art + culture // writing + projects // by diana mcclure
In 2011 Diana M. had a solo show in Miami, Cosmic Sheness; contributed an essay, The Metaphysics of Lynching, to the University of San Diego Visual Studies art journal pros*; and, co-curated an exhibition and programming for the Younity art collective, Sarah Lawrence College and the Yonkers Public Library.
ARCO Madrid, Murcia Trip 2010
In 2010 Diana M. worked as a professional development consultant in the arts and continued art writing on DaWire.com. She was also a guest at the ARCO Madrid art fair, where she documented her trip in a piece for DaWire. Read it here.
In January 2009 the Cultureserve.net blog was announced as a 2008 Finalist for a Creative-Capitol Warhol Foundation Arts Writers grant. Diana M. was also a member of the Curatorial Committee for Photo Miami, a contemporary art fair for photo-based art, video & new media, and profiled Brooklyn artists in the Living Arts column for the NewYorkTimes.com/LOCAL as part of a New York Times experimental project on hyperlocal and collaborative journalism.
Precision. Clarity of line. Mood. All of these elements stand out in the portrait work of artist, Shizu Saldamando. The intense dedication to detail and focused execution of personalities in the moment give each subject a de-objectified identity. Even with this respect to individuality in her work there is a deep sense of the collective consciousness. Or rather, a subset of the collective. Outwardly her subjects share a specific aesthetic. However, emotionally they tap into something universal.
(Image: Shizu Saldamando, Maria Daniela y su Sonido Lasser Concert, Azusa CA, graphite on wood, 3×5 feet.)
A certain angst or penetrating inquisitiveness is often paired with the satisfaction found in social revelry. The party. If nothing else, at least we can sing, dance and get a little tipsy. Shizu Saldamando often inhabits her own work whether through self-portraits, a series titled “Looking at Art” or her process – taking photographs while hanging out with friends and using them as a template. It’s as if the moments of life that she encounters linger on in the morning after and become timeless in her work.
(Image: Shizu Saldamando, Gerardo Posing, oil and glitter on plywood, 36 x 36 inches.)
One could argue that there is a certain ultimate dissatisfaction in the party based on the expressions of her subjects. Or an ultimate lonely reality each individual faces simply by being isolated within one human body. However, although they are not pictured here, Saldamando does have work that speaks to the sweet delicacy and gentleness of friendship, family and community. It is her relentless favoring of portraits that reveal masks of discontent that ultimately push viewers to realize something interesting is going on in a certain niche of Los Angeles culture. Something that they are either totally involved in or know absolutely nothing about.
(Images: Shizu Saldamando, Candice and a Forty, colored pencil on paper, 30 x 20 inches and Sandy and Siouxie, glitter, colored pencil on paper, 30 x 20 inches.)
Shizu Saldamando was born and raised in San Francisco’s Mission district and received her B.A. from UCLA’s School of Arts and Architecture in 2000 and her MFA degree from California Institute of the Arts in 2005. She was an Art Omi resident artist in 2002 and has exhibited work in both painting and experimental media exhibitions at museums and galleries across the country. Shizu has lived and worked in Los Angeles for over 10 years.
(Images: Shizu Saldamando, Paño Arte: Robert Smith [left] and LaCindy [right], ball point pen on cotton handkerchief, 16 x 16 inches each.)
(Images: Shizu Saldamando, Soni, Looking at Art, Blue ball point pen on canvas, 24 x 48 inches and photograph of Shizu Saldamando.)
On February 12th and 13th, 2009 curator Rashida Bumbray of NYC’s, The Kitchen, and artists Rashaad Newsome and Kalup Linzy, will be premiering new work that continues to explore the possibilities and intersection between video, performance and music. Newsome’s latest work, Shade Compositions, is a live performance featuring a chorus of more than twenty black women. Influenced by improvisatory orchestral music and live video-mixing, Newsome divides his performers into groups akin to instrumental sections as they enact his choreographed sound score made up of repeated sequences of culturally specific or stereotypical gestures, movements, and vocalizations. Newsome simultaneously records, loops, edits, and remixes in real-time the audio and video documentation of the performers using a hacked Nintendo® Wii™ game controller. The resulting layers of real and projected imagery investigate assumptions and constructions of identity in mainstream media and popular culture.
(Images: Kalup Linzy, courtesy of the artist. Shade Compositions, courtesy of Rashaad Newsome.)
