This month, Art in America’s David Ebony interviewed German artist Katharina Grosse. She currently has a show, “Katharina Grosse: One Floor Up More Highly” at MASS MoCA, up through October 31st. Ebony describes this project in terms of a European perception of American landscapes.  “Many Europeans think of America in terms of vast landscapes and infinite sky, and urban centers packed with towering buildings and teeming masses, all in a rather precarious state of flux.” Grosse’s work “could be seen as an homage to an idealized if not wholly fiction place, such as the American frontier.” “This project, like most of Grosse’s large-scale installations, incorporates massive sculptural features that allude simultaneously to empirical space an an imaginative vista. Yet the artist’s primary means of expression is painting, and the thrust of the work is rigorously abstract. She employs painting’s illusionistic devices of light and shadow, and, with a subtle manipulation of other elements, suggest complex narratives.” Read the entire interview here: http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/conversations/2011-09-02/katharina-grosse/
A reception for emeritus, curated by Nancy Lukasiewicz, will be held this Sunday from 2-4pm in the Lyndon House Arts Center.  emeritus is a show of emeritus and former professors such as JERRY CHAPPELLE, ROBERT CLEMENTS. TOM HAMMOND, JAMES L. HANNA, RICK JOHNSON, GLEN KAUFMAN, JACK KEHOE, JUDITH McWILLIE, RON MEYERS, ANDY NASISSE, W. ROBERT NIX, GARY NOFFKE, RICHARD J. OLSEN, BILL PAUL, ART ROSENBAUM, LANNY WEBB … The Lyndon House is located at 293 Hoyt Street in Athens. North Jackson Street dead ends at Hoyt Street. For more information, visit: http://ga-athensclarkecounty.civicplus.com/index.aspx?nid=4192
Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin and architect Ed Jackson Jr. are helping Martin Luther King Jr.’s ideas take shape. Literally. This Sunday, August 28th, the 30ft statue of King and the surrounding grounds (including a bookstore, cherry trees, and a wall of King’s quotes) will be dedicated in a ceremony marking the 48th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.  The New York Times describes the statue: “The design gave form to a line from Dr. King’s “Dream” speech — “With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope,” said Mr. Jackson. In the memorial, he noted, Dr. King is seen emerging from the stone of hope. The two towering mounds set slightly behind him, forming a sort of passageway to the statue, are mountains of despair.” Read the entire article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/us/23mlk.html?_r=1&ref=arts
UGA’s student newspaper, the Red & Black, reviews the upcoming exhibition of Lamar Dodd School of Art faculty work. MMXI will be opening TONIGHT- August 19 from 7-9pm.  From the article: “There will be traditional approaches in terms of everything from the portrait to working with a microscopic camera,” said Jeffrey Whittle, gallery director at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. “Something that you couldn’t see with the naked eye, someone will be able to see in the show, as well as things that are from the artists’ imaginations; something completely invented.” http://redandblack.com/2011/08/19/university-exhibition-mixes-faculty-avant-garde-art/
TOMORROW, Tuesday, October 12th: Donald Lipski Lecture As part of the Visiting Scholar and Scholar Series at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, sculptor Donald Lipski will be speaking at 5:30 in room S151. From the Lamar Dodd website (http://art.uga.edu/index.php?pt=4&id=140#): “Donald Lipski is a sculptor living and working in Philadelphia since 2006. While best known for his poetic combining and altering of existing things, he has in recent years created many prominent and compelling public sculptures. Since coming to prominence with his Museum of Modern Art installation Gathering Dust in 1979—thousands of tiny sculptures pinned to the walls—his work has been shown in galleries and museums around the world, and he’s in the permanent collections of dozens of museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney, The Menil Collection, and The Chicago Art Institute. He is the winner of many awards and honors, including The Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Awards, and The Academy Award of the American Academy of Arts & Letters, and The Rome Prize. His public projects have been both overwhelmingly popular with the general public and garnered critical acclaim. Says Lipski, “I strive to both seduce and challenge the viewer, to provoke wonder and delight…to lead him to question, to make his own metaphors.”“ For more information: http://donaldlipski.net/
