Labour Love Gallery has a new exhibition of photographs by Lori Vrba opening on January 15th. The photos on facebook are reminiscent of Sally Mann.
Also at Golden Belt on Third Friday, an installation of ceramic pieces by Sarah Spencer White will open.
Durham Arts Council has new exhibitions, with an opening reception during Third Friday: Presentation and Gallery Tour by Artist, Steven Gregory Friday, January 15, 2010, 5-7 PM.
That's all that's listed for Third Friday so far, but check here for updates.
The Nasher will be taking down Picasso, and the new exhibition doesn't open until February. Big Shots: Andy Warhol Polaroids will be up through February--if you haven't seen it yet, read my earlier post about it.
At NCCU, the Durham's Finest exhibition of artwork by students in Durham Public Schools begins in January. The reception is from 2-4 pm on Sunday, January 10. It's always fun to see the variety of creativity and the look of pride on the kids' faces.
Anything I missed?
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Wrapping Up December
We are devoted followers of Third Friday at Golden Belt, but this week we had an office holiday party to attend so we missed it. However, I hear my former instructor from my days as an art major at UNC has a show there––elin o'Hara slavick's Hiroshima: After Aftermath. I saw her in front of the Only Burger truck the last time I was there, but I was too shy to speak to her! The show is up until January 10, so I still have time to see it. My favorite artist at Golden Belt is Rachel Campbell. She's from New Zealand and her husband is a professor in the Divinity School at Duke. Her paintings have a lonely, magical quality (the photos on the website don't do them justice.) If anyone made it to Golden Belt on Friday, post some comments about it!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Big Shots and the Jazz Loft Project
New York came to Durham in two recent photography events––the Big Shots exhibition at the Nasher Museum of Art and The Jazz Loft Project launch party at the West End Wine Bar. Big Shots, an exhibition of Andy Warhol polaroids and prints, is a fun "who's who" of the 1970s New York scene. The Jazz Loft Project is an evocative view of 1950s-1960s New York. The images in these two shows capture two eras of art and music in New York City.
On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, my husband and I went to the Nasher to see the Picasso exhibition (more on that later), but found ourselves more engaged in the Andy Warhol show. Polaroids are mounted in rows of five to ten shots in long horizontal frames, creating that Warhol repetition and an almost comic strip feel. My husband, who grew up in New York in the 1970s, peered closely at each picture, trying to identify each face. He would then check the laminated guide to verify or refute his guess. Later, he said, "The famous people weren't as interesting to me as the people I didn't know." To me, the most interesting photo was not of a person at all, but of a statue of the last supper. The label recounted a funny anecdote about it from Warhol's diaries. Years ago, during an obsession with Andy Warhol, I read his voluminous diaries, and he is hilarious. I wish the exhibition provided more small stories like this about the photos. The exhibition also includes some films by Warhol, although the silent, slow motion close-ups of facial expressions of the film I saw are closer to photography than film. I saw a mom and her two young sons watching, and the older boy, squirming, asked, "Can we do something else?" He and the mom got up to leave, but the younger boy didn't want to go. They finally dragged him away, but later I saw him sneak away from them and slip back into the dark film room. On our way out of the exhibition, we saw four large screen print portraits of Nancy Nasher and her daughters that explain the Nasher's connection to Warhol.
Incidentally, Picasso and the Allure of Language was a bit disappointing. Although it contained works we had never seen before and some interesting pieces like a collage Picasso made from Stein and Toklas's calling card, the exhibition's claim of a connection between Picasso's work and writing seemed weak. Some attempts at making a connection seemed ridiculous--something about a vertical shape in a painting referring to the columns of a newspaper--and others were just boring. I would like to have seen the exhibition focus on stories of Picasso's friendships with writers and his opinions on books rather than on the formal elements of Picasso's work.
A few nights later, I met my husband and a friend at the West End Wine Bar in Durham for the Jazz Loft Project book and website launch party. As I looked for my husband, I made my way through the packed bar and up the stairs, following the sounds of jazz. The upstairs was even more packed with people, and two screens glowed with moody black and white photographs of New York City. A jazz trio played; I found out later it included Ronnie Free, a loft resident and the unofficial house drummer at the loft. The Jazz Loft Project, organized by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, includes photographs and audio recordings by W. Eugene Smith, a celebrated photographer at Life magazine. In 1957, he dropped out of his successful suburban life and moved into a crumbling commercial building on 28th Street and 6th Avenue that was known to be an after-hours jazz hangout. He spent the next ten years photographing and recording the jazz musicians he liked to hang out with and the life inside and outside the building. Sam Stephenson has turned these photographs into a book. The project is also a stunning website, a radio series on WNYC, and exhibition that starts at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center and will later come to the Nasher. I can't wait to see the exhibition and am interested to find out how they will incorporate the audio. The website is absolutely beautiful and chock full of fascinating information and stories. The Jazz Loft Project makes you homesick for a New York you never knew, that existed before you were born. Seeing these images and listening to the sound of someone walking up a creaky staircase, the street noise, a horn playing in another room, it's almost like you were there.
