heretodaytucson
HERE TODAY TUCSON
HERE TODAY TUCSON will blog, document, criticize and praise contemporary and modern art work found throughout Tucson, Arizona and it's surrounding South Western areas. This blog was created by Nickie Befus.
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Alice Wilsey
How Sweet It Was Vintage
July 2017
The work of Alice Wilsey snuck up on one my usual and leisurely strolls down 4th Ave. Making my away across 6th St. to the east I notice streamers flying and flipping around above the awning of the new little vintage shop that moved in a few months ago, How Sweet It Was. I decided to step in, and to my surprise right in the front window Wilsey’s work, situated in a beautiful and naturally lit gallery space just for art folks.
Wilsey’s wooden pedestals and white sculptures paired themselves so well there seemed to be no separation between the two; one being art and one being the display table for art could not be applied to these delicate yet hard pieces. Perfect rectangular brick forms, an organic shape with a bolt like punch through the center, the shape of what looked like an encased book in plaster, wrapped (and then removed) with a wet bag soaked in coal reflected the words from the tiny fortune that accompanied the exhibitions description “A perfect statue never comes from a bad mould”.
The owner of How Sweet It Was informed me the streamers outside that initially caught my attention were in fact Wilsey’s. Simple plastic and wood, vertical hanging, and neon green, mirroring the earnings that stood, square encased below the artists name. These beautiful and functional piece’s, elongated and constructed from synthetic hair, plastic, and a bronze colored wire spoke well to the location of this wonderful installation, and lent to another meaning for the name of the awesome vintage shop where I found the art work of Alice Wilsey. If you are in Tucson and looking for something sweet head down to 424 E. 6th St. before July disappears.
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Sonoran Glass School
Studio Tour June 2017
The Sonoran Glass School is tucked away on the freeway frontage road of I-10 heading West. Situated on a desert corner, a quaint one story house-like building confronts you on the right hand side; disguising the multi-faceted studios, kilns, and glasswork that lay just behind the doors of 633 W. 18th St. Tucson AZ, 85701.
My visit to the school sent me to connect with Executive Director Lynn Davis (check name) who briefly gave me a tour of the facilities and told me about upcoming events in Fall 2017. The school is inspiring, and welcoming; a large open studio space greets you when you enter, four huge, black glass cookers encompass the whole south side of the studio. A demonstration space filled with tools facilitating what looks to be some serious medieval torture, centers itself in the large open room, lined by student and resident artist work.
Separated from the main portion of the school, a smaller more intimate studio space. Behind a blue closed door, more kilns (small) and shelves of plate glass from every color in the rainbow, and all the colors of the sea. I realized at that moment, I really know nothing about glass and how art is made out of it. I had to ask Lynn what the process of making glass art is akin to “clay” she said. While touring the smaller glass studio I began to see this connection, as she explained layered sheets of delicate color are scored and then baked into plates, bowls, and decorative pieces among many other things.
Including these studios, the mobile glass studio The G.O.A.T. (glassworking on a trailer) situated itself on the grounds of the Sonoran Glass School, in the large outdoor courtyard that separated the schools studios from the administration building. The G.O.A.T allows student and resident artists to show the world how glass blowing can create both functional and decorative works of art through live demonstrations.
By the end of the tour I had come to the conclusion that glass working is an art form and process all unto its own, and that my interest has only been peaked with my amazing introduction to how the process begins. The Sonoran Glass school is a non-profit organization with lots of opportunities to learn more. See their upcoming class schedule and get more information via their website sonoranglass.org
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Candy Chang has been following me since Denver, unfortunately it has been with the same piece of art work that has been circulating around the country (and world) since 2008, if not earlier. Chang has made a success of her career, and with Masters in Urban Planning from Columbia University, as well as a BS in Architecture and a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Michigan, it’s really no wonder why Chang is where she is today. Though in an ever changing world of fresh, new artwork it’s hard to understand how this piece is still popping up.
This, like ALL of Chang’s “Before I Die” installations consists of chalkboards, installed outside, with the obvious message, and an opportunity for passer by’s to fill-in-the-blank. The piece is/was good when it was new activating the space, drawing in an audience, making the viewer a participator confronting some existential dilemma; all of the indications of a really good piece of contemporary artwork in the 21st century though even in undergrad I recollect the constant message “always avoid plagiarizing yourself”. The re-circulation of “Before I Die” for nine years is beyond plagiarizing yourself, it’s artistic stagnancy. I am really and truly ready for fresh Candy!
http://candychang.com
http://anotherdayindenver.tumblr.com/post/62581275641/candy-wall-really-no-kinda
#tucson art#tucson artist#Tucson Candy Chang#candy chang#new orleans#las vegas#university of arizona#wildcats#before i die
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Yikes Toys
Bewitched
Valerie Galloway
It’s hard to find a place to begin when thinking about how to reference Valerie Galloway’s “Bewitched” at Yikes Toys on 1930 E. Speedway. One thing is for sure, Galloway’s animated male and female caricatures invoke the appeal of Modigliani while matching the sensibility of up-cycled vintage and are well worth visiting.
