At Home, on the Road

In college, one of the most influential courses I took concerned architecture and democracy, how (to paraphrase Churchill), “first we shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us.”

In the course we looked at early planned subdivisions (the winding roads and cul-de-sacs were designed specifically to counter the “grid” of the city…to instill a kind of bucolic calm), and how these morphed into gated communities (and what that says about our citizenry). We looked at early working-class communities where all the homes backed up to a shared backyard, and how over time, the owners began erecting barriers like fences and tall hedges.

It was instructive not only in the roots of democracy, but in modern perceptions of land use and ownership…and how slowly, in certain communities, there is a sublimation of the individual to the state. Planned communities like Celebration and Seaside were also studied: how even the best intensions go awry and things like walkable, navigable, mixed use space become the sole provenance of the wealthy—for evidence of this closer to home, compare Riverside and Avondale (rapidly being “re-discovered” by the business-class) with the suburbs located of Merrill Road near 9A.

So when I saw this on the Guardian’s website, it proved too absurdly beautiful not to post. Designed by the Copenhagen artists’ collective, N55, the Walking House is a 3.5 metre diameter hexagon of black steel tube, 3.5 metres long.

Concerned with romantic notions of nomadic life, “the inspiration for the design was the Romany travellers’ traditional way of life, roaming the country, and across borders, by caravan, but brought up to date: Walking House has no need for horses and reins or diesel engines, gearboxes and wheels to make it go. While standing still, it generates power through solar cells and small windmills and when fully charged it gets up and walks.”

Here, Jonathan Glancey riffs nicely on the practicality of the project, as well as delving into the history of similar projects, and goes into greater detail.

Oh, and the early idealism that my democracy and architecture class inspired in me, though not completely dead, has been mightily revised…not only do I have an 8 foot high privacy fence in my backyard, I keep it locked up tight. On the one hand, it has practical reasons: to keep the dog from running away, to keep the crackheads from using our backyard as a cut through. But if I am really honest with myself, it is so we don’t have to interact with our neighbors any more than we have too.

Early Voting

Picasso had no heart

Also over at the Times is an article discussing the show Picasso and the Masters, a boffo show at the Grand Palais. According to Michael Kimmelman, the inevitable comparisons "are not always to Picasso's benefit."

"I lingered in the last room, watching visitors stumble a bit bleary-eyed from the earlier galleries to find Manet’s “Olympia,” Rembrandt’s painting of Hendrickje Stoffels bathing in a brook, Ingres’s grisaille “Odalisque” and Goya’s “Naked Maja” vying with a slew of late, mostly slapdash nudes by the great matador of Modernism. The whole ensemble of pictures was dazzling and fatuous. “Overkill” doesn’t adequately describe the effect."

In many ways, the review is the kind of arch-browed, one-sided conversation that readers love to hate from reviewers. I think it is kind of fantastic.

"The canon, in other words, remained his starting point but increasingly became his crutch. His achievements were Promethean and unparalleled in the last century, but having said that, as the show proves almost despite itself, Picasso ended up often mired in vain, backward-looking riffs on grander achievements."

Jacksonville makes national news

From the Times:

“They’re going to throw out votes,” said Larone Wesley, a 53-year-old black Vietnam veteran. “I can’t say exactly how, but they are going to accomplish that quite naturally. I’m so afraid for my friend Obama. I look at this through the eyes of the ’60s, and I feel there ain’t no way they’re going to let him make it.”

Art Market and interesting linkages

From this morning's Guardian:

" ... Art is about life and the art world is about money although the buyers and sellers, the movers and shakers, the money men will tell you anything to not have you realise their real motive is cash, because if you realise - that they would sell your granny to Nigerian sex slave traders for 50 pence (10 bob) and a packet of woodbines - then you're not going to believe the other shit coming out of their mouths that's trying to get you to buy the garish shit they've got hanging on the wall in their posh shops ... Most of the time they are all selling shit to fools, and it's getting worse." --D. Hirst


And, one of my favorite bloggers, C-monster (Carolina A. Miranda), offered these thoughts about street art in museum settings:
"Museums have picked up on street art’s marketability as well. 'We have a totally new audience that’s come to the Tate because of this. We’ve had 10-year-old kids and 70-year-old people,' says Cedar Lewisohn, curator of the Tate Modern’s “Street Art” show and author of the related monograph, Street Art: The Graffiti Revolution. 'The exhibit has been a two-way thing. For people who weren’t interested in street art, the show was an introduction. For people who weren’t interested in galleries, it shows that we’re speaking to them, too.'"

However, I ask: if you take "Street Art" off of the street, is it still of the Street?

Design Competition

I usually don't post calls to artists or competition notices because I don't want to get swamped with that kind of date-sensitive material (if you haven't noticed, I am not queen of timeliness).

But when this crossed my desk, it seemed too interesting not to post. Plus, it seemed like an opportunity for a young designer (or any designer for that matter) to do something really cool, specific, and appropriate. Keep in mind that logos need to work in black and white and color, on paper, cloth and any other place it could be printed. It should communicate the purpose without the need of explanation.

