Saturday, November 30, 2013

Overview of AGCF

 
 
 
AGCH welcomes you and wishes you a great holiday season.
 
Art Gallery of Crafton Hills (AGCH) is dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts. The Gallery was founded in 2013 by Pod Five (PF). The institution is set up as a virtual gallery and is to be presented by PF. The virtual gallery is administered and headquartered in Redlands, California. The works featured at AGCH include installations, sculptures, and paintings.  
 
Board:
 
Co-Chair: Adam Y. Diaz
Vice Chair: Areli Ayala
Executive Staff: Cesar Guerreo
                         Jennifer Burgueno
                         Jesse Lopez
Gallery Governance: Maram Tuma
                                Bianca Rivera
                                Keysha Ramirez
 
The Pod Five executive board is responsible for curating AGCH.
 
Upcoming Events:
 
  • Memento Mori: Monday, December 2nd, 2013, at Crafton Hills College, Yucaipa, CA. This event will be the grand presentation of Memento Mori, a compilation of master works illustrating the beauty of mortality.  
 

AGCH 2013, Redlands, CA.

Memento Mori, Fall 2013

Memento Mori

Pod Five is proud to introduce Memento Mori. This exhibition is dedicated to the mortal nature of man--a characteristic all humans share. The name of this presentation is taken from the Medieval expressions "remember that you will die." While the expression, today--In a time of entitlement, may poses a negative punch, originally the phrase served as a reminder of higher and more worthy interests--conscientiousness, wisdom, legacy, and spirituality. The phrase emphasized the beauty of mortality, a human weakness that can be turned into strength, an end which can be the beginning of an afterlife, and fear that can also be a time of joy. Such a human issue can best be explained and understood through the humanities--literature, music, and art. In Memento Mori, mortality will be presented through the strokes of a bush, strikes of a chisel, and the work of hands--it will be illustrated through the eyes of artists and upon the fine arts.

Memento Mori features works by the following artist:

Pascale Pollier
Daniel Hourde
Beth Lipman
Frida Kahlo
Wayne White
Jaques-Louis David
Daniel Arsham
Hans Baldung Grien
Jacob Bannon
Chris Mars

Each one of these great artists was selected by the members of Pod Five, and the relevance was assessed to the discretion of the selector. Meetings where held in which members exchanged feedback and addressed every work's relevance as well. Some of the artist where already known to their selector, while others where discovered in the process of putting the exhibition together. The internet was the main source for research throughout the project. The extensive research revealed dozens of talented artists and their works. However, due to projects agreed size, many of the artists and works could not be included in this virtual gallery. Furthermore, Pod Five has included some of the greatest names in history as well as the contemporary art world.

Pod Five presents Memento Mori. Enjoy.






I. Pascale Pollier

Pascale Pollier, Confronting Mortality, mixed media, life size, 2007.
 Model portrays a man contemplating his own mortality. -was created for the exhibition held at the conference “Confronting Mortality with Art & Science."     

  BIO:      An alchemist at heart, her work begins with observation and experimentation but is however steeped in solid scientific research and findings. Pollier is a biomedical artist, who is interested in the melding of art and science. 
Pascale's education includes a Diploma with a distinction, in Fine art painting and sculpture. She has also completed a post graduate with The Medical Artist's Education Trust in Belgium
-President and Co-Founder of BIOMAB (Biological and Medical Art in Belgium) Founder of International collaboration 'Art Researches Science' 

-Pascale has exhibited throughout Belgium, London and USA. Achieved winner at The Ronald Raven Barber's Award in 1998. Since then she has worked within many medical and art positions. Her research has resulted in films and in 2007 was the author of the book 'Confronting Mortality with Art and Science'.

