Material Art Fair Mexico City 2014

Seeing the Material Art Fair was a case of being at the right spot at the right time. I was in Mexico City because American Airlines was running an airfare that was so cheap I couldn't find any excuse not to fly down to see the Museo Soumaya and the Museo Jumex. Plus there was the super sized Zona Maco Art Fair (more on all that in the next post)

Over breakfast at Casa Comtesse I noticed a listing in the local paper for the Material Art Fair, and it was going on just down the street from where I was staying!

This was the first year of the Material Art Fair with just forty galleries in attendance. The focus of the fair was on "Emerging Practices"(!?)  A little over half of the galleries came from outside of Mexico. Several exhibitors were actually artists co-ops such as the Neter, which isn't so much a gallery as a group of artists that are committed to promoting their artwork by promoting the gallery. These groups work together, pulling from the groups resources to build bigger and better events, exhibits, opportunities, and artwork. These groups with their can do attitude added a lot to the optimistic atmosphere of the art fair.

The Neter used customized pizza boxes to create portfolios that included limited edition prints by twelve of their artists. Very nice work at a very reasonable price.

Printed Matter Inc.

This art fair was more about making new discoveries than perusing the walls for well known signatures. The galleries represented mostly under recognized artists, in fact I would say that the galleries themselves were mostly under recognized. That element infused the art fair with an air of excitement, optimism and rebellion that the bigger, blue chip art fairs are too mature/tainted to generate.

I was very surprised and happy to see Dallas represented by artist Ricardo Paniagua at the DAI Gallery...

Kevin Jacobs Director of the Oliver Francis Gallery

And Dallas's own emerging practice gallery, the Oliver Francis Gallery . 

Over all, the Material Art Fair was a great opportunity to see how artists, co-ops, and galleries are approaching the art market with new alternatives in the hopes of making big waves. Hopefully next year MAF will make a bigger splash by spending more time on promoting the art fair, and perhaps finding a better location than the fourth floor of the Hilton.  

Wols At The Menil Collection

I first saw Wols artwork at the Barnes Foundation in 2009, three small watercolors nestled amongst the vast collection of Post Impressionist masterpieces. I noted his name in my sketch book but never followed up on him.

This past fall I flew up to Philadelphia to see the Barns Foundation in its new home, and there were those three little scribbles on torn out book pages. Again I noted down his name. When I got back to Dallas I saw that the Menil Collection in Houston was having a Wols retrospective. And so, after a few false starts I made the three and a half hour road trip from Dallas to Houston.

Was it worth the drive? Yes!

Wols (1913- 1951) is one of those artists who made a great impact while he was alive, and in Europe he maintained a high profile after his death. But he quickly disappeared from the annuals of art history as seen from the American vantage point. Talking with the book buyer at the Menil Book Store I learned that there are only two books on Wols written in english, one being the must have Wols Retrospective catalogue published by the Menil Collection.

I am a sucker for artists such as Paul Klee, Max Ernst, Hans Bellmer, and Joan Miro. Artists who function on that edge of subconscious abstraction and the exploration of lush materials.

This retrospective of Wols artwork is like finding new chapters to your favorite book. It brings a new perspective to art history, and makes you question how much Wols was influenced by his comrades and how much they were influenced by him.

I don't know much about Wols' life other than a few intriguing hints of drama such as being imprisoned in France with Max Ernst and Hans Bellmer for 19 months, dieing of food poisoning, and that his wife continued to create and sell his paints long after he was dead. Sounds like this catalogue is going to be a good read.

An Introduction To The World Of Nomadic Fungi

Dr B.F. Smith PhD

A few weeks ago I was hiking around Dinosaur Valley State Park, enjoying the cool weather and comparing my shoe size with those of various dinosaurs. Around lunch time as I sat on the river bank, a group of Webelos Scouts walked by being led by a tour guide. But this wasn't your normal park ranger, this man was dressed in a charcoal gray, pin stripped, wool suit, with matching fedora. His gray beard and horn rimmed glasses gave him the air of someone of knowledge. I couldn't help but easdrop on his lecture...

He rambled on about the size and weight of the various dinosaurs, and their eventual extension. That's when he slipped off topic and began to talk about the eventual extension of the human race, and how  Nomadic Fungi were sure to play a big part in our demise. The kids started to get a bit freaked out. I was like WTF is he talking about!?

Later in the day, after having my fill of dinosaur tracks, mosquitoes and chiggers, I headed back to the car. As I was tossing my backpack and muddy shoes in the trunk I noticed the wool suited tour guide was unlocking the car next to me.

