Checking out galleries

 No I'm not looking for another gallery to carry my work.  I am however, looking at lots of art these days because my painting time is so frustrating right now with my eye condition.  I can look at images without difficulty and I'm doing at lot of it.   When I travel, I always pick up exhibition cards from galleries  and store them in  a giant box .  Sometimes they never get looked at again, but that is not the case this week.  I dumped out my box and chose a handful of cards with work that interested me.  One thing almost all the images had in common was they were abstract or non representational.

 source

Several of the cards came from one gallery  I visited  in Kelowna, BC last year.   Sopa Fine Arts carries an interesting range of artists and it is a lovely display space as you can see from the image above.    I was quite impressed because it was totally different from the kind of gallery I was expecting. Another big surprise was finding my summer neighbour's work on display in a joint exhibition.

So what did I like ?   There are so many I will have to write a number of posts to do the artists justice.  I'll start with Bill Gingles whose work has been floating around Pinterest over the last month. He lives in  the southern US.  I always find it fascinating to find an artist's work so far from home. Of his work he states that:

  "Each new painting reveals its own tendencies and surprises as it comes to life. Rather like children from the same parents, they are each at once individuals and siblings. It is because the life they share with each other is the life they drew from me."  

So from this intuitive approach his work is born.  His palette can be bold or subdued, but I noticed continuity in  his use of loops and swirls and luscious textures and subtle layers.  My personal favourites are his muted palettes where you really have to look to find the beckoning details of his work.  His use of a vertical grid with organic marks plays the structured against the organic thus creating interesting energy.  

 Sun Room, 48" x 36 " acrylic on canvas

Trading Books For Water 1, 30" x 24" acrylic on canvas

 

 Perfect Sinner 2,  60" x 48" acrylic on canvas

 

Rhapsody, 36" x 24" acrylic on canvas

Stay tuned for more artists over the next several weeks.  This is a great way to find out the elements of style that appeal to your aesthetic.  I've noted several aspects of Gingles work that I like, what are your thoughts? 

There's more than one way

Getting your work to the public is always on the minds of artists. Fellow blogger and artist Kesha Bruce and artist Charlie Grosso have decided to try something new with the creation of Baang and Burne Contemporary. Don't bother looking up the physical address- there isn't one! Wondering where the name came from? The gallery takes its name from a cold-war era espionage term used to describe covert demolition and sabotage operations, altering the spelling slightly in a tongue in cheek reference to Big-name art galleries that donne the names of their well-known directors.

The plan is to produce 4-6 exhibition events a year in cities in the US and Europe on a minimal budget. The goal of each event is to introduce the artists to possible new collectors in a new geographic region, or to a new group in their own backyard to increase future sales by engaging new audiences through relationship and community building.

Instead of using the traditional “pop-up” gallery that takes over a commercial space or store front for a limited time, Baang and Burne will create a series of private “one night only” events with a much smaller guest list of individuals. Most of the events will actually take place in a private home and will be by invitation only. Anyone has the chance to be invited simply by getting onto our invite list.

Baang and Burne's first event will take place in New York City on September 26th, 2010. More on this event on Sept. 16