Janet Culbertson, Future Tense

From the Collection Insights series, Islip Art Museum

Sunburst, 2010

September 15-November 14  opening reception: Sunday, September 26, 2:00-4:00pm

Janet Culbertson has been addressing issues of our diminishing planet since the 1970s. This exhibit, a selection of works from her "Industrial Park" series, examines the artist's response to global ecology, pollution, over-crowding and the obliteration of the landscape at the hands of our own species.

Throughout a career that spans over four decades, Culbertson has been focused on the landscape and here she employs a keen painter’s eye to convey the peril, the poison and sense of urgency now confronting planet earth. Her use of collage techniques in combination with dramatic perspectival views of the landscape provide her works with a depth of field that is theatrical and foreboding, seductive and mesmerizing. 

Carpool, 2002

Culbertson’s use of iridescent pigment is effective in communicating the toxicity of mankind’s greed and reckless contamination of the landscape. 

Art critic Rose Slivka said of the artist’s work, “A combination of the gorgeous and the gross, her mixture of methods and materials includes collage, pastel, metallic powders, silver and oil paint, glitter, sparkles, glass chips on paper, canvas or wood panels. The metallics suggest the phony, the precious, the attractive, the suspect.”

Marc Newsom at Gagosian

Marc Newsom, Nickle Surfboard, 2006

A grand gallery gesture even for Fashion Week: now on view at Gagosian Chelsea, Australian designer Marc Newsom is exhibiting works focused on human and mechanical locomotion in the exhibit, Transport, now through October 16th.
 
These sleek, ultra-cool works mix power and pleasure with extreme-design, making the proverbial line between art and design as skinny as a Guy Laroche model. Newsom, who lives in London, has mined this field for over 20 years, producing some of the design world's most ambitious and forward thinking works among them EADS Astrium Space-Jet (2007) designed for commercial space tourism; Kelvin40 (2003), a concept jet named after Tarkovsky's protagonist in Solaris; and maybe the coolest sneakers ever, Zvezdochaka, the Nike trainer (2004), designed for Russian cosmonauts in the International Space Station.

Add this to your roster of Fall must-sees in Manhattan.                                                JMG

Judith Page at Lesley Heller Workspace

June 26 (Boom box and Beaver), Tar Gel, mixed media,
13 x 24 x 11 in., 2010

 

Judith Page will be exhibiting new works in her show titled, Night Walk, opening this Wednesday (September 15) at Lesley Heller Workspace, 54 Orchard Street, NYC. 

Installation, Holes of Truth, Massry Center for the Arts, The College of Saint Rose, Albany, 2008-09

Judith, a frequent presence here on Long Island, was the subject of a show I did at Islip Art Museum some years back (2002-03). The show, titled Judith Page, Memoirs of a Beast was a site-specific installation of manipulated pages from a childhood diary. Here's the essay:

You'll want to check out this show and Lesley's new space -- on view thru Oct 24  JMG

Dennis Oppenheim in Denver

Blinnk Radar Tracking Device just picked up this hot news item:

Following three years of planning the final installation of Dennis Oppenheim's commission for the Denver Justice Center is underway by La Paloma Fine Arts, Inc., under the supervision of the artist.  Dates for the formal dedication will be announced by the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs next week. 

The sculpture, a commission for the Denver Justice Center, is one of five public art commissions at the Denver Justice Center Campus. Installation at the southwest intersection of Colfax and Elati, near the State Capital Building and the Denver Art Museum, has been ongoing since the week of August 16th.

The title "Light Chamber," comes from two sources: the judge's chambers, and light which is a metaphor for enlightenment. Oppenheim was inspired by the people who work in the courts and his concept was to create a sculpture to serve as a chamber or sanctuary for individual reflection on the plaza. Transparent floral petal forms on an architectural scale will create an enclosure that fits the grand vision of a Justice Center while also evoking humanistic qualities. It will be a like a "quiet room" to be entered and experienced and to provoke contemplation and inspiration.

Aurel Schmidt at the Fireplace Project

Aurel Schmidt, Ecstasy Butterfly, 2010 

Seductive and sly, Aurel Schmidt's drawings are on view at the Fireplace Project through the weekend. For more fantastic images of Schmidt's pyrotechnics, fanaticism and grotesque whimsy, check out Tim Barber's tinyvices.com. If she's not already on your radar, she will be when you realize the depth of commitment in this body of work.

Spider Eyes, 2006

Four Seasons in One Head, Archimboldo  

Garbage Man, 2006

You can also read some very worthwhile material on Schmidt at the excellent site on her monograph, Maneater, published by Deitch Projects, available at Amazon.com. 

Vomit Comet, 2008

And...see my review of the show in today's East Hampton Star.                           JMG