Friday, September 25, 2009

50/50/50 Exhibit Opens



Emerge digital collage Bill Evertson

The Eclipse Gallery 50/50/50 exhibition opens Saturday 26th. The exhibit's theme features fifty artists from fifty states working in fifty different mediums. The show highlights the moving and often hard to define differences and intersections of fine art, craft and indie design.



50/50/50 Exhibition Opening Announcement

The show is curated by Sarah Elizabeth Condon who states, "I am interested in the intersection between art, craft and design. This exhibition will not only highlight the importance of all art disciplines but will also stress the importance of all working artists regardless of their location."

My work for this exhibit is a digital collage. "Emerge" was created both on paper and in Photoshop. I combined a series of photographic, scanned and drawn works to produce the piece. A deep sea divers suit I photographed at a maritime museum in Kingston, Ontario, sparked the original idea. I worked with a few other photographs of water and sky to obtain a setting for the divers encounter with the lotus. This is one of my occasional forays into Buddhist inspired art. My friend Ria commented, "love how the lotus flower (?) is reflecting in the man's (woman's ?) visor-wait maybe that's even the other way around,...mmm...from a Buddhist standpoint that 'll get me going on interpreting...;) Emerge...excellent title!"


I was pleased to learn that two artists who's work I follow via their blogs are exhibiting in this show. Jennifer Zoellner, representing Flordia and Corrine Bayraktaroglu from Ohio.



Rag Dolls Mixed media by Jennifer Zoellner

Jennifer Zoellner, who I recently met at the A Book About Death opening in NYC, curated the Chromatophore exhibition of mail art I submitted a piece to. Jennifer's unique rag doll creations for 50/50/50 seem to go beyond simple toys/keepsakes due to their idiosyncratic juxtapositions of textures, fabric and facial expressions. I'm a bit reminded of ritual objects from natural history museums in the way they address a particular culture. In this case our fascination with a folk art icon seen through a pop art lens. (Jennifer - feel free to correct my impressions)


The Prick Who Came to Dinner Embroidery by Corrine Bayraktaroglu

Corrine Bayraktaroglu, self described on her blog as a Jafa (just another #%!@&*% artist), works in a variety of media including embroidery, painting, knit graffiti and mixed media. Corrine's most recent work is embroidery based. Her piece for this show "The Prick Who Came to Dinner" is Corrine's commentary in thread on a rather rude dinner guest. She has a way with words and there is more to the story. Lately her blog has shared several embroidery translations from her sketchbooks. (the sketchbooks being works of art in their own right)

Part of the Eclipse Gallery's vision is to provide artists working out of the mainstream art hubs a venue for exhibition. One of the ways artists and curators like Sarah Elizabeth are able to connect is because of social networking via blogs and Facebook. Sarah's ability to seek out and curate for Eclipse exhibits via the social media outlets is a continuation of the historically recent advent of alternative artist spaces. Many artists (for a variety of reasons) are not exhibiting in the larger art markets, yet their styles of work lends itself to the more experimental nature of those spaces. Congratulations to Sarah for her hard work launching her gallery and for the courage to take chances on artists working in often hard to define and experimental modes.
Best wishes for the opening of 50/50/50 at the Eclipse Gallery. Reception, September 26 at the gallery located in Algoma, WI and running through Dec. 31st.


MoMA has obtained A Book About Death

In other news: I learned that MoMA has obtained a complete set of the A Book About Death pages. I am completely amazed that somewhere in the depths of that giant establishment of the art world there is room for such an egalitarian project that sprang and grew from the world of artists networking artists. Again, thanks to Matthew Rose for his organization and to Deven Marriner for compiling the pages for MoMA. What would Ray Johnson make of this development? Further reincarnations of the project are already springing up. Bookmark http://abookaboutdeatharchive.blogspot.com for further developments.

12 comments:

jafabrit said...

First of all I want to say that the Book About Death being in the MOMA is absolutely FANtastic, congratulations to everyone. I am so chuffed for you all. Thanks for the shout out and commentary :) about my work but more than that, I really like how you described the Eclipse Gallery mission. I feel honored to be part of it and in such good company. I adore those rag dolls. I just wish I could be at the reception.

I want to say too I was really intrigued with the reflection of the lotus flower in the mask also. Your collage is visually seamless and beautiful but also fills me questions (I figure that is a good thing yes!)

jafabrit said...

ps. how big is your piece?

William Evertson said...

Thanks Corrine :) I'm chuffed that you're chuffed and that we're both chuffed for the 50/50/50. I've watched Sarah's vision for Eclipse become reality over the past year or so and can't believe the energy she's put into this. Plus she's a great link to people and projects. I settled on 8 x 14 image size format although being digital it could have been almost any size.

Lynne with an e said...

Intriguing piece of digital art! I like how the hand drawn/photographic elements seamlessly mesh with and enhance the serenely absurd subject matter. I was also grabbed by the reflection of the lotus in the mask. Beautiful touch. It was really interesting to read about how you put it all together. I also really enjoyed reading the details about the exhibit--thanks for taking the time to write it all up.

I will definitely check out the links to the other artists, esp. as I also dabble in doll-making and stitcheries.

jafabrit said...

I went and had a look at the flickr photos, and liked very much how the work was presented and the labeling on the walls. I liked how you framed your work.

William Evertson said...

Hi louciao - Thanks for the comments. I added a link to your blog. I hope others continue to discover your mixed media work.

Ria Vanden Eynde said...

Hah, it IS a Buddhist inspired piece....actually, I think I'm well on the way of becoming a fan of your forays into Buddhist inspired art! Keep 'm coming, would you?! Love the pieces by Jennifer-ah, of course, pop art 'on' ritual objects-and Corrine's embroidery is just amazing! Promising show! :)

Christine A. Tarantino said...

i didn't know about ABAD in the MOMA. do you know how /when this took place?
i wish i had met you at the opening. look forward to your postings at flux-usa.i hope you saw my photos of the show:http://fluxusa.blogspot.com/2009/09/book-about-death-opening-nyc-2009.html
christine

Mineke Reinders said...

Congrats on being in MOMA. That's wonderful, Bill. I'm feeling a little out of my depth here lately, but I just wanted to stop by and say that your digital collage is really beautiful.

Gwen Buchanan said...

Bill, you have been phenomenally creative these last months... WOW!!! you are amazing!!!

I'm gonna be here a while .....

So inspirational... thank-you!!!!

Owen said...

Hey Bill, I'm a little late getting here, but better late than never. That's incredible that MOMA has acquired the ABAD pages, and you're in there, so that makes you part of the MOMA collection then, right ?! Fabulous...

PS And nice to see Louciao here, she is doing some great work, not only on her blog Décolleté, but also on her other sites which you can get to from her blog page...

sarahelizabeth said...

Thanks so much for this post Bill. First of all--I enjoy and am intrigued by your work everyday in the gallery and thank you. We've had a great response to your work so far. Second--the way you describe my vision for Eclipse is spot on. Having the support of artists and being an approachable curator is important to me. I was so excited to include you in the 50 show, along with Jennifer and Corinne (and the rest).