-Materials she work with are wax, clay, plastoline, sculpey, oil paint, silicone, polyester, human hair and other natural materials

Artist overall statement: “ Life and nature in all its beauty and strength, fragility and disease, mortality and death – all this and more is what inspires me"

How it relates to theme:
This sculpture depicts a man trying to make sense of his mortal nature BUT even though this sculpture is represented as a symbol of death, Pollier considers this sculpture to be a celebration of life; 
Something Beautiful. 
Why I chose this artist: It's the complexity of her sculptures that stood out to me; the specific detail she puts into them makes them look, accurate and realistic (pretty awesome). & i like how she portrays her art "allowing us to feel the body through seeing it"
Sources:
http://www.medinart.eu/works/pascale-pollier/




II. Daniel Hourde

Daniel Hourde, Au Diable L'Ombre, bronze with paint, 122"x82 3/4", 2001.
 
Daniel lives and works in Paris France. He was born on the year 1947 in Boulogne Billancourt, France. Most of Daniel's art work is done in France which include many of his galleries. He has many drawn art work but is known for his sculpting.
 
Statement:
Since 1991, Daniel Hourdé fashions muscular body reminiscent skinned used in anatomy or drawing. Performed by models, bronze sculptures come from an academic tradition that seeks to disrupt constantly. (Cherry Gallery).
 Hourde's work illustrates a form of mortallity and the perspective of good and bad. In the above picture the Frame and the body that is sculpted in red shows the soul leaving the physical body dead or unuseful.

The relationship between the theme and this art work is the darkness with the bitter sweet meaning of life.

Sources:
http://cherry-gallery.fr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&Itemid=38






III. Beth Lipman

Beth Lipman, One and Others, glass installation, 65"x78"x41", 2013.
 
 Beth Lipman's One and Others sits in the center of a medium-sized gallery on the third floor of the Norton Museum's southwest wing. The installation is deceptively simple: a dramatically lit still life composed of dozens of pieces of clear glass of various sizes, all arrayed atop a black rectangular box. There are candlesticks, wineglasses, bowls, plants, pieces of fruit, an artist's palette.
 
Artist statement:
My work pays homage to still life paintings from the 17th – 20th centuries. Still lives can be contemplated on a purely atheistic level, or they can be interpreted on a political, moral or theological level and were usually influenced by economic or socio-cultural events. Instead of striving for illusionary perfection, the glass process is used to record of my ability to control the material at that moment.
Artist explanation:
 Glass has a perpetuity, or immortality to it. Even though glass is fragile, it mimics the life cycle. It has a duality to it. It’s fragile and perishable, but also perpetual.
This artwork reflects a view of mortality by expressing the sensitivity of life. Life may be at times fragile and beautiful at the same time. The way Beth Lipman shows this is by creating a fragile sculpture but in ways and shapes that promote life within the artwork.

Sources:
http://bethlipman.com/




 


IV. Frida Kahlo


 Frida Kahlo, Henry Ford Hospital, oil on canvas,  12 ¼" x 15 ½", 1932, from The Collection of Dolores Olmedo Mexico City, Mexico




Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán in July 6, 1907. On July 13th, 1954, at the age of 47 she passed away. Kahlo is best known for her self-portraits and her work is remembered for its "pain and passion", as well as its intense, vibrant colors. Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as symbolic of national and indigenous tradition, and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form. Kahlo suffered lifelong health problems, many of which stemmed from a traffic accident in her teenage years. These issues are reflected in her works, more than half of which are self-portraits of one sort or another. Kahlo stated, "I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best." 

The image I am presenting is titled, Henry Ford Hospital but has also been given the name, Flying Bed. This painting was the most painful self portrait Frida Kahlo ever painted, because at this time she had her second miscarriage and began to realize that she could never carry a pregnancy to a full term due to her previous accidents. At the time of this painting, Diego Rivera, her husband, was creating his now-famous Detroit Industry frescoes at the Detroit Institute of Arts commissioned by Edsel Ford who was President of the Detroit Arts Commission at the time . Even-though the painting's title is Henry Ford Hospital, and the Henry Ford Hospital was financed by and named for Edsel's father, Frida did not consciously mean to insult the Ford family by including their factories in the background of this painting. These water towers and elevated conveyors for raw iron ore just happened to be what occupied a lot of the scenery.


