Deep Life Indy # 3

Uncle! I surrender!

I've made multiple attempts to write about the Indianapolis art scene of the past 30 years. This as prequel to the upcoming panel discussions which will accompany the 431 Gallery and Ed Sanders shows. I even wrote about giving up on trying to write about it. That turned into a long bit too, and is pointless to post. Bottom line, that's it. No more critiquing local art stuff. 

Subversion is still on the table.

Deep Life Indy #1

431 Gallery, Indianapolis, 1984

In June, the Indiana State Museum will honor the 431 Gallery with an exhibition including members' art. 431 was a cooperative gallery which Bill Adkins formed, led, and fueled for many years. It formed in 1984 and continued through the early 1990s. I was a founding member and participated in the first auction and show, but then moved to Austin, TX. I returned in 1989 to find a vibrant, concentrated art scene along Massachusetts Avenue. Denouement (Francy and Stephen Stoller), Patrick King, Ruschman Gallery, and 431 Gallery co-existed within the block. In Vivo opened over 431, before moving around the corner. For a couple years, art opening crowds would overflow and block the sidewalks. 

During the ISM exhibit, I will be showing some paintings at Indy Reads. Until now, I was oblivious to the obvious - that the Indy Reads venue is on Massachusetts Avenue, just a few blocks from the old arts area. The entire MassAve is now designated the arts district, but is mostly retail, dining, and pubs. It's easy to forget the past. 

The ISM show will coincide with the much anticipated Ed Sanders retrospective, which will be at Herron School of Art and Design, just a few hundred yards from the ISM. I can't wait to see this show!

Herron "Beyond Campus" Shows + a rant

A nice list of shows featuring  Herron-linked artists, including the above. For some time now, I've noticed that the academic realm of art has become more progressive and alternative than so-called "cutting edge" art. I'm speaking mainly of local developments here in the Indy art scene ('development' being a very apt term here). Cutting edge entertainment art has become a hot commodity, and is linked both to specific real estate investments and to a broader drive to pump and pimp the city.

On the social conscious front, others are trying to guilt us into making our art "do" something that provides a tangible, overt community benefit.

And sometimes these "help our neighborhoods" people, and the investors, are the same folks.  

Neither drive is the world's worst evil, but both are parasitic. Art has worth without these justifications, and while it can be used to many means, it also has an amazing intrinsic value. Few things in our modern life have intrinsic value. Most have value that is derived from context, or branding, or some sort of identity-dependent system of belief. The academic art system, with all its dogmatic tendencies, provides a buffer against all the opportunistic bullshit. It has become an oasis of sorts, where art can flourish as.....art.

I spent 10+ years after graduation trying to unlearn so much, but now the university system seems to hold so much potential for real artistic investigations. I'm going to try to see as many of these thesis shows as possible.

Fountain Square Don't Care

 "Sugar Tattoo" from the cover of "FSDC"

Review: FSDC Book Launch: Shared Heritage premieres a rarity in the Indy world: the artist-produced zine. 'FSDC,' or 'Fountain Square Don't Care,' incorporates the work of eight promising artists. (Nuvo review link)

The zine title cracks me up and this seems like an interesting new art endeavor at the Murphy Center.

Gallery Ideas, Part I

I've rented a small space at the Circle City Industrial Compex. It's perfectly intimate, tucked away a bit, no windows, and a nice size for a small gallery. It's been a huge struggle to ignore this space and focus on getting other things done. I've only been in there once since I received my keys, but the ideas are flowing, some good, some whacky. Posting publicly will help me sort out the diff.

Exhibition ideas:
Unstable Art Show - I've been sculpting paint skins while they're still moving (wet), which almost sounds cruel. I'd like to have an invitational one-night only show using in-flux materials. This could be in winter so we'd have the whole snow/ice possibility. It could involve stacking materials. Pretty much anything fragile or ephemeral, as long as it's not fumey or food related. For the exhibition I'd cover the floor in plastic and possibly even display some things in tubs. 