Galloway’s two dimensional framed works will greet you on the right-hand side when you step into Yikes Toys, a retail nook with a varied collection of tin lunch boxes, eclectic gift wrap, and curious books. Galloway uses the locations on the map pages to insert subtle and effective drawn images, reflecting a female sensibility and the status quo of each geographical backdrop; a beautiful women with an Afro is drawn on top of Africa, the image of two lovers is positioned on top of France. The black-inked women of Galloway’s drawings and up-cycled book pages can be located throughout the store. A permanent installation of flat files, pendants, magnets and more framed works of Galloway’s lend to the overall classic appeal of Yikes Toys. Some of the images throughout the displayed work could serve to inspire patterns for graphic apparel, handbags, and the like. Bewitched can be seen through September 5, go take a look Tucson!
http://www.yikestoys.com/
https://www.etsy.com/people/ValerieGalloway
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Tucson JCC Fine Art Gallery
Monsters Under the Bed:
Works on Paper by Curt Kiwak
Like the title of the show suggests, Curt Kiwak’s works on paper reflect a similar sentimentality and aesthetic to Maurice Sendak’s, the artist/author better known for the book title “Where the Wild Things Are.” Kiwak utilizes fictitious monsters to narrate bulbous and organic, creature-forms that bring to life a child’s dream, or at times what seems like an adults nightmare. Located at Tucson’s Jewish Community Center, Kiwak’s works on paper unexpectedly presented themselves in full form as I was visiting the JCC for potential fitness reasons.
The Fine Arts Gallery is unassuming and big, located on the first floor and in the center of a mezzanine. Kiwak’s large and small framed pieces lined the length of the wide and opened room filled with natural light, low tables, and chair type seating. “Not Quite the Trojan Horse One Had in Mind” stopped me on my tour around the building. The square figure looked pensive with a pink marshmallow rabbit sitting and watching (eyeless) from its bird mouth. As I investigated this odd creature I was drawn into Kiwak’s illustrations, seemingly cute at first, but upon a second look reveal something that seems more sinister. Titles like “Some Days Are Better Than Today”, “He Made His Point” and “Somebody Drops the Ball and it Starts All Over Again” allude to hidden perspectives beyond the childlike illustrations. “Eyeless and Gazing” is a large rippled, pugged and maggot-shaped, white doodle defined by its red background and black drop-shadow on top of sandy blue foreground; the image is striking even as it sits towards the back of the exhibition space.
Kiwak’s lifelong career as a preschool teacher may add to his cartooned and whimsical world, dotted with reoccurring symbols of water and animals, and layered in combination with geometric shapes and a primary color palette. I was pleasantly surprised when I found this show and highly recommend taking a trip to see it!
Located at 3800 E. River Road, “Monsters Under the Bed, Works on Paper by Curt Kiwak” is on display from July 8th - September 6th with an artist reception on August, 28th, 2:00 p.m - 4:00 p.m.
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The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tucson Great Hall and Southeast Galleries Alex Von Bergen: Next Time
The Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson is located in the heart of downtown, directly neighboring the Tucson Police Department at 265 South Church Avenue. Founded in 1996, the building was converted from its original purpose of a fire house for the use of fine arts exhibition and private events. Back in January, Alex Von Bergen was on display, promoting the history of the very building in the exhibition Next Time (24 October 2015 – 31 January 2016) with the site specific, minimalist installation in MOCA’s main hall, consisting of two-dimensional framed photographs and clean geometrical wall murals. Von Bergen set a subtle, yet effective dialog within works that mirrored the interior of the building, filtering through a neo-Constructivist lens of grays and reds while displaying well-curated, photographed or re-purposed images of items and people that connected through content or correlated aesthetically via color choice; these framed images stood out particularly, as they remind me of my own Craigslist Image Mash works.
The common practices of our technology soaked lives are often juxtaposed to the intermittence of such convenience, in Next Time Von Bergen chose grainy audio and video pieces of the le flaneur flavor (found and displayed throughout the MOCA) to facilitate an uninvited look into the world of lost voyeurism. “Tan Line Gradient Studies” utilize the postcard as a presentation format and critique for the act of viewing, selling and celebrity. As a museum guest I am invited to take postcards of famous people with all too revealing tan lines, to send, raising questions of who’s watching, why and what is beautiful.
The MFA grad and University of Arizona alumni had the majority of the MOCA Tucson stuffed with his work. From banners outside on the building, to project-like spaces (past the main hall) filled with work that felt like it was trying-to-hard-to-be-contemporary, overrating the mundane with aesthetic harder to find then a viable candidate for the 2016 presidential elections. These pieces felt like the background of a portrait painting that was finished in haste to clear the white space, unnecessary but not bad enough to distract from the show as a whole.
It’s clear that Von Bergen has a sense of humor and a keen eye. I have to say for this being the first show that I viewed in Tucson, I was quite delighted and entertained and feel a “Thank You” coming on to the team and the artist at the MOCA Tucson for getting my blood boiling and tummy hungry for what Tucson is making!
To view more images of this exhibition visit MOCA Tucson’s website at https://www.moca-tucson.org/exhibition/alexvonbergen/
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Here is Tucson, and I am here! I am on a new adventure to explore contemporary and modern art work in the Southwest. The blistering heat and dusty, dry desert air has left me feeling an intense curiosity to understand more about Tucson and the arts community that thrives here. Check out my other projects at http://nickiebefus.tumblr.com/
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