Artist Statement:
  "I suffered two grave accidents in my life…One in which a streetcar knocked me down and the other was Diego."
The streetcar accident left her crippled physically and Rivera crippled her emotionally.

            "When I painted it I had the idea of a sexual thing mixed with the sentimental."


This painting closely resembles a Mexican retablo(votive painting). retablos are typically done in oils on a tin support. Retablos typically include a scene depicting a tragedy or someone with a grave illness or injury, a Saint or martyr that intervened to "save the day" and an inscription describing the tragic event and giving thanks for the divine intervention. The six surrounding images are connected to her lower abdomen by umbilical cord-looking red lines , which are specific to her miscarriage. Frida is the central point, suffering with a single tear much as Jesus Christ or a martyred saint would have, the blood is evident, and can only have come from a woman's reproductive organs. The fetus is Diegito ("Little Diego") who will not exist; the snail (at upper right) represents the slow horror of losing a baby; the machine (at lower left) symbolizes the mechanical part of the miscarriage;  the orchid (bottom center) according to Kahlo was a gift from her husband Diego.

In the background there is industrial buildings, most likely the urban setting of Detroit, where the hospital was located. The two remaining images of a pelvis and side view of female anatomy point towards her broken body. Her fractured pelvis is what made it impossible for her to have children. Here, it is important to remember that Frida had studied medicine prior to the bus accident that smashed her back and pelvis, and damaged her uterus. These were not "artistic" representations. She was aware of that which had happened to her body, and why motherhood was such an incredible long shot because of it.

In this painting, we see how Kahlo copes with her own mortality and her inability to have children. Kahlo dealt directly with death her entire life. From such a young age that all vary from dealing with polio at age 6 to the traumatic incident she had at age 18 or the lifelong relationship she had with her husband. Who better to think of when thinking of mortality, than Friday Kahlo. Kahlo was injured so seriously that she suffered severe pain for the rest of her life, and she was never able to have a child with her husband, Diego Rivera.

Sources:


http://www.fridakahlo.com




Friday, November 29, 2013

V. Wayne White

Wayne White, No Shit, acrylic on lithograph, 32"x44", 2012.
 
Wayne White is an American artist, art director, illustrator, puppeteer, among other things. Born and raised in Chattanooga,. He graduated from Middle Tennessee State University. In 1986, Wayne became a designer for the hit television show Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and his work was awarded with three Emmys. He also worked in the music video industry, winning Billboard and MTV Music Video Awards as an art director for seminal music videos including The Smashing Pumpkins' “Tonight, Tonight” and Peter Gabriel's “Big Time.” Furthermore, Wayne has recently had great success as a fine artist and has created paintings and public works that have been shown all over the world.
 
Statement:
The world has to know about Wayne, and we’re doing anything we have to do to make sure that happens. The reaction I get when I talk about his achievements consistently includes wide-eyed, gaping-mouthed amazement by people who have never heard of him by name. We’re going to change all that, and we’re going to do so with a visually stimulating homage to Wayne and all that he has created. The documentary is going to be a funny, touching, whimsical, light-hearted romp through Hollywood, the South and a fantasyland called Wayne’s mind. (Berkeley, N., Beauty is Embarrassing)
This painting is a perfect example of White's work: a random message or word on a peaceful landscape painting.

Psychologist Richard Beck has found that the charge of a bad word such as shit is linked to death anxiety. Reference to feces is not just a reminder of animal characteristics but of human weakness and the unavoidable death ahead.

Sources:
http://waynewhiteart.com/
http://buy.beautyisembarrassing.com/
Beck, Richard. Profanity: The Gnostic Affront of the Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television. 2009.



VI. Jaques-Louis David

Jaques-Louis David, The Death of Marat, oil on canvas, 65"x50", 1793.
 
