Other winners were Nejib Ahmed, whose riveting image featured a distressed tiger among anxious people on the fringes of Assam’s Orang National Park; Vinod Venugopal’s shot which showcased the Neoscona spider; and Raj Mohan’s photograph of the Pallikaranai marshes, a Ramsar site, enveloped in flames from burning rubbish. For more, check their Insta page.
NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Photos are famously known for being able to tell a thousand words. In the current Wickford Art Association exhibition “From Ordinary to Extraordinary,” the unique featured photographs tell a variety of thought-provoking stories in the photography exclusive show.
Maria Masse, Wickford Art Association executive director, said the organization typically has one show annually that only has photography as an acceptable medium, as it gives the medium its own time to shine. The exhibition opened on October 6 and will run through November 5.
This year’s theme of “From Ordinary to Extraordinary” was chosen to give the nation’s photographers extreme creative freedom to produce one-of-a-kind pieces.
“Photography has a lot of flexibility and we thought that this theme of ‘From Ordinary to Extraordinary’ would encourage the photographers to push the envelope,” Masse said.
With their photography, Masse noted that many of the artists selected for the exhibition took an ordinary subject and made it into something unusual in the final product.
“This could be done through the use of color, composition or even the use of specific camera lenses, or even using digital enhancement,” she said.
For “From Ordinary to Extraordinary,” the Wickford Art Association received 189 entries and accepted 60 pieces into the final exhibition. The exhibition was open to non-member and members of the organization.
The juror for “From Ordinary to Extraordinary” was Rhode Island-based professional photographer, David DeMelim. As jurist, he served to both curate the exhibit and determine awards. According to DeMelim’s website, he is a commercial and fine arts photographer based in South County, Rhode Island with more than 20 years of digital photography, retouching and printmaking experience.
Following delivery of accepted works, Denim conducted a live judging for prizes awarding first, second and third place, along with two honorable mentions. The awards were given out during the exhibition’s opening reception on October 6.
“This is a national show and highlights the work from around the country,” Masse said. “Drawing in new artists alongside artists that regularly exhibit at the gallery in Rhode Island broadens the scope of the show.”
Masse encourages interested attendees to come to Wickford Art Association to see the unique exhibition for themselves. All of the works will be available for purchase through the run of the exhibition.
“We invite you to stop by the gallery to view the artwork and catch a glimpse of all the talent on display,” Masse said.
Wickford Art Association is located at 36 Beach Street, North Kingston, Rhode Island. Regular gallery hours are from 12-4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and from 12-3 p.m. on Sunday. For more information about this and upcoming exhibitions, visit their website https://wickfordart.org/
Christie’s lives to fight another day.
The auction house’s main 20th/21st century evening sale in London on October 13 carried roughly the same expectations as this time last year: £40.6 million to £58.2 million ($49.2 million to $70.6 million) for 53 lots, reduced to 51 after 2 lots were withdrawn. It landed within estimate—and unexpectedly on a par with Sotheby’s—at £44.7 million ($54.5 million), including seven new auction records. Given that the market is going through a serious adjustment, the fact that well over half the lots sold either within or above estimate was an achievement in itself.
The top price of the sale was a five-foot square collage, Future Sciences Versus the Man (1982), by Jean-Michel Basquiat from a U.S. collection, which was guaranteed and appeared to sell to the guarantor below estimate for £10.4 million ($12.6 million). (Prices paid include the buyers’ premium, estimates do not).
In fact, none of the top lots exceeded their estimates. Those that bit the dust included a large Yayoi Kusama painting, Flame (1992), from a Berlin collection, with a £1.8 million ($2.2 million) low estimate, and Andy Warhol’s Diamond Dust Shoes (1980), which bore a £1.5 million ($1.8 million) low estimate. The latter was slightly surprising given that another Warhol from the same series had sold for £3 million ($3.6 million) the night before at Sotheby’s. But then those shoes were pink, and these were brown.
This Christie’s sale coincided with a move spearheaded by Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, to promote London as a capital of creativity. The inclusion of a number of British artists has always been a feature of the Frieze Week auctions, and this year the Christie’s sale was headlined by a diptych from the late Paula Rego, Dancing Ostrichse from Walt Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ (1995). The work was believed to have been consigned by her gallery, Marlborough Fine Art, from whom it was bought by Charles Saatchi. Estimated at a record £2.2 million-£3.2 million, it sold after limited bidding for £3.1 million ($3.8 million) to a client of Sotheby’s director Nicole Ching, a former press officer for the Long Museum in Shanghai.
