed, after the two had a dispute when Le Corbusier neglected to mention Xenakis' assistance in the Philips Pavilion. There are also studies for his first compositions "Metastaseis" and "Pithoprakta".<br /><br />On the second level the exhibit continues with the hand-drawn double-vector matrix for "Achorripsis", which Xenakis used to illustrate a lecture in 1964 as a Ford Fellow in Berlin. It also features studies for "Terretektorh", "Erikhthon" and "Cendrées", including pages of orchestral scores, a DVD of drawings and calculations for "Pithoprakta" with a musical performance by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg conducted by Arturo Tamayo. On top there is a virtual presentation of "Poème Électronique", provided by the Virtual Reality & Multi-Media Park in Torino, Italy. One can also see a film with Xenakis working on "Polytope de Cluny" and a video from the collection of the Herb Alpert School of music showing a lecture about music with Xenakis at Mills College. Furthermore, there are studies and photographs of "Polytope de Mycènes", "Polytope de Cluny", "Polytope de Persepolis," and "Polytope de Montréal", as well as various programs for the different events. The exhibit concludes with some of Xenakis unrealized projects, such as his studies for "Cosmic city", "the Reynolds House" and "Cité de la Musique."<br /><br />Along with the exhibit comes a catalogue (written by Ivan Hewett, Carey Lovelace, Sharon Kanach) with a moving memoir by Mâkhi Xenakis, describing the days with her father in Corsica. Therefore, the exhibit does not only portray Xenakis as the remarkable artist, but also the remarkable human being, who fought against the Nazis and the British and survived many hardships, including the death of his mother at age five, imprisonment, severe physical injury, a life in exile and rejection by the Parisian musical elite - Nadia Boulanger, Darius Milhaud and Arthur Honegger. Yet, he never stopped immersing himself into interdisciplinary studies, from Plato to archaeology, to find his own answers. The exhibit and catalogue also focus on the two people who tremendously impacted Xenakis' career - Swiss architect Le Corbusier and French composer Oliver Messiaen, who told him "You are almost thirty. You have the fortune of being Greek, an architect, and of having studied special mathematics. Take advantage of those things. Do them in your music."<br /><br />In that sense the exhibit succeeds in getting to the essence of the person Iannis Xenakis, someone who was a lateral thinker, someone who was always "thinking outside the box."<br /><br />Copyright ©Simone Kussatz<br />Photos: Courtesy of MOCA Pacific Design Center</div><div align="justify">Published in Whitehotmagazine January 2011</div>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-7746203778631592272010-12-26T10:19:00.000-08:002011-01-07T16:03:20.387-08:00Interview with Manfred Menz at ROSEARK<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjSnLtfxbpIkAzf2OLDsc7bELwrtI6H3ZnCzsisJJqdV2VKWEOP7pNfAXIrv3H6YywOHXdsflpLQyVPO-zLb_msflaYxdoaQKu2Px3cw7_xxn1tWvVGxAHqTyxoeSJ25iCdz9krRvxIg/s1600/TateModernLondon.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 177px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5555069796188242802" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjSnLtfxbpIkAzf2OLDsc7bELwrtI6H3ZnCzsisJJqdV2VKWEOP7pNfAXIrv3H6YywOHXdsflpLQyVPO-zLb_msflaYxdoaQKu2Px3cw7_xxn1tWvVGxAHqTyxoeSJ25iCdz9krRvxIg/s200/TateModernLondon.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwQ7FTALSZEoqjzDO3W6qwH1-CHracnewYNjS0xrmPko103gWsOhz03jHSvKX2fv6qPJLoIMX-LH8K1c4c4y-5Xyb_9ls2F53_Up858TWfTMB12rXyIVD67GxV1zasPYSZeluCKAh1Sr0/s1600/KarlMarxBlvdBerlin.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 154px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5555067464581667906" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwQ7FTALSZEoqjzDO3W6qwH1-CHracnewYNjS0xrmPko103gWsOhz03jHSvKX2fv6qPJLoIMX-LH8K1c4c4y-5Xyb_9ls2F53_Up858TWfTMB12rXyIVD67GxV1zasPYSZeluCKAh1Sr0/s200/KarlMarxBlvdBerlin.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">The earlier oeuvre of Manfred Menz consists of artworks that deal with social critical subjects such as racism, euthanasia or homelessness in a capitalist society; they take the form of installations or collages with texts from self-written poems or excerpts from screen-plays. However, in the past few years the German born artist has been working with digital manipulation in which he removes the iconic structure from famous architectural landmarks by replacing them with the stark white of photo paper and leaving us with only elements of nature. Some of these works can be currently viewed at ROSEARK in West Hollywood.<br /><br /><br /><em>Simone Kussatz: Do you rather see yourself as a conceptual artist or photographer?</em><br /><br />Manfred Menz: I consider myself to be a conceptual artist, although, I've worked with all kinds of cameras. In the beginning of my second career - I worked in film at first - I did more installations than photography. And when I did photography I used them for collages and added texts to them. Now the photographs at Roseark which are part of “the Invisible Project and Invisible Asia” are a combination of photography and digital work.<br /><br /><em>Kussatz: What inspired you to create photographs of landmarks that can't be actually seen?</em><br /><br />Menz: I started with this work about 10 years ago. My work has two components. They are made out of a conceptual and an emotional part. I was first interested in the emotional part, which was to focus on what has always been there, but we've missed seeing, which is nature around landmarks. Obviously if we decide to take a tourist picture of the Eiffel Tower we want to see the tower, and don't care much about the surrounding nature. So I wanted to see what was there. The other part, the conceptual part, was that digital imaging became popular at that time and although I wasn't much into computer work, I felt fascinated by the idea that it would allow me to alter images in ways that one could never tell what happened to the pictures. Therefore I removed the landmarks. I started with my project in Europe. I went to Germany, London, Paris, and Rome. I took a photograph of one of the oldest landmarks, the Colosseum and later worked in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 2007 and 2008, I went to South Korea and Japan.<br /><br /><em>Kussatz: Since the focus of your work is on nature do your works carry any environmental message?</em><br /><br />Menz: There are many messages in my work and I'm always happy, when I discover another one, which I originally hadn't seen. The environmental message as I mentioned earlier is to see things that surround us, yet we've never seen and paid attention to. In regard to the Eiffel Tower I found these four trees that in some way give us an impression of the relation between the landmark Eiffel Tower and the trees. The trees are not very large by nature, and they can be overlooked easily, but they have a wonderful beauty to them, which fascinated me. However at the end of my project, I realized that most nature around landmarks are man-made. Most plants hadn't grown naturally. And that provided another interesting view which is to what extent do we value nature as what it is, or what we wanted it to look like. Therefore, my pictures show how our alter ego presents itself as nature. That's why I call them documents of society's self-portraits.<br /></div></span><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify"><i><em><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Kussatz: In your work “Tate Modern” you have these luscious looking trees and a white ground that appears to be from a winter landscape. In your work “Changdeok Palace” we see trees with colors that represent the different seasons also on what seems to be a snow-covered ground. Isn't there a contradiction?</span></em></i><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Menz: I only take pictures during the end of April towards mid-May, because that's when we get to see the freshest green in nature. I have about 30 pieces throughout the world; some may look as if they have more than one season due to my removal of everything. I usually use grey for the ground, which enhances the green tone of nature. And that makes it look like cold winter snow. It's a nice reflection on the fresh green. So you may be puzzled, when you first look at it, thinking how it is possible that there is this fresh green in winter. I wasn't aware of that at first and it wasn't planned, but I like that effect. It's an optical illusion. As far as “Changdeok Palace”, it's my favorite image, because it's unique to get a chance to be able to see all seasons at once.<br /><br /><em>Kussatz: Karl Marx Boulevard (Karl-Marx-Allee) was your first image in this series. Is there any political agenda in this?</em><br /><br />Menz: Karl Marx Boulevard is a well-known street in Berlin. It doesn't only bear the name of Karl Marx, but associates his ideology with it. However, my first thoughts were about the painters of the past that dealt with images of alleys lined by rows of trees. They were creating this optical illusion, a sense of infinity, by using a tunnel vision. I liked the perspective. Those two rows of trees are parallel in reality. The conceptual part of this picture is that I removed the remaining traces of all social achievements and capitalistic buildings of our collective awareness. And what I left is perhaps the 21st Century's version of a virtual reality. I'm not a Marxist. Karl Marx said of himself he isn't a Marxist. He also said “Art is not a mirror to held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it” and that's exactly what I think I did.