33rd WNY Regional in Buffalo, NY

 

Hockey Night in Canada; pencil on paper, 24" x 36"

When you enter art as a candidate for an exhibit, you recognize that the odds are against you whether only 15%, 25%, or even upwards of 40% gain entry.

And if the juror selects one of them then that's good although if they choose both then that's even better!

This is what happened recently as the judge for the 33rd WNY regional, Gerald C. Mead of Buffalo State University, chose both of my drawings I entered. 

What does that mean?  Not sure, since I am certain that those works he did not choose were not bad at all.  In any case, a two-for-one show provides double the exposure.

One of them shown above, Hockey Night in Canada, is the larger version of an earlier, smaller drawing.

The 33rd regional exhibit's opening reception is Friday, September 20, on 1 Linwood Avenue a the WNY Artists Group Gallery and closes on Friday, November 1.

 

It's the Fringe Festival AAG show!

The Arena Art Group presents another show in conjunction with the Fringe Festival at the Multi-Cultural Community Center in Rochester, NY from September 6-October 26.

The opening is Sunday, September 22, from 2-4 pm.   My drawing is one of those by about 20 other artists.  

The one caveat emptor is that the show is only accessible when there is an event at the MuCCC but as the Fringe Festival continues through for another month there will be opportunities.  

 

Expectation and Viewing Art

 

          Can visual art present an image that is not dramatic, or must it be dramatic?  I ask because it appears that many people view visual art expecting a dramatic meaning even when it is clear that the artist had other intentions. 

For instance, someone looking at a work by Red Grooms and scrutinizing it for deeper meaning other than the humor may be on to something…and may likely not.  Granted, Grooms’ works often do have a meaning a bit beyond the humor, but why isn’t the humor enough?  Humor can have depth as any comedian or satirist knows.

Another example is that of the performing arts; is every play going to be a drama?  Imagine a theater world where there were only dramas or, even better, imagine someone who attended plays always expecting a drama when a play is not.  They’re going to be both disappointed and puzzled.  I suppose they even may be upset, angry, that the play did not meet their expectations and blame the playwright for botching it, telling others that the play simply did not make sense.

Apply this to any other artistic venues as music, and it’s the same problem regardless of the genre.  If one anticipates a romantic ballad and hears a Bartok string quartet, or vice-versa, the music will come off as a dud.  Audience expectation also can be an issue as consider children, who may expect to hear Peter and the Wolf, and instead have to sit through a Mahler symphony for 1.5 hours.  I’m sure they won’t be pleased, just as the adult audience expecting a Mahler symphony will not be excited about Peter and the Wolf as a substitute.

But back to the visual arts.  Magritte’s painting of floating baguettes and wine glasses may point to a Christian eucharistic symbolism, but more likely it is about Magritte trying to show the common as uncommon.  Reading into the loaves and liquid as a metaphysical transformation of the mundane into the supernatural is a misdirected interpretation regardless of the relation of seeing the ordinary in an extraordinary way. 

So, this is the obstacle for many people who presume a dramatic understanding of visual art; they need to clear that out of their perceptive field of play. Why?  Because visual art, as any of the arts, may be dramatic, yes, but it also may be comedic, sad, romantic, mysterious, and even absurd.  It may be for the strictly formal aesthetic pleasure too.  Reading one’s expectation into art, however, will simply be a constraint on the viewer’s experience. 

 

Modern Works Exhibit at the Artists Group Gallery

 

The Western New York Artists Group is presenting its Modern Works show from March 29 - May 10.  The juror for this exhibition was Dana Murray Tyrrell, co-director at the Niagara Arts & Cultural Center.  Mr. Tyrrell selected both of my entries, Statistical Control and The Triumphant.

An excellent review of modern visual art by regional artists, if you are visiting in the city of Buffalo then consider taking a look at 1 Linwood Avenue. 

 

Arena Art Group Spring show at the Geisel Gallery

 An art show celebrating the eclipse?  Yep, that's what is presented at The Geisel Gallery in the Bausch and Lomb Legacy Tower in Rochester.  I never entered a drawing into an AAG show for this venue and this time around I figured I'd give it a shot.  Very nice gallery space, easy to get to and there's a parking garage across the street (not pricey, either).

My drawing is not related to the eclipse theme but the group allowed any topic for this show.  And as it stands, this is the third version of this drawing and that excludes the original image that was on this panel.

The exhibit runs March 4-May 31; the opening night is Thursday, March 7, from 5 to 7 pm.

 

Art and Style

 

            Take any Baroque composer--Bach, Buxtehude, Pachelbel, Vivaldi, doesn’t really matter--and then ask someone today who knows musical composition if they can construct an original piece in their Baroque style that’s about 10 minutes long.  They have free choice in terms of instruments and whether it’s a concerto, cantata, et cetera.

            Okay, so your musical acquaintance goes off to work and knocks out a beautiful and original work in the Baroque style.  My question: is it Art?

            This is the problem also in the visual arts.  You are sight-seeing in a city and come across a neighborhood with art galleries, and there in a window of one of them is a Cezanne-like painting.  I mean, it’s super-Cezanne, the artist enhanced colors and lines a bit to sharpen that style.  You might even say “wow!” 

            Then you think to yourself that this is someone who paints like Cezanne and does it very well.  But…is it Art?

            So presents the problem of style in the Arts.  I notice a distinctive style among many artists though most of them certainly belong to a particular era; i.e., Rembrandt was as much a part of his time as was Thomas de Keyser, although most of us like Rembrandt more.  While they each had a distinct style, it was a style of the time.

            And that’s just it, while Rembrandt may have imitated some of de Keyser’s style, he made it uniquely his own.  Nonetheless, today we recognize both artists within a particular time and place. 

            That brings us to the former issue.  You may be able to construct an original artwork in the style of an era that has passed, but is it really Art?  Everything to which the artists of that time responded has now passed, the technical innovations of their day are no longer the case.  That does not mean that the imitative work you made is “bad,” but I don’t think it is a work that dialogues with its generation.

            A painter today may paint like Jackson Pollock, or a sculptor may create a piece alike to Louise Nevelson, but they are extending a style more than they are creating a personal impression.  Granted, it will be their interpretation of Pollock or Nevelson, but it would be tough to separate the style from the original artists.

            Thus, artwork of the past does impact us today, it even inspires some to imitate those styles.  Nonetheless, we realize that they were part of their generation, and while there are time-less elements that impress us currently, those were birthed in the past.