12 12 Gallery

Arts Council of Richmond Reaching Out

From RVANews

This past Friday, John Bryan, president of the Arts Council (soon to be renamed “CultureWorks”) invited some local blogger-type people over for lunch and a chat. The topic of discussion: How the Arts Council is trying to change Richmond’s relationship with (and support of) the arts.

We started the discussion by going over a summary of the Richmond Region Cultural Action Plan (RichCAP), an effort lead by WolfBrown, a marketing research and consulting firm for nonprofits. They worked for over a year with a 23-person task force composed of members representing the City of Richmond and Henrico, Hanover, and Chesterfield counties, corporate funders, and visual, performing, and history cultural arts organizations. The final report was ONE HUNDRED SIXTEEN pages, but Mr. Bryan thankfully pared it down for us to six goals presented by the task force upon completion of their research:

Read the rest...

New Grant Open to Visual Artists Worldwide

ARTWORKinternational, Inc. of Santa Fe, NM newly announces a privately funded grant. The Artist Business Career Development Grant totals $12,000, establishing it as one of the primary, international, monetary-support grants for visual artists. The Artist Business Career Development Grant parallels Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Pollock Krasner Foundation Inc. as per their open submission policy. In contrast, several major granting foundations have assumed a review process of nomination-only.

Uniquely, the Artist Business Career Development Grant (or ABCD Grant) offers unrestricted support to visual artists by placing priority on advancing the grantee’s career. While the granting period extends over one year, the continued benefits are exponential, continuing throughout the artist’s lifetime.

ARTWORKinternational Inc.’s mission is to create a global presence for visual artists. They foster excellence in the realization of each artist’s ultimate potential. Facilitating the career development of contemporary visual artists, they utilize three decades of cumulative experience amassed by their team of art professionals.

In light of the current global economy, ARTWORKinternational, Inc. conceived of, and released the ABCD Grant—an uncharted grant accessible to visual artist applicants worldwide, of any background, working in any media, at any stage of their career. Through the ABCD Grant, ARTWORKinternational, Inc. is able to further realize its mission by offering full-spectrum career development to the selected artist(s) free of charge.

ARTWORKinternational, Inc. has been in business for over a decade, and boasts an exemplary history of successful full-spectrum career development and placement for artists with museums, galleries, non-profit groups, sculpture gardens, public art venues, funding institutions, etc. ARTWORKinternational, Inc. has worked with the most prestigious art venues throughout the world, including prominent art publications, contemporary curators, critics, collectors, and dealers. ARTWORKinternational, Inc. serves as the liaison between the artist and art world.

Since its inception ARTWORKinternational, Inc. has worked directly with over six thousand contemporary art venues, across the globe, on behalf of their clients.

VCU MFA Candidates Named Javits Fellows

Source: ArtDaily.org

RICHMOND, VA.- Two graduate sculpture students in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts have been selected for the prestigious Jacob K. Javits Fellowship.

Ian McMahon and Nataliya Slinko, who are both MFA candidates in the Department of Sculpture, became the fifth and sixth students from the sculpture program to be named Javits Fellows in the past six years. Javits Fellowships are awarded to graduate students of superior academic ability in the arts, humanities and social sciences. There are typically only five to seven Javits recipients each year in the studio arts, which includes sculpture. Javits awardees receive payment annually for tuition and fees and a generous stipend for four years.

Three current VCUarts students -- Angela White, John Henry Blatter and Sami Ben Larbi – are Javits Fellows. Amy Hauft, chair of the Sculpture at VCU, said McMahon and Slinko fit the profile of other recent selections for the fellowship from the university.

“Javits has selected some profoundly interesting artists from VCU,” Hauft said. “All of them with eccentric takes on the world.”

McMahon, originally of Ithaca, N.Y., builds works ambitious in both scale and theme. Often working with reinforced plaster, McMahon tailors pieces to the specific space of the locations in which he installs them. Hauft said McMahon’s sculptures are architectural and have a “physical feat to them.” McMahon has traveled extensively, especially in China, and exhibited widely in the United States with three former classmates from Alfred College, where he received his undergraduate degree. A sample of his portfolio can be found at http://tinyurl.com/coklht.

