Friday, December 4, 2015
Kroll explains Paik's influence on him:
When I was a young man in Manhattan taking photographs of anything that moved, for myself and for anyone that would publish the images, I accidently intersected with Nam June Paik. He changed how I did what I did in photography by showing me aka teaching me, the importance of including absurdity in my work. I shot for him, worked with him, from the mid-seventies to when I moved to San Francisco in 1994. That experience unlocked the door to everything I try to do.
John HanHardt gives us a glimpse of Paik's influence on media arts:
The wide presence of the media arts in contemporary culture is in no small measure due to the power of Paik's art and ideas. Through television projects, installations, performances, collaborations, development of new artists' tools, writing, and teaching, he has contributed to the creation of a media culture that has expanded the definitions and languages of art making.The show starts at 7:30 p.m. at downtown's Exploded View gallery, 197 E. Toole Ave. More info here.
Paik's life in art grew out of the politics and anti-art movements of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. During this time of societal and cultural change, he pursued a determined quest to combine the expressive capacity and conceptual power of performance with the new technological possibilities associated with the moving image.
I will argue that Paik realized the ambition of the cinematic imaginary in avant-garde and independent film by treating film and video as flexible and dynamic multitextual art forms. Using television, as well as the modalities of singlechannel videotape and sculptural/installation formats, he imbued the electronic moving image with new meanings. Paik's investigations into video and television and his key role in transforming the electronic moving image into an artist's medium are part of the history of the media arts.
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Participating brewers for this event are:
- Phoenix Ale Brewery
- The Address Brewing
- Thunder Canyon Brewery
- Ten55 Brewing
- Four Peaks Brewing Company
- Borderlands Brewing Company
- O.H.S.O. Brewery
- Dragoon Brewing Co.
- Catalina Brewing Company
- Mother Road Brewing
- Public Brewhouse
- 1912 Brewing Company
Of course, no beer event would be complete without a rousing beer pong tournament. A $10 buy-in and a partner gets you in the running, with prizes for the first three placing teams. Food vendors for the event include American Flying Buffalo, Mutts Premium Hot Dogs & Sausages, Mama Louisa’s Italian Restaurant and more. The Sonoran Glass School will also be on-site to help you craft your very own beer bottle cap jewelry while Tucson's own Crystal Radio performs.
Art on Tap will be pouring drafts from 4 until 9 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 5 at the Tucson Museum of Art (140 N. Main Ave.). Tickets are $40 the day of the event and $30 online in advance via the museum's website.
Tags: art on tap , tucson museum of art , local , craft beer , tucson , dime novel , western heroes , comic , brewery , dragoon , 1912 , bordelands , ten55 , public brewhouse , beer pong , sonoran glass school
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Way back in 1970, artist Robert Smithson had tons of basalt rock hauled out into the red waters of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Mixing the rock with mud and salt crystals, Smithson made a massive spiral, 1500 feet long and 15 feet wide. Today Smithson’s monumental “Spiral Jetty” still spins its arc into the lake. Sometimes submerged, sometimes visible, depending on shifts in water level, it’s a place of pilgrimage for art lovers.
Smithson was just one of the wave of “land artists” who created a new art form in the 1960s and '70s, carving up terrain in the wide-open spaces of the West and reshaping it into giant works of outdoor art.
“Artists left the gallery system in New York and wanted to do art out in nature,” says Sam Ireland, the new director of Tucson’s Museum of Contemporary Art. “They were getting away from the commercial galleries and the buying and selling of art.”
This Saturday night, MOCA sponsors a single screening at The Loft (3233 E. Speedway Blvd.) of Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art, a brand-new documentary on the movement. According to Ireland, the movie is “a look back at the beginning of the movement.” Also known as “earth art,” the new genre grew in tandem with the period’s dawning environmental consciousness. “The land artists were taking the elements of art–line, light and color–and doing them on a large scale. And the personalities were on the same big scale as their work.”
Tags: troublemakers , moca , tucson , the loft , land art , documentary , screening , director , james crump , Video
Monday, November 23, 2015
Bike co-ops are a fantastic part of the community. Not only do these organizations, which are typically nonprofits, offer a place for folks to rally around a healthy, sustainable ride, they also are integral for low income individuals to get a cheap, efficient mode of transportation that they can learn to build and maintain on the cheap. That, among many reasons, is why supporting BICAS in their annual art auction is so important.
The BICAS art auction provides a decent chunk of operating income for the nonprofit each year, and this year's 20th anniversary auction is no different. While it's a great event to attend and maybe buy some bike-themed art for your home, artists are also welcome to participate in the fundraiser by submitting their own works to the auction. Last year's event alone saw over 200 pieces of entirely unique art up for auction.
Submissions for this year's art auction will be accepted through Saturday, Nov. 28 and can be inspired by bikes, made out of bikes, depicting bikes and more with various media accepted. BICAS is offering scrap metal for artists who need it, as well.
For more information on submitting works or the auction itself, which takes place on Dec. 4 and 5 at the Art Gallery (1122 N. Stone Ave.), visit the BICAS website. You can sign up to volunteer for the auction there as well.
Tags: bicas , art auction , annual , fundraiser , bicycle , call for artist , submissions , the art gallery , tucson , nonprofit
Friday, November 20, 2015
Etherton was informed about Chuang’s departure by the office of Kimberly Andrews Espy, the UA's senior vice president for research and discovery, who supervises all three museums on campus.
