Reviews
January/February 2015
Tucson Sculpture Festival 2015
by Judy Robbins
January/February 2015
Tucson Sculpture Festival 2015
by Judy Robbins
by Judy Robbins
They have emerged. Unpacked and unloaded from boxes, trucks, garages, studios, warehouses and foundries, ideas made into art are to be found at the Tucson Sculpture Festival, on exhibit through February 14, 2015. Tucsonans should put on their proud face and be loud and clear about having such an impassioned and talented arts community who had the vision and determination to bring this event into being. There is much to see and four venues for seeing it.
The Moen-Mason Gallery at 222 E. 6th Street is a modern space in an old building. Art Director Mitch Moen is a knowledgeable gallerist representing two of the show's sculptors, Christopher Classen and Joe Brown.
They have emerged. Unpacked and unloaded from boxes, trucks, garages, studios, warehouses and foundries, ideas made into art are to be found at the Tucson Sculpture Festival, on exhibit through February 14, 2015. Tucsonans should put on their proud face and be loud and clear about having such an impassioned and talented arts community who had the vision and determination to bring this event into being. There is much to see and four venues for seeing it.
The Moen-Mason Gallery at 222 E. 6th Street is a modern space in an old building. Art Director Mitch Moen is a knowledgeable gallerist representing two of the show's sculptors, Christopher Classen and Joe Brown.
Christopher Classen_Vending Machine, White_
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Christopher Classen is a Los Angeles painter and sculptor who describes an Art Industrial Complex as one which has “evolved into the movement of commodity.” His works are conceptual in that the medium the artist has chosen makes a statement. It is about consumerism, specifically the excessive accumulation and monetary valuation in art markets. Classen's “Vending Machine, White” and “Vending Machine, Black” are the type of candy dispensing machines we remember from our youth. In Classen's installation, the machines stand silently and seemingly expectant, coated in black and white enamel and filled with black and white gelatin capsules. The capsules presented a choice but not a clear one. Were the white capsules innocent and pure and the black capsules offering a dark and toxic experience? The viewer then becomes part of the dialogue about our appetite for excess suggested by these unsettling works. |
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Joe Brown, a Tucson sculptor, presents a contemplative experience in his abstract stone sculptures. “Answer,” a dolomitic limestone piece is braced and embraced by a metal support that seems to hold steady the vertical turning in of the limestone, making the stone look semi-liquid. Some of the cavities of his sculptures are poured with 22K gold leaf, representing the fire of the inner earth. The fluidity of his works could fixate us in watching the rise and fall of the day's light on their surfaces. |
Joe Brown_Answer_, Photo: Stephanie Epperson
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Jessica Van Woerkom_Shifted_
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The Art Gallery, 1122 N. Stone Avenue, is the main gallery for the event with several rooms devoted to the 90 artists in the show. Sculptors from some of the other venues were also included in the Main Gallery. Tanya Rich, the show's organizer, is a gracious greeter to visitors and provided a detailed list of the participants and their locations, a very necessary requirement for the sheer abundance of works in the various rooms. Everywhere the eye and body turned were sculptures carefully placed and lighted. It is obvious that many sculptors repurpose found materials, things we would normally discard as trash but to artists hold the potential to make a whole from many parts. Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Cornell, Kurt Schwitters and Louise Bourgeois are some of the famous predecessors to today's found object sculptors and we can see their influence. Jessica Van Woerkom, in “Shifted” has manipulated, with her turning, stitching and gluing of plastic, the most mundane of materials, venetian blinds, into a porous web of optical illusion and subtle shifts of light and shadow in gray, black and white. |
Kyle Johnston's “Sculpture #4” has worked damaged, faded and stained ephemera into a haunting object including tiny, clay doll heads. Not in the least nostalgic, instead it is an artful statement of time's passage.
There were several pieces that addressed some of our worst fears and the dark dreams of our psyche. Ho Baron's “Post Nuclear Dog” should be viewed from all sides as it flees in bronze armor, its body embedded with mutant teeth and eyes. “Last Hope” by Steve Murray forgoes the usual heroic or mythical depiction of a centaur for one who appears frail and aged, looking back fearfully at something which will not be deterred by his flimsy bow.
David Smith (1906-1965) was the forerunner of using stainless steel for its light reflecting qualities . This medium incorporates that effect in Edjo Wheeler's stainless steel “Journey”. What seems to be an ethereal, post-apocalyptic figure gleams and reflects light as it moves through space but also raises its skeletal hand as if to deflect it.
