First Friday Spokane, December 2010

December’s First Friday artist receptions and exhibitions
Annette Farrell

Graphics Editor

Spokane’s monthly celebration of local art and galleries, otherwise

know as First Friday, featured art of many mediums and artists of many kinds. The Spokane Arts Commission featured 24 venues in all. Let’s take a look at five events that took place during the first weekend of December.

Kolva-Sullivan Gallery & Track Side Studio

115 Adams St.

This gallery is located around the cor

ner from Washington Square, which is home to a Rocket Bakery and the clothing boutique Fringe and Fray. These two gallery spaces share the same front door. To the left is the pottery studio shared by two owners who use the space to work and display their craft. To the right, the Kolva-Sullivan gallery hosts the reception for Matt Boland’s “Scream and Shine” exhibition of pottery sculpture, which is partly a celebration of the artist’s return to Eastern Washington.

Boland is glad to be back in Spokane. He has seen Spokane’s art scene, and Spokane itself, grow a lot over the years. There is a belief held by many Spokanites that Spokane has no culture, but Boland said that this is the wrong way to think about it.
“”If you’re assuming there is no culture, then its going to die out. [Spokane] has really grown, and it’s going to keep growing,” Boland said.

The industrial gallery space of the Kolva-Sullivan gallery features a series of Boland’s sculptures depicting men in underwear, contorted into outlandish positions. Each angry, stru

ggling figure would have a rather imposing presence if not for the fact that they are stripped down to their whitey-tighties, with beer bellies and pink skin revealed.

“My current work addresses the ongoing obsession, in my life as well as those around me, with self-improvement,” Boland said.

One sculpture, called “Too Carry My Own Weight,” is composed of a floating man struggling to carry a copy of himself in a net. Through this sculpture, Boland communicates the kind of inner struggle that everyone experiences. Sometimes people struggle to carry their own metaphorical baggage, and sometimes it is actually the physical body that hold us back.

Boland uses the underwear as a contrast to the anger and struggle present in the little clay men. Contrast, which Boland says is different from

merely ‘opposite’, is important to this series. As one can see in the show’s title, “Scream and Shine,” Boland likes putting together contrasting concepts. It is a way to see things a little differently, and to create new meaning.

Fringe and Fray
1325 W 1st

This vintage clothing boutique has made space on the walls for the paintings of local artists and teacher Darcy Lee Drury. Her brightly colored paintings are imaginative and energetic. She creates flowing images of flowers, fish and abstract designs. Her portraits are also unique in the way she emphasizes the lips and creates big bright eyes, while keeping the personality of the individual in the painting.

You may have seen her work at the Terrain art show last October. If not, you can expect to see her work at other venues around town in the future. Examples of her work can also be viewed at her website, darcyleeart.com.

Second Space Gallery
610 W Second

Second Space opened on Friday with a juried exhibition titled “Lipstick and Rouge.” Artists were required to submit an original work made within the last two years that uses the color red. Judging the show is Karen Kaiser, assistant curator of the Jundt Art Museum. Most of the submissions came from Spokane, but there were a few works that came from places as far away as Chicago.

Vlasta Smola’s “Bailando Flamenco” is a stylized oil painting of a vivacious flamingo, with a spanish lace fan for a wing, and an undulating flamenco skirt for a body. Smola’s painting expresses the passion and heat of the color red, exemplifying the show's theme.

“Lipstick and Rouge” can be viewed at the gallery through the end of the month.

Saranac Art Project
W 25 Main St

If you are looking for video installations in Eastern Washington, the Saranac Art Project is the place to go. This month’s show, called “Digital Matters,” is a display of digital art projected on the wall, displayed on TV screens, played through speakers and printed on paper.

Pulsating sounds that ebb and swell fill the gallery, while technicolor moving pictures slide across the screens. One of the videos uses an image from a Washington state traffic cam, and blurs the image sideways, the way a slow computer sometimes repeats a segment of web page on accident. Hanging on the wall are printed compositions of abstract forms. The works in this gallery all have a heavy dose of computer manipulation in them.

According to the Saranac Art Project website, this show attempts to answer questions about the nature of the digital medium as an art form. The show runs through January 1.


The Museum of Arts and Culture
2316 W. First Ave

Saturday afternoon brought local artists and art appreciators to the MAC for the artist reception of Timothy Ely and his exhibition “Line of Sight.” On display are Ely’s hand bound and illustrated art books.