Kalup Linzy is known for his absurdly humorous drag-performance-based videos in which he repurposes the narrative style of daytime television soaps in order to explore complicated relationships between race, class, gender, sexuality, and popular culture. For these evenings he will debut, Comedy, Tragedy, Sketches of Me, a new solo theatrical work exploring related themes, in which he plays piano, sings, and is accompanied by video projections that feature his ever-expanding cast of riotous characters.
To purchase tickets click here or call the Box Office: 212-255-5793 ext. 11!
(Image: Lisa Marie Thalhammer, Michelle Obama, 2009, oil on canvas, 86 inches x 67 inches.)
Like they say: Behind every good man, is a fantastic woman. In this case, beside. Nuff said.
This work was part of the MANIFEST HOPE: DC Art Exhibit held on Inauguration weekend 2009 in Washington, DC.
Brothers Russell, Danny and Joseph Simmons, founders of the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, and Derrick Adams, Curatorial Director of Rush Arts Gallery, are at it again. The Gold Rush Awards, another star studded celebration of the arts is on tap for Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 in New York City. Over the last decade the organizations Art for Life East Hampton and Palm Beach benefits have raised millions of dollars to benefit underserved youth arts programming.
(Images: Gold Rush logo artwork and Rush Arts students at 5 Pointz in Queens, NY)
Through ticket sales and a silent art auction proceeds from this event will continue to support the Rush Philanthropic Foundation’s belief “…in the vital importance of lifelong exposure to the arts, nurtured in early childhood, and anchored in sustained, creative experiences throughout one’s life.” In 2008 the InsideOut Rush Teens Curatorial Projects program paired teens with legendary graffiti artist Meres in an in-depth look at the world of curation. The program focused on exhibition planning, artist/curator collaboration and fieldwork at urban art locations such as 5 Pointz, New York’s largest outdoor Aerosol Art exhibition space (curated by Meres).
The first annual Gold Rush Awards will honor three trailblazers in the arts that represent entertainment arts, youth arts and the fine arts: Beverly Bond, DJ and Founder of Black Girls Rock!; Sonja Okun, Founder and Executive Director of Exalt Youth Program; and, Franklin Sirmans, Curator, Writer and Lecturer. Other participants in the event include: music by DJ Cassidy; a live performance by Talib Kweli; Event Co-Chair Chris Chambers of The Chamber Group; Naomi Beckwith of the Studio Museum in Harlem; and, Vanessa Riding of Gagosian Gallery, NYC.
For more information visit: www.rushartsgallery.org.
Located on the corner of Bryant Street and 24th Street in the Mission District of San Francisco, California, Galeria de la Raza, an interdisciplinary Chicano/Latino space for art, thought & activism, has always been at the center of art as a tool for social justice, community building and celebration. Founded in 1970 by local artists active in El Movimiento (the Chicano civil rights movement), Galería is a non-profit, community-based Latino arts organization recognized as one of the Bay Area’s oldest, most well-respected art institutions.
Their next exhibition, Strange Hope: An ephemeral exhibition celebrating new beginnings & creative economies, once again deals with the most pressing issues at hand not only locally, but globally – the economy. The project includes 40 artists who were invited to produce 8.5″ x 8.5″ works on paper. On opening night a one time on-site lottery will take place which seeks to embrace the community’s cultural affluence and welcome the advent of creative economies.
Strange Hope is on view from February 6 – April 2, 2009.
View a 2008 Galeria de la Raza Mural project by Feb ’09 FEATURED ARTIST Shizu Saldamando.
Marthalicia Matarrita is a brilliant painter. Nothing else really needs to be said – although there is plenty to her story. Her passion is sparked and sustained by the fundamentals of hip-hop and live painting. However, the depth of her work in texture, mood and content reveals much more. With a family background that includes infinite love and loyalty peppered with alcoholism, homelessness, schizophrenia, limited funds and shelter living, Marthalicia has reached a point in her life where her spirit is grounded in hope, discovery, community, and her siblings.
(Marthalicia Mattarita, Four Masked Faces, acrylic with toilet paper)
Marthalicia’s paintings speak the language of the soul. Power, individuality and movement infuse each work in a reflection and metaphor of human endurance and the triumph of the spirit. In a way that only artists can articulate she uses paint to express the inexpressible – the sensations and feelings housed within the human body that call out to a larger universe for a voice.
