TAG Gallery: Open Juried Exhibition Made in America

Posted on by Diversions LA

Made In The USA: Let Freedom Ring, opened last week and runs through August 9th at TAG Gallery in mid-Wilshire. The exhibition will be one of the largest to date and a concept that TAG’s president Bob Chew describes as one of three annual group shows that help promote the gallery to the art community.  “This year, we are honored to have the illustrious art critic and former KCET Arts and Culture Editor and KCRW Commentator, Edward Goldman, as the juror for our largest national juried show. The Artists Gallery has always tried to showcase local artists and emerging talent around the country, with members coming from across the country, from Seattle to Maine, Maui to Florida, and now internationally. Being an art collective, we wanted a way for non-members to experience the terrific space and spirit of TAG.”

For more than 30 years, Edward Goldman has been an art critic and host of Art Talk, a former weekly program that aired prime-time Tuesday evenings during All Things Considered on LA’s largest NPR affiliate, KCRW 89.9 FM. Edward also contributed weekly art reports to the Huffington Post and has  written reviews for numerous art publications and served as a panelist, moderator, and speaker for various museums, arts organizations, and workshops.

Through an anonymous jurying process, Goldman reviewed approximately 550 submissions from around the country to choose 100 for the TAG exhibition. He will also choose Best of Show, three winners for cash awards, and Honorable Mention Awards for Excellence for each medium included. The awards will be presented at a reception and ceremony TODAY Saturday, August 3, from 4:00 -8:00 p.m.

Jurying a show of this size can be a daunting task, but Goldman is a veteran, and says for him, it was not that hard. “For me, the most important thing is that the art must grab my attention. I look for original work that stands out, like a breath of fresh air. The longer it holds my attention, the higher it’s ranking, and that helps create the list of possible winners. I look for something that surprises me, is perhaps somehow challenging, and makes me want to spend more time with it. There are sometimes works I have juried that I want to own, as they hold my attention for a long time.”

Selecting the Best of Show and the other winners often calls for jurors to see and select the award winners in person rather than from a computer screen. Luckily, Goldman has three days to review all the work at the gallery during the installation process. “To choose the winning artworks, I must see the work up close, in real life. Keeping my mind and eyes open, I look forward to meeting each piece of art, to see how they communicate in person. I listen intently, getting very close to the work. That way I can observe the dimension and intensity of each brushstroke, hear it, smell it, and perhaps even touch the work. Art that speaks to me, that has a voice I can sense from the texture or the spirit of the image, that is how I make my decisions.”

Participating artists have been alerted but have not yet been announced to the public on TAG’s website, www.taggallery.net. With a widely diverse collection of art in all mediums, it will certainly be a dynamic, inspiring, and thought-provoking exhibition. The Artists Gallery invites all art lovers to view this exceptionally curated exhibition and attend the awards reception to meet the participating artists and winners.

For Made In The USA, submissions were open to all residents of the US over the age of 18, with all styles and mediums accepted. Artists submitted paintings, drawings, photography, printmaking, mixed media, sculpture, digital, and video art. Each year, the number of submissions grows as the word of the exhibition spreads amongst the art community and is advertised nationally through PR Wire and other media outlets. Formerly named The California Open, this year’s MADE IN THE USA presentation builds on many years of TAG’s experience curating national exhibitions.

Goldman will be walking through the exhibition and speaking at 3:00 pm today prior to the reception which starts at 4 p.m. tonight. An art talk with the winners will be held on the final day, Saturday, August 10, at 1:00 pm.

  • Guest Post by Dale Youngman; photos provided by Youngman and TAG Gallery

Timeless and Inclusive Exploration of the Human Body in David Stewart Klein’s The Form

Posted on by Diversions LA

The human body is a subject as old as time, and yet the subject never grows old. Perhaps it’s fascination with our being, our physical capabilities, or perhaps it’s a sense of carrying the soul within bone and flesh. Regardless, the body draws us to depict it, to express its fascinating movement, grace, and expression.

David Stewart Klein is equally compelled and has created a stunning body of work to provide it, in his vast, current exhibition, The Form, now at TAG Gallery. For Klein, the body offers a way of expressing everything from beauty to trauma, from the sensual to aggression. Working in multiple mediums from oil on canvas to watercolor, digital painting to colored pencil and ink on paper, the textures and palettes are wide ranging and fascinating. While he calls oil a favorite painting medium, with colored pencil and charcoal his favorite dry mediums, he asserts that he enjoys experimenting with and discovering new techniques such as the “ephemeral and sensitive” nature of watercolor and gouache.