Documented-only shows - I'd like to have a strong online representation and had even considered having the gallery officially be an online gallery, which happened to have a bricks-n-mortar space in Indpls. The space would serve almost as a set for the online activities, and would also be a sort of tourist attraction (at least in concept) for the "real" activities which occurs online....a sort of Precious Moments Chapel for you to pay homage to ;-) , full of momentos (for sale) of online conceptual moments of note. Document-only shows would play into this idea in that I would put up shows in the space, but only present a documentation of them. Not a new idea by any means, but it's still interesting to consider just how and what one could do with it.

Artists You Don't Know - I'd change the title, but this would be either one show or a series of shows featuring local Indiana artists who are making really intriguing and independent work, but who are not really on the radar.

It's Not Gonna Happen - (or Proposals for the Unlikely) -It's a much more positive idea than how it sounds. This will likely be a proposal show, where artists submit very informal representations of projects that simply will not happen, mainly because of context. That same inappropriate context is what makes the idea so fascinating though. For instance, I was making proposals for an area high school, and when I saw the natatorium being contructed, an image popped into my head and I couldn't shake it. Their mascot is a panther. I visualized this image of a panther where the huge scale and the cropped (swimming) shape made it impossible to read correctly on first glance. It actually looks like a loch nest monster or something inexplicable. That moment when you realise it's a panther would be so amazing.....Still, the idea falls so far outside of the norm, as school mascots go.....It's not gonna happen. I may keep this show limited to decorative painting projects, but public art projects are also a great place for "not gonna happen" ideas.

Fantasy Art Finds - (Needs better title) This could be either a proposal show or a theme show for new work. What art would you most want someone else to have made? This really is different from what art you as an artist would like to make, I think. The context could be narrowed. I've always liked to imagine my dream thrift store painting finds. What would I most want to find in a thrift store, or similar place, that some other person had taken the time to make?

Paintings for a Mobile Home - I first had this idea back when I actually lived in a trailer. As campy as the idea is, I was seeking a framework that would encourage sincerity. I've always wanted to keep one foot firmly planted in a non-academic, provincial place of art appreciation. It seems important to always consider what I'd be doing and how I'd be thinking if I were unaware of current art considerations. What paintings would I make if they were intended to be hung in a mobile home? It's almost impossible to conceive without irony, but fascinating to do so. I'm not sure if this would be an invitational show, or just a group I'd do.

I rarely feel inspired by others' theme show ideas, and I am a little chagrined at how much I'm going there myself. Next thing you know, I'll be pushing spectacle art events....

Iron-Artist Assemblage Competition - Timed assemblage of provided materials. Could also have a blind collaboration, where artists work in sequence on one piece. This was actually a side-idea to Sculpt My Yard Offerings - which was originally simply Sculpt My Dumped Tires. I bring in stuff that's been dumped in my yard, you or I make something from it. I though about somehow inviting others to make surreptitious yard offerings that I would try to distinguish from the naturally occurring dumpings. It would be an interesting head-trip, but is just way too insular in scope, even if it's made into a display of some sort.

The Strontium Show - Fun with phosphorescent paint.

I'll end the exhibition ideas here. Gallery Ideas, Part II will be ideas for funding the gallery, and also ideas for setting up the space itself.

Asynchronous Salon - installation

Last weekend Mary Addison Hackett was in town to help install Asynchronous Salon, and to perform her wall painting. I put her up in my newly converted artist's studio fantasy suite, complete with cat, clamp reading light, and sweet scents of linseed oil.
The Marsh Gallery at Herron School of Art is a beautiful space. It's on the east end of the main hall, and this show will be up through August 26, with a closing reception on the the 26th, 5 - 8 p.m.



Steven LaRose's series "The Barely Comprehensible Realm".


*MAH photo
*MAH photo
*MAH photo Nomi Lubin's collages. More work at "Paintings" and "Not Paintings".

*MAH photo My recent shaped panels paintings.

*MAH photo *MAH photo Mary Addison Hackett's Pool Paintings from Fluid: The Elusive Chapters from the Passage of Time.

*MAH photo

Mary Addison Hackett's alla prima wall painting which she did while listening to Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs." The album is 64:07 in length, as is the painting, per MAH's pre-established rules. A videotape of the painting will run throughout the exhibition.

*MAH photo "The Suburbs, 64:07"

Spacial weirdness. Ahem...above.