As is the norm, the sale was front-loaded with the hottest younger-generation artists the house could find, with birthdates ranging from 1978 to 1996. Examples included a painting of women wrestling, Pollyanna Wrestlers (2018), by Jenna Gribbon, which surpassed estimates to fetch £226,800 ($274,972), and a semi-abstract painting, Worked on Earth (2020), by recent British art school graduate Pam Evelyn, currently showing at Pace Gallery London, which attracted online bidding from South Africa and Michigan before selling to a phone bidder for a double-estimate record: £113,400 ($137,480).
Pam Evelyn, Worked on Earth (2020). Courtesy Christie’s
Figurative painter Sahara Longe, a new star in the Timothy Taylor gallery camp, was present with her over seven-feet high Party Scene (2021). It attracted eight telephone bidders, ultimately more than doubling estimates to sell for a record £176,400 ($213,867).
Included in this group was a large glowing 1991 landscape by the Italian artist Salvo (1947–2015) whose work used to be placed in specialized Italian sales. It was last sold at auction in Milan in 2018 for a double-estimate €81,250 and was estimated to recoup that amount with a £80,000 low estimate here. However, 22 bidders registered to bid on the phone and all hell let loose in competition for the work until the diminutive New York-based art adviser Gabriella Palmieri trumped them all with a bid from her seat to win the painting for a record £693,000 ($840,192).
Settling comfortably within his cohort was the late Etel Adnan whose undulating Untitled (2016) evoked a color-imbued desert landscape. The work was chased by dealer Harry Blain before selling to an American phone bidder for a double-estimate £327,600 ($397,181).
Salvo, Il giorno fu pieno di lampi la sera verranno le stelle (The day was full of lightning in the evening stars will come out) (1991). Courtesy Christie’s
Another older artist hitting a new high was Winston Branch, a Caribbean-born British artist in his seventies. Branch had a breakthrough recently when one of his abstract paintings was acquired by Tate Britain, which compared it to a Monet. No work of his had sold at auction for more than £12,000 before—but in March 2020, one of his paintings was put up for sale at Christie’s with an unprecedented £40,000-£60,000 estimate, selling to a private collector for £126,000 ($152,762). Branch had an exhibition this year with the Simon Lee gallery (before it closed), where works were priced at up to £400,000 each; several were sold.
At Christie’s today his shimmering abstract, The Magic Is in You (1982-84), carried an even higher estimate at £100,000- £150,000. It exceeded that number, selling to a phone bidder for £239,400 ($290,248). Underbidding in the room was a private collector from Switzerland who told Artnet News he had already bought work by Branch at Simon Lee’s exhibition.
Losing money tonight was Peter Doig’s House of Pictures (2000-2002), bought in 2018 by Danish collector Jens Faurschou for $9.1 million but sold today for £6.1 million ($7.4 million)—though less to the seller after the auctioneer’s commission is deducted. A very large Damien Hirst butterfly painting, I Am Become Death, Shatterer of Worlds (2006), which had been purchased in 2010 for £2.2 million, sold for a mere £1.5 million ($1.8 million).
Winston Branch, The Magic is in You (1982-1984). Courtesy Christie’s
Even El Anatsui, star of the current Tate Turbine Hall installation, was not spared. His 12-by-13-foot aluminum-and-copper wall hanging, Warrior (2015), sold just below estimate for a hammer price of £650,000 ($788,059), under the £725,000 the seller had paid for it in 2017.
Emerging relatively unscathed was Marlene Dumas’s unsettling After the Kiss (1996), last at auction in 2010 when it sold for £730,000, and now changing hands for £3.1 million. Similarly, a David Hockney paper pulp work, Gregory in the Pool (Paper Pool 4) (1978), which was purchased in 2004 for £95,000, came back with an improved £529,200 ($641,601) this evening.
Perhaps the surprise unsold lot of the evening was Maria Berrio’s The Procession (2015). Three years ago, the artist’s market was stimulated when she signed with Victoria Miro. A similar work sold for a triple-estimate $1.6 million in New York last November. But today’s estimate of £500,000-£700,000 was the highest for her yet, and the market was not in the mood. Nor was it receptive to The Pour (2022), a £400,000-£600,000-estimate painting by Jade Fadojutimi, who may have reached her peak for the time being, in spite of recent representation by Gagosian, after a lackluster performance.