Along with the varied nature of the mediums he uses, he also employs a variety of styles. Klein notes that he incorporates elements of expressionism and the impressionistic as well as “elements of realism, comic book form, and compositions for drama, while maintaining respect for my passion, for the fine art/singular image/object genre.”

In short, the spectrum of his work is dazzling in its diversity. His images range from the traditionally lovely to those with surreal elements or angles. Always expressive in curve and line, his alternately intimately detailed and more abstract forms are each filled with movement and emotion. While many images are voluptuous and offer heightened sensuality, none are lascivious. With over 65 images represented, the artist’s images are as diverse as that of the human body itself.

Klein’s 6th solo exhibition, it represents both a singular achievement and a unique, primarily new direction for the artist. He describes the work as a “four-plus-year journey” that also contains five pieces created prior to 2020. Of the exhibition as a whole, he says, “I really felt the need to create a body of work that addressed both a desire to technically transcend my current state as a lifelong artist and create paintings that let the body hold the energy of my actual experience as a person and the experiences of others.”

The works are richly kinetic and vibrate with that sense of aliveness. Klein says this energy and motion come in part from his long-time work as a composer and musician. Additionally, he relates that “I find movement to be key to my work visually. I love dance, film, animation, and graphic novels, which are mediums that all incorporate movement as a nonnegotiable for the art forms to exist.”

While the works on display are part of a series, each image is, as Klein puts it, “singular…There are threads connecting all of my works together and yet I focus on creating one bold, meaningful, beautiful work of art at a time.”

Over ninety percent of the images in this show used live models, but they serve as a jumping off place for the artist who says he takes “great liberty to express myself more dynamically once the composition, forms and lighting are identified.”

While there are too many images to describe each, among the many standouts is the delicate profile of “Bent Over,” created in watercolor on paper, and in complete contrast, “Apocalypse at the Picnic,” an oil on canvas work whose sinewy, seated images exude both longing and foreboding.

There is the dark, noir like figure in his “Body Emerging,” a work of digital printing on canvas; the slightly surreal and abstracted image with pendulous breasts revealed in “Body;” and the vivid red of “Excited Torso,” a vibrantly printed canvas of a drawing.

Blazingly expressive is the abstract oil-on-canvas “Firestarter;” the muted realism of “Desolate,” a mix of watercolor and colored pencil on paper, is achingly lonely. Some images recall a nymph or goddess, as in “Freedom to Be,” while others depict partial aspects of the body as the focus, such as the mid-face to just-below-the-hip male figure, all puffed chest and muscular arm, depicted in “Firm Stance (Self-Portrait).” Klein’s ink on paper “Madam Recline” offers echoes of art deco in design; while another partial figure, “MY BODY, presents an image stretching from chin to thigh, vibrates with pride despite, or in celebration of, imperfections.

Multiple limbs are rigorous in their musculature in the oil painted figure of “Seeking Salvation,” while the graphite on paper “Ready to Pounce” is pure motion.

Klein’s large-scale oil work “The Alchemist,” positions a beautiful female figure against a colorful and textured background, along with two charming grey cats. In contrast, other works such as “The Claw,” created in colored pencil and watercolor, place the subject against a featureless background. It is invigorating to see such an extensive and expansive exhibition with a single deeply realized subject.

Acutely visible in Klein’s work is the fact that the images are not made to simply reveal “what my eyes can see,” as he puts it. Rather, they are based on his perceptions of what each of his subjects “present on multiple levels.” It is an approach Klein is known for, rooted in his intense purpose to create and communicate “a story of the human spirit and form.”

The exhibition runs through March 2nd, with a closing event from 5 to 7 p.m.; Klein will be conducting an artist’s talk on February 25th, from 3 – 5 pm.; and this week, on the 22nd, he’ll be holding a life drawing class with a live model to provide other artists and aspiring artists with the opportunity to draw or paint the human form amid his own curated works. The life drawing class will run from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. this Thursday.

TAG is located at 5458 Wilshire in mid-city. Regular gallery hours are Wednesday-Sunday from 1 to 7 p.m.

  • Genie Davis, photos by Genie Davis

 

 

Susan Spector Offers Words of Wisdom

Posted on by Diversions LA

Susan Spector’s Sticks/Stones, which just closed at TAG Gallery, is a delightful collection of text-based work filled with wit and exuberance.