This exhibition is unique on several different levels because the art is in the form of books, and the exhibits represent the artist’s work created as early as elementary school, and as recent as this year. Audience members had the opportunity to hear directly from the artist, who spoke about his influences, and answered questions like why he uses unreadable text.

Each of his books is a unique work of art, and to get the full experience, you must hold the book in your hands and flip through the pages. All of the books displayed in cases, but Ely created a new book for this exhibition specifically so people could touch it and flip through the pages. The difference between books and paintings, according to Ely, is that books are a much more intimate experience, while 2-D paintings are more passive, like furniture.

“I’m interested in the ideas of people,” Ely said,.

Ely’s compositions are dominated by geometric shapes made precisely with mechanical instruments like compasses. His inspiration comes from science fiction novels that he began to collect and read at the age of eight. The process and materials used in the making of a book are still Ely’s favorite part of making art.

He has also developed a kind of fake alphabet, which he uses in place of text normally found in books. Ely does not want the viewer to get distracted by meaning contained in paragraphs and sentences. Walking up to one of Ely’s compositions might seem strange at first because of the lack of information beyond the abstract designs.

When asked about content and meaning in his abstract drawings and symbols Ely said, “I don’t think anything can be made without meaning, so I can safely say ‘yes,’ [my paintings] have meaning.”

“Line of Sight” will be exhibited at the MAC through April 16, 2011.

Links:
http://experiencespokane.com/redskykolva/
darcyleeart.com
http://www.secondspacegallery.us/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Saranac-Art-Projects/30231042635
http://www.northwestmuseum.org/

Venues: Saranac Art Symposium, Nov 13, 2010

It's Saturday and night and a small group of artists and art lovers are gathering at the Saranac art gallery. They are not here for an artist reception, but for the promise of good conversation.

In the second part of what has become a series, the Saranac Art Symposium brought together a panel to discuss venues in the Spokane art world. Everyone is invited to participate and listen in this event, which represents of tearing down of fences in a community made up of isolated individuals.

^ Panelists Jim Kolva and Naaman Cordova-Muenzberg

Scott Kolbo, Whitworth Art Department chair, moderated the panel. As a member of the Saranac art cooperative, his goal is community outreach. As a moderator, his rules are five minute limits for panelist speaking, and no whining or personal vendettas. This discussion is for constructive and thoughtful ideas.

Many young faces were in attendance, most were visual artists, and many were at the first Symposium in October, which was a general discussion about the present and future of the Spokane art scene. All of them listened enthusiastically to panel made up of local art venue owners.

This month's panelists include:

· Sue Bradley – Gallery Owner – The Tinman Artworks
· Naaman Cordova-Muenzberg – Artist and Curator (Black Rabbit Magic)
· Jim Kolva – Art Collector and Co-Director of the Kolva/Sullivan Gallery

Each panelist represents a different part of the art venue spectrum, from serious to informal. Jim Kolva spoke first, choosing to discuss what types of venues exist in Spokane and bringing up the problem of the general public's lack of interest or education in the arts.

Meunzberg had much to say about the local arts community, and he decided that performance art would be the best way to get the message out. A man came up from the audience and set out a mirror and a suitcase. He proceeded to put on a toupee, fake mustouche, glasses, tie and jacket. He then began to read a prepared statement, in a business like tone, about the relationship of money and art.

Art choices made in galleries are driven by what sells, rather than by aesthetic value. Most galleries can only stay open if the art sells, and the natural outcome is that real artistic expression falls by the wayside. Spokane art buyers are not as sophisticated as big city collectors.

Possible solutions bounced around in discussion. Temporary art shows like Terrain came up as examples of how new and interesting art might find a way into the public view. A lot of interesting and quality art is being created in the inland northwest, but there need to ways for such artists to be seen by the public. The coffee is one such method for unknown artists to get exposure, but art shows like Terrain reach out to artists who might not other wise know how to participate in the art community.

Sue Bradley uses her bookstore to show art and host children's art classes. The Tinman is also commonly visited by art students who are completing homework assignments. Educating the public about the arts is one of Bradley's goals for her gallery. The Tinman is considered part of the backbone in the Garland shopping district. She would love to see more street art around her gallery, or any sign of underground art culture.

Underground spirit characterizes many people in the room. This symposium brings together people who are passionate about the arts, as well as the community they live. As Scott Kolbo said at the beginning of the symposium, art makes the world a better place to be in. This group of artists want to make Spokane a better place to be in.

The next Saranace State of the Arts Symposium is being planned for sometime in January. Contact Scott Kolbo through the Saranac Project