“Dr. Espy called me yesterday (Wednesday, Nov. 18),” Etherton says. “I told her this is a colossal mistake. It’s going to do a lot of damage. This is a major step backward for the center. Josh’s reputation in the photography world is really good.”
Chuang was traveling in Europe and could not be reached for comment. He was in Paris last week attending the international Paris Photo exhibition when terrorists attacked the city and killed 130 people. The last days of the expo were canceled; Chuang was unharmed.
Asked on Friday morning whether Chuang was still employed by the center, assistant director Denise Gose says, “I cannot comment on that.”
Chuang, a graduate of Dartmouth and Yale, was hired with great fanfare not quite two years ago.
“Joshua brings a rare blend of imagination and rigor to his exhibitions, lectures, and publications, and has a gift for sharing his knowledge in a highly engaging way,” CCP director Katharine Martinez wrote at the time. “He will play a major role in shaping the center’s future as we acquire and promote photographic collections of extraordinary quality to stimulate imagination, advance scholarship, and encourage creativity.”
Tags: joshua chuang , center for creative photography , resign , tucson , art , culture , news
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Local visual artist Nika Kaiser has a penchant for the supernatural, and she expresses it clearly both in her video and photo works. In the past, she's made music videos for Human Behavior, Gabriel Sullivan, Prom Body and more, but now with her recent video exhibit, Kaiser will showcase both her newest work and the works of fellow visual explorers such as Alejandro Innaritu (of Birdman and Babel fame) and the LA Dance Project, video art pioneer Joan Jonas and Oregon-based artist Jessie Rose Vala. The five videos in her upcoming exhibition span from two to 15 minutes each.
We've talked before about the dark spirituality and mystical realism you had in your last photo show. What's this series of videos trying to showcase?
Well, my work often explores ideas of 'reality' in an expanded sense of what that could be—in the past I've often navigated the relationship of land, and more specifically the Sonoran desert, as a space in which to understand an expanded scope of reality; nature as a location on the edge of cultural reality, where a greater sense of being is present in what we might refer to as "supernatural' experience.
In this screening, I've selected works by a breadth of artists, whose works express a relationship between the natural world, movement, technology and the sublime. I will also be premiering a new 3-channel video piece that's related to these themes.
What was the process like creating the video? Where did you shoot? Who are your subjects?
This new piece was filmed at an artist residency I did last summer, outside of Woodstock, NY in the foothills of the Catskill mountains at the Byrdcliffe Guild. Previously I had been working with ideas of desert—a place I consider home, as a site for transformative realities. My family is from the Catskill region, and I spent time there growing up. I wanted to experience that environment through a similar lens, exploring its depth, history and folklore. I made friends with some incredible artists who were also at this residency, including the New York-based painter Lauren Nickou, who I cast as a witch-like protagonist in the video. A lot of inspiration came from the serendipity of my time there, the people I met and the mysterious qualities of dense, east-coast woodlands.
Doing music videos in the past, you've put a visual to music that people say is indicative of the "Tucson sound." What would you say is the "Tucson sight" or the visual aesthetic that defines this area?
Tags: nika kaiser , art , video , visual , photography , tucson , exploded view , gallery
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
However, unlike his technicolor former gig, Kashtelyan's first solo show will feature all black and white sketches using India ink. The dozen or so pieces are all relatively small, between 8 and 12 inches, and will primarily be "portraits of friends and such."
"There's really no conceptual basis. It's just things I like to draw," Kashtelyan says, adding, "Mostly triangles and girls."
In the past, Kashtelyan has penned posters for local bands, including Hank Topless, Ohioan, Young Hunter and two of the bands playing the opening night event: Mastodonna and Ghostal. Dadsdad will also be playing the event as their first show. Kashtelyan says his "main drive" now is to sustain himself as an artist through his band poster work.
The art showing and concert will kick off at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The admission price is to be announced. For more information on this and other events at Tiny Town Gallery, visit the venue's Facebook page.
Tags: alexsey kashtelyan , art , tucson , gallery , tiny town , exhibit , ghostal , mastodonna , dadsdad , live music , event
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Now in its seventh iteration, MOCA is recognizing a diverse collection of thinkers in town who offer up some very different sets of skills.
Brad Lancaster, co-founder of Desert Harvesters, is being recognized for his visionary work in rainwater harvesting. Mort Rosenblum is a renowned journalist who currently teaches international reporting at UA and is known for his integrity in the field. Doctor Andrew Weil's work in integrative medicine focuses on both natural and preventative approaches to wellness. And last, but certainly not least, Tucson's former poet laureate Ofelia Zepeda will be honored for her commitment to teaching the Tohono O'odham language and promoting literacy in the indigenous language.
With such a varied group of recipients, you'll want to be sure to catch the events and lectures associated with the 2016 MOCA Local Genius Awards. While the final gala—which will be catered by another Local Genius, chef Janos Wilder—won't take place until April 16, 2016, events celebrating these luminaries will take place all throughout the spring. For more information on upcoming events at MOCA, visit the museum's website.
Tags: moca , tucson , local genius awards , brad lancaster , desert harvesters , mort rosenblum , ofelia zepeda , andrew weil
Now that the clearance Halloween candy is finally gone from the grocery stores, it's time to start thinking about winter celebrations.
The kind folks over at Ballet Tucson have given us a hefty number of tickets to some of their upcoming shows—including some tickets to their upcoming performances of the Nutcracker.
We've got passes that can be used at performances Dec. 11-13. Enter here and don't forget to tell us if you're looking for two tickets or four:
Monday, November 9, 2015
Here are a few images from last night:
Tags: all souls procession , tucson , Slideshow