Simple painted figures are featured with phrases that are inspired by a question she asked during the COVID pandemic lockdown. That question being “What is a phrase from your past that has stayed with you forever?” She was still soliciting responses on Post-It Notes at the gallery – which we can hope leads to a part two for this smart work.

It isn’t just an illustrated reproduction of these phrases that Spector is after here. Rather, she has gathered and compiled ideas that are intrinsic to our way of life, refining and exploring social issues, mental health, cultural mores. The exhibition also touches upon the way we each speak to ourselves,  and the ways in which society encourages specific forms of self-talk.

From loving advice to harsher words, the collection both charms and rivets, exposes and encourages.  The work is a significant departure from the artist’s past abstract figuration. These are simple, easy to see visualizations accompanied by text that punches both a visual palette and an emotional one.  Despite deceptive simplicity, this crowdsourced, text-based art is presented in a variety of visual ways.

Simple, heartfelt phrases such as “I matter,” “I am Enough,” and “I am at peace with who I am,” are presented on a solid colored background. The black type of the words, created in a variety of different type-faces including a cursive flourish on some words, is presented on a layer of gold leaf overlaid on the solid colored background. The viewer’s impression is that these words are especially valuable, and should be taken to heart.

Other phrases are accompanied by her unique, yet simple illustrations – a curly haired individual, holding a red heart against an outlined chest features text at the bottom of the image that reads “Always come from love not fear.” While most of the words are in black type outlined in white, the word “love” is outlined in red to match that heart; the word “fear” is simply written in black.

There are hilarious images too, including one of a screaming red face is matched with “Caution! I’m in retrograde,” highly appropros for the conclusion of a long Mercury retro just ending as the exhibition was viewed.  A female figure, chest proudly displayed, stomach sucked in, is accompanied by bold text which reads “Tits out” in pink, and “Belly in” indicated in blue, both with arrows pointing to the way in which the body should be positioned.

 

“Spend it foolishly” looks as delightful as the advice written in thick silver letters. Here, a bent-figured grandma reaches to hand two eager children dollar bills stacked in both her hands.

Nearby, a blue-skirted, wide-eyed figure perches demurely on a chair while pink letters spell out “Be A Lady” in a long line beside her,  an invisible, internalized authoritarian instructing her behavior.

Precariously balanced items plugged into a wall socket are the accompaniment to “Don’t Do Anything Stupid,” written simply in black.  In another work, a large figure points to a screen which smaller audience-member figures look up to view.  On the screen are written “3 Rules: Show Up, Speak Your Truth, Don’t Die Wondering.” Meanwhile, an aggreived looking stick figure is accompanied by a text bubble reading “Before you decide you’re depressed, make sure you’re not surrounded by a bunch of assholes.” And indeed, in close proximity all around her are what appear to be small outlines of just that – literal assholes.

 

One of the most visually beautiful works is a primarily black on black work. Written against a dense black sky, the words “It’s always darkest before the dawn” are just discernable over a gorgeous rising line of pink, orange, and gold sunlight.

Additionally fascinating were the Post-It’s added by viewers on the wall next to Spector’s work at TAG. There was “Why can’t you be more like your cousin,” next to the excellent advice “Don’t wait for everything to be okay to be happy.”  “Life is a bitch, “Brush your teeth,” and “Nobody’s Perfect” nestled close to “Take a long walk on a short pier.”

Instead, take a long look at Spector’s work, and enjoy.

Along with this exhibition, fine solo shows by David Klein, Justin Prough, and Skut were also on display, but that’s a different story.

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis

 

Buena Johnson – A Passionate Soul’s Cry

Posted on by Diversions LA
Wade in the Water

Buena Johnson creates powerful art that is rich in story; intimate, vital work that has the quality of a resonant dream. Johnson says of her trajectory as an artist, “Art became my best friend, my peace, my consolation, escape, and safety net.  It’s always been my purpose and search for my art to have a meaningful message…art is only a burden and untapped treasure if it has nothing to say.”

I’ll Fly Away

Johnson has plenty to say. Her work, which has a transformative quality with an edge of the surreal in many of her current pieces, fully expresses her purpose. “I have an inner need for a deeper message based on my life’s experiences as a woman, visual artist, and artist of color. From birth to now, I’ve faced too many obstacles because of the color of my skin, whereas with the power of art as a tool, I felt I could address and voice these issues. ” 

Address them she has. For her current exhibition Soul’s Cry, now at TAG in mid-city, she created almost entirely new works and updated a few others “because life and history is constantly happening.” Her current work departs from past series honoring jazz, blues, and entertainment icons, as well as being quite different from her Angel series, which is based on Bible verses and scriptures meaningful to her. Johnson notes that she plans to always continue her angels and spiritual imagery, however.