Jacques-Louis David was born in 1748. He received an excellent education at the Collège des Quatre-Nations, but he was never a good student: he had a facial tumor that impeded his speech, and he was always preoccupied with drawing.
 
Statement:
The image is one of the most famous images of the Revolution, capturing the murder of the French Revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat. It shows the radical journalist lying dead in his bath on 13 July 1793 after his murder by Charlotte Corday. (Unknown, Wikipedia)
This image became the leading image of terror and immortalized both Marat and David in the world of revolution. David portrays Marat with all the marks of the real murder.

The image illustrates the climax of mortality--death.

Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques-Louis_David


VII. Daniel Arsham

Daniel Arsham, One Peach Tree Center Proposal, Guache on mylar, 24"x20", 2004.
 
Born in 1980 in Cleveland Ohio, OH. He currently lives and works in New York, NY. He is a graduate of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. In 2003 he received the Gelman Trust Fellowship, an award that sustains the recipient while promoting the artist’s development into a mature artist.
 
Statement:
A gouache rendering of Le Corbusier’s modernist monastery La Tourette is pictured inside a cave. Arsham’s work blurs the lines between art, architecture and performance, and explores issues of natural versus manufactured or intention versus happenstance. (Viladas, P., Time Magazine)
Arsham's art work involves architecture which represented in this painting by a building.

This piece represents what we leave behind after we have perished will stay behind as a representation of how we lived and what we believed was important to us at the time.

Sources:
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/imaginarium-of-mr-arsham/?_r=0
http://www.danielarsham.com/index.php




 
 
 


VIII. Hans Baldung Grien

Hans Baldung Grien, Three Ages of the Woman and the Death, oil on lime-wood, 48"x33", 1510

Hans Baldung Grien was estimated to have been born in 1484, Schwäbisch-Gmünd, Germany to a family of known intellectuals, academics and professionals. His artistic training may have first started around 1500 in the Upper Rhineland, Strasbourg(Now France), and later around 1503 he was apprenticed to the most renowned artist in Germany at the time, Albrecht Dürer. Here, he was given the nickname “Grien” and later used in his monogram. After he finished his apprenticeship Grien returned to Strasbourg, joined a guild the "zur Steltz", opened a workshop, and married. Not only concerned with painting, he was familiar to woodcuts, altarpieces, drawings, tapestries, allegories and mythological motifs. Hans Baldung Grien died in Strasbourg in 1545.

Statement:

The number of Hans Baldung's religious works diminished with the Protestant Reformation's discouragement of idolatry. Around the same time that he produced Adam and Eve, the artist became interested in themes related to death, the supernatural, witchcraft and sorcery. (About.com, Art History)

The authorship of the painting “Three Ages of the Women and the Death” was a mystery and was originally thought to have been created by Lucas Cranach and Albrecht Altdorfer, but was eventually discovered that it was pained by Hans Baldung Grien. The theme presented by the painting is a puzzle that has remained the subject of speculation ever since its creation in 1510. It is now housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.

This particular painting has four figures, the three stages of a woman (life), and the fourth figure, the eventuality of all things, death. This painting is a stark example of the exhibition, showing that in the end we all must turn to death.
References:
http://arthistory.about.com/od/namesgg/l/bl_grien.htm
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/baldung/







IX. Jacob Bannon

Jacob Bannon, Jane Doe (Ed of 90), 23.5"x35", 2001.
 
 
Jacob Bannon was born in 1976. He is an American artist, musician, and producer. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Boston. Bannon is the founder of Deathwish, a record label and brand, and he is the vocalist of Converge, a hardcore band out of Boston, Massachusetts.
 
Artist statement:

When I was young, I stumbled upon some paintings my father had painted. The day I found those is likely when my imagination started to race on its own. When I was 11-12 became obsessed with the vibrant artwork of the skateboard, bmx, and metal music cultures. I've been hooked ever since. I started painting and drawing on my own in a serious manner since I was 13 or so. I did this until I enrolled in college in 1994. In school I abandoned the "Fine Art" exclusive approach, and enrolled in the Design Program.  

