By: A.C. Frabetti, Feb 10, 2010, AEQAI
The recent series of Kim Flora's encaustic works currently on display at the PAC Gallery are inspired by reminiscences of her childhood near Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. The works in which this is particularly evident (for the seaside in general, for the artist also claims influences from West Coast sojourns) are ones featuring swathes of blue and oceanline (such as untitled coastline along highway 1, 2009), elements of constructs (such as a long, cold journey east, 2009) or both (city on a hill, 2009). In the latter, and many like it, the bridge structure seems to emerge out of a mist, a common result of the wax layering technique. Overall, the colors are often split between peaceful monochromatic variations or bold contrasts in bright colors.
Her desire to create images of her past imply a sense of longing, and even loss. The bridge-form is typically symbolic in art of the striving to connect, yet it also presupposes distance and separation. The monochrome renders the compositions utilizing it especially with this sense. Furthermore, the particular bridge that appears in her compositions seems much like the ruin of a building, or even broken scaffolding(especially for those unfamiliar with the actual structure). Consequently, it gives the sense of the destruction of nature upon artificial forms, like the remnants of antique monuments disappearing into oblivion. For my sensibilities, the expressive melancholy of the ruin, the mist-like layerings, and the bridge symbol give these particular works a haunting and beautiful depth.
It is noteworthy that Chesapeake Bay, our largest estuary, became (according to my Wikipedia pseudo-research) one of the first sites in the 1970s for its oxygen-starved marine dead zone, caused by the excess of algal blooms from industrial waste. Hence her image of it is (at least partially) idealized, like so many of our childhood memories.
There is visible in this exhibition a variety of directions that the artist seems to be exploring, both thematically and technically. This may be construed as a strength or weakness; for younger artists, I consider such experimentation laudable. In terms of a different approach, yet within the vein of the above mentioned psychological work, is Angel Wing #2 (2009). The dark hue (on its left side) resembles an ocean storm, whereas the clearer patch implies unobstructed ocean sky. Yet the two together could symbolize light breaking darkness, heavily suggestive of hope and spiritual succor, appropriate in the context of the longings in some of her other work.
By: Matt Morris, Feb 2, 2010, CityBeat
One of the last artists to benefit from Cincinnati's artist grants program is Kim Flora. In 2008, she was awarded $6,000 to support the creation of the large-scale encaustic paintings that grace her exhibition Personal Vistas, opening this Friday at PAC Gallery in East Walnut Hills. (It is up through Feb. 27.) Encaustic (paintings in melted wax) is an expensive, involved medium to work in; this exhibition would have been nearly impossible at Flora’s career stage without grant support.
There is real turbulence splashing about in this new series, like a Gericault shipwreck. During my visit to the gallery, I returned over and over to the brooding “through the thickening,” a blackish painting with a wave of milky wax smeared through the center of the panel. Snipped-up photographs and other collage elements are scattered between layers of oil paint and wax. The painting’s beauty is enhanced by the wear and struggle it withstood in Flora’s studio; jags of extra hues, scuffs and scrapes court the accidental along with all-out chaos.
>Most of the artworks are colored by a bevy of blues: the colors of bodies of water, melancholy and night skies. Flora tames the chilly depths of transparent wax with elegantly shaky drawings across the painting’s front, as in “starlight and the harbor,” where four lines suggest a whale-like immensity drifting in front of the rough surface.
In the Wake of Tagore
By: Selena Reder, June 1, 2009, AEQAI
Four exhibits explore the changing character of contemporary Indian art. The Phyllis Weston-Annie Bolling and PAC galleries partnered with ArtWorks Gallery and the Krohn Conservatory Butterfly Show to bring together the works of 14 contemporary Indian artists. Radha Chandrashekaran and Meena Vari are guest curators of 'Metamorphosis: Change and Continuity in Indian Contemporary Art'. The works examine globalization and its effects on people and the environment, the merging of the East and West and the blending of traditional Indian art with modernism.
Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951) is credited as the first modern Indian painter and founder of the Bengal School (La Plante). His followers broke from the aesthetics imposed on their culture by the British Raj. Their works are a revival of traditional Indian art but also the beginnings of modernism. Tagore's influence is unmistakable in the works of some of the artists featured in 'Metamorphosis'.
Amitesh Shrivastava's acrylic paintings share a similar color palette with Tagore; the brushwork is soft and the colors are muted. Tagore drew from a number of influences including Japanese watercolors, ancient Greek frescoes and the Ajanta Cave paintings of India's second century BCE. During his lifetime, Tagore fought to preserve Indian culture in the face of the British Empire. It is interesting, then, to consider that much of contemporary Indian art is a battle to preserve this same heritage in the face of globalization.
Shrivastava renews this struggle in Evaporator (2009) and Manufacturers (2009), paintings which grapple with the onslaught of industrialism. The artist portrays his 'manufacturers' almost as if they are Greek Gods. One figure has a wing sprouting from his eyelid, which could be a reference to Hermes the messenger god of Greek mythology or Winged Victory (Nike of Samothrace c. 200-190 B.C.) bursting forth from her pedestal. The manufacturers are holding up what could be inventions or tools of their trade, but Shrivastava obscures these objects by painting them in a Cubist manner. In addition to Cubism, the artist may also be influence by Futurism, but the paintings lack some of the dynamism and forward thrust of Umberto Boccioni's Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (c.1913). As with Winged Victory, Boccioni's statue is the pure embodiment of energy. The lack of this kind of energy in Shrivastava's paintings may be intentional. Futurism celebrates the triumph of technology over nature. Shrivastava's paintings melancholic. They reflect what is lost when industrialism beats out the natural world.
Gigi Scaria depicts the changing face of rural life in India where the industrial world is entering and altering the landscape. As Keith Bradsher explains, outsourcing to India turns these small villages into factory towns. "Among villages with thatch-roofed huts and dirt roads on the outskirts of this city in west-central India, John Deere and LG have recently built factories turning out tractors and color television sets for sale in India and for export to the United States. " (Bradsher) Scaria's digital print Post Land (2009) shows one of these villages on the outskirts of the city. It is a stark, black and white landscape, with weeds growing over the road, a few people off in the distance, and in the center, a telephone pole, erected like a huge cross in the ground. Scaria's work is conceptual and deals with the displacement of people as industrialism takes over. Scaria often takes a three step approach to his work, first constructing a sculpture, like this telephone pole, then using it as a model for a painting and also photographing the sculpture, as with Post Land. The Krohn has a series of Rangoli sand paintings on display, but no sculptures or installations in 'Metamorphosis'; I think one of Scaria's 3-dimensional works would have been an impressive addition to the show.
A curious work of art is Biju Joze's illustration Black Tissue Paper Roll inside a Red Commode. Joze is a very tactile artist who dabs the paper with red ink thumb prints to create a blotchy, dotted red commode. He creates shading by varying the pressure of his thumb prints. Joze uses this technique in many of his works, often depicting household items such as a light bulb with red or blue thumbprints. He even uses his heel in some of the works. Joze seems to be concerned with the corporal, whether he is working with illustration or sculpture. In one example, he strung together a tribal necklace from Viagra pills. I would venture to say this could be worn by a tribal leader or a Shaman as a display of virility. Joze considers himself as an activist and addresses environmental issues in much of his work. The toilet paper is unraveled and draped over the toilet seat possibly to show that it is being wasted. The black and blood-red colors suggest that this waste is polluting our waterways. Curiously the red fingerprints also suggest the Indian bindi or KumKum This is a powder that girls and women (and even men) dab on their foreheads during worship, or sometimes wear as a beauty mark (Ramusack). This bindi is said to be placed on the sixth chakra, the 'seat of concealed wisdom.' It is the exit point for kundalini energy, and the bindi is said to retain that energy. This connection makes the subject of a toilet even more bizarre; the idea of flushing something away, the water that we use and have to waste, on a daily basis, just to allow us the convenience of indoor plumbing. The luxury of clean drinking water is often overlooked in the U.S. but Joze seems to make a point that in India, water supplies are running low and cannot afford to be wasted.
