In the Labyrinth

Shakespeare's Sisters: An Exhibit

I shall be in Washington D.C. in May and I am planning on visiting this amazing looking exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Here's a quick description of the exhibit:

"This exhibition celebrates the voices of many women, of 50 writers who express their feelings about religion and love and adventure and their own places in society," explains curator Georgianna Ziegler in a twenty-five minute lecture that kicked off the  Shakespeare's Sisters exhibition opening on February 6, 2012.  (go here to listen to a podcast of Ziegler's lecture or read the transcript.)

Ziegler shares how she came to curate the exhibition, why she thought it important that the writings of Continental women be included, and her excitement over scholars' discoveries over the past 40 years that have disproved Virginia Woolf's famous passage in which she imagines a gifted sister of William Shakespeare, completely thwarted by the social restrictions of his day.

For more information on the exhibit and some really interesting online information on the subject, go to Shakespeare's Sisters, Voices of English and European Writers, 1500--1700.

You might also be interested in the book Shakespeare's Sisters, published in conjunction with the exhibit that features essays with contemporary women authors writing conversations with these historical women and  "bridging the last five centuries." Featured authors are Eavan Boland, Jane Hirshfield, Rita Dove, Linda Gregerson, Jane Smiley, Rosanna Warren, Maxine Kumin, Elizabeth Nunez, Linda Pastan, Heather McHugh, Jacqueline Osherow, Elizabeth Alexander, and Marie Howe.

 

Beating Back the Snow and Sleet With Hollywood Icons and Local Demons

I've been up in Milwaukee recently and despite the fact that it was spring, it snowed, sleeted, hailed, and rained the entire time we were there. Happily, I got a chance to escape the madness of the cold weather in the surreal, visual madness of Ghanaian painter Mark Anthony, whose larger than life posters of scenes from popular local tales can raise the hair on the back of your neck. The paintings are not just illustrations though, but a vital part of Ghanaian "concert parties," produced by itinerant troupes of musicians and actors (whose names are advertised on the signs amidst the terrifying spectacles). Traveling to different towns, concert parties bring day long (and night long) entertainments in the form of vaudeville acts, comedy sketches, morality dramas, music, slapstick and improvised performances.

The paintings are done on two pieces of wood and hinged so they may be folded up, stowed in the back of a pickup truck, and carted to the next town, where they serve as advertisements along the side of the road and backdrops to the night's festivities. Mark Anthony, rather than attend formal art school, learned the skill of scene painting from his father and today, is widely acclaimed in Ghana for his work.

The exhibit "Hollywood Icons and Local Demons" is currently up at The Haggerty Museum in Milwaukee and you can see an excellent slide show of Mark Anthony's work online. Though really, really nothing prepares one for walking into the gallery to stand in front of these really huge (8 ft. square) paintings.  Here is a bit of information about the art from the exhibit:

"The images defy any simplistic opposition between "tradition" and "modernity"; they give insight into the local reworking of transnational media. There are mythic dwarves and forest giants as well as images from Hindu religious pamphlets, charismatic Christianity, boy-meets-girl Indian films, B-grade Japanese and Hollywood movies -- from Godzilla to Transylvanian vampires and Jurrasic Park animals. The artist appropriates the forms and reworks them to suit his own purposes. The perspectives are multiple and point to overlapping and provocative issues: local and global, secular and religious. The viewer experiences the images in a fragmented way through the shifting connections between the supernatural, the fantastic, and the realities of daily life."

I came across a couple wonderful websites with additional information that I highly recommend: Bapmaf/John Collins Music Blog (with historical background to the origins of Concert parties and the music -- really excellent) and  Osibisaba (a great review of the show, terrific links to articles and music online and reading suggestions in the comments).

Arms Out: Mel Kadel at Merry Karnowsky Gallery

Anyone out in the L.A, area should make a point of stopping by to see Mel Kadel's gorgeous work "Arms Out" at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery (show runs from February 5 -- March 5th). I love these drawings with their whimsical female figures surrounded by intricate quilt like patterns. Kadel, often situated in the comics -- art world, has created a sort of iconic heroine, a lithe vigorous creature whose emotions are expressed in the tension of patterned cloth that is wrapped, pulled, shook out and flowing. It's just terrific. You can actually pick up t-shirts with his   her work on it, or purchase a print (at Fudge Factory Comics -- click on shop). For anyone working in textile arts, Kadel's work is fantastic, funny, evocative, and beautiful.

America Sings in Art and Text: Walt Whitman and Emiliano Lake-Herrera

Seems right to be hearing Walt Whitman's poem in my head this weekend. So for your reading pleasure, here it is:

I Hear America Singing

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be
blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing
as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

Source: Selected Poems (1991) Walt Whitman

And speaking of singing -- the charcoal drawing above, "Bottleneck Blues," is from artist Emiliano Lake-Herrera who has a killer installation of portraits and text together of American Delta blues singers at the Bucket Town Center For the Arts in Davenport, Iowa. Just in time for this weekend's Mississippi Valley Blues Festival as well. So if any of you are out that way, stop by and see the show (and if you miss the festival, the show at least runs until August 31, 2010). You can read more about the artist and the show here. If you can't make it there, you can see the exhibit Mojo Hand, on Emiliano's website.

Last Chance to See Tako Niwa (Octopus Garden) New Works By Joel Nakamura

 
 For those of you near San Diego -- think about a weekend visit just to see this incredible show at Subtext Gallery of Joel Nakamura's fabulous new work. The show runs until Sunday June 6.  I love this stuff -- eyepopping, wickedly funny and outrageous. The bold colors, and organic shapes are also richly textured with small intricate details. Here's a bit of his bio from Subtext:

"This Spring, Subtext is proud to present Tako Niwa (Octopus Garden), an exciting solo exhibition from Sante Fe-based artist, Joel Nakamura. Joel is an award-winning artist known for his unique style: a blend of folk art and sophisticated iconography rendered in a neo-primitive technique. He is chosen for many of his commissions for his knowledge of tribal art, mythology, and for his ability to convey stories and information in an intricate and engaging manner."

