Art Review

Sarah Davis lives and works in Brooklyn with her husband Millree Hughes and daughter Meriel. 

Bradley Rubenstein: What were some of your early experiences, like school, for example, where you decided to become an artist?

Sarah Davis: My radar was, What’s the best thing to be doing when you’re 80? Where are the best-looking old people? And for me, that was obviously painters, or the art world more generally. Maybe I was close to my grandparents, or maybe it came from going to high school in L.A., where the projected end was 30. Still, painting was my identity from about age 8. Every kind of picture book, and there were tons of them, was how I spent my free time. I copied everything and made up my own. Making paintings and drawings was how I socialized, from third grade on. 

Having lived, gigged and worked in LA I can tell you first hand that the Historic Core seciton of downtown LA is a very cool place. So it comes as no surprise that some resident artists are pimping their talents via social media with local artist/producer/musician/culture guru Big Swede at the helm. The video above features spoken word nuggets and artwork from artists Gronk (aka Giugio Nicandro) and Tanner Goldbeck, and a killer harp track by LA legend Jimmy Z. I'm stoked to share their good vibes with you fine readers. Not sure if Fear of The Walking Dead will usurp 'em, but this is a great place to start if you've never spent any time in that amazing neighborhood. Give 'em a chance and spend some quality time next time through the City of Lost Angels. And tell Big Swede Dusty sent you!

Erin Smith lives and works in Australia. Her work has been exhibited in New York at solo shows at Amy Li and at a group show at Berry Campbell. She has also exhibited extensively in Australia. This year her work will be exhibited in two group shows in New York. In her own words: "I live in a small wooden house in Australia. I'm an over-excitable Australian — in love with New York City. I have a lot of energy, so if I'm not painting, I'm researching, experimenting, and chatting with other artists, mentors, and galleries."   

This is the fourth of a series of interviews that focus on Local 829's Scenic Artists’ "behind the scenes" talent who sculpt and paint in a variety of ways the sets we see on television, in movies and documentaries, on theater stages, and in the backgrounds of television and internet commercials.

I first met Bradley Rubenstein very early on in my days in the scenic arts, and it was immediately apparent that he was, and still is, respectfully dedicated to his work as a fine artist. I’ve followed his career closely since then, watching his art delving deeper and deeper into the human condition as he distorts and mutates his subjects. Recently, Rubenstein had one of his warped and mangled human forms in an exhibition titled HEAD that I curated for the Hampden Gallery at UMASS Amherst.

Shaky Ground

It is traditionally assumed that the art object is a record of history, whether the history of the artist, of its time, or merely an object left over after the fall of a civilization. While the writing of a period is open to the influence of retelling, interpretation, or the vagaries of translation, the visual object, by its very nature, promises us the stability of meaning inherent in its "objectness." How, then, in an age where perpetual war, disintegrating environmental conditions, and rapidly accelerating technologies, do we expect our artworks to function? What kinds of anxious objects will best represent to future generations our story? D. Dominick Lombardi poses these questions, and a group of artists at Lesley Heller’s Workspace seek to answer them in the exhibition Shaky Ground.

I happily went to the Lower East Side to visit with Priska Juschka and see her new collaboration / business, Lichtundfire. The opening exhibition is entitled Visceral Velocity or the Emotional Speed of Things and runs from November 4th through December 20th, 2015.

Anders Knutsson

In his recent exhibition at Van Der Plas Gallery, entitled "Light, Time and Patience," Anders Knutsson spotlights color, the essential element that adds exponentially to the richness and vibrancy of visual art. Without the stimulation generated by hues our senses go hungry. Swedish American painter Knutsson has been exploring issues of color since the mid-1970’s, in dense wax and oil on linen “monochrome” paintings that highlight one pure color per painting. Their delicately modulated surfaces may look deceptively simple, but each piece involves the accumulation of 7 – 12 layers of carefully applied paint that creates luminous transparent depths. A number of the artist’s new works, engendered in 2014 by his joint project with Swedish weaver Hanna Kristine Isaksson, are referred to as "weave-paintings." Incorporating Knutsson's input on threads, fabric and design, Isaksson uses traditional Nordic techniques and patterns to weave linens that generate fresh assertions of light and color on the surface texture.

HEAD: Curated by D. Dominick Lombardi

HEAD, a group show being held at the University of Massachusetts’ Hampden Gallery, is being curated by D. Dominick Lombardi from October 18 to November 12. The exhibition, which features the diverse work of 20 artists, as well as the collaborative work of the twelve artist Outside-the-Line Collective, embarks on a mesmerizing visual tour of the head as an evolving object in contemporary art. A far cry from the arbitrary identity marker of early portraiture, HEAD demonstrates the head as an indistinguishable entity capable of broad symbolic meaning.

Pinned, Stitched, and Glitzed: Challenging Gender Stereotypes

The exhibition entitled "Pinned, Stitched and Glitzed: Challenging Gender Stereotypes," on view at the Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, explores mixed media in imagery that injects refreshing diversity to an art scene steeped in minimal art, conceptual art, and the enduring New York School. Curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos the show attempts to deconstruct the traditional female gender identification with the finely crafted handwork. The artists on view employ creative methods that transgresses the social expectation that dainty, precise art is the province of women while bold powerful art is reserved for men, including trans-gender and gay men. The show focuses on a variety of wall works and paintings comprised of cumulative segments that contribute to the final unified work. Renee Magnanti, Eozen Agopian, Maria Karametou, Ran Hwang, and Nicholas Moore create art that ranges from abstract wall pieces constructed with pins, buttons, bobby pins, woven and sewn textiles, to figurative paintings with glitter and objects affixed. This extravagant mix of ingenious, skillfully rendered media infuses the show with a jolt of creative inspiration that subtly challenges the usual expected stereotypes.