 I don't consider myself a traditional musician/artist/writer. I see those definitions as a bit limiting. "Life" artist makes the most sense to me, as I see all of my creative outlets to be linked together, coming from the same place internally.
The Jane Doe Project by Jacob Bannon, which constitutes of 90 unique painting of the Jane Doe, was inspired from his bands album entitled Jane Doe.

The famous face of Jane Doe chosen for this work brings to mind the worst aspects of death, dying without a name.

References:
http://www.jacobbannon.com/history/


X. Chris Mars

Chris Mars, In Preparation of Barrier Transcendence, oil on panel, 24"x36", 2009.
 
Chris Mars was born in 1961; he is an American artist and musician. Mars is the former drummer for the Minneapolis, Minnesota, rock band The Replacements. After leaving the legendary band, Mars embarked on a solo career in the 1990's. Eventually, however, he left music for art. His art is inspired by his brothers struggle with schizophrenia.
 
Artist Statement:
 
The imagery that is my work stems from the very strong visual and emotional impact of growing up in a family marked by mental illness. My eldest brother Joe suffers from schizophrenia. Joe experienced his first pronounced episode at age 16, and was immediately institutionalized. As a result, I acquired an early and lasting fear that if you are not one of society’s “Normal” members, then you are likely to be labeled, whisked embarrassingly away from your family, stripped of your freedom, drugged and humiliated. Joe was hospitalized on and off throughout my childhood and adolescent years. The seemingly medieval hospital visuals etched into my consciousness, along with the trauma of my brother being repeatedly taken from us. The sights, sounds and smells I experienced as a small child visiting him there are prevalent throughout my work. 
 In each piece, I am freeing my brother. I am creating a monument to him and those like him. I rescue Joe from the oppressive institutions of the 1960s, the stereotypes of society here today. Through my work, I challenge the cultural system that finds it easier to turn their heads, their hearts, away. I urge the viewer to consider the beauty, on a grand level, of that which may appear ugly at first.

 As an adult I can comprehend mental illness, even the need to institutionalize people. But as a child, my brother’s schizophrenia was met with horror, depression, confusion and fear: Fear of the system, fear of the words, the hospitals, the demons others saw. Fear that it would happen to me next. Through my own need to create, to communicate, I have gained through my work an understanding and insight into these early, lasting, and tragic events. I am continually compelled to explore this.

 During my visits to the hospitals, looking into my brother's eyes, I knew so much more than the clinicians did. I knew the depth of this person, what made him laugh, his interests, what he was proud of. But what I could only and can only imagine is the hardship, confusion, embarrassment and despair that he suffered from being so singled out by a disease that at the time, they knew so much less about. Through my work, I try to understand this. I try to show my love. This is what I seek to share with you.
The art work entitled A Preparation of Barrier Transcendence refers to evaluations brought forth by society. It is a cry for break through of these labels. In 2009 the work was exhibited at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Hollywood, California, and it was priced at $75,000.

The ill portrayed characters, monstrous faces, and living skeletons filling the painting are a grotesque reminder of human mortality; the images illustrate everyone's decaying destiny.

Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chris-Mars/40886515838
http://www.chrismarspublishing.com/home.htm
http://billyshirefinearts.com/09Mars/in_preparation_of_barrier.html

A Message from Pod Five

Putting this virtual gallery together was a revealing experience, in many ways. The teamwork involved was an opportunity for social growth. The search for artists, on the other hand, expanded every pod members' art horizons. Furthermore, the exposure to artists' biographies revealed special insight about the art, adding a new dimension to the perception of art. In addition, the process of organizing this gallery served as an introduction to the job of professional art curators. While this virtual presentation is merely a shadow of an art gallery, the stories of the artists are real and the images still poses their power, even after being blurred by the digital eye. In conclusion, organizing this virtual gallery, created a better art enthusiasts within each pod member.