Several prints by Vivek Vilasini merge together eastern and western iconography. The crowning example is Last Supper in Gaza (2008) a variation on Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper (1495-1498). Here instead we find 13 women, cloaked in all-black chadors or burqas. The central figure is Jesus, with open arms and downcast gaze. Judas is fourth from the left, as in da Vinci's painting, with her elbow on the table. Three pomegranates lie before her on the table. The pomegranates are an interesting choice by the artist, scattered symbolically on the table along with loaves of bread. In Christianity the loaves symbolize the body of Christ. Vasilini chose the pomegranate as a sign of fertility. In Greek mythology it is the fruit which Persephone eats, making her the goddess of the underworld. Some religious scholars believe the pomegranate is actually the forbidden fruit that led to Adam and Eve's exile from Eden. The Quran also mentions the pomegranate as one of the fruits of the gardens of paradise. Renaissance painters including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli (Madonna of the Pomegranate, ca. 1487) place the pomegranate in the hands of Mary or the infant Jesus, possibly to symbolize his suffering and resurrection. Vilasini's depiction of the Last Supper may also be in reverence to K.S. Kulkarni, who founded the Delhi Silpi Chakra artistic movement in the 1940's. Kulkarni departed from traditional Indian art by painting a Cubist style Last Supper. Now, Vilasini challenges tradition by reversing the gender roles in Islamic culture. The apostles of Christianity become the prophets of Islam, Jesus becomes the prophet Mohammed, and these powerful religious figures are women. Their faces are veiled but their eyes reveal the tension among this harim of women. Here the betrayal of Christ comes from much more than just the kiss of Judas. Political and social unrest, war, occupation, violence against women, and religious conflict can all be read in their expressive eyes.
Radha Chandrashekaran and other purveyors of contemporary Indian art are touring this work in the international market where it has been well received. Some of the vast array of Indian cultures and religions are reflected in 'Metamorphosis' but it is just the tip of the iceberg. For better or for worse, art may become another export of India as the country propels further into globalization. - Selena Reder.
'Metamorphosis: Change and Continuity in Indian Contemporary Art,' April 18 - June 21, 2009 Phyllis-Weston Annie Bolling Gallery, 2003 Madison Road, Cincinnati OH, 45208
PAC Gallery, 2540 Woodburn Avenue, Cincinnati OH, 45206 ArtWorks Gallery, 811 Race Street, Cincinnati OH, 45202
Krohn Conservatory, 1501 Eden Park Drive, Cincinnati OH, 45202
References La Plante, John D. Asian Art. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 1992. Bradsher, Keith. 'The Next Industrial Giant is India?' New York Times, 31 Aug 2006. Ramusack, Barbara and Sharon Sievers. Women in Asia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
A Bridge To Young Collectors
By: Bridget Moriarity March 6, 2009
NEW YORK— Next-generation artists, collectors, and gallerists turned out in full force for the opening night of Bridge New York’s second edition, being held from March 5 through 8 in the Waterfront building at 222 12th Avenue. Sixty galleries representing 15 countries — up from 54 dealers from 12 countries at last year’s debut — tightly packed the former grounds of the Tunnel nightclub. But while people were definitely talking numbers, sales weren’t sizzling at the starting gate. At the booth of Chicago's Accomplice Projects, which is run by Bridge, the Brooklyn-based artist Edouard Steinhauer is showing his mixed-media, three-dimensional work Gobblers and Swallowers, which he describes as an “entertainment console” — in reference, perhaps, to the spinning turntable at the piece’s center, atop which bird-like creatures are perched. Steinhauer, who counts Peggy Cooper Cafritz, founder of the Duke Ellington School of Arts in Washington, D.C. among the collectors of his work, has priced the work at $18,000. “I think sales are going to be really good — people have held back for so long that they’re starting to get more comfortable with where their finances stand,” says an optimistic Lisa Cooper of Elisa Tucci Contemporary Art, which is featuring work by international artists, including the Taiwan-born painter Amy Cheng, for $400 to $1,800.