All in all, though, the sale successfully negotiated the challenges facing the British and indeed international art markets.
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PALMYRA, N.J. (CBS) — As CBS News Philadelphia continues to recognize Hispanic Heritage Month, a South Jersey photographer says her attention to detail in her work is influenced by her Latina heritage.
Jazmin Ortiz runs “Jazzy Rose Photography,” which focuses on newborn photo shoots.
“It’s storytelling for me,” Ortiz said. “To be able to create these memories for these families that can be shared for generations.”
Ortiz’s story began seven years ago when she went to a department store to have photos taken of her newborn daughter, Rose.
“There were no props involved,” Ortiz recalled. “It was kind of, like, ‘This is what we have. This is what you’re going to take.'”
She felt she could offer a better service to her fellow parents, which is why she started her business.
“Just making sure everything is perfect,” Ortiz said. “From their fingers to their tiny toes to the placement of their heads to just capturing all the detail that I can.”
She said her attention to detail is self-taught and informed by her Latina heritage.
“My culture is rich, whether it’s the food, the colors, the people, the dance, just the traditions,” Ortiz said. “I’m able to take all of that and pour it into my work.”
Her work is part-time, but with the guidance of the Latin American Economic Development Association (LAEDA), Ortiz is hoping to eventually go full-time after she graduated from LAEDA.
“She has had tremendous success,” Jamila Powell, the program manager at LAEDA’s Women’s Business Center, said. “Honestly, I admire her because she started all of this at the height of the pandemic.”
Ortiz said she loves all her baby clients the same, even the ones who may be uncooperative.
“Parents, they’re always apologizing when their babies are fussy,” Ortiz said. “I’m like, ‘No, this is music to my ears, whether they’re crying or they’re silent, I am in awe.'”
11:45 AM Saturday, October 14, 2023
A Minnesota graphic designer is exploring what the Minnesota state flag is made of through a new exhibit in Brooklyn Park.
“Deconstructing the Minnesota Flag” at North Hennepin Community College takes a look at how art is both subjective and symbolic.
The Minnesota state flag has hung untouched for years. Luis Fitch, an artist who calls Minnesota home, said he believes it has never changed.
“It does not represent where we are right now as a state,” Fitch said. “Not just from demographics, but just in general. The state of mind of the community.”
Designer Luis Fitch stands in front of a piece of his “Deconstructing the Minnesota Flag” exhibit at North Hennepin.
The current flag is also a recent topic of conversation. Minnesota lawmakers have pushed for some time to redesign the flag for a number of reasons, including the emblem that is considered offensive to native Americans. A commission got to work in September to craft that redesign.
In addition to being an artist, Fitch was selected to lead that commission. His deconstructing project is not connected to that work.
At the exhibit, Fitch is taking the flag apart. He shows it at eight different stages as he removes key design elements. In particular, it showcases the power of symbolism.
The first iteration of the flag in Fitch’s exhibit showcases it as it looks today.
“I don’t know exactly what is bothering the community, but what happens if we start with the flag the way it is and pay attention at first?” Fitch said.
The first layer is the flag as it is. The second removes the shotgun and axe from the foreground of the image.
“It makes it less violent, and there is less of a story,” Fitch said.
Still, Fitch said there is a story to be told.
“We don’t know what the story is, but it doesn’t have to take too much to understand that the Native American is not touching the land that the white person has,” Fitch said.
The third iteration removes the land and person in the foreground. The fourth version removes people entirely.
For the fifth layer, Fitch pulled the years and Minnesota writing. The sixth removes all graphics– and is a look at the land alone.
One of the final iterations of Fitch’s project removes all written graphics and people, leaving the land and a blue background.
“You really have what probably Native Americans first encountered when they first moved here. And that’s the sunset, the river, and the land,” Fitch said.
The seventh layer removes all iconography, leaving a blue flag. For the eighth:
“You remove the color blue because even the color has meaning, and finally you have a white flag,” Fitch said. “Everything has meaning.”
Fitch hopes his exhibit provokes questions. It looks like it already has. North Hennepin student MJ Schuster said it got her thinking about symbolism.
“You can just assign meaning to really little things, or what people consider to be throwaway things, or things people pay no attention to. But people can really identify with it positively or negatively,” Schuster said.
Schuster’s class got a chance to redesign the flag.