Kyle Johnson_Sculpture #4_
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Ho Baron_Post Nuclear Dog_
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Steve Murray_Last Hope_
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Edjo Wheeler_Journey_
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One of the bonuses of such a diverse offering of sculpture is the delight and humor in several pieces. This shared human attribute is evident in George C. Penaloza's “Taking A Ride With Andy”. Andy Warhol lives on, riding around an opened can of tomato soup on his can opener motorbike, wig intact and oblivious to the famous Factory friends below.
Hendrik Hackl's “Date Expired” is the artful extreme of expiration dates seen in a large key which has peeled back a sardine can to reveal a fossilized Paleolithic fish. The child in us should not resist Harold Baldwin's “Steampunk Pinball #2” with its steel ball bearings moving up an intricate framework by hand crank to make their musical descent down metal chutes, baskets and bowls.
Hendrik Hackl's “Date Expired” is the artful extreme of expiration dates seen in a large key which has peeled back a sardine can to reveal a fossilized Paleolithic fish. The child in us should not resist Harold Baldwin's “Steampunk Pinball #2” with its steel ball bearings moving up an intricate framework by hand crank to make their musical descent down metal chutes, baskets and bowls.
George C. Penaloza_Taking a Ride With Andy_
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Hendrick Hackl_Date Expired_
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Harold Baldwin_Steampunk Pinball #2_
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At the Sculpture Resource Center, 640 N. Stone Avenue, Paul Whitby was a fount of knowledge about the beginnings and progress of this artists' collective of shared equipment and workspaces. It was a busy place during our visit with artists fully engaged in their process both inside and outside in the yard. The Resource Center is the kind of place where it would be comfortable to visit whenever it is open and to see the many types of sculpture being created as well as the artists' studios.
Do not expect to be comfortable with Jesse Berlin's sculptures. They are not an attempt to idealize the human or animal body although he is quite capable of that. Instead, they pointedly address our fascination with the grotesque, misshapen and visceral reality of animals and humanity. His installation at the Sculpture Resource Center, “Death Rattle, Futile Struggle Against The Inevitable”, allows the viewer to peer inside a black box at a replica of Berlin's animated face as he expires. We become a participant in that struggle as the viewer's face must fit into a mask (a death mask?) to witness the event.
Do not expect to be comfortable with Jesse Berlin's sculptures. They are not an attempt to idealize the human or animal body although he is quite capable of that. Instead, they pointedly address our fascination with the grotesque, misshapen and visceral reality of animals and humanity. His installation at the Sculpture Resource Center, “Death Rattle, Futile Struggle Against The Inevitable”, allows the viewer to peer inside a black box at a replica of Berlin's animated face as he expires. We become a participant in that struggle as the viewer's face must fit into a mask (a death mask?) to witness the event.
The Granada Gallery, 338 North Granada Avenue, is a beautiful, turn-of-the-century home redesigned as a modern gallery. Jerry McCarty, Perry Brent Davis, Spencer Edgerton and Hendrik Hackl's sculptures, some of which are also shown in the main Art Gallery, are represented here.
Hendrick Hackl_Ichtyosaurus olearum march hackl_
If you are fortunate enough to meet Hendrik Hackl, a German artist, he will generously share the stories behind his works which meld science (ammonites and trilobites) with sculptural materials (stone, metal and wood) into contemporary free-standing and wall mounted sculptures. He related that 17th century nature philosophers were puzzled about how ammonites, an ancient sea creature, ended up on the tops of mountains. Their eventual conclusion was that they started out as seeds and were blown or carried to land where they germinated.
Hackl's “Ichtyosaurus olearum march hackl” (the last word being a play on the practice of naming a new species after its discoverer) uses found olive wood as the head and skeleton of an ancient reptilian creature. The 180 million year old ammonite enclosed in the skeleton rests where its great heart would have beat.
Hackl's “Ichtyosaurus olearum march hackl” (the last word being a play on the practice of naming a new species after its discoverer) uses found olive wood as the head and skeleton of an ancient reptilian creature. The 180 million year old ammonite enclosed in the skeleton rests where its great heart would have beat.
Kelly Hester_Pale Blue_
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Sculpture can be enjoyed every day and it doesn't have to be terribly expensive, monumental or even just big. Sometimes the small pieces, like Kelly Hestir's “Pale Blue”, at 3x3x7 inches, can fulfill the desire to own a one of a kind artwork.
The Tucson Sculpture Festival will host a closing reception on Saturday, Feb. 14, from 6-9 pm at the Art Gallery. It is a provocative, engaging, questioning, delightful and informative art event. All photos by Judy Robbins unless otherwise noted. Learn more at http://tucsonsculpturefestival2015.blogspot.com/ |
