Transformer and Brooklyn-based cultural worker Jeff Hnilicka explore emerging models of cultural production, the sustainability of these models, and their impact within communities though a series of workshops, talks, skill shares, potluck dinners, and artistic actions. Discoveries made during Sustainability Lab will be shared at the Open Engagement conference in Portland, Oregon (May 14 – 17) exploring similar themes. Hnilicka will then be back at Transformer further investigating and interpreting outcomes of Open Engagement.
For more information click here
How long have you been designing and creating jewelry?
I have been creating jewelry since January of 2008. I started because some of my favorite jewelry pieces broke. In order to fix them I bought some basic tools, fixed my things, added new components, felt empowered, and expanded.
What is the artist community like in St. Louis; it doesn’t really strike me as a very progressive town?
Hmm... That's a tough one. It's not very cohesive. It’s hard to penetrate, even harder to link up, share ideas and build. Sort of a crabs in a barrel mentality. I tend to keep to myself, and do what I do best.
What are some of your inspirations?
I find inspiration in nature, in parks and on my hikes. My hometown San Diego, CA is a big inspiration to me; incorporating elements I used to find when I walked along the beach. Shells, mother of pearl, leaves from kelp, water, etc. I am also inspired by the music and style of Erykah Badu, India Arie and Jill Scott. I design with them in mind. I use materials that look beautiful against black skin; brass, sterling, wood, etc. I also flip through Vogue magazines, I constantly scan Google images and study other cultures to be influenced by their simplicity and use of color and texture. I often times purchase accessories from discount stores, break them apart to make new, original pieces. Textiles also influence me, food influences me, stories influence me, and emotions influence me. I feel everything and put it all into what I make.
You've been known to snap photos and DJ, what other art forms do you indulge in and how do these affect your jewelry?
I love, love, love photography. I work everyday to get better at it. And, naturally, taking great photos helps me market my jewelry. People do not have the option of holding and touching my pieces before they purchase them, so they rely on an expressive photo. Photography teaches me to see things from various angles, and to detect beauty that isn't so in-your-face. It teaches me about lines and composition, texture and color. I am grateful to my fiancé for teaching me how to DJ (DJ Trackstar).
DJing involves the use of the ears, eyes, soul and technique. When making jewelry, technique is important. How you hold the piece you are working on, etc; and I am guided by my soul when I create. I rarely sketch. I am very much hands-on.
Art Whino is giving you double a dose of art, with the Justin Lovato solo show and a collaboration exhibit featuring twenty new artists. Justin Lovato’s work is heavily influenced by video games and comic books, so many of his paintings have a dark fantasy quality. Lovatos time as a graffiti artist influenced him to incorporate the current political climate and urban life into his art. Many of the creatures he paints are animal hybrids that seem to be at peace or in some sort of distress. Texture and collage also play a large part in his work; this gives his pieces a rich, antique feel. As if that wasn’t enough, Aphrodizia (Yoko K.) will be performing in the front gallery on the day of the opening!
The exhibit opening is on December 14, 2007 at the Art Whino Gallery. For more info. Visit Art Whino online.
It seems to be a contradiction that such precise calculations could yield such lyrical, fluid drawings. The Ai-Wen Wu Kratz exhibit at the Museums of the Americas shows that there is beauty in such a contradiction. Ai-Wen has won multiple awards for her paintings, drawings and photographs and is also member of MOCADC . Ai-Wen is an example of an artist that truly loves and appreciates art as a meditation.She believes in listening to inner voice and knows that art can excite the senses and ultimately change the world.
Ai-Wen Wu Kratz work is on exhibit at the Museum of the Americas, in Doral Florida through December 1, 2007
A good way to describe The Morris Louis Now exhibit is; sensual and undulant. Standing in front of his paintings takes you to a place of pure pleasure. While each piece is huge measuring 8-12 feet in height, they are not at all over bearing in fact, they soothe you. Perhaps it is because each piece is made by staining a raw canvas with watered down acrylic paints, the out come is shadowy faint waves of color that blend and bleed into each other. Morris Louis did not always paint in this manner, he got his start painting realist paintings at the Maryland Institute of Fine and Applied Arts, it wasn’t until later in life that he found his calling, and started to create these abstract colorful pieces.