Until next time......

Creative Renewal Arts Fellows 2011 - Not One Painter

None.

Indy Indie Artist Colony Flower Show & Harrison Center

"Budding", 8" x 6", oil on wood, 2011

"Alms for Aunt Bea", 10" x 10", oil on wood, 2011

Two recent paintings of mine, each tweaked towards inclusion in the "Flower Show" at the Indy Indie Artist Colony. Opened tonight, April 1. The Herron Senior Photography show next door has some really good pieces.

The Harrison center has some recent work by Susan Hodgins in Gallery 2 which kickboxed butt. "Institutions" by Austin Dickson is in the main gallery. These photographs must be seen in person, they're paradoxically magical and urban-realismy and utopian. He also had a great piece in the Herron Photography show - his entire BFA portfolio on a ______? (some common electronic device with a 1 or 2 inch screen, the name of which escapes me now.....god, I'm so old). Kyle Ragsdale has amped up his imagery into an extreme levitating Rococo thing.....

Spring art has busted loose, at least in the Delaware-Penn corridor. I'll hit a couple more shows on Saturday.

*Update: Austin Dickson's piece, along with materials info (digital keychain....)

IDADA First In Line

Stop by IDADA's annual First In Line art exhibition and sale next Friday, March 5, from 6-10 pm. Donated works of art are all on sale, each priced at $100. First come, first served! Proceeds from this event support IDADA's general operating fund. For more info about IDADA. For more on First In Line.

This year's event will be held at the newly renovated Indy Indie Artist Colony, 26 East 14th Street (Northwest corner of 14th and Penn).

If you'd like to donate a work of art or volunteer to help during the event week, please contact me (email on the side bar). Thanks.

Polly Apfelbaum

Gun Club, 2002

Last Wednesday, Polly Apfelbaum gave an excellent lecture at Herron School of Art and Design. I had not really examined her work before. She took us through just enough of her process, that the unexplainable stuff fell right into place as well. It was great.

Old & New Exhibit closes this week

"Mother", 24" x 30"

Cambrian Sea Goddess, 24" x 18"

Two of the three paintings recently pulled out and spruced up for this group show.

Old & New group show

Texan Love Hovels, 18" x 30" oil on wood, 2004

I'll be represented "old" in the upcoming Old & New group show, at Harrison Gallery in Indianapolis. I'll have three paintings total in the show, which is curated by Sofie Kofodimos.

I have several paintings from 2004-2007 which have never been exhibited, and it was great to pull them out and re-examine them from a fresh perspective. Many of them hit on some great thematic ideas, and I'm planning on reworking them. While I once insisted on letting everything happen simultaneously within the process, subject and form formulating together and fairly intuitively, I've been having some good results when I go ahead and rework the paintings. It feels like a developmental thing, where I'm just less rigid about the process, and also can muddle more without totally destroying existing imagery.

Anyway, if you're in town, the show's Friday, July 2, 6-9 pm. I'll post the other two paintings after the opening.

"Black and White and Read All Over"

Dowager Brooch, 12" x 8.5" oil on wood

Brooch of Bewitchment, 14" x 12", oil on wood

Buffalo Heart, 14" x 12", oil on wood

I can't tell if I'm legitimately self-doubting or just in a grumpy mood, but the boa frame annoys me. I feel I've sacrificed a painting (an experience) to make an art object (a symbol for experience). I also have mixed feelings about exploring the point where a painting functions as an object. It seems interesting. All human pondering is interesting, and formal considerations are ultimately about human pondering. I just think this particular issue, the workings of a painting functioning outside of the 2-d realm, may be of relatively minor interest, compared to the workings of a painting within the 2-d realm.

These are for the upcoming color-themed show at the Harrison Center (16th and Delaware St, Indianapolis). Opens on Dec. 4.

Bootleg Exhibitions and Mt Comfort Gallery

Jenny Buffington at Bootleg Exhibitions Vol.1

Aaron Schmidt at Bootleg Exhibitions Vol.1

Tyler Meuninck in "Public Works" at Mt. Comfort

Saturday, I hit two closing receptions at the corner of English and State St. .