<br /><br /><em>Kussatz: Can you tell us more about your work in the Korean Demilitarized Zone?</em><br /><br />Menz: I worked from the position of the Joint Security Area. I took pictures with a view from the South Korean to the North Korean side, where there was this gigantic watchtower, from where the North Koreans would watch what was happening on the other side. There is a lot of tension with about 2 Million soldiers total on both sides standing face-to-face. In my opinion this is the most dangerous place on planet. Being from Germany that was a divided country for a long time after World War II, I expected to see military equipment or a military environment on the Northern Side. But instead, I rather looked at something that seemed to me like Disneyland. There was this wonderful nature with trees and so forth. And what fascinated me was the relationship between what reality is and what we're made to believe it is. And I think my work shows that.<br /><br /><em>Kussatz: You mentioned that you came across some difficulties when you took these pictures?</em><br /><br />Menz: I needed to get a permit in Panmunjom first and a military escort for my own protection. I used a panorama camera. It took time to set it up. Therefore the circumstances under which I worked were very interesting.</span></div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><em>Kussatz: Since the show includes images of Berlin and Korea, did you try to compare the former situation in Germany with the current situation in Korea?</em><br /><br />Menz: I would never compare the two political situations or juxtapose them. They are very different from each other. Yet, it's natural for me to be interested in Korea because I know what it looks and feels like to be divided as a country and the meaning of it and how it's being presented. However, Korea was very different from what I thought it would be. It was much tenser, and yet there was this wonderful nature in such a political difficult environment. And then they have this artificial village on the Northern side. Nobody lives there but it looks very impressive, and obviously it's just there to make us believe something that's not real.<br /><br /><em>Kussatz: Your picture “Rodeo Drive” seems to me the most artificial one in that show.</em><br /><br />Menz: It is the most artificial one and it is the most colorful one. There is the illusion that there are these potted plants floating in the air. And it appears to us as if we're standing at a point looking down at the palm trees, although it was exactly the opposite from where I took the photograph. I was actually looking up. And in a way this is how we feel, if we go shopping on Rodeo Drive. We think as if we belong to the top of society by holding a bag from one of the most well-known streets in the world, where it actually is the opposite. It doesn't make us what it appears to be. It's only an illusion. </span></div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Copyright © Simone Kussatz</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Interview was published in Whitehotmagazine on December 24, 2010. </span></div><div align="justify"><br /></div><p style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 12pt" align="justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Images: Courtesy of artist Manfred Menz (right - Karl-Marx Boulevard, Berlin 2003, 36x44; left - Tate Modern, London 2003, 43x39)</span></p><div align="justify"><br /></div><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-size:12;" ><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:100%;"></span></o:p></span></p>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-21877645872379551522010-11-29T17:30:00.000-08:002011-03-15T21:37:27.130-07:00Cheryl Ann Thomas "New Work" at Frank Lloyd Gallery<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPHy6syBc-HRc5vX4v7rf8JmgBj8L1INyRLEV1Tia-fTk_JRSvp7VgWGX466Ume02ZvrvQgJgR11sRxqMA8FxkI976-kxgdniRvEBZcGYjVOafbz354ywm9eaSX2EgAbqh_wCRri7chqA/s1600/cherylannthomas%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPHy6syBc-HRc5vX4v7rf8JmgBj8L1INyRLEV1Tia-fTk_JRSvp7VgWGX466Ume02ZvrvQgJgR11sRxqMA8FxkI976-kxgdniRvEBZcGYjVOafbz354ywm9eaSX2EgAbqh_wCRri7chqA/s200/cherylannthomas%255B1%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584532117071591506" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOMXavNbLxeVNb5Ms-hmI1_4Z4MsmQX-9xvEiPBtBOJ0ec_m6FDqukm3nYMEzmvuGjmhfO9oLxVd6JFwBSDmv9NeRN0FiJLRyZz5rsJGLtXBcfLgxj7xNm3kFUtiWZA5ehL3YAD4qwOgM/s1600/FTS060%255B2%255D.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOMXavNbLxeVNb5Ms-hmI1_4Z4MsmQX-9xvEiPBtBOJ0ec_m6FDqukm3nYMEzmvuGjmhfO9oLxVd6JFwBSDmv9NeRN0FiJLRyZz5rsJGLtXBcfLgxj7xNm3kFUtiWZA5ehL3YAD4qwOgM/s200/FTS060%255B2%255D.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584531987530870898" /></a><br /><br />“That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet,” American poet, Emily Dickinson, once wrote in the 19th century. It is exactly the same awareness of our mortality that American ceramicist Cheryl Ann Thomas toys around with in her new works that are currently showcased at Frank Lloyd Gallery. But more than that, her work is also about aging; the disappointments, the hopes and hardships, the dealing with suffering, all the ups and downs that shape our precious lives. Thomas said, “My work is an intimate and experiential inquiry into fragility and loss; I construct, I sabotage, I reconcile.” <br /><br />The exhibit is comprised of ten elegant black and soft creamy white-colored sculptures, primarily made out of porcelain, except for two bronze and one stainless steel sculptures. Most of them contain the title Relics and several numbers, which indicate the different parts they’re made of. The simplicity in the titles and the reduction to two colors is a conscious act of the artist. Thomas wanted viewers to bring their own interpretations and experiences to her work. Therefore they almost function like a Rorschach test, where one can project one’s inner dialogue. The majority of sculptures sit individually. The two sculptures Coupled-Relics and Five Relics are installed together. Made in the same manner as her former work, the Santa Monica-born artist created them through the coil-technique, where hundreds of clumps of black, white, and gray clay are hand rolled into thin, ropelike strands and stacked, which were later over-fired. <br /> <br />In Six Relics, one can see what seems to be a hooded black cape with a floating creamy white scarf wrapped around it. The sculpture suggests the mysterious interplay between life and death – perhaps death made an appearance, but life force was stronger and pulled him away. In Threesome Relics, a solely creamy white sculpture, one is exposed to what seems to be a figure that could be an aged man wearing a large straw hat, resting his forehead on his left knee. In contrast to Six Relics, this sculpture presents perhaps a life that has yet been spared from a direct encounter with death. <br /><br />The beauty in Cheryl Ann Thomas works is their elegance and philosophical content. Like each life entering the world, her oeuvre also seems to have that uncertainty of the outcome. <br /> - Simone Kussatz<br /><br /><br />Copyright (c) by Simone Kussatz<br /><br />Published in Art Ltd. March 14, 2011<br /><br />http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1300148521&archive=&start_from=&ucat=32&Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-51532423795509535722010-11-14T10:10:00.000-08:002011-01-07T17:07:09.162-08:00Henri Cartier-Bresson at Peter Fetterman Gallery<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSp-_9VoRkterMvvmafJeTAuiqtCz8kqLCXi4FHWeW9HO1jfFtXgNRg6ziJNejZhTHDMtF5u7uG5ehT8maB6bVMirgFtUiNudJfPiVUJDYUs5Y-iV_JRtw2r9kOvlX8psDurL39DSwz0/s1600/bresson_masswarsaw300%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 130px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539480910229923218" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSp-_9VoRkterMvvmafJeTAuiqtCz8kqLCXi4FHWeW9HO1jfFtXgNRg6ziJNejZhTHDMtF5u7uG5ehT8maB6bVMirgFtUiNudJfPiVUJDYUs5Y-iV_JRtw2r9kOvlX8psDurL39DSwz0/s200/bresson_masswarsaw300%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzhIwWwbDSlUbdO_IO9i_SPTc3m1pM-4pTeDXl2YpRWLyGwhXtzvXEqNkpoG7GlhDCmBpgulCwVmBbXXJI4eLOPu1DpGZlb2Mo-jqJ3XXH4lTkoBeVoR3nXWxJmJhPLS9NA2cUrUNgxYo/s1600/bresson_yugoslavia300%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 132px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539480758960918290" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzhIwWwbDSlUbdO_IO9i_SPTc3m1pM-4pTeDXl2YpRWLyGwhXtzvXEqNkpoG7GlhDCmBpgulCwVmBbXXJI4eLOPu1DpGZlb2Mo-jqJ3XXH4lTkoBeVoR3nXWxJmJhPLS9NA2cUrUNgxYo/s200/bresson_yugoslavia300%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:130%;">Henri Cartier-Bresson at Peter Fetterman Gallery</span></p><br /><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:130%;">By Simone Kussatz</span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:130%;">In this art world jungle where many artists want to outdo each other by using sensationalism, provocation, and high-tech manipulated images, it feels soothing to view the works of French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, who knew how to create grand effects with a small German-made Leica. Cartier-Bresson’s sense for subtle, aesthetic composition, human dignity, historical relevance and psychological insight can be currently viewed in an exhibit that celebrates Peter Fetterman Gallery’s 20th anniversary. <em>Henri Cartier-Bresson: Eye of the Century</em> displays a collection of photographs created during Cartier- Bresson’s journeys to Belgium, former Yugoslavia, China, England, Greece, India, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Russia and the US with a strong focus on life in the 50s and 60s. The exhibit also includes landscape and street scene images of France, portrait photographs of Truman Capote, Alberto Giacometti, and Matisse as well as rare prints including a photograph by Cartier-Bresson taken in Provence about two decades after his retirement, when he'd returned to his first love, drawing.