(Marthalicia Matarrita, Statue of Liberty’s Daughter, acrylic on canvas, and 1st live painting at the Bowery Poetry Club, 2006)
This element of expression in her work finds a home in the hip-hop lexicon of imagery that is after all fundamentally about knowledge of self, spontaneity inflected with divine essence and having fun. Her articulation of emotion through a tricked out hip-hop form gives Marthalicia’s deeply powerful work a lightness of being. Whether it is the use of references, colors or inflections each piece translates effortlessly into an urban dialogue. On top of this, traces of surrealism, cubism and even perhaps a 21st century Rufino Tamayo, can be found interspersed in her painterly language.
(Marthalicia Matarrita, untitled – work in progress)
Harlem, USA based Marthalicia, is a self described, “mother, sister, daughter, artist, entrepreneur, community advocate – trained in the martial arts.” If that’s not enough, she was also scheduled to go to Iraq twice as a member of the Army National Guard. Fortunately, her units 1st tour was postponed, she was 3 months pregnant. The second tour was also delayed and her duty was up in 2005. After 10 years in the making, in 2006 Marthalicia and her 2 brothers and 1 sister formed M-Squared Art Productions, a collective grounded in the four elements of hip-hop. M-Squared integrates art and music into the party landscape of New York City with Marthalicia’s specialty being, live painting.
(Marthalicia Matarrita, untitled – sketches)
For more information visit Marthalicia’s M-Squared website. Or purchase a self-published book of her artwork here!
(Marthalicia Matarrita, Blue Mother and Child Series #3, acrylic and house paint, 6′ x 4′)
Kali Arulpragasam/SUPERFERTILE has done it again. Another line of jewels that illuminate global issues through beauty and creativity. Her latest line, HUNGER, highlights the global food crisis. Through the use of staple foods like wheat, chick peas, rice, beans and lentils, recreated in gold and silver, the HUNGER line highlights the priceless nature of essential foods. The cost of each piece depends on the weight and the work/staple food used. Kali’s premiere line, TOURISM (Terrorism affects Tourism), featured in the Feb ‘08 issue of Cultureserve, addressed the media’s focus on negative representations of countries like Iraq and Sri Lanka. Representations that highlight men with guns instead of women, children and the natural habitat. View the HUNGER look book at Superfertile.com.
The Rubell Family Collection’s most recent exhibition, 30 Americans, offers an inter-generational survey of African American art collected over several decades by the Rubells. The show articulates a dialogue between multiple generations of African American artists and the influence one has on the next. For example the influence of Barkley L. Hendricks in the work of artists like Mickalene Thomas or Jeff Sonhouse. Or perhaps Basquiat in the work of Shinique Smith. The references, conscious or unconscious, reflect the dialogue of a particular niche of the art world that has created a place for itself based on the work of not only artists, but curators, writers, collectors and galleries/museums. Institutions like the Studio Museum in Harlem/Thelma Golden, as well as, individuals like Franklin Sirmans, Isolde Brielmaier and Trevor Schoonmaker, to name a few, have all contributed to the building of a “value” structure for African American artists based on standard art market requirements. A pedigreed list of education, residencies, critics, publications and collectors – like the Rubells. And, this work is based on the structural, institutional and critical work of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement.
(Rashid Johnson,The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club (Thurgood), 2008, Lambda print, Ed. 2/5, 69 x 55 1/2 in. (175.3 x 141 cm), framed Rubell Family Collection, Miami)
Careful to note their own physical, financial and intellectual limitations, the Rubell Family Collection’s exhibition statement acknowledges that there are artists that are not in their collection that could have easily been included in the exhibition. The exhibition statement also states that they chose the title “30 Americans” instead of “30 African Americans”, “because nationality is a statement of fact, while racial identity is a question each artist answers in his or her own way, or not at all.” Some of the artists not included, Wardell Milan, Deborah Grant, Titus Kaphar, William Cordova, are artists who are part of this niche dialogue to varying degrees or are immigrants and Latino.
“30 Americans” The Rubell Family Collection is on view until May 30, 2009 at The Rubell Family Collection in Miami, Florida.
In an effort to democratize art making and give longtime residents of Miami’s Wynwood District an opportunity to respond to the arts scene flourishing in their own hood, the Miami Workers Center partnered with photographer Noelle Theard to create Galeria del Barrio, a photo exhibit that explores the boundaries of displacement and resistance.
(Installation Galeria del Barrio, Miami Wynwood District, 2008)
The project generated its content through photo workshops held for Miami en Accîon (MIA), a Wynwood residents group which has fought gentrification and encouraged community activism in the longtime Latino neighborhood. MIA then took the Galeria del Barrio exhibit to the streets by staging a public art intervention during the 2008 Miami arts season (December), when Art Basel and other satellite fairs took over the city. Residents showed that Wynwood is more than a backdrop for collectors and galleries – it is a home and place of community.