The gallery, which operates out of a space in Riverdale, New York, but generates most of its business either online or at private events or art fairs, treats new collectors to special discounts and donates 5 percent of all profits to charity. New York Dealer Michael Petronko handed over one wall of his booth to the artist Koor, who is known for his use of language, whether graffiti- or calligraphy-inspired, in his work. On opening night, Koor was actively making brightly hued canvases in spray paint and acrylic marker, priced between $1,000 and $5,000 each. The pieces overlap seamlessly with the larger canvas of the wall — which is also for sale — but function as stand-alone works as well. “The idea,” the artist explains, “is to create a site-specific painting but to also work in small formats which are accessible to younger collectors.” Sharing Petronko’s space are eight works in ink, watercolor, and rootbeer on paper by the Canadian it-boy Marcel Dzama. Among them is an untitled 1999 narrative triptych — three freestanding pieces each measuring 26 by 20 inches that Petronko asserts would be “a crime to break up” — portraying a superheroine in action. Of the series, priced collectively at $26,000, Petronko says, “Works by Dzama don’t come on the market in this size and dealing with this type of figurative subject.” Two smaller Dzama examples, which measure approximately 12 1/2 by 10 inches and date to 2002, are priced at $3,000 and $4,000 each. Ten artists run the show at New York’s Collective Gallery 173-171, and four were on hand at Bridge to tout their work, which was priced between $900 and $15,000. One of the featured talents, Virginie Sommet, says Bridge is all about making valuable contacts: “I don’t think about sales — we’ve already met four curators [including Jean Barberis, the artistic director of the Queens nonprofit Flux Factory] within the first two hours of the fair.”
Parisian dealer Adeline Jeudy, of Galerie L.J., has been in business for two years and carries work exclusively by American and French talents, including the New York–based street artist Swoon, whose block prints on paper are priced between $2,500 and $15,000. Jeudy sees Bridge as a fair on the rise and the best means to reach her target audience: “The Amory Show wouldn’t have been the right fit — I’m trying to attract younger collectors who are interested in edgier work.” Her expectations are modest. “As long as I can reimburse myself for the expense of getting here I’ll be happy,” she says.
Another first-time participant is Jin-Zhi Gallery of Taiwan, which has work valued between $400 and $20,000, the latter sum attached to an oversized portrait, outlined with caltrop plant seeds, by the Taiwanese artist Buh-Ching Hwang. And returning to Bridge New York for the second time is Mexico City–based Ginocchio Galeria. The gallery, which is selling pieces priced between $4,900 and $18,000, was last in town in November for the Latin American art fair Pinta, where gallery representative Paola Contreras notes they did excellent business before seeing a drop in interest at subsequent fairs in Miami and Los Angeles. Given Bridge’s somewhat overcrowded feel — a dealer who had shown at the fair’s Miami counterpart said he missed the airier booths down south — it was perhaps no surprise that there was at least one casualty of the cramped quarters.
At the booth of the newly formed PAC Gallery, of Cincinnati, Ohio, Korean artist Mi-Hee Nahm’s work Cultural Battle — an installation featuring a wall-hung drawing of the historic Namdaemun gate in Seoul and a floor-level fleet of miniature soldier figurines — was accidentally toppled on more than one occasion. Each time, the gallery’s Cate Yellig, in the breezy spirit of Bridge, laughed it off and dutifully reassembled the army. Among the fair’s special programming this year is a section devoted to the Williamsburg Gallery Association, which has gathered work by 12 artists from 12 of the organization’s 26 galleries. Prices start at $400 and climb to $35,000. Tracy Causey-Jeffery, a representative of the WGA, notes, “We do want sales, but this is also a mission for exposure. That said, we have had a ton of price inquiries — we’re encouraged.”