<br /><br />The picture of children and women in Aquila Degli Abruzzi in central Italy is here too. The women are wearing long black dresses, their heads covered with black bandanas. Some wear aprons and carry cake trays on their heads while walking through the alleys, others are gathered at a plaza. It is an image of a slow-paced life. This high-angle shot exemplifies the influence of painting in Cartier-Bresson’s photography – perhaps the influence of André Lothe with whom he studied in Paris. Geometric forms appear as in cubist paintings or in Lothe’s <em>L’Escale</em>: triangles, rectangles, parallelograms, and trapezoids. A vertical axis created by a balustrade in the lower part of the photo and a building above it, as well as diagonal axes provide the photograph symmetry. </span></p><br /><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:130%;">Next to Aquila Degli Abruzzi, there is a photograph of two girls walking through a narrow alley in a long shadow. It was shot in former socialist Sarajevo, the city where Islam, Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Judaism have been coexisting for centuries. The image was taken two decades after the city was liberated from the occupancy of German Nazis and seventeen years before the Bosnian war, when Josip Broz Tito was president. The two girls with their braided hair, embracing each other and holding what appears to be school supplies, suggest the quiet and peaceful and political atmosphere at that time.<br /><br />And then there is a photograph that had never been printed before by a collector until gallery owner, Peter Fetterman, discovered it in an obscure book years ago. It is the image of a fundraiser ball (a very posh event) for Queen Charlotte’s hospital, one of the oldest maternity hospitals in Europe. This high angle shot captures some of the same joie de vivre that Cartier-Bresson so much admired in Hungarian photographer, Martin Munkasci’s work, especially in his photograph of the three African nude boys running into the surf at Lake Tanganyika. Yet, it doesn’t have the spontaneity of the African boys; the action seems much more controlled, which is emphasized by Cartier-Bresson catching the dancing couples positioned in perfect diagonal lines. Due to their moving the image is a bit out of focus, which has some of the effect of an aquarelle blurring.<br /><br />In <em>Decisive Moment</em> Cartier-Bresson wrote, “In photography, the smallest thing can be a great subject.” In photographs such as <em>Barber Rome (1951)</em> and <em>Brussels, Belgium (1932)</em> those human details are telling a story of absurdity and curiosity. There is the image of a barber standing next to a mannequin head covered with a wig, looking through his showcase touching his bald patch. How does he feel working with hair, while losing his? Or there are the two men in Brussels, one of them looking through a hole of a circus tent, the other with a handlebar mustache and distinctive features looking to the side as if he guards him or is distracted by something that catches his curiosity. What could it be?<br /><br />The Roman Catholic Church enjoyed a huge political influence under Communism. That becomes obvious in Cartier-Bresson’s photo <em>Mass, Warsaw, 1956</em>. Again shot from a high angle, it shows a group of people herded together with a priest sitting in a hanging chair above them. Since the photo was taken in 1956, the year Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski was released from his three-year detainment due to his opposition against communism; it’s possible that the photo showed a service with him. </span></p><br />Published in Whitehotmagazine November 2010.<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:130%;">Copyright © by Simone Kussatz</span></p></div>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-52309190985412038752010-10-06T07:46:00.000-07:002010-10-06T07:50:55.137-07:00Lezley Saar at Merry Karnowsky Gallery<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5wimjhNJn9ZtIy5sS2YLw2mKCh8xqM_Bsk4XBTln6tm3LOeIFRMk27-eIKJKUrPP7sEmvRP6YtN51z-OVXHLzF-zT9VcONN4-dfyNoOKlWrbb3pjGs5jmlUqwOmb7YSE4mihrSQxbjg/s1600/LS_imaginary-life-imaginary-friends-hi+(2).jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 106px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5524945150333116018" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5wimjhNJn9ZtIy5sS2YLw2mKCh8xqM_Bsk4XBTln6tm3LOeIFRMk27-eIKJKUrPP7sEmvRP6YtN51z-OVXHLzF-zT9VcONN4-dfyNoOKlWrbb3pjGs5jmlUqwOmb7YSE4mihrSQxbjg/s200/LS_imaginary-life-imaginary-friends-hi+(2).jpg" /></a><br /><div><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">Lezley Saar at Merry Karnowsky Gallery<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">By Simone Kussatz<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">Lezley Saar’s “Autist’s Fables”, an oeuvre she created over a span of two years, seems to be a continuation of her former body of work, “Mulatto Nation” - dichotomy and the anomalies of nature, too, play a key role. Saar’s body of work invites viewers into the world of her 18-year-old autistic daughter Geneva to learn to appreciate her creativity, sensitivity, penchants and overcoming isolation. The solo exhibit contains a combination of illustrations with circular color photographs collaged into paintings, glass-encased dioramas, and the gallery’s smaller exhibit hall set up as a living room, in which gothic-looking photographs in ornate golden frames are decorating its walls and a small TV monitor encircled by red velvet curtains shows the court métrage - a short film - <i><span style="color:black;">Le Mystère de Geneviève</span></i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">The influence of <span style="color:#333333;">Aubrey Beardsley in Saar’s paintings is obvious. There are the black ink illustrations on pastel hued backgrounds, the flexuous lines and curvy shapes, creating interesting negative spaces. Overall the exhibit is created as a third-person narrative, part of it written down in English, part of it told in French, as in Saar’s short film. The tale employs lifeless figures and Victorian settings similar to Edward Gorey’s stories. Although autobiographical, it uses techniques of fiction: Geneva is Geneviève, Lezly is Lisette, and Geneva’s father is Albert. The story unfolds with the key steps in Geneva’s development, including her birth, her loss of speech, the fantasy world she creates as a little girl in which villains and imaginary friends appear and dolls that allude to the children she won’t be able to bear. Part of the narrative applies fable elements in the manner of Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine. Mysterious looking animals – hybrids - are its main protagonists, delivering the moral that autism, as any other deviation from the norm, should be accepted in society. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">In contrast to paintings such as “A imaginary life, imaginary friends,” “A calendar savant”, “A beautiful Initiation”, “All the months had a special color,” and “A Very Sensitive Child”, where the positive, extraordinary sides of Geneva’s personality are accented, the photographs “Bad Seed Boy Villain”, “Family Portrait on Stage”, “Genevieve with saw”,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“Genevieve with Tall Friend and Bad Seed Boy”, seem to acquaint us with her sometimes aggressive tendencies. Generally, the exhibit conveys beauty, complexity, mystery, perplexity, and enchants viewers into another reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><o:p></o:p></span><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">Copyright © by Simone Kussatz<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">Photo © belongs to Merry Karnowsky Gallery<o:p></o:p></span></span></p></div>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-40475126662861074462010-09-28T21:42:00.001-07:002011-01-07T16:02:07.911-08:00"Combustione: Alberto Burri and America" at Santa Monica Museum of Art<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2cFnP8mdm1RnFjZsVQ6SFlf6cNnHnj5WAjyCRxOlGb_wsENCKgGgK0uO_9ZgmFG_69Wz21nxcsgRmyaFkqMT4LgpJ1yFxQHZtbkJoJiNoZ3R78Yis_sIkk_5df2aRtbfJYdA3VahUNVk/s1600/ALBERTOBURRI%255B1%255D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 134px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559597601332190994" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2cFnP8mdm1RnFjZsVQ6SFlf6cNnHnj5WAjyCRxOlGb_wsENCKgGgK0uO_9ZgmFG_69Wz21nxcsgRmyaFkqMT4LgpJ1yFxQHZtbkJoJiNoZ3R78Yis_sIkk_5df2aRtbfJYdA3VahUNVk/s200/ALBERTOBURRI%255B1%255D.jpg" /></a><br /><div align="justify">By Simone Kussatz</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">There is a fine line between being a European-born American, and being a European with a second home in America. Italian artist Alberto Burri--who was married to the American dancer Minsa Craig with whom he wintered in Los Angeles for 28 years and kept his main home in Italy--falls under the latter category. This makes sense considering that Burri, a former physician, was first brought to America by force as a prisoner of war, rather than, say, Italian-born artist Joseph Stella who came to America freely. Burri also seemed to be more inclined towards Italian culture, showing a greater interest in Italian Renaissance than in the work of his American contemporaries such as Robert Rauschenberg, whose works he supposedly summed up as being "un'americanata e basta" (an American thing and that's all). Therefore it is no surprise that his ambiguity towards American culture made him nearly forgotten in the canon of American art history, at least until this fall, when the Santa Monica Museum of Art reintroduced him and his contributions to American art.