[Melanie Acevedo photo of Kelly Wearstler's vignette, Domino, October 2008.]In a comment on the previous post, Balsamfir speculated that the trend toward large, and often dramatic, lamps seen during the last 10 years may have had something to do with our visual craving for sculpture.
This made me pay more attention to all sorts of decorative pieces that may not be fine art but nonetheless bring a certain depth to a room. For example, I've always gravitated to boxes, which can sometimes be quite sculptural, and to animal figures. Sculpture is such a dominant element in Kelly Wearstler's projects that I think many design junkies are aware of it there, however I know I'm guilty of being less tuned in to more subtle uses of the sculptural. My art studies always focused most on painting and drawing, and my personal passion is textile design. Guess you could say my world has been flat.
[Photo courtesy Lisa Borgnes Giramonti.]For January, I've given myself an assignment: look for the sculptural at every turn and start refreshing my memory of the numerous sculptors I learned about in art history classes and at museums.
[Melanie Acevedo photo of artist Konstantin Kakanias' house as seen in House & Garden; picture below also by Acevedo.] 
[Below, Kathryn Ireland's design for House Beautiful's 2003 showhouse benefiting Children's Action Network.]
[Below, Peter Dunham's design for House Beautiful's 2003 showhouse benefiting Children's Action Network.]
Whether three dimensional or two, there is plenty to explore this season. In February at Cole Pratt Gallery, an exhibition of sculptures and drawings by Sylvaine Sancton will open. Sancton's work incorporates various media, including bronze, cast glass, stone, and wood.
[Sylvaine Sancton, Horse, 15.75" x 17.5 x 6", bronze.]Throughout 2009 we checked in with Shannon Morris, museum curator at Georgia College, as she put together the soon-to-open contemporary art exhibition, Transitive Geographies.
[Annie Butrus, Peach Tree Trail: 4 Winter Culp ’07, 28” x 50” x 1.5”, acrylic on panel, 2009.]
[Annie Butrus, Shadow Study 1, 21”x62.5”, ink wash on paper, 2009.]
[Annie Butrus, Parade of Homes Greystone Trees, 11”x 14”, oil on panel, 2001.]Shown here is a sneak peek at just a few of the pieces to be on view. In all, 21 works including paintings, ink drawings, photographs and mixed media installations from artists Annie Kammerer Butrus (Birmingham, Alabama), Cynthia Farnell (Conway, South Carolina), Donna Mintz (Atlanta, Georgia), and Michel Varisco (New Orleans, Louisiana) will be featured.
[Michel Varisco, City Park 4, digital dye pigment print on vinyl, 8’4” x 6’11”, 2008.]
[Cynthia Farnell, Tobacco, 79” x 39”, pigment print on silk, 2009.]Here is an excerpt from Morris' statement about the show:
As the South continues to transition from its agrarian past into an increasingly industrial future, the region that served as the setting for the novels and the short stories of renowned writers like Kate Chopin, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy has become a fractured remnant of its past. While the loss of this bygone era receives mixed reviews from natives, newcomers and observers, the landscape remains a creative inspiration for both writers and visual artists. Featuring the works of four female contemporaries, "Transitive Geographies" seeks to understand this transition that reveals itself upon the landscape and along the waterways of the region by connecting the past to the present through imagery and relics. Their visions reference a region where a sense of place is connected fervently to identity.
[Donna Mintz, Lighting the Sun, installation comprised of found glass objects, 2007- present.]Following the Georgia College premier in January, Transitive Geographies will travel to the Rebecca Randall Bryan Gallery on the campus of Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina where it will be on display from July 15 to August 27, 2010, and then to the Alabama School of Fine Arts’ Vulcan Materials Gallery in Birmingham, Alabama.
Again, an opening reception is scheduled to take place at the end of the month on January 28, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., at GCSU in Milledgeville, Georgia, and the show will continue there until May 8.
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20 comments:
Varisco's photo of the tree and it's reflection is so poetically beautiful.
Terrific post. I loved the previous post as well and now the two together are officially officially required reading in my design office this week. Thanks for the inspiration!!
It's a remarkable point, obvious and still generally elludes me as well. I'll have to give it some thought now as well. Well done to you and Balsamfir.
Courtney, I love to put together interesting Vignettes. The varying heights and scale make the tableus come to life.
Thanks Marija. Have a good first week of 2010!
Blushing, yes, well said. So obvious yet easy to overlook. At least I'm guilty of that.
lOVE VOLUME #2 AS WELL AS #1. Funny, it is becoming more readily avaiable when you start to look for something. Ever notice that when things are on your mind, you will find them more so? Were they always there or did they just start shoeing up! IDK;.....it's like going to a store or at a flea market, walk over to a booth where no one is, look through a box or stack of things. The next thing you know, you cannot get out of the area, people have elvolved to the place. Much like how things have a way of popping up!
Huummm,
Happy Monday.
Leslie
A great post and point! Thanks Courtney!
I prefer sculpture, actually, so can't wait to see the treasures I'll find here over the next year.
Great post! It's so important to take time and really appreciate everything around us--I just got back from Florida and we drove for the first time through Georgia, we stayed in Savannah--the trees are magnificent! I loved the town-you are so lucky to live in the South! Happy New Year,Barbara
C- I too have found myself gravitating to sculpture over the last year or so. For some reason, though, I find it difficult to find sculptural pieces that work in my home. I don't know why...perhaps it's me!
There is a time or change and seeing differently is the start. Great post.
Leslie -- So true. Once I become obsessed with something or just more focused on it, I definitely start seeing it everywhere!
Thanks Ronda!
Hampton -- Glad you enjoyed your visit!
Karena -- Since you are an artist I'm sure you have a terrific sense of scale and balance too.
Jennifer -- Makes me feel better that you find it challenging also!
Patricia, I know you gravitate very much to it.
Ideezine -- Thanks!
happy new year! i always loved working with melanie when i was at domino, her images were always so arresting and perfect. cheers!
xo katherine aka. urban flea :)
Thanks for the mention. I love the horse, which echos William Zorach for me.
On behalf of the four artists featured in "Transitive Geographies," and the GCSU Museum, thanks a million! Your blog is so beautiful, it is a such a treat to be mentioned on it.
Shannon -- I'm so excited about the show!
What a great group of talent!
We have two sculptures here at The Manse, and while neither gets the attention that is given the oils, my eye always gravitates to them, as it does to busts in friends' houses. I recall seeing a lot of smaller classical pieces growing up. Have they would've fallen from favour?
Happy New Year.
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