 
You can see photographs from the show's opening here, and view a pdf file (along with details and prices) of all the art here. And oh my goodness, Nakamura's own site Visual Mythology is fascinating as well as his blog  -- be prepared to spend some serious time there browsing.

 

In order of appearance: Hydroponics, Happy Endo, and Chupacabra

Emily Dickinson: The Poetry of Flowers at the New York Botanical Gardens.

If you live in NYC or find yourself visiting the city sometime over the next two weeks consider stopping by what looks to be a fragrant and poetic event at the New York Botanical Gardens: Emily Dickinson's Garden, The Poetry of Flowers. Here, they have recreated the divine Em's house, woodland gardens, vegetable gardens, and formal gardens. And tucked into all that natural beauty are snippets from her poems. Dickinson, while better known today as a reclusive poet, was very well known in Amherst as an incredible gardener. Every plant had a place in her fields -- including the lowly dandelion which is usually thought of as the scourge of most gardeners. Dickinson identified with the wayward plant writing to her sister-in-law, "I am from the fields, you know, and while quite at home with the Dandelion, make but a sorry figure in a Drawing room." 
 

You can read an interesting review of the show from the WSJ here and the NYBG has a great little website for the exhibit, including three short films chronicling the building of the exhibit. There are week poetry readings and poetry nature walks. Children are welcome. The exhibit lasts until Sunday, June 13. And if you happen to make it there, stop back here and let me know how it was...sadly I won't get a chance to go!

Picture Book Report: Illustrators' Take on Their Favorite Books

 

I certainly applaud illustrator Meg Hunt for setting up a fabulous project, Picture Book Report, with fellow illustrators to offer a blog/gallery of artists who have agreed to illustrate a favorite book, post the illustrations, and write about the process. It's really fascinating -- and makes me wish that many of these "virtual" editions really existed.Three weeks out of the month, Ms. Hunt posts the new work. Go have a look -- click on your favorite artist or title and enjoy. There's three months worth of entries thus far. My favorites have been Meg Hunt's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (below),  Kali Ciesemier's Sabriel, and Sam Bosma's The Hobbit.

Grabados de Oaxaca: Graphic Arts from Oaxaca, Mexico

 

Indigo Arts Gallery  -- a spectacular Philadelphia art gallery (and online presence for those of you with an itch to purchase beautiful prints, etchings, sculptures, and paintings from Asia, Africa, and the Americas) -- has a new exhibit of graphic arts of Oaxaca, Mexico, home to many of Mexico's most sumptuous contemporary painters and print-makers. The show runs Thursday March 11 through Saturday, May 8 (Check the website for the times of various receptions throughout the period as well as the location of the gallery).

Here is a brief description of the current show: "Long renowned as a center for folk art production, the mountainous southern Mexico state of Oaxaca has a growing reputation for the fine arts as well. Birthplace of the late masters Rufino Tamayo, Rodolfo Nieto and Rodolfo Morales, Oaxaca has also produced such leading Mexican artists as Francisco Toledo. But it is the vitality of the younger generation of Oaxaca artists that has led critics to identify a distinct Oaxaca School of Mexican art. Oaxacan art draws its strength from native Indian culture, myths and legends. It is suffused with "magic realism" a folk surrealism in which people fly and mysterious juxtapositions are the norm. As poet Alberto Blanco has written, the artists of Oaxaca "all tend to depict one theme: the appearance in our history of another time and place. A space within another space. A time within another time."

 

So even if you can't make the show -- stop by the website and have a look at the gallery pages of the artists featured in the show. The work is fabulous, vivid and powerful. Also interesting is the importance of the Japanese artist Shinzaburo Takeda (born in 1935 in Seto, Japan). Takeda trained at the University of Fine Arts in Mexico City in 1957 and basically never left Mexico, instead becoming involved in a wide range of art movements. As a professor of Escuela de Bellas Artes de la Universidad Autonoma Benito Juarez de Oaxaca, he has helped educate many of the promising and leading artists of the Oaxaca art movement. He is often referred to as the "most Mexican" of the Oaxaca movement.

Artists work pictured: Top woodblock is "Perro Jugueton" by Enrigues Flores, second is an aquatint "Untitled" by Fernando Olivera, and third is an aquatint "Faces" by Fernando Andriacci, and last is a lithograph "Fiesta de Tigre II" by Shinzaburo Takeda.

All Saints and All Souls: Conjunto Tamaulipas "Al Pie de la Tumba."

We take celebrating Dias De Los Muertos pretty seriously down here in the southwest. So I thought I would share a wonderful little video of the band Conjunto Tamaulipas singing "Al Pie de la Tumba." (This is a clip from a terrific longer documentary film on Chicano music and culture, Chulas Fronteras/Del Mero Corazon)
 

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(*thanks to Emiliano for the link!)
 

Kids' Chalk Art Project Makes It Into the Official Guinness World Records

A huge congratulations to artist Mark Wagner and associates at Re-enchanting the World Through Art for their spectacular Kids' Chalk Art Project, founded last year with the goal of creating the largest street chalk drawing in the world! The art was created by 5,678 children from schools in Alemeda, California who came together between May 27 to June 5th. It is a wonderful example of art's power to inspire a community.

Here's a terrific little video on the whole project. Waaay to Go Mark