Our excursion this week took us to the Lynlake neighborhood of Minneapolis, home to many trendy hipsters, bars, restaurants, coffee shops, "vintage" clothing stores, and art galleries. We will be ignoring all but the last.
The first of two galleries we visited was Intermedia Arts, which calls itself a "multidisciplinary, multicultural arts organization." It seems to focus a lot more on what I would term modern urban art.
The current exhibition is titled "Mama Said Knock U Out!" This show is comprised of female artists using Hip Hop culture to express themselves artistically through a variety of mediums. There were 28 different female artists that were featured, their work coming together to speak toward the female experience in Hip Hop culture and this world.
There were many different mediums of expression: drawings, paintings, sculpture, music and video installation, ect.
One of my favorite works was by Cateisha Pierson, titled "Sex Sells But We're Not Buying It".
It was an interesting mixed-media collage type work that spoke towards the experience of women in mass media as sex objects or commodities, and a rejection of those images. The colors and images were very bold, and the use of mixed media gave the work several dimensions.
Another piece I liked was a wood sculpture by Monica Kelly, titled "5 Steps Off The Wall". It depicted a tough female figure of Hip Hop culture in an action pose, with wings and extra sets of arms behind her, as if she were a modern cross between an angel and a Hindu goddess.
I really appreciated how the artist made such a modern, urban image out of natural wood, and really showcased the character of the wood grain in her sculpture, even using a cross cut section of a tree as a vinyl record. I really liked the combination of the materiel and the image, dichotomous in a way.
The outside of Intermedia Arts is an artistic showcase also, but for a very certain type of art: graffiti murals.
The front, side, and back of the building are covered in an array of graffiti murals, some of which match the female-oriented theme of the current exhibition. This spot can often be a showcase for some of the best graffiti muralists around, and are frequently changing.
For the arts organization, this is an excellent way to showcase the work of graffiti artists whose murals can be hard to find for the everyday observer, and also gives artists a safe, legal, eager canvas on which to do their work.
I also see this as a benefit to the larger community as well, for not only is there an ever-changing showcase of this type of art to freely view, but it also places graffiti art in a legitimate spot, and perhaps draws it away from being an unwanted nuisance in some areas, to being a wanted benefit here.
A few blocks down, we come upon SOOVAC (SOO Visual Arts Center), another arts organization that also shows more modern art. There are currently two exhibitions running: "Broken: New Works by Greg Gossel" and "Don't Worry, I Have A Map: New Works by Amy Rice".
The paintings of Greg Gossel all have a certain similar theme running through them. The images he uses are from old comic books and pulp novels, very retro pop culture.
He layers these images together in a dark conglomeration of emotion - mostly all of the women are distressed and crying, and a lot of the written conversation snippets included surround the breakdown of human relationships.
So much attention is paid to the tears of women that one can't help but wonder about his personal life.
The piece I liked from his show was titled "Runaway". Unlike most of the others, the featured female was not crying, but seemed to be fleeing (in that old fashioned, graceful way of flight), a suburban house in the background, fading behind her.
I liked the sense of a rejection of the proper life of domestication, of running into the unknown, but away from what would be a horrible and ill-fitting life with a pretty facade.
In the other gallery, the works of Amy Rice was a pleasant change from the other exhibitions of the day. Her work is simple and simply lovely, a slightly whimsical, innocent, and optimistic view of the world. She uses a variety of media, but all of her works were printed on beautifully cut pieces of wood, using the wood pieces as beautiful frames, and showcasing the natural woodgrain as background and feature. Her colors and images are light and airy, quiet yet truthful. They are very skillfully detailed, and hold a bit of childhood fantasy.
I loved them all. It's very hard to narrow it down to one, because I honestly thought they were all wonderful.
One of the other great things about the pieces was how the titles of the works were little stories or emotion or explanation of the scenes themselves, adding another dimension to the work. One that I really liked was a girl cuddling with her arms full of three geese, and it was called "You May Be Surprised At What You Grow To Love".
Between the image and the title, it expressed thoughts of things which could be viewed as everyday beings slowly becoming those dearest to your heart.
I must say, both of the galleries were nice, yet I appreciated SOOVAC a bit more. I felt that Intermedia had a lot of different styles and artists in a small space, which could be a bit overwhelming and distracting.
I liked that the exhibitions at SOOVAC focused on one artist/theme at a time, and were well spaced, giving you the ability to pay full attention to one piece at a time.
However, I think that both these spaces are important for showcasing modern and urban art that may not always get the full attention of other types of art.
Oh, and the Amy Rice works are incredibly reasonably priced. Seriously consider adding one of these to your home and also, y'know, helping local artists and all that.
Thank you, dear readers. I'll see you next week, same bat time, same bat channel!
-Catherine
No comments:
Post a Comment