Slinko was born in the Ukraine and moved to the United States in 1996 at age 22. Hauft describes Slinko’s work as cerebral, typically consisting of independent objects that are meticulously made and result from intense observation. A former graphic designer in advertising, Slinko’s work has dealt with the oppressive nature of office work and with her youth in Ukraine, especially the contrast of physical freedom and political constraint she felt there. Slinko received her undergraduate degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology. A sample of her portfolio can be found at http://tinyurl.com/c355ke.

The newest work from McMahon and Slinko will be on view starting Friday in Viva Comet Unis, the VCU Sculpture MFA candidacy show at 1621 W. Main St. The show, which includes work from five other sculpture MFA students, will feature an opening reception from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday. The show can be viewed by appointment following Friday. Call (804) 828-1511.

New Exhibition: Vann, Angevine, and Kiefer

Celebrate Spring with 12 12 Gallery's newest exhibition featuring:     In Gallery West: City at Night by California-photographer Gary W. Vann   In Gallery Centre: Intersections by Richmond-Watermedia artist Pat Angevine   In Gallery East: The Nimrod Hall Series,  drawings by Winchester's Geraldine Kiefer   Join us for the artists' reception on Sunday afternoon, May 17th, from 2-5 pm.   The show runs through Sunday, June 21st.

Gary W. Vann   Sky in Alley Window   Gary W. Vann   City at Night   Photography at night tends to isolate and simplify forms, while urban lighting casts divergent shadows, making ordinary structures all the more intriguing.  In profound silence, the city is presented like a stage set, appropriately recorded in black and white.   The storyline of this portfolio deals with interactions of man, in various ways, upon his environment.  The side streets of the city at night are full of shadows, which simplify our visual perception, while generating diversions of the mind.  Contrasting dualities exist between stark reality and mystery.  These images are directed less toward social correction as toward social awareness, with an appreciation of where we are in our relatively well insulated lives.  The human element at night provides a presence and a narrative, blending well with the shadows of the city.  Under close observation we are provoked by questions, rather than comforted by answers.    I hope you enjoy these images.   Gary W. Vann

Pat Angevine   Growth                 Pat Angevine   Intersections   I create abstract paintings derived from sensations, emotions and feelings arising from human interactions with the landscape. They represent a fusion of all these elements. Using color, shapes, transparencies, interpenetrating forms and calligraphic line I create layered paintings that are poetic and evocative of complex concepts.    I term my works landscapes because we all are in fact part and parcel of the planetary landscape . I call them Fusion art because they represent the human interrelationship with nature. The series is "Intersections." It is about those times in life that we run up against forces that are moving across our own energy lines, some of them taking us onto new paths, some harmonizing with our own and some lending tangential support.    Pat Angevine

Geraldine Wojno Kiefer     Nimrod Portobelo III                     Geraldine Wojno Kiefer The Nimrod Hall Series Attracted to mountainous and hilly terrain - specifically, the Ridge and Valley region of Virginia - I draw landscapes that appear wild and even scored, with little or no suggestion of habitation.  I use multiple striations and lines to suggest cut or crystalline forms. During the drawing process, however, I "domesticate' them. I flood or stain the paper with washes. I lay curvilinear lines among the angular lines, then color in the entire network with graphite, pastel and colored pencils in variegated shades. Growing things intimate for me that, albeit rocky, this metaphorical landscape is watered and thus fertile. It can provide a home. The Nimrod Hall Series is emplaced in Bath County, a region of south-central Virginia rich in subterranean springs and baths and the home of the Nimrod Hall Summer Arts Program for Artists and Writers. The series explores natural and cultural structures of the 18th century lodge, which rambled into a clustered community of additions and cottages through the 19th and int the 20th centuries. Tree, rocks, and branching clusters cling and root to the earth, pinned by swooping flourishes of the pencil or brush. These objects and elements intimate the presence of fecundity of living waters, bark, mortar, and rock. Geraldine Wojno Kiefer