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A Taste of Contemporary Indian Art in Cincinnati
By: Janelle Gelfand April 12, 2009
Murali Cheeroth's oil on canvas displays the powerful imagery of muscle and machinery, against a backdrop of electrifying colors. Another painting by George Martin makes a statement in vivid technicolor about the globalization of India. And Binoy Varghese, an artist who lives in New Delhi, memorializes the poor children of India with bright, happy faces against a lush tropical backdrop.
For the first time in the Midwest, 14 of India's most important young artists from that nation's thriving contemporary art scene are coming together for a joint endeavor by the Cincinnati Parks Board, ArtWorks, PAC Gallery and the Phyllis Weston-Annie Bolling Gallery. "In each of these works, we see subjects about the changes in India," says Radha Chandrashekaran, who, with Meena Vari, curated the exhibition. "Nobody has ever brought a group of Indian artists like this together in the Midwest.
These artists have shown in New York, Dubai and London. It's about the change that is happening in India. It is important, and the biggest thing is that it is a collaborative effort." The exhibition, Metamorphosis: Change and Continuity in Indian Contemporary Art, explores India's age of intense globalization. Opening Friday at the Phyllis Weston-Annie Bolling Gallery in O'Bryonville and Saturday at the PAC Gallery in Walnut Hills, it coincides with the Krohn Conservatory's Butterflies of India, which opens Saturday.
The shows run through June 21. The Academy Award winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" thrust India and the rise of its middle class into the public consciousness, making such an exhibition timely, says Tamara Harkavy, director of ArtWorks. " 'Slumdog' has brought the cultural awareness of India to a new level. It's now part of our popular culture, and India is just rocking," says Harkavy, who has just returned from a trip to India. It was "serendipity" that Chandrashekaran, a Cincinnati artist and visiting professor at Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore, India, suggested to Harkavy that ArtWorks mount an exhibit of contemporary Indian art in Cincinnati.
Simultaneously, Weston and Bolling were exploring the same idea. The works on canvas, as well as photographs, will be shared between the galleries, and reproductions of some of the art will be exhibited at Krohn Conservatory during the butterfly show. Also on display will be works from Chandrashekaran's personal collection of Patuan artists from West Bengal, who create traditional works inspired by the art of storytelling. Most of the exhibition's contemporary artists were born in the southern state of Kerala, and now work in cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai (formerly Bombay).
Their art not only documents the growth of technology, but points to the emerging middle class in India. But with rapid growth comes destruction of the natural environment, a topic addressed by several artists. Rajan Krishnan's acrylic "Language on Woods" is a forest of dead trees in a marsh-like setting. "For him it's a way of showing decay," says Chandrashekaran. Many of the artists take their cue from iconic Western art. Vivek Vilasani, a multimedia artist, channels Richard Hamilton, Hans Holbein and Vincent Van Gogh, but reinterprets their subjects with Indian sensibility. A large photograph shows Kathakali dancers from Kerala in a pose evoking Van Gogh's "The Potato Eaters," but their spectacular costumes and mask-like facial makeup jump out from the image. Another, a photo montage inspired by British pop artist Hamilton, is centered by a body builder wearing a traditional Kathakali headpiece, exuding a sense of irony and humor, as the artist questions social constructions. For area art lovers, it will be an unusual opportunity to experience the renaissance of Indian art. "During these three months, we want to make the city Indian," Harkavy says.
Additional Facts If you go What: Metamorphosis: Change and Continuity in Indian Contemporary Art, an exhibition of emerging and established contemporary artists of India. Guest curators: Radha Chandrashekaran and Meena Vari Exhibition preview: 5-8 p.m. Friday, Phyllis Weston-Annie Bolling Gallery: 2003 Madison Road, O'Bryonville.