I just had to ask, What was that killer fungus thing all about?

He introduced himself as Dr. B.F. Smith PhD. He's the director of the Nomadic Fungi Institute, and that the "killer fungus" is a modern mutation known as Nomadic Fungi. It is a parasitic fungus that attaches itself to automobiles and feeds upon the various components. The spores of this fungus are spread on the wind, and if not addressed this fungus has the capacity of decimating the transportation network that our society is built upon.

...Two weeks later, I 've started my new job as the "Archivist" at the Nomadic Fungi Institute.

All The Best This Season And Through Out the New Year

To all the Artists, Creatives and Makers, to Writers, Bloggers, and Publishers, to Musicians, Actors, Dancers, and Performance Hall Directors, to all the Designers, Architects and Curators, to each Critic, Reporter and Announcer, To the Buyers, Sellers and Collectors, to the Tire Kickers and the Obsessed, to those who read blogs,

All the Best through out the New Year!

Odd Jobs At The Nomadic Fungi Institute

As the archivist at the Nomadic Fungi Institute my duties have turned out to be much more complex than just putting old news paper clipping into folders and putting the folders into file cabinets. For example, the NFI just launched their new NFI logo. To mark the occasion we hand printed a limited edition of NFI artists trading cards. Fifteen of these we sent to the Art.Science.Gallery event Art/Science Trading Cards. The remaining cards will be given out at up coming art events, while others will be used as thank you gifts to new NFI members.

Better wash the ink off my hands before going back to stuffing news paper clipping into files and sticking files into filing cabinets.

SculptCAD Rapid Artists 3D Printed Sculpture

The SculptCAD Rapid Artists Project was organized by Nancy Hairston in 2010 as a way to showcase the versatility of rapid prototyping 3D printing. Each year she has asked artists to come to the  SculptCAD offices and learn how to use this technology, then make some art.

The SculptCAD Rapid Artists 3D Printed Sculpture show at the One Arts Plaza is a quick sampling of some of the artwork that has been produced over the years. This show was presented to dove tail with the Aurora Dallas event. Artist in the show are: Steven Hopwood Lewis, Shane Pennington, Heather Gorham, Patty Delarios, Shawn Smith, Mark Grote, Morehshan Allahyari, Dave Van Ness, Joshua Goode, Elliot Johnson, Shelle Carring, Joshua King, and myself, Brad Ford Smith.

Below are a few snaps from the exhibit.

Brad Ford Smith

Brad Ford Smith - Servings is a nod to the Balloon Dog sculpture by Jeff Koons.

Heather Gorham

Heather Gorham - Is it a circus trick or a view of the universe?

Elliot Johnson

Elliot Johnson - Hellbender, a salamander with self-esteem issues. 

Shane Pennington

Shane Pennington - Pushing the binderies between art , technology and nature with his living bonsai tree with spliced in resin print.

Aurora Dallas 2013 or Aurora Project or Aurora 2013 or Dallas Aurora

Whatever name you prefer to use, Aurora, The Light Of Convergence was a stellar art event with a turnout well above the expected 35,000 people.

Aurora is an art event held one night in the Dallas Arts District that features new media artwork in mediums such as light, digital projection, performance and sound. This year all the Arts District Institutions joined in to make it a 68 acre block party.

This was my second time to be an Aurora artist. I selected a 10 foot square cement plinth to project my project onto, which was titled UP.

UP is composed of 63 photographs taken while hiking the back woods of Yosemite National Park. UP is a simple concept: we spend too much time looking at our hands and feet, and not enough time looking UP. By mirroring the images of treetops and projecting them onto a horizontal surface, this simple shift and change of angle illustrates the otherworld quality of simply looking UP.

Keeping this project very simple is something I learned from my last Aurora encounter. People in crowds never stop for very long, perhaps 3 seconds. In that short amount of time you have to grab them with something that is striking AND recognizable. 

Swirling colors and complex geometric shapes or long slow narratives just get passed by.

With UP, the simplicity is its strength. A photo that is mirrored creates a rorschach test experience. It is what it is but it could be something else as well. The added effect of one image fading into the next so that there is a brief 4 seconds of overlapping taps into the basic human instinct to search out recognizable patterns and solve puzzles. 

The end result is that the crowd stopped. Some people watched the whole 3 minute loop, pointing out to each other what they saw hidden in the trees. 

Here are a few links to Aurora reviews and posts:

UP

Aurora Dallas

Dallas Morning News

Bill McCarthy video
WFAA photos 49 and 50 are my favorites.
FrontRow D Magazine