Unauthorized Art

December 23, 2008 at 3:24 pm | Posted in Graffiti, Miami Art Basel, Music, Life, Art, News, Public Art, Travel Updates, Upcoming Events | Leave a comment
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We’ve been blasted with winter snow for the past five days and its been a busy month as I prepare to travel yet again. I always come back with trips with even more on my plate than I already have, so I’ve been distracted for a few days as I try to wrap up some projects before my business trip. This is my first lapse since my daily efforts about a month ago. I started a new blog, am sleeping odd hours, and have a twitch in my left eyelid.

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Photo on Dec 22, 2008 from the deck

The word Basel is associated with banking and a city in Europe close to the border of France, Switzerland, and Germany. I’ve seen the long trail of news articles and blog entries with this word in it comes across my desk, and some of them are rather interesting. Between the mid-summer event in June in Europe and its Miami counterpart, bloggers can feed on the continual supply on art news. Since I am intrigued with this event because my interest is Contemporary Art   and    Beyond , its been the subject of many blog entries.

Recent news has shifted westwards since the end of Miami Art Basel in Early December to the west. It looks like the MOCA stalemate has finally ended. I just discovered that the fellow who offered a bailout for the beleagured MOCA (Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art) is one of the founders, and the latest news is that this morning (Tuesday, December 23rd) the museum will release news about its financial plan and new officers. You can be sure there will be a flurry of commentary after this, in fact it has already begun.

A very innovative use or incorporation of art into a public space is this library in San Jose that is using illuminated cell glass art that should be a model for public buildings. Tree Hugger also has an article on this new library. Artists exist and work regardless of whether or not there is a venue for them, but when it becomes available, as in the case of a property owner in Palm Desert who paid an artist to decorate signal boxes that belong to the city.

If I had attended Miami Art Basel, the stuff going on over at the so called Wall of Fame would have been ground zero for me, I always am interested and pursue awesome artists who resort to interesting measures to get their art seen. Its the future. Fecal Face is an awesome site has its finger on the pulse, with a ton of pictures of the gorgeous graffiti art that went on display by  this core group of artists during Art Basel Miami Beach.

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The city has moved to regulate any future artist who choose to do the same. I went to an alternative public high school, so I was interested to read about a new public art school in Los Angeles for high school students that is supposed to open in 9 months. Hopefully it will represent a broad spectrum of students from all across Los Angeles. The San Jose Mercury chimed in on the ongoing debate about public art with its own commentary about the need for art in public spaces, adding richness to the experience of city living. The city of Santa Barbara is setting a great example in its work to recycle used items that would otherwise become trash and educating youngsters in the process. I guess my main gripe with events like Art Basel Miami Beach and the traditional Gallery/Museum scene is that there is very little of this interchange with the public.

Its really sad that the artists in Miami work tediously in the hope that they will have an audience for their art, but the community has no way to benefit from these art events and fairs. There is so much richness and excitement in the artists who I work with who are on the fringe and half of their work as an artist is just finding an artist or struggling to pay for materials. It is a touching experience and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

I’ve often compared Seattle to a third world city in its rampant building. I was over in the Eastlake neighborhood, and I counted no less than nine cranes in my frame of view. Public Art is actually one of our initiatives that we are working on here in Seattle, in regard to the non-stop building that is going on, since our real estate market does better than most of the country. New Dehli is taking command of its public spaces for contemporary art. The push by local artists to create and preserve public art is a model for cities like Seattle whose face is being changed in a way that the common citizen has little or no control of.

I like the Visuals and concept of the slow painting website. Its got links to other art history website and blogs, and you can read about an exhibit on Greek Vase Painting in Manhattan in this recent post. Moco Loco is another cool art blog that I just discovered. I haven’t gotten in depth yet so I don’t know quite what its approach is, but its a modern and contemporary art blog with a clean design and colorful and cartoony art that I enjoy so much in today’s entry.

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