Gallery hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. 513-321-5200, www.westonbollinggallery.com
Opening reception at PAC Gallery: 5-8 p.m. Saturday, 2540 Woodburn Avenue, E. Walnut Hills. Gallery hours: 2 p.m.-7 p.m. Thursdays-Saturday. 513-255-2899, www.pacgallery.net
Opening reception at ArtWorks Gallery: 2-5 p.m. April 25, 811 Race Street, downtown. Gallery hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday. 513-333-0388, www.artworkscincinnati.org.
Krohn Conservatory Butterfly Show: Butterflies of India. Saturday through June 21, Krohn Conservatory, Eden Park. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m daily
Bold Pact at PAC: New gallery brings contemporary Indian art to Cincinnati
By: Matt Morris Wednesday, April 15, 2009, Citybeat
Considering the state of the economy, it might seem daring for a new commercial gallery dedicated to contemporary art to open its doors. But the brand new PAC Gallery in East Walnut Hills, set for a grand opening 5-8 p.m. Saturday, is not only opening but also devoting its first show to contemporary art from India.
The gallery is the newest venture of Phyllis Weston and Annie Bolling Rangeley, of Weston-Bolling Gallery in O’Bryonville, and third partner Cate Yellig, a recent MFA graduate in Art History from the University of Cincinnati. PAC stands for Phyllis, Annie and Cate. PAC is comprised of two rooms with large banks of windows, clean white walls and severe black ceilings and floors.
The opening exhibition is Metamorphosis: Change and Continuity in Indian Contemporary Art, curated by Radha Chandrashekaran and Meena Vari. Chandrashekaran is based in Cincinnati but is currently a visiting faculty member at Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, Bangalore, India, where Vari is an events coordinator. To gain firsthand experience with the artists, Yellig joined Chandrashekaran on a journey to India. “It’s an incredibly, beautifully terrifying place — an assault on the senses,” she says via e-mail. “Fourteen artists were selected to show in PAC, a mixture of several very established painters and a number of ‘emerging artists,’ all of whom use art to look at a world that is changing rapidly around them. “What we found as the exhibition manifested (itself) is that recurring themes like urbanization and globalization are not only relevant in India but the United States.”
Murali Cheeroth is one of the established painters in the exhibition who will be coming to Cincinnati for the show. His paintings make use of intense panoplies of spicy pinks, reds and greens. Cheeroth grew up in the Communist state of Kerala and currently lives and works in Bangalore. He borrows widely recognized images that reflect his contemplations on politics, industrialization and globalization. In “Unmarked 2,” a statue of Vladimir Lenin stands before a streaky, futuristic field of rich color. In “Unmarked 9,” he juxtaposes a strong right arm and industrial architecture with dense vine patterning in bright green. Yellig observed that Cheeroth’s works reference the Russian Social Realist paintings that Weston-Bolling Gallery regularly exhibits. The noticeable exception to the generally high-keyed exhibition is the gentle, oozing paintings of Amitesh Shrivastava. In “Evaporator,” a crouching figure dwarfs little horizon lines that run out from loopy abstract marks and signs of industrial collapse. His works are modulated in soft muddy greens, rusts and the colors of bruises. Their quietude invites longer experiences than other works in the exhibition. For now, PAC is only committing to two or three exhibitions each year, although the owners “intend on going the way of the art fair circuit,” Yellig says.
PAC has already participated in the Bridge Art Fair in New York and will be at Art Chicago in May. And it will not necessarily concentrate on contemporary Indian art beyond this show. The gallery has also teamed up with ArtWorks Gallery and the Cincinnati Parks Foundation to make its celebration of Indian art a citywide event. It will coincide with the Krohn Conservatory’s annual butterfly show, also opening Saturday and with a theme of Butterflies of India. Some of the artists in PAC’s inaugural show will also be included in a connected exhibition at ArtWorks, opening April 25, that additionally will feature two artists from the Patuan Tribe of West Bengal.
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