SBC vs PDL: Space Lego Showdown: Vermillion Gallery

Friday night marked the first ever artist Lego competition I have seen - all 6 members of the rival art trios SBC (John Sutton, Ben Beres and Zac Culler) and PDL (Jason Puccinelli, Jed Dunkerley and Greg Lundgren) faced off in a lego spaceship building challenge smackdown.  This was an event heralded with the bravado and trash-talking of Monday Night Raw (that's the weekly pro wresting event to those of you who are not pre-adolescent boys and/or named Kathy).  It even received local news coverage, truly a rare thing for any art show in this town! 

Each artist made 6 spaceships, and the public was invited to vote on the anonymous entries.  The trio with the most votes at the end winning bragging rights until their next smack down. 

 I guessed that this spaceship with the docking station must have been done by the nerdiest of the 6 artists, who happened to be Greg.  I'm just saying.

 This was perhaps the strangest competition...when I was looking at it, Ben Beres' dad recounted painful memories of stepping on Lego pieces in the middle of the night.  There is nothing quite like that feeling is there?

 I believe Jed D was responsible for this one, I gave it my vote for the alternative wing shape designs.

 The most mammoth of all the entries, created by Zac (not the infamous Lego Maniac)

 John Sutton's ship featured a removable vehicle in the back.

Jason's snack show space station won the most individual votes.



For the record, I would have made a way cooler spaceship than any of these. 

Molorazzi hits January BLITZ + Mandy Greer

Thursday night brought another excellent batch of shows on the hill and the Molorazzi was out!  Once again, I ended up shooting more pics of art than people, but hey, as Bobby Brown says, it's my prerogative.  So here's some pics:

 Here we have a couple of dark, poor shots of Julie Alpert's installation at The Living Room, called Motivation Graph.  I really enjoy these simple, clean watercolors Julie is doing - they create an interesting dialog with her more involved installation pieces (if you are familiar with her work).  Good stuff, I look forward to seeing them in daylight.

 

After hanging out at Julies show, we headed up to Ghost Gallery to see Ecotone:

 This installation by Mary Elise Bolam, Bucks I have Fucked, is sensational.

 

Each of the t-shirts in hand sewn in the chest hair patterns of past "suitors" (suitors being the term sewn on each label, e.g. "Suitor 7")   Fantastic!   One of the shirts even has the suitor's tattoos sewn on as well.  

  

 

 Michael Alm next to his sculpture.  There is something very frightening about this piece.  Unnerving.  This is good. 

Jody Joldersma's paintings brought a lot of creepy humor to the show.

 This is a terrible photo of the feather pattern work by Jess Rees.  It does not do justice to this work at all.  Jess is going in an interesting direction here, I'm curious to see where it leads her...

 And finally, we have one of the landscapes by Joey Bates.  A hand burned!  (thank you for the correction Michael!) piece on raw wood, also, I did not get good lighting, sorry Joey!  Nice work though!

Winter at Season Gallery

Robert Yoder's house gallery, Season continues to impress.  I headed up there on snow-flurry filled Sunday (fitting, for the winter exhibition) to check out the show, I am here, mo fo!, featuring work by Philip Miner and Ruth van Beek.  The majority of the work was hung together, in a large wall installation in the main gallery (aka living room).  A fire was roaring and champagne was flowing, the opening reception felt like a festive afternoon gathering of art enthusiasts, which, in fact, it was.

Installation of works by Philip Miner and Ruth van Beek     

These days artists often talk about and question whether or not the gallery system is still a viable option.  It's great to see a home gallery by an artist, showcasing seasonal shows and maintaining a stable of artist's work for sale.  The bedroom is the spot to be to view portfolios of past Season artists like Natalie Hausler. There is a lot of impressive work and talent represented up in Ravenna.  Check it out.

  

Season gallery artist portfolios displayed on the master bed.

MOLORAZZI - First Thursday Art Walk ATTACK

Okay, I only took a few photos, and mostly of art work and not people, so this is hardly a traditional MOLORAZZI photo post, sorry everyone.  But it was a good art walk night!  I enjoyed the work of Jeffrey Simmons at Greg Kucera, Victoria Haven's "No Fun" piece at Kucera, Carolina Silva at Lawrimore Project, and Evan Blackwell's cut-up frame sculptures at Foster White.  The new CORE gallery looks very promising and the show at SOIL was a lot of fun.  I kind of want to go back there and see if I can completely cover that hummer with white chalk.

 Evan Blackwell at Foster/White

 More Blackwell

 Carolina Silva at Lawrimore Project

  

Notice the small stream of sand falling from the ceiling?  That will continue for the duration of the exhibition, I'm very curious to see how it piles up on the desk and chair...

 Scott Trimble at SOIL.  You too can draw on this car!  I don't know if they will let you bring your own chalk, and I'm not suggesting that anyone bring some different colors...but.....

The Flood is over

Well, my show Flood at Gallery4Culture closed last week.  It was a blast, I was very happy with how the show was received and very grateful for all those who were able to go see the exhibition.  I will be hanging some of the pieces, along with several even newer works, at a solo exhibition at Vermillion gallery in March.

If you missed the G4C show, be sure to check out Vermillion in March.  Meanwhile, here is a bunch of installation shots from the show-