An "Altered Space" in Venice

Altered Space Gallery, Venice, Ca

Altered Space Gallery had the most varied, eclectic and solid exhibits going on of all the galleries we visited along Abbot Kinney Blvd. It is a large space and they featured very creative jewelry, sculpture, cool cards, etc. - as well as artworks. Nice people working there and a nice feel to the place.

Keba Konte

Our first fantastic fave was (surprise!, a home boy from Oakland) - Keba Konte. He had a stunning display of photo emulsions transfered onto old, yellowed plywood and found boards. These were softly shadowed with velvet blackest-blacks,  vintage-feeling and beautiful. Loved the way the lightest parts of the photos just bled into the wood grains.

Keba Konte

Keba Konte, detail from above

Keba Konte

Keba Konte, detail shot

Keba Konte

Keba Konte

The next pieces were water based sculptures by Tanya Clarke. Fun and odd segments of water pipes and faucets, vintage meters and glistening glass pendants forming the water drips. Many of them would light up, she has a number of large interesting industrial light sculptures - "Liquid Light" on her website.

Tanya Clarke

Tanya Clarke

The final artist we loved was Michele Mikesell, whose works were concentrated in the rear area. Some creepy, some sullen, some pretty - all were fun little characters with loose and fleshy strokes and one intense  "stink eye" looking at you. Delightful.

Michele Mikesell

Michele Mikesell

Michele Mikesell

Michele Mikesell, detail from above

Michele Mikesell

Michele Mikesell

Michele Mikesell, detail from above

Victorian Meets Peep Show, The Collages of Vahge

New York based artist Vahge creates wondrous collages, most with more than a touch of Victoriana-meets-modern-girl. Other influences invade with hints of girly magazines, steampunk, anthropomorphic critters, fashion hazards  and skeletal elements. They almost feel like historical documents,  tattered and worn snapshot tapestries. With delicate yet strong imagery, they are wise and sullen ladies who dare. Her work is all cut and paste, old style. Unlike most newer digital works, the tactile collage feel survives, popping the edges through-out her imagery.

“Vahge celebrates oddity with elegance.”

Some images cropped to show detail.

Vahge's website - LINK

Originally published in Eclectix, May 2011 with the "Paper & Art" Issue, Volume 7

New Dali Museum in Florida

Dang! I didn't even know there was a Dali museum in St. Petersburg, Florida - and now they have a big new space. It opens on 1-11-11, great numbers for a grand opening! If you're nearby or want to go, below is the info. Great looking building, not to mention it's chock full of the surreal master's art - I am marking it down for my next visit to Florida!

1.11.11 Grand Opening Procession, Ribbon Cutting & Festival

Tuesday, January 11, 9:30 a.m. -3:00 p.m.

The public is invited to view a surreal procession departing from the current museum (located at 1000 Third Street South in St. Petersburg) at 9:30am and concluding at the new museum (located eight blocks north at One Dali Blvd.).  Entertainment, a dedication program with S.A.R. la Infanta Cristina of Spain, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca, and a ribbon cutting ceremony with Spanish Royalty presiding — starting at 11:00 a.m. — will mark the beginning of a new era for the Dalí at its new location. The festivities will continue until 3 p.m.

Ron English Takes on Magritte

Dang! Just got this hot little piece in my inbox and you get to see it.  It's titled "Apple and the Afterlife", and it is so phenomenal! Right down to the apple core, in more ways than one. Announcement of Ron English's huge show at the Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion with over 200 pieces. Go if you can, wish I could.
From the announcement: "Status Factory," a surreal assemblage of over 200 artworks by Ron English. This highly interactive exhibition traces the arc of English's most ambitious themes across mediums. 
One of the most prolific and recognizable artists alive today, Ron English has bombed the global landscape with unforgettable images, on the street, in museums, in movies, books, television, and album covers. English coined the term POPaganda to describe his signature mash-up of high and low cultural touchstones, from superhero mythology to totems of art history, populated with his vast and constantly growing arsenal of original characters. Ron English's art, whether in paintings, billboards, murals, or sculpture, blends stunning visuals with the bitingly humorous undertones of America's Premier Pop Iconoclast."