On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, my husband and I went to the Nasher to see the Picasso exhibition (more on that later), but found ourselves more engaged in the Andy Warhol show. Polaroids are mounted in rows of five to ten shots in long horizontal frames, creating that Warhol repetition and an almost comic strip feel. My husband, who grew up in New York in the 1970s, peered closely at each picture, trying to identify each face. He would then check the laminated guide to verify or refute his guess. Later, he said, "The famous people weren't as interesting to me as the people I didn't know." To me, the most interesting photo was not of a person at all, but of a statue of the last supper. The label recounted a funny anecdote about it from Warhol's diaries. Years ago, during an obsession with Andy Warhol, I read his voluminous diaries, and he is hilarious. I wish the exhibition provided more small stories like this about the photos. The exhibition also includes some films by Warhol, although the silent, slow motion close-ups of facial expressions of the film I saw are closer to photography than film. I saw a mom and her two young sons watching, and the older boy, squirming, asked, "Can we do something else?" He and the mom got up to leave, but the younger boy didn't want to go. They finally dragged him away, but later I saw him sneak away from them and slip back into the dark film room. On our way out of the exhibition, we saw four large screen print portraits of Nancy Nasher and her daughters that explain the Nasher's connection to Warhol.
Incidentally, Picasso and the Allure of Language was a bit disappointing. Although it contained works we had never seen before and some interesting pieces like a collage Picasso made from Stein and Toklas's calling card, the exhibition's claim of a connection between Picasso's work and writing seemed weak. Some attempts at making a connection seemed ridiculous--something about a vertical shape in a painting referring to the columns of a newspaper--and others were just boring. I would like to have seen the exhibition focus on stories of Picasso's friendships with writers and his opinions on books rather than on the formal elements of Picasso's work.
A few nights later, I met my husband and a friend at the West End Wine Bar in Durham for the Jazz Loft Project book and website launch party. As I looked for my husband, I made my way through the packed bar and up the stairs, following the sounds of jazz. The upstairs was even more packed with people, and two screens glowed with moody black and white photographs of New York City. A jazz trio played; I found out later it included Ronnie Free, a loft resident and the unofficial house drummer at the loft. The Jazz Loft Project, organized by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, includes photographs and audio recordings by W. Eugene Smith, a celebrated photographer at Life magazine. In 1957, he dropped out of his successful suburban life and moved into a crumbling commercial building on 28th Street and 6th Avenue that was known to be an after-hours jazz hangout. He spent the next ten years photographing and recording the jazz musicians he liked to hang out with and the life inside and outside the building. Sam Stephenson has turned these photographs into a book. The project is also a stunning website, a radio series on WNYC, and exhibition that starts at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center and will later come to the Nasher. I can't wait to see the exhibition and am interested to find out how they will incorporate the audio. The website is absolutely beautiful and chock full of fascinating information and stories. The Jazz Loft Project makes you homesick for a New York you never knew, that existed before you were born. Seeing these images and listening to the sound of someone walking up a creaky staircase, the street noise, a horn playing in another room, it's almost like you were there.
This bull is a bull.
I was having dinner with an artist friend, Beth Palmer, and we were talking about art, and Durham, and our work as artists and teachers. "OK, here's one of my ideas," she said, "and you can have this one. I'm just giving it away for free. What Durham needs is an arts magazine. Something that would be about all the different art events and artists in Durham. There are so many art-related things happening in Durham, and no one is really covering them." This blog is my attempt to write about the Durham art scene.
The first thing I needed for the blog was a title, so one night when I couldn't sleep, I went online. I looked around at all the Durham blogs to get ideas- Bull City Rising, Carpe Durham, Endangered Durham, Bull's Eye. I couldn't think of anything unique. I had recently seen the Picasso exhibition at the Nasher, and when it comes to art you can't get away from that guy, so on a whim I googled "picasso bull quote." I came across a story that may or may not be true––an art historian was trying to get Picasso to verify his interpretation of the horse in Guernica as standing for Spanish nationalism, and the bull as standing for the Spanish people. Picasso answered, "This bull is a bull, and this horse is a horse." Maybe it was just because it was 5 am, but I thought it was perfect for the title.
The first thing I needed for the blog was a title, so one night when I couldn't sleep, I went online. I looked around at all the Durham blogs to get ideas- Bull City Rising, Carpe Durham, Endangered Durham, Bull's Eye. I couldn't think of anything unique. I had recently seen the Picasso exhibition at the Nasher, and when it comes to art you can't get away from that guy, so on a whim I googled "picasso bull quote." I came across a story that may or may not be true––an art historian was trying to get Picasso to verify his interpretation of the horse in Guernica as standing for Spanish nationalism, and the bull as standing for the Spanish people. Picasso answered, "This bull is a bull, and this horse is a horse." Maybe it was just because it was 5 am, but I thought it was perfect for the title.
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