<br /><br />The exhibition, including 25 paintings (from 1951 to 1986) and ten prints (from 1990), is as beautiful as it is important due to its striking color combinations and display of found objects and outre materials, some with historical significance. <i>White</i> (1952), a painting composed of oil, bronze, enamel paint, cotton fabric and gold leaf with a cracked surface, seems to be inspired by the damaged frescos of Benozzo Gozzoli, which Burri viewed after his return to his hometown Cita di Castello after World War II. <i>Composition</i> (1953), made of oil, gold paint and pieces of burlap stitched together, with small areas of red paint shimmering through, is part of his <i>Sacchi</i> series, reminiscent of the Marshall Plan supply sacks, used by Americans to help Europeans with goods after the war. <i>Nero Plastica L.A.</i> (1963) demonstrates one of Burri's other working methods, in which he pulled and draped black plastic and created holes with a blowtorch. In <i>Bianco Cretto C1</i> (1973), a white canvas with a craquelure encircles a round smooth area created by thick acrylic paint, sometimes mixed with sand or earth, dried in various ways; the work is part of Burri's <i>Cretti</i> series inspired by his numerous trips to Death Valley. The exhibit beautifully reveals Burri's creative progress, and the artistic expression he found in the merging of two cultures, even two worlds.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">Review was published in ART Ltd. on January 7th, 2011</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">Copyright (C) Simone Kussatz & Art Ltd. </div><div align="justify"></div>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-56676379069233841852010-09-21T19:32:00.001-07:002010-09-26T07:29:45.209-07:00Jordi Alcaraz at Jack Rutberg Gallery of Fine Arts<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq63uGNUKEMY09WPFIv4990z8oy568scD0rFD5sYRJJNOnsNmVYdfPsLdl8kCPurrwXaum0KRuB8y9eoaRW8fGQ1lsQkPdr7-crLDwF-bV3wbFVWaRvEoxecv9jLatmZnkanQBcCTcKNo/s1600/tn%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 112px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519741855904655218" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq63uGNUKEMY09WPFIv4990z8oy568scD0rFD5sYRJJNOnsNmVYdfPsLdl8kCPurrwXaum0KRuB8y9eoaRW8fGQ1lsQkPdr7-crLDwF-bV3wbFVWaRvEoxecv9jLatmZnkanQBcCTcKNo/s200/tn%5B1%5D.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcxr6o4KHxTkUwWz1j3oMN_e-49lc3hgLNl-61WnJ1G46QJ-59dLNsSNFG_jt95ek8qN_1Ou3Liqwq_uFthiZLAqKQW6rgZwvFQkui1TUGXroyoX249Ofms4IZ9k3WZm-43-AblcyRXww/s1600/tn%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 150px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 101px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519561649153871634" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcxr6o4KHxTkUwWz1j3oMN_e-49lc3hgLNl-61WnJ1G46QJ-59dLNsSNFG_jt95ek8qN_1Ou3Liqwq_uFthiZLAqKQW6rgZwvFQkui1TUGXroyoX249Ofms4IZ9k3WZm-43-AblcyRXww/s200/tn%5B1%5D.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhccXAmqCW2KEihP_T73Zicd5-6X_A51RASiKEJHMgjpdfKuu2-gHW4ERIjyP2Lh2u2OQiKU3tKbXsM4VjEMHBM4fXRNy1mHv-hvCwEJKB3-3g29dBcq_3TWICzvsCueuAkK-S_BnPpaPY/s1600/tn%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 150px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 95px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519560454501430466" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhccXAmqCW2KEihP_T73Zicd5-6X_A51RASiKEJHMgjpdfKuu2-gHW4ERIjyP2Lh2u2OQiKU3tKbXsM4VjEMHBM4fXRNy1mHv-hvCwEJKB3-3g29dBcq_3TWICzvsCueuAkK-S_BnPpaPY/s200/tn%5B3%5D.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">Jordi Alcaraz at Jack Rutberg Gallery of Fine Arts<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">How does one paint one’s breath, show the composing process of a travel book or reduce a room into a painting? These are the kind of questions Catalonian artist Jordi Alcaraz enjoys toying with. Some of his works can be currently viewed at the Jack Rutberg Gallery of Fine Arts, the space that gave him his first U.S. solo-exhibit “Traslúcido”.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">One aspect that makes Alcaraz’s show so appealing is its Catalonian sensibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There are organic shapes in Gaudi’s style, reflected images with a surrealistic appeal, and many evocative pieces of works that keep one wondering. Some have a feeling reminiscent of the Spanish Civil War. Others seem to be inspired by Robert Motherwell, especially his painting “Elegy to the Spanish Republic”. The show, spread out through the two main gallery rooms at Jack Rutberg’s is particularly beautiful, because of its poetic and philosophical nature, its subtle colors and the elements Alcaraz works with: transparency, reflection and writing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">“Time” consists of an antique wooden sculpture, a nun-like figure, partly painted in white and beige, who reaches her fingers of her left hand through an opening in a vitrine, whose front wall is slightly bent inward and ends into what looks like the upper part of a martini glass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The contrast between the two materials, one seems to represent the traditional, the other, the modern world, is analogous to what we find in today’s architectural landscape in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia. The enclosed sculpture also provides an interior versus exterior perspective, and creates the dimension of someone from the past looking into the future and vice versa. The idea of glass surrounding the sculpture seems is reminiscent of modern architectural concepts, where buildings include large glass windows and sliding glass walls ( as in Richard Neutra’s buildings) to bring the outside in. Situating a religious sculpture in a modern frame, the work also suggests the development of religion over time. But then there is also the element of a nun breaking through a wall, maybe the wall that leads to the mysterious and unknown as in the works by Spanish artist Antoni Tàpies. And that’s exactly what American curator and critic Peter Selz’s calls attention to in </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" lang="EN" >the book “Jordi Alcaraz dibuiox”, </span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">when he writes “Alcaraz takes physical space, objects, and ideas and projects them into new dimensions.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';font-size:130%;" >In “painting and breathing”, the surface of a white paper is displayed as two pages of an open book. The surface is covered on the left-handside by a black mark that is similar to a Chinese or Japanese calligraphy character, and the work is covered by two layers of plexiglass. The top layer is smooth, the bottom one has a slight distortion that appears to be a chain of bubbles. Delicate shadows are thrown onto the paper. Alcaraz’s work evokes the idea that the creation of art is as essential to an artist as breath is for the human being. It also suggests process and evolution, and the association with breath has a meditative implication - breathing is practiced in Yoga and Qigong. </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;font-family:'Lucida Sans Unicode','sans-serif';color:#403838;" lang="EN" ><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span><o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" lang="EN" ><span style="font-size:130%;">“Process to reduce this room into a painting”, among the more surrealistic pieces in the show, consists of a mirror with a silver surface that looks like liquid. There is a hole in the upper left corner from which that liquid seems to run. The reflection in it of Rutberg’s gallery, is soft and melting, like the watches in Salvador Dali’s “Persistence of Memory.” The hole is implicated as being the entire gallery. Hence, Alcaraz not only turned a three-dimensional space into a two-dimensional one, but also made the inside of a gallery space appear to be bigger than the gallery as a whole, stressing the importance of the inner walls of a gallery. