ArtBUZZ: June 10-June 16, 2010

Robin Williams, Swoon At The Water Pump. Courtesy of Like the Spice Gallery.

 

Friday, June 11, 6:30-10pm

 

It is little wonder that interpretations of the figure have been and continue to be so admired. After all, the figure is perhaps the most archaic and explored of all styles of art. Yet, even today, our cultural mastery of the figure can be redefined, reinvested, and reinvigorated by emerging artists. In the works exhibited at Like the Spice during Marked, six artists use the figure to reflect personal narratives of their own design.

 

The body contains history, living stories written in time. Every moment leaves its mark; every mark takes its moment. What comes from this is a mix of independent narratives, or perhaps a collection of fictions built from facts. The use of the figure, such a traditional idea, opens the door for many untraditional explorations. Artists in this exhibition are: Chino Amobi, Alison Blickle, Brendan Lott, Jenny Morgan, Reuben Negron, and Robin Williams.

Opening Reception: Thursday, June 10, 7-9pm

 

Alex Dodge's third solo show with the gallery extends the artist's interest in the relationships between humanity, technology, art, and design by presenting a collection of concept prototypes developed in collaboration with Brooklyn-based tech start up, Generative.

 

The unique prototypes developed may range in their levels of functionality, but are presented here as art objects and design objects on equal standing. While a designer might focus on creating mass-manufacturable products, envisioning that they bring people one step closer to a utopian ideal, Mr. Dodge's objects fetishize the technological imperative, or the inevitable hybridization of man and machine, as something worthy of appreciation in itself. This exhibition serves as a natural progression from his more traditional artworks, which have typically been engaged in a dialog concerning technology and its means of altering human experience.

 

Generative began as a conceptual project founded in 2009 by Mr. Dodge along with Akira Shibata, a particle physicist known for his work on the Atlas project at the Large Hadron Collider, and Yohei Ishii, who has worked extensively in the video game industry. The three founded Generative as an independent research and development lab focused on mobile technology and visualization.

 

Opening Reception: Saturday, June 12, 7-10pm

 

A two person exhibition of artists Guy Denning and David Walker, Surface Tension aims to explore the stress that festers behind the processes of creation and the battles won and lost between an artist and his medium. The show also revisits that old cliché about how painting is all about the external expression of the inner processes of art and the artist.

 

Artist Reception: Wednesday, June 16, 6-8:30

 

Rock Paper Scissors is a broad analogy for the full circle of shifting "power" elements within a work of art. In this interplay, with "rock" representing the physicality of art-object, "paper" representing power of communication, and "scissors" representing tools of process, all exist in symbiosis, but shift in weight relative to each work.

 

This exhibition concentrates on paintings, collages, and hand pulled prints by 13 diverse and independent artists, loosely associated by a common project, and all displaying an essential common trait: the pursuit of excellence in their craft.

Artists include: Ramona Candy, Mary Chang, Tami Gold, Kathleen Hayek, Pearl Rosen, GG Stankiewicz, Sheila Goloborotko, Agnes Murray, Ana Bianchi, Robert Golden, Audrey Frank Anastasi, Susan Fateh, and Harold Wortsman.

 

Kentler International Drawing Space: “War & peace: 6 Artists from the Kentler Flatfiles”
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 12, 5-7pm (Artists’ Talk: 4pm)

 

Curated by Florence Neal, with work by Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo, Phillip Chen, Karni Dorell, Tatana Kellner, Susan Newmark, and Sepideh Salehi.