The Lamar Dodd School of Art’s director, Georgia Strange, has work being shown as part of an exhibition in SOHO20. “For Soho20’s National Affiliate artists, change in women’s personal and political spheres demands new methods and new definitions of what it is to make art. This cohesive group of thirteen mid-career artists from the Midwest, South, and northeastern states offers a national cross-section of views of female experience and the feminist agenda. The range of works include language-based explorations of Thoreau’s Walden, social narratives of Mexican migrant farm-workers, intercultural collaboration with Ghanaian villagers, exploration of paleo-photography, environmental installation, drawing, mixed media, print-making, and sculpture. Many of the artists develop their ideas as college teachers, curators, poets, and arts activists. All are committed to exploring new forms and strategies for understanding female development, intimacy, eroticism, and political commitment. Although geographically dispersed, they maintain an active dialogue on feminist issues, aesthetic values, and individual artistic growth, culminating in an annual group show at Soho20 Chelsea.” http://www.soho20gallery.com/New/exhibitions.html Imaginary Friend: Blue, 2010
The new work of 2008 MFA recipient John Powers is being shown in IMMATERIAL Opening reception is tonight, July 9th, at 6pm at Beta Pictoris Gallery in Birmingham, AL, and work will be shown through Saturday, August 28th. Check it out! RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=106339222752335 John Powers’ website: http://johnpowers.us/ Die Die Die 2, painted wood, 2007
At the Classic Center today (5pm-9pm) and tomorrow (11am-2pm)- check out the work of local sculptors and UGA art students! RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=4939448#!/event.php?eid=131956580159767&index=1
TONIGHT! (Saturday, June 19th) opening reception from 7-9pm: ATHICA Emerges IV: Uncertainty “ATHICAEmerges IV: Uncertainty introduces Athens to four artists whose works all have a metaphorical relationship to the uncertain times we face. Through installation, painting, printmaking and sculpture the selected artworks explore the precarious interconnectedness of our world, reminding us that we must all tread lightly.” Curated by Katherine McQueen and Katherine Holmes For more information: http://www.athica.org/index.php?ID=60&action=More RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=127925040574273&index=1 Melissa Dickenson, Pawn-route (2010), acrylic and ink on cut paper, 40” x 40”
Margar, painting by recent sculpture graduate Jimmy DeRoth http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmyderoth/
From the Los Angeles Times: Louise Bourgeois dies at at 98 “Known for sculptures of giant spiders, women with extra breasts, double-headed phalluses and rooms that resonate with loneliness and dread, Bourgeois was a fearless creative force whose work could be disturbing and perversely witty. Although she got little attention from the art world until her seventh decade, she became its grand dame, constantly in demand and showered with honors.” http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-bourgeois-20100601,0,6076523.story
PEOPLE I’LL NEVER KNOW, by Ernesto R. Gómez, 1st year MFA candidate in Sculpture  An action for the soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.With this act I hope to bring the names of our fallen soldiers (if even for a brief moment) to the conscious of any onlooker and myself. The writing of every name may take me several hours to complete. During this private meditation I do not intend to speak to any viewers. This gesture on my part is in respect to the fallen. Upon completion of the writing of the names, I will stand and seal the box, never to open it again.  http://ernestorgomez.com/
From the Red & Black: Art student opts for message over quality 4th year sculpture major Jimmy DeRoth in the Red & Black! ““I think of everything as sculpture,” he said. “Even when painting, you have to build the canvas. I try to find the easiest way to express my ideas, and usually it’s in 3-D.”” Check out DeRoth’s work TOMORROW, Saturday, April 31 at Ben’s Bike’s from 7-9pm for the sculpture exit show! http://www.facebook.com/lynnboland?ref=ts#!/event.php?eid=108180135889928&ref=ts
A Perfect Union: BFA Sculpture Exit Show THIS SATURDAY, May 1st from 7-9pm at Ben’s Bikes (670 W. Broad Street) Featuring the work of: Kevin Spencer Powell, Jaclyn Lindsay Enck, James Robert DeRoth, Lindsay Lewis Ethridge RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?profile=1&id=63100564#!/event.php?eid=108180135889928&ref=ts Sculpture by Jimmy DeRoth (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmyderoth/)
Georgia Sculptor’s Society Iron Pour is this Saturday, April 10th 9am-6pm, 263 South Thomas Street (Thomas Street Annex) RSVP on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=482376595321&ref=mf http://www.georgiasculpture.org/
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