Gettin' Real and HyperReal at the San Jose Museum of Art

Just can't say enough good stuff about the consistently solid shows this museum produces. They put all the other "contemporary" museums in the Bay Area to shame. Currently up is the "Real and HyperReal" show with illusionist artists - Sandow Birk, Llyn Foulkes, Tino Rodriguez, and Paul Wonner. These works were fantastical, grand and surreal. I especially liked the "Third Eye", an old red door with a peephole thru which you could view a wonderful diorama of a room. Then there was the sadly-beautiful, trashed huge landscape of discarded canvases which touched the artist in me.

Next, a wall sized, beautifully sexy nude black man sitting stiffly on a white horse. And a birds eye view of a retro LA scene (By James Doolin) that had me transfixed by the minute details and incredible perspective. 

Hyperreality exists where the distinction between real and imaginary implodes and neither subject can be quantified or defined as "real," because the anchor, or signifier, can no longer be identified.

There are also two non- painting, installations by Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin, that were not exactly my cup of tea, but they may be yours. This show is definitely one to see and you can check out the always great, Wayne Thiebaud exhibit as well. 
http://www.sjmusart.org/content/real-and-hyperreal

Great Gurl Art: Cool Colette Calascione

Eclectix found Colette's work while surfing around San Francisco artists for fashion related art (for the previous 'Fierce Fashion' exhibit).  It turns out she no longer lives in S.F. but has moved to New York. Plus, she deals with only one gallery, on the East Coast. And it seems she paints very slowly, not producing much during a year. But what she does produce, is so well worth the wait. Her work has got to be seen! So... until she shows here at Eclectix,  for all you West Coasters, are just a few of her  wondrous and elegantly detailed works. They evoke the classical Old Masters with a New Mistress twist, full of surreal wit and sensuous beauty. For a link to her site, click on the title of this post... and Colette, you go, gurl!

Surreal Collage by Carrie Ann Baade

"It's about making the unreal real, making it believable for someone else."



Recently found the art of Carrie and was floored by the dreamy, fantasy world yet somewhat creepy (in a good way) quality of her works. They are incredible multi-layered tapestries of hallucinatory scenery. She has transcended the crafty image of collage and pushed it into the sphere of surrealist masterpieces.  Intrigued by her method and technique, I tried to do a little hunting to see what I could find out. Many artists are very secretive and downright shut mouthed about their techniques. Here is a little of what I found on her process.

"There are very real things that I am not aloud to speak of in polite society, the more I translate them into elaborate images to spell out my rage, my dissatisfaction, my pain, my secrets, and my loves which may also be secrets."
"I collect images, I dive into my piles of cut outs that I have been archiving for the past 5 years. The composition of the collage can be immediate or go through 15 hours of revisions. It is like reading cards, the answer will come as I am searching and the answer is usually visually surprising."
"Idea!, snip, cut, and collect - with lots of cello tape!, play and laugh at how funny images can be, revisions for 12 years, prepare copper, transfer image, paint in grisaille....totally tonal image with no chroma, paint in color, glaze and glaze, agonize, tell the painting it is the most beautiful thing that I have EVER created, frame, eject from studio to be hung in the gallery never to be seen again....next!"

Some added words of wisdom for the struggling artist out there...
"Pretend that each letter of rejection means you get to go out to dinner. I have decided that I will have an exhibit of all my letters of rejection as soon as I have enough to cover a gallery. I am only 1/3 of the way there. Beyond that, my credo is: IGNORANCE AND BALLZ! I say ignorance because I don't ask questions. Never ask why you are doing this. Never question your ability. Never wonder if you would be richer or happier doing something else. Ballz is the momentum to keep doing it despite impossible odds."

Sources and more info:

Beinart Surreal Art Collective -
http://beinart.org/modules/Word-Press/2007/06/12/beinart-interview-with-carrie-ann-baade/

Phantasasmaphile -
http://www.phantasmaphile.com/2006/09/interview_with_.html

My ArtSpace -
http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2006/11/art-space-talk-carrie-ann-baade_08.html