Sweet Revenge

But Soul’s Cry is an aching and glorious response to racism. “From early childhood [I had] experiences of racism, [including] being told as if it was a compliment, that I am an ‘exception to my race,’” she says, also describing the pain of racism that she saw reflected in her parents’ experiences. “I couldn’t keep silent any longer. I needed to express our history from 400 years of oppression and inequality to now.” From the first enslaved people brought to Point Comfort, Va. in 1619, to the horrific recent rise of emboldened white supremacy groups, Johnson sought to recognize that  “America was built with the blood, sweat, tears, deaths and lives of black people.”

Land of the Free

Soul’s Cry is just the beginning for Johnson, who plans to continue this series. “My work is to educate, so we can stop having ‘Karens,’ racial and financial inequities, police killings of minorities without accountability. [It is] to inform, heal, and uplift by the sheer power of recalling our history…to act as a recorder, a visual storyteller of our truths past and present, advocating for positive change.”

In short, this is an important body of work, both artistically and thematically. Johnson works primarily in pencil, and calls her astonishingly detailed work “pencil painting.”  While well-versed in other mediums, she says she loves the “challenge of using one’s natural ability to draw or paint with pencils. I do not like lengthy prepping of a media before I can get started; with pencils I can mix right on the surface I’m working on, and when I take a break or finish, there’s no lengthy cleanup necessary or potentially harmful chemicals.”

Madam, a Crown Deserved – You Nurtured a Nation

That Johnson’s work is inspirational is a given; she says she self-identifies her work as “inspired” because she feels guided as she creates by her “higher power or knowledgeable being revealing and speaking calmly to my spirit and into my life. If at times it doesn’t work out or flow well, it means that there is too much of me in the way, and I need  to reconnect to my power source for guidance and help,” she attests.

Johnson began as an artist before she even reached school age, mesmerized, as she puts it, by art and the fact that a human being could create art images. From her teaching degree to advanced studies at the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Philadelphia College of Art, and the Pratt Institute of Art in New York, Johnson never stopped producing and perfecting her illuminative and passionate work.

Moving from Chicago to Los Angeles, she’s been showcased in the Smithsonian, The Getty Collection, MOCA Los Angeles, and more, as well as producing commissioned works for members of the Hollywood elite from Halle Berry to Queen Latifah, as well as creating for companies such as the Los Angeles Dodgers to United Airlines. But through it all, her ultimate plan is to reach a vast audience and truly elicit transformation through her work.

Songs of the Soul

Today, she plans for expand on a series of works concerning Slave Songs/African American Spirituals, as well as expanding Soul’s Cry as a series. Her purpose is to both expose America’s history of racial injustice and to “motivate positive change.”

Always expansive, she plans to create a new series highlighting and honoring women as well, primarily women of color.

Steal Away

She wants viewers to “hear the cry of the ancestors, to feel uncomfortable with the knowledge of America’s history, the pain, struggle, and injustices I’ve visually recorded.” She hopes that everyone witnessing her works will “let the message speak to your spirit and conscience and move you to see that we all are of the human race and we can make a change for the better together.” Her hope is to evoke the vital necessity of change, so that others will not experience what she did in researching and creating the images in Soul’s Cry, during which process, she says “Many times I’ve felt like ‘I can’t breathe!’”

Johnson’s work, on the other hand is a welcome, expansive, cleansing breath of fresh air, carrying substantial vision. TAG is open for in-person viewing of Johnson’s work, or virtually at http://taggallery.net/buena-johnson-souls-cry

There will be a virtual artist talk and walk-through of the exhibition on Thursday, March 18th at 7 p.m. To join, visit: https://www.taggallery.net/shop/buena-johnson-soulscry-virtual-walkthrough 

Soul’s Cry will be on view March 16th through April 10th; TAG is located at 5458 Wilshire Blvd. in mid-city. On March 25th, a virtual reception for Johnson and other exhibiting solo shows will also be presented online at https://www.taggallery.net/shop/lightner-soetebier-johnson-huffman-virtual reception-tickets.

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by the artist