Fitch explains his exhibit and design process to students at North Hennepin.
“I don’t think I realized how bad it was, how extremely colonizer-focused it was until we started doing this project,” Schuster said.
The deconstruction is sparking conversation. It also is an opportunity to create a new story and a symbol for years to come. She said she is hoping a new flag is more representative of Minnesota’s indigenous peoples.
“It almost makes you wonder, if the deconstruction process looks the way it was, why did you add things the way you did?” Schuster asked.
The exhibit opened up on Oct. 12. It’s free and open to the public and runs through Dec. 18 at the Joseph Gazzuolo Art Gallery at North Hennepin. More information about the exhibit is available on North Hennepin’s website.
People can also submit their own ideas and designs for the state seal and flag to the committee. More information about what they are looking for and how to submit is available on the redesign commission’s website. Those submissions are due by Oct. 30.
Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma joined a group of Alaska Natives, artists and environmental activists last month in Fairbanks for a performance that expresses Indigenous peoples’ grief over the shrinking population of salmon and other impacts of climate change on the far north.
William Woodward
In his composition performed during a climate change workshop at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Yo-Yo Ma’s mournful strains reflect the sorrow that Alaska Native peoples feel at the loss of once-rich salmon runs decimated by climate change and overharvesting.
The tempo builds early in the composition before it gives way to cries of outrage in the verses of a poem composed for the occasion by Gwich’in filmmaker, screenwriter and activist Princess Daazhraii Johnson from Arctic Village.
The poem is entitled “When We Were Salmon,” and Johnson describes it as a sort of lament about the state of planet and its peoples.
“We do have a lot of unexpressed grief about what it happening,” she said, “and from my perspective as an Alaska Native person, it’s like so many families are not able to fish anymore up and down the Yukon River and feed our families and communities.”
That was the theme of three workshops held this summer in Fairbanks by a group that included the Alaska-based indigenous-advocacy organization Native Movement, the Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition, Association of Interior Native Educators and UAF Climate Scholars.
KUAC file photo
The workshops were presented in partnership with a program run by Yo-Yo Ma’s organization called Our Common Nature, which explores how culture connects people to one another and the natural world.
“It was really a pilot program, of sorts,” Johnson said in a recent interview with other workshop participants. “We brought in elders, and we listened to traditional stories from the region, and then we brought in a lead artist for every workshop that we did.”
But the stories related by elders and other workshop participants weren’t just focused on the loss of salmon. The conversations also brought comfort, and healing for other emotional pain, as highlighted in a final event called “Gath and K’iyh: Listen to Heal.”
“Gath in the word for King Salmon in the Benhti Kenaga dialect,” she said, “and then k’iyh is the word for birch — the birch trees.”
Mato Wyuiyuhi, who helped facilitate the musical component of the workshops, says he found comfort in Ma’s composition.
“It was really a cool thing,” he said, “because it was mournful, but it wasn’t glum or it wasn’t really solemn. It was like a really beautiful thing.”
William Woodward
Wyuiyuhi is a musician, filmmaker and a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe of Pine Ridge, S.D. His professional experience includes work as a composer for the hit television series “Reservation Dogs.”
Wyuiyuhi says he appreciates what he calls the “spiritually centered” approach to grief in workshop sessions.
“So I think that sacred element was really good,” he said. “And then, yeah, moving forward, how do you integrate the type of grief into something that can actualized through music?”
Another workshop participant, Eli Wasserman, brought his experience as an educator who gives music instruction to kids in Baltimore schools that don’t have enough funding for the arts.
“So I definitely took my music education background, teaching people how to write music and make music and why music is important, and kind of create together,” he said. “And then brought that to the workshop.”
Zoom screenshot
The hundred or so people who attended the workshops included kids who, like all the participants, were welcome to join some of the jam sessions held during the workshops, which included a Sept. 4th finale with Yo-Yo Mah at the University of Alaska President’s House on the UAF campus.
“Throughout all these workshops, we’ve really thought about everybody who enters that space as being a participant, whether they are an organizer, or an artist, or an elder,” says Aurora Bowers, a communications organizer for the Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition. She herself picked up a fiddle to accompany Ma in the final workshop concert.
Bowers says the workshops showed how music can bridge cultural divides and heal the trauma of climate change.
“It’s a massive, massive issue to be facing,” she said, “and so we really need tools to be able to feel our way through that.”
