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Voices
I V
h a t ’s î h e
m o ^ t e x c i t i n g
S h o w y o u ’ v e
s e e n l a t e l y ?
Paul Chan’s exhibition “ My
laws are my whores,” at the
Renaissance Society, Univer-
sity of Chicago, perhaps be-
cause it countered my expecta-
tions. I’d seen Chan’s work a
few times, and I was expecting
an incredibly visual, somewhat
poetic exhibition. Portraits of
Supreme Court justices greeted
viewers at the Ren, high on the
entrance wall, and on the other
side of the wall was a projection
of vibrating naked bodies in
sexual and tortuous postures.
It was a tough show, formally
commanding and disturbing in
a thought-provoking way.
— Anne Wilson,
artist, professor
at the School o f the Art Institute
o f Chicago, Illinois.
My initial thought was not of a
recent show but of an upcoming
exhibition that I have been on
the periphery of conversations
about: “Call + Response” at the
Museum of Contemporary
Craft. The show pairs artists
with historians who write about
the work, and it includes many
events to engage the public.
What excites me is the emphasis
on both “taking it to the streets”
(in terms of the programming)
and scholarly, critical interpreta-
tion of the work (made more
accessible by its inclusion in the
exhibition).
— JP Reuer,
architect, chair,
m f a
program in applied craft and
design, Oregon College o f Art
and Craft and Pacific Northwest
College o f Art, Portland.
О “Simon Starling: The Nanjing
Particles” at
m a s s m o c a .
I was
captured by the austerity and
simplicity of the installation on
the one hand and, on the other,
the absolute vividness of the
artist’s concept. The allure of
the highly polished and reflec-
tive surfaces coupled with the
unusual shapes’ Herculean scale
filled my visit with intrigue.
— Mark Richard Leach,
execu-
tive director, Southeastern Center
for Contemporary Art, Winston-
Salem, North Carolina.
Alexander Calder’s jewelry and
small works at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art. I felt like a boy
discovering what it means to
be creative.
.. stepping into the
playful and creatively honest
mind of Calder. I watched the
video of his circus three times
all the way through.
... I have
a poor attention span for videos
in exhibitions, but seeing an
aging man playing with these
small circus acts reminds me
that our own creations keep us
young. The wire portraits were
beautifully simple; if one line
were taken away the composi-
tion would fall apart. This was
the first show in a long time that
gave me goose bumps along
with a permanent smile.
— Matthias Pliessni
g, furniture
maker, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
One of my favorite events in
Pittsburgh is a massive commu-
nal exhibition called “Art All
Night.” About 800 local artists
contribute a single piece of their
work, which goes on display
from Saturday evening through
the night until about noon the
next day. Thousands of people
come to view the work, check
out the bands and see friends.
There are artists in every me-
dium, from age 3 to age 90.
With the incredible diversity of
work, it’s a highlight of my art-
viewing experience each year.
— Matt Eskuche,
glass artist,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
© The most exciting show I’ve
seen lately was Nick Cave’s
“Meet Me at the Center of the
Earth” at Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts, San Francisco.
It was a beautiful riot of color,
form and cast-off objects given
a bizarre second life. It makes
you want to forget the art-ver-
sus-craft debate and dive head-
long into the work.
— Erik Scollon,
artist and writer,
Oakland, California.
I saw the new American Collec-
tions Galleries at the Milwaukee
Art Museum this spring and
drove back the next week to
look again. These installations
frame the applied arts as vital,
generative and embodying con-
tempo rary issues. Outstanding
is the collaborative “Loca Mi-
raculi/Rooms of Wonder,” a
reinterpretation of the earliest
kind of museum, the Wun-
derkammer, by Wisconsin art-
ist Martha Glowacki, the Chip-
stone Foundation, the Madison
cabinetmaker Jim Dietz and
local collections.
— Kimberly Cridler,
metalsmith
and assistant professor at Univer-
sity o f Wisconsin, Madison.
In March I saw a brilliant little
show of postcard-size collages
by Marcy McChesney. It was
part of San Antonio’s “Lumi-
naria” arts festival. They formed
a continuous line at eye level
on all four walls of the gallery
space. The works were made
when she didn’t have the time
or space to make art, so she gave
herself the charge to make one
postcard a day using anything
available. The result was com-
pellingly fresh and personal.
— Paula Owen,
president,
Southwest School o f A rt Of Craft,
San Antonio, Texas.
016 american craft aug/sep09
