Thursday, February 28, 2013

Out and About on Friday

Friends of the Hand poster

Last week's Final Friday was cancelled due to a snowstorm.  Some venues have rescheduled events for THIS Friday, March 1,  including The Blue Flame Gallery ( 745 New Hampshire, Suite 5).  The Invisible Hand will have a group show ( 846 Pennsylvania).  We also are excited for Wonder Fair's show this month.


We will be out and about taking pics, and will post them on Saturday.  We will also be live tweeting.


One of our favorite bands is playing on Friday.  Dean Monkey and the Dropouts will be at The Gaslight ( North Lawrence) starting at 9:30.  Here is the Facebook invite: https://www.facebook.com/events/345056852266307/
________________________________________
A cool pic of a Lawrence snow sculpture has gone viral. Sno Da (located across from Central Junior High) made it on George Takei's Facebook Page! Congratulations! Takai has a huge following:  3,306,183 followers! 86,488 people have liked this photo.


Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Lawrence Loves Snowpeople and David and Jacob's Thesis Show

Our staff loves the recent crop of snowpeople, which are almost as abundant in Lawrence as couches on front porches. Each snowperson seems to have their own personality.  Here are a few random pics we shot today.

By Central Junior High


By Central Junior High

Pic taken by Janet in NoLaw (North Lawrence)



Pic by Janet: In NoLaw ( North Lawrence)





_____________________________________
We have party pics for the openings of the thesis shows of David Titterington and Jacob Burmood.  On Sunday, the Art and Design Building hosted these shows, each occupying a section of the gallery. Both shows reflect each artist's personality.  We loved meeting David's parents (who are a delight) and of course Luke Jordan made an appearance.

See our studio interview with David here:  http://larryvilleartists.blogspot.com/2013/01/studio-visit-david-titterington.html

Here are the party pics: 
 David's Mom


Square formatted paintings by David Titterington


 Artist David Titterington with a friend

 Sculpture by Jacob Burmood


 Pic of prodigious photographer  Luke Jordan


Pic of Artist Jacob Burmood

 Pic of Jacob at a sculpture pour (we think)

Monday, February 18, 2013

Can KU Art Students improve on KU Basketball's Version of the Harlem Shake?


Is it possible to beat the fantastic KU Basketball version of the Harlem Shake? Some KU art students will try this Wednesday.  Guided by expanded media grad student Dan Lowe, they are currently plotting their strategy.  Lots of good ideas are posted on Facebook so far, and at least one attendee has agreed to be naked.  Let's hope the forecasted winter storm does not hinder these efforts.  We'll keep you posted.  Meanwhile, here is the Facebook invite for this event: https://www.facebook.com/events/332048290240486/

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Gina Adams at Art and Design



Survival/ Zhaabwiiwin
Gina Adams starts the spring season of graduate thesis exhibitions with a bang.  This intriguing show combines many aspects of the artist's Native American ancestry into a total absorption environmental experience.  The gallery is lit to reflect the light of dawn.  There are three camping tents scattered in the room. Looking closely at the tents reveal they are made with animal hides. The tents have a ceremonial staff inside them.  The tents were meticulously created and treated with traditional Native American dying and sewing methods.  It is reported that each tent took over 60 hours of manual labor.
Zhaabwiiwin is translated as "Survival" in Adams' Northeast Native American language.

The reception is February 21.
Art and Design Gallery hours are:
Sunday 1-4:30 pm
Monday - Friday 8:30 am -4:30 pm
Thursday 8:30 am -9:00pm
Friday 8:30am - 1:30 pm



Sunday, February 10, 2013

Nerd Nite: Love Will Keep Us Together


We ran into the Nerd Nite Krewe at the Pig yesterday and quizzed them about the next Nerd Nite on Wednesday, February 13 at Pachamama's.  They are very excited for this month's event!  Travis said he would be dancing, and we said we would dance with him. 
Here are the presentations: 

1. How Gay Men’s Choruses Helped Shape the Gay Rights Movement (1978-Today) by Bill Bowersock, Show Producer for the it gets better production

2. Reparative Therapy: A Nerdy Perspective on a Hot Social Issue by Ruth Ann Atchley, Ph.D.

3. Galileo's Finger and the Diffusion of Innovations by Liesel Reinhart, Writer and Director

Doors now open at 7:00, and presentations are at 8:00. The cost is free.  The bar is a cash bar. 


Saturday, February 9, 2013

Open Model today at KU and A New Buzz Phrase: International Art English



Don't forget open model today at Art and Design.  The session is from 11:00-2:00 in room 405.  It is free and open to the public.  Bring drawing supplies. 

photo of bodybuilders next to gymnasts



New Buzz Phrase: International Art English
Many of us roll our eyes at the pompous language some critics use to describe art.  Now this type of writing has a phrase: International Art English (IAE).

An influential article was published last summer by Alix Rule and David Levine in the online art journal  Triple Canopy .  It caught many people’s attention as it hit a nerve on what many see as a problem in art criticism; art writing is often taxing and non-descriptive.  Rule and Levine write (the language) “has everything to do with English, but is not English.” Rule and Levine used a search engine to examine trends in digital archives of gallery press releases, and found frequently used phrases.  The tone of the article is playful and also serious. 

They write: Here we find some of IAE’s essential grammatical characteristics: the frequency of adverbial phrases such as ‘radically questioned’ and double adverbial terms such as “playfully and subversively invert.” The pairing of like terms is also essential to IAE, whether in particular parts of speech internal psychology and external reality or entire phrases.

Serious critics are still writing about this article, such as the Guardian's Andy Beckett on January 27.  In A user’s Guide to Art Speak, he comments: With its pompous paradoxes and its plagues of adverbs, its endless sentences and its strained rebellious poses, much of this promotional writing serves mainly, it seems, as ammunition for those who still insist contemporary art is a fraud. Surely no one sensible takes this jargon seriously? And “One day, we might even look back on IAE with nostalgie-on its extravagant syntxz as a last product, perhaps, of the boom years.”

Recently, Christina Patterson’s wrote in her article for The Independent on February 6 , Why It’s Time to Dump the Jargon. The art world uses words everyone else has dropped.  And when you went to see the art, you might even wonder if the people who were using language you couldn't really understand were trying to hide something: and that what they were trying to hide was the fact that the work, which they wanted you to think was clever, and interesting, and worth thinking quite a lot about, often wasn't clever, or interesting, or worth thinking quite a lot about.

Read Levine and Rule's article here: http://canopycanopycanopy.com/16/international_art_english

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Burlesque Drawing at Fatso's


Last night, we packed up our drawing gear and headed to Fatso's where the Thieves Guild hosted their monthly burlesque drawing event.  The theme: Art Nouveau with the title Mucha Do About Nothing. The atmosphere was romantic, with inspiration from Alphonse Mucha. 

Bunny Baltimore was the wonderful model who held difficult poses for us.  And her costumes were gorgeous!

Here are the party pics from last night!

Photo by Jen Young ( Atomic Photography)