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" lang="EN" ><span style="font-size:130%;">In “Book of Astronomy”, Alcaraz pierced holes into the pages of an open book and the plexiglass covering it. Two of the holes have tiny black dots painted in them, similar to a pair of eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The remaining holes seem to be the solar system. Pictorially, the most direct influence on Alcaraz works where pierced holes seem to be dominant is likely the Spanish artists who lived through the civil war, as Peter Selz pointed out. Therefore, the holes in the astronomy book seem to be inspired by the holes that Manolo Millares once put into the cover of a catalogue at his show at the Pierre Matisse Gallery, as well as they’re inspired by the penetrating eyes in the works of Antoni Saura’s, and the cutting of the eye in Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali’s film “Un Chien Andalou.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" lang="EN" ><span style="font-size:130%;">One of the more philosophical pieces “Book of Travels”, is an opened book showing two blank pages, where the writing of the underlying shimmers through. Several layers of plexiglass cover the book, on which black lines of various sizes are engraved, leading in different directions. Some of the lines cross each other, like the life lines on a palm; others expand to the left and right over the edges of the book. In this piece Alcaraz reminds us that he’s more interested in the composition process than the art work itself. Through the different layers of the plexiglass, some lines seem to be closer to the page than others. Therefore, suggesting that some thoughts are to be written down, others are still in development, and a few might lead to other thoughts and another project in the future. The work can be also understood as a metaphor for the human being and the journey he or she takes. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';font-size:130%;" lang="EN" >Aside from an aesthetic point of view, what’s striking about Alcaraz’s works is that he seems to be more interested in the evolutionary aspect of art making than art itself. He places value on all art forms and their origin, and shows them in relationship to other fields, like the sciences and humanities. He takes the viewers' and art dealers' perspectives and interpretations in consideration, drawing attention to not only what he’s trying to convey, but to the perception of others, or even the world. </span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';"><o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: boldfont-family:'Georgia','serif';" lang="EN" >Jack Rutberg Fine Arts</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;font-family:'Georgia','serif';" lang="EN" >, 357 N. La Brea Ave., (323) 938-5222, through Nov. 30. Closed Sunday and Monday. <a href="http://www.jackrutbergfinearts.com/" target="_blank"><span style="mso-bidi-: minor-bidi;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#2262cc;" >www.jackrutbergfinearts.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN;font-family:'Georgia','serif';font-size:130%;" lang="EN" >Copyright © by Simone Kussatz</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibrifont-family:Calibri;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-43109394315184341742010-08-17T18:28:00.000-07:002010-08-19T09:07:26.868-07:00Matthias Merkel Hess at Steve Turner Contemporary<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM3sDsQzrbOfdtmwf7NqyPybbcBjV7sZKPSMpN6GgOgl5QfwWfbWqZrCfuY37ICgFN5HSscL-tciaUbmIxPrK_L2j5-NoJ6L8PmrHvVJgGj9PJFW5tUP_OdCVx-NpWaRR75JAbeuhZDis/s1600/Steve+Turner+Gallery+010.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 150px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506562442375536786" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM3sDsQzrbOfdtmwf7NqyPybbcBjV7sZKPSMpN6GgOgl5QfwWfbWqZrCfuY37ICgFN5HSscL-tciaUbmIxPrK_L2j5-NoJ6L8PmrHvVJgGj9PJFW5tUP_OdCVx-NpWaRR75JAbeuhZDis/s200/Steve+Turner+Gallery+010.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1bylKhSxMkmJhjJwO9fxIwgRMhojvvgrpIG2shAhs0dva1nzyyIwwTUOTFLx4bwsTVT1JiR0QDYumNkmXfbVBXlspjc8DV17v-8sz_whAVrRzuh0iA8NEksSthjb0H_MGFEcHe8HdXUc/s1600/Steve+Turner+Gallery+005.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 150px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506562292082103506" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1bylKhSxMkmJhjJwO9fxIwgRMhojvvgrpIG2shAhs0dva1nzyyIwwTUOTFLx4bwsTVT1JiR0QDYumNkmXfbVBXlspjc8DV17v-8sz_whAVrRzuh0iA8NEksSthjb0H_MGFEcHe8HdXUc/s200/Steve+Turner+Gallery+005.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguAQ2N2fSmmT2g2uQXDw8PG6wd4ljLwKH8Zruw2GBvacyqBquPDPLSjJMcS5dB_x7z2L14Kqbdu7cKdaTzmPxhGidUmtl3eg5JIplroVzVRBFMh0S5NfCAC8XVm3oMz_n1lJs3gRkReNM/s1600/Steve+Turner+Gallery+004.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506562083337421042" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguAQ2N2fSmmT2g2uQXDw8PG6wd4ljLwKH8Zruw2GBvacyqBquPDPLSjJMcS5dB_x7z2L14Kqbdu7cKdaTzmPxhGidUmtl3eg5JIplroVzVRBFMh0S5NfCAC8XVm3oMz_n1lJs3gRkReNM/s200/Steve+Turner+Gallery+004.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWz_5mhIOOa0qmi9Vjy-TQ1m_UCdWbHyAm6ZcKjUhyphenhyphenbauByyIt2hGweLzT7zeaPqe-p_M6VGbbaTIyKZbMsRUcVltqVHG-b1DVgCWwNeytPJdEQdwWmIwqJrDYepR9xNl_zubcP_SfXnE/s1600/Steve+Turner+Gallery+009.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506561874302534658" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWz_5mhIOOa0qmi9Vjy-TQ1m_UCdWbHyAm6ZcKjUhyphenhyphenbauByyIt2hGweLzT7zeaPqe-p_M6VGbbaTIyKZbMsRUcVltqVHG-b1DVgCWwNeytPJdEQdwWmIwqJrDYepR9xNl_zubcP_SfXnE/s200/Steve+Turner+Gallery+009.JPG" /></a> </div><div><br /><br /></div><div></div><div><br /><br /></div><div></div><div><br /><br /></div><div></div><div><br /><br /></div><div></div><div><br /><br /></div><div></div><div><br /><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" >By Simone Kussatz</span></p><div><br /><br /></div><div><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" >Having a BA in environmental science from the University of Kansas and a MFA from the ceramics department at UCLA, it is not surprising that Iowa-born artist, Matthias Merkel Hess, would come up with an art project that would engage his viewers in a discussion about societal and environmental issues. </span><br /></div><div><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" >Therefore what would usually appear in the real world in plastic - Rubbermaid Brute trash cans and beer buckets – Merkel Hess turned into colorful glazed ceramics that are displayed in a group show “Wet Paint 2” along with the work of eight other artists at Steve Turner Contemporary, located in the Mid-Wilshire district across from LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art).</span> </p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" ></span><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" >Merkel Hess' works, which are presented in either dark blues, light yellows and pinks, or a combination of dark blue on the outer and ocher or orange in the inner, remind one of the sculptures of Swedish-American pop artist, Claes Oldenburg, who also turned ordinary objects into art objects. Yet, Merkel Hess' work is much smaller in size and not been seen in public open spaces yet. </span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:7;"></span><br /></p><div align="justify"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" >During an artist talk at the gallery that followed the day after the reception, Merkel Hess mentioned that his project is partly influenced by a book by Thomas Hine "I Want That", which made him think about American society and the relationship between people and objects, as well as his take on it. “I make objects, sometimes big, physical things, so I'm trying to understand both my own interest in objects and how we value them as humans,” he said. </span><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal" align="justify"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" ></span></p><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" >The young artist also mentioned that being a potter made him always interested in vessels and their meaning and how people use them. However, instead of making bowls, coffee mugs and teapots, he wanted to make pottery that would be of interest to a contemporary art audience. <span style="BACKGROUND: #ffff33"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" >Furthermore, Merkel Hess, a former artist-in-residence at the 18<sup>th</sup> Streets Arts Center in Santa Monica, explained that since we live in a “hyper-consumer society”, where people are desensitized to the fact that the merchandise they find in current department stores were once luxury items, his work attempted to deal with this “by taking mundane, utilitarian objects and through a transformation of material, make them something for people to think about and consider more closely,” he explained. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" >Although Merkel Hess' art objects look as if they have a function that is to say to store our garbage and cool our beers, they are actually unsuitable for what they were designed to do as they are heavy and fragile. Therefore, instead of serving a literal function, they become a point of discussion. “I believe this is the main function of works of art,” he said. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12;" >Merkel Hess' work will be showcased at Steve Turner Contemporary till August 21, 2010, followed by a solo-exhibit “Devils Tower-LA” between September 4th until October 2<sup>nd</sup>, 2010 at Las Cienegas Projects. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">For further information about the artist, please visit his website </span><a href="http://www.merkelhess.net/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0066cc;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">http://www.merkelhess.net/</span></span></a><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> or Steve Turner Contemporary's website </span><a href="http://www.steveturnercontemporary.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0066cc;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">http://www.steveturnercontemporary.com/</span></span></a><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"> <br style="mso-special-character: line-break"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break"></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">Photos by Simone Kussatz</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;">All the contents of this site belong © to Simone Kussatz </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><br /></div><div align="justify"><br /><br /></div><div align="justify"><br /><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify" align="justify"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></p><div align="justify"><br /><br /></div><div align="justify"><br /><br /></div><div align="justify"><br /><br /></div><p><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p></div>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-68974415755541755982010-08-11T02:14:00.000-07:002010-08-13T07:15:14.637-07:00Galerie am Rathaus - "The Second Life" of Renita Schnorr<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB9_OrrKognFeM45CZ91KMd3KGen1MwP67Uf2CpVbojCuGL1h3HbclmN1oIqTciASpFFjrRCwuGqsPrbDdu8yhihR7bn2rgUeb3uI7wYWffcWckBlo6ESbH3Uk3BerPq071z7XH3OmCxE/s1600/tn%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 121px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504566617402098610" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB9_OrrKognFeM45CZ91KMd3KGen1MwP67Uf2CpVbojCuGL1h3HbclmN1oIqTciASpFFjrRCwuGqsPrbDdu8yhihR7bn2rgUeb3uI7wYWffcWckBlo6ESbH3Uk3BerPq071z7XH3OmCxE/s200/tn%5B1%5D.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjp3I0NPgde19qr6DHHIAVxHME-hqL96QFkV9WKILywEI_SHvfUh9ysscD94XW3YBHehVAHqYl0sZM7W2xcwvysMZL4Pe419Dv1B3N7AMiKWj_RFqamoYLv8tJklCBzaTFqASM5f4pzAc/s1600/eed1b39523%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 136px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504080692123023938" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjp3I0NPgde19qr6DHHIAVxHME-hqL96QFkV9WKILywEI_SHvfUh9ysscD94XW3YBHehVAHqYl0sZM7W2xcwvysMZL4Pe419Dv1B3N7AMiKWj_RFqamoYLv8tJklCBzaTFqASM5f4pzAc/s200/eed1b39523%5B1%5D.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklywLEUj62s2mNWvnxIw3blxtB2vhH0Lzku9_ElPyZdCOlDxTPSNX9PP5ycuRuQcdYvxH4ru4Jqm5ydQ8MYpnoOkd9NQNddFjzd4wtLW8YtlUOWpZ0mQJaqwYuA3DOFoqmhvj8SRkzDs/s1600/131efdd917%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 140px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504080441894341074" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklywLEUj62s2mNWvnxIw3blxtB2vhH0Lzku9_ElPyZdCOlDxTPSNX9PP5ycuRuQcdYvxH4ru4Jqm5ydQ8MYpnoOkd9NQNddFjzd4wtLW8YtlUOWpZ0mQJaqwYuA3DOFoqmhvj8SRkzDs/s200/131efdd917%5B1%5D.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJp6XS-tlL5Vm5PAD68u8mJd-1-Cmqo9_yu6O5B9FzakTSQrdl6PnOwuht11K9GLSfLvEn26qOyM2Z8FNlUnwZeXThDjdZKudmkaMTK5D7XRWdU4qrUv81ge_WOhYMXUQ_VJF32GZq2F4/s1600/cb23c99a6f%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 196px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504080048750542338" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJp6XS-tlL5Vm5PAD68u8mJd-1-Cmqo9_yu6O5B9FzakTSQrdl6PnOwuht11K9GLSfLvEn26qOyM2Z8FNlUnwZeXThDjdZKudmkaMTK5D7XRWdU4qrUv81ge_WOhYMXUQ_VJF32GZq2F4/s200/cb23c99a6f%5B1%5D.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><div><div><div><div><div>(Images by artists Karl-Heinz Koch Stoeber, Dhanya Dampfhofer, Ewald Christian Tergreve and Peter Z. Malkin)</div><br /><div></div><div><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">Galerie am Rathaus - “The Second Life” of Renita Schnorr<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br /><div><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">By Simone Kussatz<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">Situated in a historical district in Berlin known as Bayerisches Viertel, a former predominately Jewish area close to Rathaus Schöneberg (the city hall in Berlin where John F. Kennedy held his famous speech proclaiming “Ich bin ein Berliner”), Galerie am Rathaus is a contemporary gallery featuring figurative and abstract paintings, landscapes, photography and sculptures. </span></span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">The gallery is run by Regina Schnorr, a retired pulmonologist born in Dresden, in former East Germany.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“During my childhood and youth it was natural for me to be interested in art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>My father, whom I lost during the war, had many art books,” she explains. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span>“Also, the Dresdner Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister [Dresdner Old Masters Picture Gallery] turned into my second home, where I would meet up with friends when it was raining.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I always had the need to own a picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Sometimes I would cut a print out of a book, frame it and hang it up in my room.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">As a young doctor, Schnorr started buying paintings from a Russian artist, as well as from her students, and exhibited the works in the clinic where she worked. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span>But instead of making a name for herself, she clashed with the ideological foundation of the Social regime. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span>In the eyes of her colleagues and authorities, she acted too independently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Schnorr went into business for herself and led a large pulmonology office in Berlin Mitte [a district in Berlin that used to belong to East Berlin]. “This enabled me to showcase artists in my office,” she says.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Soon after “The Turn”, an old schoolmate of Schnorr, with whom she used to play music, told her about painter and musician Karl-Heinz Koch-Stöber, whose paintings were forbidden in the former German Democratic Republic (DDR) after he was continuously seen socializing with French artists and university lecturers during his stay in Cambodia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“I liked his paintings and bought many of his works so that he could finally exhibit them. This became a friendship that lasted until 2000, when he died.“<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">During the 1990s, Schnorr and her husband went on a trip to San Francisco. One afternoon while they were walking through the streets, they came across Vorpal Gallery, whose windows were covered by blinds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Curiosity and intuition brought them into the building where they met the curator, Jerry Emanuel, who gave them a long tour through the gallery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When Schnorr saw a painting with colorful figures in a golden shimmer, she fell in love with it and learned from Emanuel that it was created by Israeli painter and poet Peter Zvi Malkin, who captured Adolf Eichmann [ Eichmann was a German Nazi, responsible for facilitating and managing the logistics of mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps ] in Argentina in 1960. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">“I couldn’t stop thinking about Malkin’s painting,” Schnorr reveals. “I got to know him later on and we developed a very deep friendship. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2005, but I have exhibited him several times in Berlin - in my office as well as in my gallery. Through his story and paintings I will always stay connected to him and will continue to exhibit him in the coming years.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">More than a decade later Schnorr followed her creative passion - writing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span>In 2004-2005 she published her first novel, “Die Mahagoni Schatulle” [The Mahogany Casket], published by Goldbeck-Löwe. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span>The novel is about an attractive and intelligent Jewish woman who makes it through the Nazi era in Germany due to her will to survive and ruthless adaptability. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"></span>The first reading of the novel was held by an actress at a gallery in Schöneberg.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">Due to her wish to keep her autonomy and independence, as well as to show her collected artwork to the public, Schnorr decided to give up her medical office in 2007 and opened the Galerie am Rathaus in order to start “a second life.