Morris Louis Now: An American Master Revisited will be at the Hirshhorn through January 6, 2008
In Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, Mary Jordan takes a look at one of the most influential artist of the New York underground arts scene. Jack Smith was a performance artist, photographer, film maker, and an art world rebel. He received unwanted notoriety for his early 1960's film, Flaming Creatures which was banned in various states and countries for being too obscene. His unique brand of trashy art influenced film makers such as Andy Warhol and my personal favorite, John Waters. This film collage of images of his over the top art gives the viewer a deep look into his psyche, his hatred for his mother, and finally his untimely death of AIDS in 1989.
Jack and the Destruction of Atlantis is showing at the Hirshhorn on November 15, 2007 at 8pm
Washington DC is known for politics, not really a place you would think to look to for cutting edge art, MOCADC as set out to change that, and has been quite successful in doing so. By offering the public a visual art space that houses works from emerging contemporary artist, MOCADC has broken the mold. Hosting exhibits such as Erotica 2007 and Heads & Tails, an exhibit featuring portraits of nudes and “tasteful backsides”, MOCA is bringing flavor and variety to DC’s art scene and has no intention on stopping or slowing down.
Heads & Tails runs through December 2, 2007, and MOCADC host gallery openings every first Friday.
Art imitates life. Fernando Botero’s series of paintings depicting the torture of Iraqi insurgents is a testimony of that. Botero got his inspiration for the paintings in this exhibit from reading official reports of the terror and torture that has been going on in Iraq. While this exhibit is painful to take in, these are images that we have been bombarded with via the news for the last five years. Botero’s focus was to “concentrate on the suffering and dignity of the victims rather than their tormentors". This exhibit will hopefully allow the public to feel more compassion for the victims of torture and not just see them as a casualty of war.
This is the first U.S. viewing of Abu Ghraib.
Abu Ghraib runs from Nov. 6, 2007 through Dec. 30, 2007 at The Katzen Arts Center (American University Museum)
Jeremy Blake’s digital video montages make you feel like you just took a hit of acid. His pieces are vivid, colorful and fluid. In this collection he has collaborated with fashion designer, Ossie Clark, and poet/independent rock musician David Berman. These ultra-hip pieces were inspired by such topics as the mega mall, drug addicts and reality television. Jeremy grew up in Takoma Park, Maryland attended Albert Einstein’s magnet art program, and eventually went on to the Art Institute of Chicago, so he is home grown.
DC native Linn Myer's large scale pieces seem to change form right before your eyes. The untitled pieces are almost all created by small etchings made on a Mylar canvas. Her work is abstract in the classic sense; however it is very pre-meditated and measured. If you look closely at her pieces they resemble graphs, each line is perfectly placed next to the one before it. The result is swirls of color and light that seem to turn into to each other and dance on the canvas.
The opening reception will be on November 3, 2007 from 6:30pm- 8:30pm at G Fine Arts
WACK! is one of those advant garde exhibits that you will either love or hate. However, no matter how you feel it about it, it will affect you. Vagina paintings and huge sculptures that resemble ovaries are just some of the highlights of this exhibit. It is no surprise that this showcase of over two-hundred and fifty paintings, and sculptures was organized by the liberal peoples of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (LAMoCA).
Henri Emile Benoit Matisse (December 31, 1869- November 3, 1954) was one of the first painters to be labeled as a fauve (a wild beast), because of his wild style of painting. The nudes in his paintings, drawings, and sculptures bend and take on shapes that would make my teacher gawk in disbelief.
His nudes will be on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art.Yes, you have to face the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to get there, but believe me it is worth the drive.
Matisse: Painter as Sculptor will be on view through February 3, 2008