Tyler Meuninck was showing some great paintings, done mostly with a beautiful palette of pinky browns. These urban landscapes combine atmospheric space with abstracted space, which works especially well with the mid-value, low contrast paintings.

I had heard and read from many different sources that Bootleg Exhibitions, across the street from Mt. Comfort, had hosted an excellent inaugural and second show. There is so much local marketing bs pushing entities to succeed by blowing hype, that, to some degree, I blew off the input I receive on this gallery. I shoulda listened better.

The space is so exciting that the work shown forms a symbiotic relationship with it. Well, I should say, the artists are intentionally working with and within these conditions. The space is raw, and display decisions are brilliant. The rawness is embraced and played upon, but not in a precious manner. Rather the arrangements are unselfconscious, direct, and efficient. I can't really address the work shown, because I stupidly waited until the closing to see this show (and missed the inaugural show entirely), but what I saw was very good.

"Mounts" at 4 Star Gallery

Mount G, 10" x 10", oil on wood, 2008

Excellent timing. Next week I will be showing my "Mounts" series, for the first time in person, in entirety, at 4 Star Gallery. A group of these paintings are included in the current issue of "New American Paintings" #83, which just hit the newsstands this week.

The 4 Star Gallery show runs Oct. 16 - Nov. 14, with an opening reception Oct. 16 from 5-9pm, and a "First Friday" reception on Nov. 6. If you're in town I hope you can make it.

4Star Gallery

653 Massachusetts Avenue

Indianpolis, IN 46204

317.686-6382

Film tonight at Earthhouse

thomas pynchon - a journey into the mind of [p.]
a film by Fosco and Donatello Dubini

Free
7pm
Thursday May 7
237 N. East Street
www.earthhousecollective.org

(go in to the church...)

Town Hall Meeting

At Midland Arts and Antiques, 907 E. Michigan St., Indianapolis, through June 13, 2009.

Town Hall Meeting

Alcove is pleased to present

Town Hall Meeting is an exhibition of works by 9 artist who were born and/or raised in the Midwest and have migrated to New York for the sake of art. The premise of this gathering of works is rooted in process, not only through medium, but also through the constant ongoing procession of choices made to stay beholding to a dream and an ideal. The selection of artwork is nonpartisan to this fact. The artists are devoted to their intuitions, sensibilities, and concerns (or lack thereof); they are relentless and willful with their execution. They are diverse in media and vision, using the strength of subjectivity, suggestion & knowledge to their advantage. This town hall meeting is not a political arena. I do not want to burden the artwork or the artist's history with politics. The curation behind this forum neither embraces or despises the stereotypes of Midwest America (or it's eastern edge), nor is there intent to unveil or measure ignorance or intellect amongst the dialogues of the works, the viewers, or it's critics (as politics can). My intent is only to bring these artists, along with their labors and diversities, to their roots.

Gwendolyn Charlene Skaggs
(http://www.alcove547.com/ )
Artist
Curator
Art Handler
Preparator

Town Hall Meeting http://alcove-townhallmeeting.blogspot.com/
May 1, 2009 through June 13, 2009
Opening Reception: May 1, 2009 6-9 pm
Midland Arts and Antiques Market
907 East Michigan Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202
317.267.9005

Town Hall Meeting will open in New York in September 2009

Purchase book: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/633004/
___________________

Be sure to add this show to your First Friday rounds in May, or make it your evening. For me, this is a nice look backwards and forwards, and I suppose sidelong as well. I have known some of these artists from their days in Indianapolis, and my college professor, Steve Mannheimer, has written a wonderful introduction for the book.

W the Movie

Local artist Alfred Eaker's second film, W the Movie, will be shown twice inIndy before hitting the road. You missed your first chance, but can still catch a free screening Thursday, Oct. 16 at 7:00, at Earth House at Lockerbie Central United Methodist 237 N. East St, Indianapolis.


He directed this film with Ralph St. Just, and, if you're wondering, I can personally vouch that this has been his working title from its inception several years ago.

(I played the naughty Mary in his first film, "Jesus and Her Gospel of Yes")

Wearable Art-themed benefit

For "The Herron Experience '08- Art Couture", (previously the Janus Ball).