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She also wanted to create literary salons and provide music performances for the public, yet the gallery, which shows exhibits between 5-6 times a year, has not sold as many art pieces as she had expected. Schnorr hopes to change this soon by attracting more contemporary artists to her gallery. “I have plenty of offers, both from Berlin and other countries - Italy, France, Austria. I’ve already exhibited the works of Russian and American artists. What’s important to me is to have a good connection to the artists and they need to be good and reliable.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">For more information, please visit the gallery’s website: <a href="http://www.kunstgalerie-berlin.eu/"><span style="color:#999999;">http://www.kunstgalerie-berlin.eu</span></a></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%"><span style="font-size:130%;">All contents of this site © belong to Simone Kussatz</span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%">(Edited by Marta Kos)</span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-15419517413374699602010-07-30T18:27:00.000-07:002010-08-02T10:49:48.971-07:00Hamilton Galleries - An art oasis by the Third Street Promenade<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiEsqk9vcobYHKcIAMptPcU92PqYsErmBFsm4JnMX1guVcWJaFfZFHwg2jSQyZnrE7vNyPLKW_wAC1I2SS4zPykVUCOok2rPaajkt7-DLyWLw4uu9r6a6I4LLUvj3CdLr32mlr9b0zHy0/s1600/securedownload%5B4%5D.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 142px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5499892837361714274" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiEsqk9vcobYHKcIAMptPcU92PqYsErmBFsm4JnMX1guVcWJaFfZFHwg2jSQyZnrE7vNyPLKW_wAC1I2SS4zPykVUCOok2rPaajkt7-DLyWLw4uu9r6a6I4LLUvj3CdLr32mlr9b0zHy0/s200/securedownload%5B4%5D.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT9iupNUGyjYHUyY9HZ1zYDRfJKQGYx5Qwv9ZOwv7vEvo6Y93EBNWCWnGBsSk_BMFMnLq2sKJuMPNerpfkKr5A3L1eYw7URECn4D052e0nWXMuzyJd-hCn-sBh66rsFtAEha1_-WOQq24/s1600/securedownload%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 151px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5499891966006746802" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT9iupNUGyjYHUyY9HZ1zYDRfJKQGYx5Qwv9ZOwv7vEvo6Y93EBNWCWnGBsSk_BMFMnLq2sKJuMPNerpfkKr5A3L1eYw7URECn4D052e0nWXMuzyJd-hCn-sBh66rsFtAEha1_-WOQq24/s200/securedownload%5B1%5D.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwPS_jfQLGlK1Z8I9PLSs6RFbbtKtAvyoZysc6ZA0xUwMctpCkdXqBZPKV1BkhYWsfhE0T4odMLWPbaHc7ge6PHThr1PTg5DIojU1mX2MtBE_eGc5n408TLTeXFQYJXyxP2DLZEXQXHDo/s1600/securedownload%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 160px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5499890440848015026" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwPS_jfQLGlK1Z8I9PLSs6RFbbtKtAvyoZysc6ZA0xUwMctpCkdXqBZPKV1BkhYWsfhE0T4odMLWPbaHc7ge6PHThr1PTg5DIojU1mX2MtBE_eGc5n408TLTeXFQYJXyxP2DLZEXQXHDo/s200/securedownload%5B2%5D.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHJW06qFmGFv9_STFxYnyYXU1Hd7ryq8p2cshfnN6HFvfyyj3s1HaGnoAe4bYVvtKxB-YAfhhYYXskgmYs6lITrLzEIcclWpu6bsFkjNQRuD7N85A0OdDpUOXCedUgEHjran4T01yfja4/s1600/securedownload%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 160px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5499890204313409714" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHJW06qFmGFv9_STFxYnyYXU1Hd7ryq8p2cshfnN6HFvfyyj3s1HaGnoAe4bYVvtKxB-YAfhhYYXskgmYs6lITrLzEIcclWpu6bsFkjNQRuD7N85A0OdDpUOXCedUgEHjran4T01yfja4/s200/securedownload%5B1%5D.jpg" /></a><br />(Images: Crane Operator by Brooke Adams, Salon Style by Dan Shupe, Free-style swimmers and Moonlit Lagoon by Warren Long)<br /><br /><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">Hamilton Galleries: An art oasis by the Third Street Promenade<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">With its idyllic view of palm trees and sailboats cruising in the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Plaza Center, located at 1431 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica is a great location for viewing the work of local and international artists presented by four galleries: Hamilton Galleries, Bleicher/Golightly Gallery Nano Gallery and, across the fountain courtyard, Jeanie Madsen Gallery. Together the galleries create something of the same sense of community that artists’ colonies often have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">Hamilton Galleries opened at its current location in 2001, the first gallery of the four in the Pacific Plaza Center. The gallery is owned and run by Leigh Hamilton. Born in New Zealand, Hamilton enjoyed the free-wheeling exposure to the arts afforded by her Bohemian family. Her father was a jazz pianist, clarinetist, and bandleader, and her mother a classically trained dancer. Feeling more drawn to the stage and visual arts, Leigh Hamilton worked in the theatre and the motion picture industry as an actress for almost three decades, while spending her free time in galleries and museums and studying the lives and oeuvres of artists. Her second passion turned into a career as the TV and film roles dwindled and the act of selling herself to producers and directors became more and more frustrating and humiliating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">The moment Hamilton saw the gallery space in the Pacific Plaza Center she fell in love with it. “I thought it was beautiful with the view towards the Santa Monica Bay and the natural sunlight,” she says. “It seemed perfect for displaying art. It was an empty shell and nobody had leased the space for three years.” Hamilton was no newcomer to the business, as she had already run a small gallery in Pacific Palisades and a larger one on Robertson Boulevard in West Hollywood. But it was the first time she was able to work without partners sharing the gallery space, relying only on the clientele she had built up over the years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">Recalling her days as an actress in New York, when graffiti art emerged and artists such as Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Basquiat were active, Hamilton wanted to bring a similar atmosphere of life and excitement to her new gallery by focusing on “spontaneity, originality and the politics of the day.” During the Bush administration, for instance, she exhibited the biting work of satirical political artist Katrin Weise for two years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">Hamilton enjoys working with local artists. For one thing, she’s able to build relationships with them. For another, she can visit the artists’ studios and select the art works herself, rather than have to rely on a middleman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“It is a very personal process for me to curate the art show for the gallery,” Hamilton observes, “and I need to feel very committed to the artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Many people paint; however I do believe it takes at least 10 years and a body of work to be any kind of an artist. I am drawn to a painter whose unique vision and style captures my attention and my own imagination.” Another reason Hamilton tends to represent local artists is to provide them the support the local community often fails to give them. “We need to support our own artists more, because that’s what helped artists like Ed Moses, Guy Dill and Ed Ruscha emerge to prominence. There should be more written about our local artists in local papers and magazines than about 18-year-old movie stars.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">Hamilton savors figurative paintings with contrasting moods and colors. The gallery displays works featuring oceanic images, radiating joy, peace and tranquility, or portraying the progressive and eccentric California lifestyle, where women are eager to equal or surpass men in athletic activities such as synchronized swimmers in the open sea. On the other hand, Hamilton also offers more dramatic works, depicting fires and explosions or conveying the complexity of our modern world in which we are flooded with information. The art Hamilton features runs the range from expressive and exuberant to dark and subdued. All her artists are highly skilled, but they don’t fit into one particular genre. One can find elements of pop art, photorealism, assemblage art, Renaissance art, South American figuration, surrealism and expressionism – among other tendencies – in their works. The artists Hamilton shows can be called postmodern, as they manifest irony, parody, and humor and push – some more than others, but all at least a bit – at the boundaries of what is accepted as the status quo. Interestingly, however, while postmodern on the one hand, they also rely on the modernist principle of innovation and distinctive stylization. Hamilton’s artists, as critic Clement Greenberg would have phrased it, are “profoundly original.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">Leigh Hamilton continually exhibits a stable group of about a dozen artists. Among them are Cassie Taggart, Dan Shupe, Esau Andrade, Margaret von Biesen, and Hamilton’s husband Warren Long. The Gallery has also shown international artists such as Edith Vonnegut (daughter of writer Kurt Vonnegut) and German neo-expressionist Rainer Fetting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Hamilton mounts about four to five major exhibits per year, with smaller group shows in between. This guarantees that the entire permanent group of artists cycles through every season. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">As a result of her acting career, Hamilton has attracted a faithful group of notable collectors associated with Hollywood, including Robert and Leslie Zemeckis, Robin and Mel Gibson, Brooke Adams and Tony Shalhoub, and Sharon and Ozzie Osborne.