(Installation Galeria del Barrio, Miami Wynwood District, 2008)
About 200 people visited La Galeria del Barrio, made from a converted bread truck and parked in the heart of Wynwood arts district on Saturday, December 6, and 100 people attended a special event held in the home of an MIA member on December 3. The project received local media coverage in the Miami Herald and on Telemundo.
Kimsooja’s breathtakingly beautiful photo, video and installation work bring movement to meditation and meditation to daily life. Grounded in a nomadic work philosophy based on life experience, her work reflects a Buddhist way of life - ”detachment from both affection and materialism.” However, her work also reflects a unique sensuality. The detachment of the enlightened mind of the Buddha loses none of its ability to witness beauty, it merely loses its external craving for beauty as a means to experience or hold onto pleasure. How does the enlightened mind do this? Through contemplation and the ultimate realization that that same beauty it seeks outside dwells within each human being. They are one and the same.
(Image: Kimsooja, Bottari Truck – Migrateurs, 2007, Single Channel Video, 10:01, Silent, Courtesy of MAC/VAL, Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne and the Artist.)
The principles of harmony and oneness are also reflected in Kimsooja’s installation Lotus Zone of Zero, 2008, currently housed at Rotunda at Galerie Ravenstein in Brussels through January 18, 2009. The site specific installation consists of approximately 2000 lanterns shaped as lotus flowers. The visual is accompanied by sound in the form of Tibetan, Gregorian and Islamic chants that merge in the center of the space. Honoring a vision of peace, the work embodies the dance between individuality and universality, yin and yang, and a potential future for planet earth.
(Image: Kimsooja, Lotus: Zone of Zero, 2008, Rotunda at Galerie Ravenstein, Brussels, Approx. 2000 lotus lanterns, Tibetan, Gregorian, and Islamic chants, Steel structure and cables. Photo by Mikäel Falke. Courtesy of the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea, first exhibited in a different configuration at the Palais Rameau, Lille, 2003, Courtesy Dijon Consortium, ©Kimsooja.)
From a visual standpoint, Kimsooja’s work uses composition, color and form to cleary convey individuality while simultaneously capturing vibrant harmony through these same principles. The imagination is tempted to hear the repetitive movement of transport in Bottari Truck – Migrateurs and Mumbai: A Laundry Field. A movement with the potential to inspire a trancelike state leading to deep meditation or pleasurable inner bliss. Lotus: Zone of Zero inspires a similar sensation through an imagined flickering of lantern flames leading to moments of zen, fleeting or otherwise. In the end, or rather beginning, there is an underlying dialogue between the senses and Buddhism within Kimsooja’s work. A conversation on how we can experience pleasure without suffering?
(Image: Kimsooja, Mumbai: A Laundry Field, 2008, Photograph from the Four Channel Video Project, 32 x 25-6/16 inches, Courtesy of the Artist)
Visit Kimsooja’s website or view selected exhibitions/events:
11th International Cairo Biennale
Opening: December 20th, 2008
Mumbai: A Laundry Field
Galeria Continua, Beijing
September 4th, 2008 – December 27th, 2008
Street Art, Street Life
The Bronx Museum of the Arts
September 14th, 2008 – January 25, 2009
(Image: Kimsooja, Lotus: Zone of Zero (work in progress), 2008, Kimsooja – Lotus: Zone of Zero, 2008, Rotunda at Galerie Ravenstein, Brussels, Approx. 2000 lotus lanterns, Tibetan, Gregorian, and Islamic chants, Steel structure and cables. Photo by Fabrice Kada. Courtesy of the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Korea, first exhibited in a different configuration at the Palais Rameau, Lille, 2003, Courtesy Dijon Consortium, ©Kimsooja.)
Music…art…sound…perhaps? Electronic music composer, Sven Van Hees hears color – a condition known as Synesthesia that effects 1 in 25,000 people (mostly women and those with left handed persuasions). Van Hees sees instruments as colors (strings/yellow, bass/red) and creates sonic color paintings as a result. Turns out this YouTube video riff by Bergen1982, of one of Hees’ early songs (Emotional Rehabilitation, 1991), flips Hees’ sonic art into video art. It’s been said that much of Hees’ later work, sometimes categorized as downtempo, could give viagra a run for its money.
Watch the Bergen1982 video riff…Visit the Sven Van Hees website…Or YouTube him to hear more tracks.
