meredith cutler :: arts marketing :: artist

Okay, I've had about enough of these freezing cold temperatures. I was just watching Bravo and Matilda (my feral yard cats) trying to cross the pavement for feeding time, eight paws all sliding in separate directions over the ice. Tragic.

Around this time in the frozen depths of winter's dark, dry exhalation, I start to fantasize about summer. Beach. Boat. SPF 45...

ABOVE: Title Unknown by CW Roelle, 2008, 7.5"x6", coated wire

Since we don't have summer, and since we don't have a boat, (and I'm certainly not in much need of sunblock) I purchased this small piece by CW Roelle as a Christmas gift for my husband. I'm trying to stimulate a little art collecting dialogue between us, as one way that we can improve our lives AND help the economy at the same time...without helping anyone evil that we don't like and doesn't deserve us.

But we like this artist, and we'll be looking for more from him. And while there isn't a force on earth that can pry me from my house today, I can gaze into the waters of this little vignette and smell the salt spray.

The final weeks of 2008 loom before us, with their annual promise of copius consumption shadowed by the thin specter of our economic downturn. This Thanksgiving holiday, I turn to art for answers, and am not left empty handed.

Sink your teeth into some tasty nuggets of photography from Matthew Carden. Married to a chef and working as a commercial photographer, Carden hones in on our culture's afterthought of abundance in his Small World series by juxtaposing playful, tiny human figures in collosal landscapes of food.

Above: Matthew Carden, "Sweet Potatoes", limited edition print

With their tiny plastic hardhats, uniforms and scuba gear implying industry, Carden's figures call to attention the often invisible energy and process underlying our food chain. Feast your eyes on the playful and portent on Carden's website, 350 Degrees.

RISD's NEW CHACE CENTER BRIDGES THE DIVIDE

Rhode Island School of Design
Chace Center
20 North Main Street
Providence, RI

<<--CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL ARTICLE-->>

By Meredith Cutler (for Artscope Magazine)

Article Excerpt:

The long-awaited Chace Center at the Rhode Island School of Design opened to the public on September 27, adding 43,000 square feet of sophisticated, mixed-use space to bridge key areas of RISD’s eclectic campus with the public arena of Providence’s Market Square.

Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect José Rafael Moneo, the
five-story, LEED certified facility offers the entire community much needed programming and educational space to be shared by the RISD
Museum, risd|works, The Minskoff Center for Prints, Drawings and
Photographs, the new Gelman Student and Dryfoos Student Media
Galleries, and expanded office, studio and classroom facilities.

Serving as a new front door to the RISD Museum, the ground level houses an airy visitor reception area, adjacent to the relocated risd|works
retail store, now offering café service alongside a range of consumer
products designed by RISD faculty and alumni. Easily accessible during
the museum’s off-hours, the 210-seat Metcalf Auditorium affords crucial
presentation and event space to benefit both the RISD community and
greater Providence. 

<<--CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL ARTICLE-->>

Image: The Chace Center, Rhode Island School of Design. Courtesy, RISD Museum of Art. Photo by Erik Gould.

ELIZABETH KING: "THE SIZES OF THINGS IN THE MIND'S EYE"

David Winton Bell Gallery
List Art Center
Brown University
64 College Street
Providence, Rhode Island

November 1 through December 21, 2008

<<--CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL ARTICLE-->>

By Meredith Cutler (for Artscope Magazine)

Article Excerpt:

Light moves gently over Elizabeth King’s self-portrait automaton in “Eidolon,” a larger than life video projection on the darkened gallery wall. Possessing the careworn wrinkles of time, her individual eyebrow hairs gone awry, the closecropped subject gazes off-screen with an air of vague concern. Slowly, she turns her liquid stare towards the viewer. The moment of eye contact is anticipated, that flashpoint where human recognition occurs through the “windows of the soul”...but something is not quite right.

As the light shifts to illuminate the subject’s eyes, wide and misleadingly
lifelike, the pupils remained fixed - frozen apertures within unseeing glass orbs. In that moment, the viewer is reminded that this implied human presence is merely an image of a carefully manipulated puppet, created with light projected onto a wall.

<<--CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL ARTICLE-->>

Image: Elizabeth King, "Animation Study: Pose 7", 1997-2005, Chromogenic prints on Kodak Endura paper, 20 x 20 in. Collection of the artist.

Here's a high-energy video to start off the day (via Core77 via YouTube). Rhode Island native and RISD alum (BFA industrial design / MFA glass) C. Matthew Szosz gets his elemental energy out inflating fused sheets of window glass into sculptural glass "envelopes". Hot glass is explosive - the stillness of the final form is belied by the frenetic urgency of the process. Love it.

If you are in New York, these works are on display at Urban Glass in Brooklyn through this Friday, November 14th, as part of the Wheaton Fellows group show "The Space Between". Images of the finished "inflatables" are available on the Urban Glass website.

Image: C. Matthew Szosz, "#37", fused and inflated window glass