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(Adams and Shalhoub are also part owners of the gallery.) Although her regular collectors are mostly based in Los Angeles, the majority of Hamilton’s clients are visitors from out of town who chance on the gallery at its ideal location, between downtown Santa Monica and the ocean.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">Another interesting aspect to the Hamilton Galleries is its constant flow of interns, mostly from Italy, who learn about the art business in the States while receiving college credit for their gallery work. “I lived in Italy for a couple of years and have a great affinity for the country, its people, and of course the culture,” Hamilton reminisces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“I was walking into every church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I really love renaissance art, I love Caravaggio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The interns also get to brush up on their English, which is required, while I can practice my Italian. And it is such a pleasure to have the energy of youth around.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">Hamilton Galleries also hosts an annual fundraiser to support The Hamilton Galleries Rob Le Mond Surf Scholarship. The scholarship sends inner city children, selected by the Santa Monica Police Activities League, to take swimming lessons or to participate in a surf camp in Malibu.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';"><span style="font-size:130%;">For more information, please visit the gallery’s website: </span><a href="http://www.hamiltongalleries.com/"><span style="font-size:130%;">http://www.hamiltongalleries.com/</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman', 'serif';color:#333333;">All contents of this site © belong to Simone Kussatz</span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%;font-size:10;" ><span style="font-size:130%;">(Edited by Peter Frank)</span></span></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%;font-size:10;" ><span style="font-size:130%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p></div></div></div>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6863677337738937955.post-66224145694042636002010-07-22T22:25:00.001-07:002010-07-23T09:47:29.476-07:00Bleicher/Golightly Gallery<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEger0poVxz9ivzaq2s0A0iBzX3WT6mJllgqthPlD4YfQndMvkmdX3ALxuGgOjDx70f7smFij0MliC4NlBb4vaaylG3pUEOdcIgp9nZZBTV01WWvdbjf8upgWKXC2Ndb19gLmj2Lq1WB3TQ/s1600/Hamilton+Galleries+007+(2).JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 157px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5497143413079327378" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEger0poVxz9ivzaq2s0A0iBzX3WT6mJllgqthPlD4YfQndMvkmdX3ALxuGgOjDx70f7smFij0MliC4NlBb4vaaylG3pUEOdcIgp9nZZBTV01WWvdbjf8upgWKXC2Ndb19gLmj2Lq1WB3TQ/s200/Hamilton+Galleries+007+(2).JPG" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGl1yQzc55xb0qX2thgNHcTmcdcwICkfodi3WMcEZL7BrYVf10cfj9zrO-O3OSxD_qrVaK_oaHREGWMlWnOJXeQ7fDeetgnE0AU3fdqHT8f2uciGNEdUFxblHQ-2pvZoObhmAKJz50Anw/s1600/Hamilton+Galleries+003.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5496969268847051890" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGl1yQzc55xb0qX2thgNHcTmcdcwICkfodi3WMcEZL7BrYVf10cfj9zrO-O3OSxD_qrVaK_oaHREGWMlWnOJXeQ7fDeetgnE0AU3fdqHT8f2uciGNEdUFxblHQ-2pvZoObhmAKJz50Anw/s200/Hamilton+Galleries+003.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxedQtWISXeSjCp6ziIAvfADSYFPedSufTlZokzzp6o-nNeN9pAFkeXECnc7DnQ7NqzkltUcG25AL_AfBFsDDbL9oUh6Yb6BXT4U9ttpuvxqZwZs-DqNRyHpXnbmhvHVyuCS8bcrGgibI/s1600/Hamilton+Galleries+004.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 150px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5496969048944617042" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxedQtWISXeSjCp6ziIAvfADSYFPedSufTlZokzzp6o-nNeN9pAFkeXECnc7DnQ7NqzkltUcG25AL_AfBFsDDbL9oUh6Yb6BXT4U9ttpuvxqZwZs-DqNRyHpXnbmhvHVyuCS8bcrGgibI/s200/Hamilton+Galleries+004.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Qynj8v6N1jnJLXdO3ckhSle_xb8UzK55jB_CvW3qsQ8zmU06vgb3Imkbaajno_d20k78KrUMSIXBWJY3oJ3wjlY0AFX2qs16JOIddh43o3oTB-y_y3XQE35hBjAirKGHkqYdXxsR_0U/s1600/Bleicher+Golightly+Gallery+016.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5496968822910663298" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Qynj8v6N1jnJLXdO3ckhSle_xb8UzK55jB_CvW3qsQ8zmU06vgb3Imkbaajno_d20k78KrUMSIXBWJY3oJ3wjlY0AFX2qs16JOIddh43o3oTB-y_y3XQE35hBjAirKGHkqYdXxsR_0U/s200/Bleicher+Golightly+Gallery+016.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></p><div><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></p><div><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></p><div><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">Bleicher/Golightly Gallery<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">Have you ever seen an artist hypnotized and his subconscious talks about art to an audience, or an exhibit where a suitcase is moving by itself, while carrots are whistling on top of a globe, and a milk-like liquid is pouring from one drawer in a cabinet piece to the one underneath it? If not, you need to visit Bleicher/Golightly gallery in the Pacific Plaza Center on 1431 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. The gallery offers a variety of events, including concerts, gallery talks, as well as interactive projects between artists and gallery visitors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">The gallery, run by artist and curator, Om Navon Bleicher, and his business partner, Paul Golightly, exhibits works in multiple disciplines -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>photography, mixed-media, conceptual art, painting, sculpture, craft and design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Unique in its approach, Bleicher/Golightly focuses on works that cross opposing genres and ideologies and sometimes integrates elements from visual fields that are not fine art. Bleicher believes that one place to find meaning and new ‘movements’ is in the intersection of opposing fields e.g. figurative-abstract, conceptual-expressive, insider-outsider. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div><br /><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">Bleicher/Golightly Gallery concentrates mainly on ‘mid-career’ breaking artists. Yet, established artists are part of their roster too, as well as emerging artists. Most of them are local, but the gallery also has a handful of national and international artists. Bleicher chooses his artists based on the fact that “they are highly prolific and ambitious, but authentic in their approach and desire to create.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></p><div><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">Instead of focusing on popular art works and short term trends, Bleicher tries to exhibit works that will have a long term impact and a lasting emotional or meaningful connection and relationship with the buyer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div><br /><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">Om’s hope is to bring back human meaning to highly innovative works as an anecdote to the “anything-goes’ Wild West in the wake of post-modernism.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div><br /><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">Overall, the gallery has a friendly and open atmosphere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Similar to museums, explanations are often put on the walls or descriptions can be found in a folder at the entrance door, as well as its knowledgeable staff readily available to explain about the artists and their process of work. Everybody that walks in is treated in a respectful way. Bleicher/Golightly also holds art related events on a weekly basis, making the gallery an approachable meeting point for the bayside Santa Monica district arts community, and an enjoyable night out for visitors to the area. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div><br /></div><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">After the exhibit “Turned On” - curated by Joella March - comes to an end, the gallery will kick off its next project, which will feature Airom Bleicher as well as artists, Jim Holyoak, and Matt Shane. It will be an interactive project, “where hundreds of works will come together (mostly works on papers) in a multi-faceted installation that will change constantly through the course of the exhibit as artists add more work.” Every night a new guest artist will stop in to collaborate with Holyoak, Shane and Bleicher. The general public will also be able to participate on certain sections of the installation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div><br /> </div><div><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">For more information please visit the gallery’s website </span><a href="http://www.bgartdealings.com/"><span style="font-size:130%;">http://www.bgartdealings.com/</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div><div><br /><br /></div><p style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';" ><span style="font-size:130%;">All contents of this site © belong to Simone Kussatz<o:p></o:p></span></span></p></div></div></div>Simone Kussatzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14297239918830101698noreply@blogger.com0