So what is this fantastic opportunity I am going on about? The Riverside Arts Markert:

The Riverside Arts Market (RAM) – is scheduled to open next spring. Beneath the canopy of the Fuller Warren Bridge structure, this huge all-weather weekend artists’ market has its Grand Opening tentatively scheduled for March 14, 2009. The riverfront market will feature nearly 150 artists displaying their wares, accompanied by musical entertainment, street performers, and food vendors, rain or shine.

All of the arts and crafts must be hand-made, and the artist who produced the work will be present at the artists’ market. All art will reviewed by a jury, and only the finest quality of work will be exhibited at the artists’ market.

Modeled after the highly successful Portland Saturday Market in Portland, Oregon, which has over 700,000 visitors per year, RAM is destined to be one of Jacksonville’s most exciting cultural and entertainment destinations.

What about the Logo?

Riverside Avondale Preservation, Inc., the non-profit organization which is coordinating this ambitious project, is seeking artists to design a logo for RAM. This logo will be used in all advertising, signage, tote bags, printed literature, banners, etc. We have already received some excellent logo ideas, but this venue is so unique and so compelling that we have decided to open up the competition to the entire Jacksonville arts community.

Please submit your design(s) using the following guidelines:

Limited to no more than 8 designs per artist.
Entries must be in digital format, either .pdf or .jpg files.
Size is from 5 to 9 inches.
Deadline for submissions is Wednesday, November 12, 2008.
Send entries by email to Doug Coleman, doug.coleman@yahoo.com
Include your name, address, phone number(s), and email address.
The winning entry becomes property of Riverside Avondale Preservation, Inc.

The winning logo artist will receive (1) fame and glory; (2) special recognition at the Grand Opening ceremony; (3) the thrill of having your artwork seen and admired by thousands of art lovers; and (4) a free booth in the Riverside Arts Market for one month.

a convergence of history, gold grills, and plaid: you trust me don'tcha?

A month ago today, Astronautalis dropped his new album, Pomegranate. I was supposed to write a review of it, and I fully intended to until I got distracted by a shiny object.

The truth is, there is nothing new I can add to the praise this album is garnering. For those fans of Andy’s, the album is a clear leap to the next level...in it he recedes ever further from his overt/classic hip hop roots, and creates a sound that is at once new and familiar. It is both the sound that a dying steel town makes, and that of a reinvented southern beach town: it is story telling and lies, the grandiosity of the old alcoholic at the bar, or the one sitting on the front porch (to borrow two region-specific stereotypes) recalling lost opportunities and imagined slights. Sprinkled with a little west-coat ethos (or so I imagine it).

For this fan (and I can call myself no other such thing), the album is clearly the next step in his career. The one low point, is the eleventh track on the album, titled “The Most Important Track on the Album,” it is a span of disconcerting silence that comes off as arty and pretentious. Perhaps that is the point: at this juncture the listener is invited to fill the silence with their own stories and reflections...instead though, I just find myself pressing “forward” on the ’ol iPod.

Overall, I am only bummed that personal obligations kept me from checking out his set last night at Jackrabbits. And so, in lieu of a review, I sent Andy 10 Questions, and he was free to respond as he saw fit. They are brief, and really serve no purpose. Here’s hoping you enjoy them:

1. Last great book you read:
"winter's tale" by mark helprin

2. A nickname you have (not the one we all know):
dirt reynolds

3. Song with the highest play count in your iTunes:
"the story of my life"

4. Your browser's homepage is:
google.com

5. Two very trivial things you're very good at:
scrabble and cooking breakfast

6. Favorite site to waste time on:
partyends. com

7. First concert:
stone temple pilots, meat puppets, and jawbox @ george mason university

8. Worst job you've ever had:
working at the eckerd's at atlantic and 3rd

9. Complete this sentence:
the movie "crank" is the best thing since sliced bread.

10. Last YouTube video you watched twice:
the animated music video about George Washington

p.s. pictured: on the left: Andy Bothwell, on the right: Filip G. (taken from Andy’s myspace).

p.p.s. Pomegranate is available on iTunes.

Biking

More and more, I find myself obsessed with bikes. Perhaps it is because of the change in weather, because instead of bolting from house to air-conditioned car, I find myself making up excuses to lug out my bike...we've even taken small road trips together to the beach (park the car at a friend's; bike over to the bar) and to Rails to Trails (though if you get caught out after sundown, be sure to have a lamp, it gets really dark--and a little scary--in those woods).

My favorite bicycle in Jacksonville right now, belongs (I am guessing) to an itinerant person...I really enjoy the simple, tank-like black frame, and the rear light, which looks like it was appropriated from one of Bob’s Barricades. I also find the height of this bike very pleasing and somehow reassuring. I see it around alot and it just makes me happy.

So, my new curiosity has also taken me around the web when I really should be doing more productive things (I also think I was rewarded by the universe for my dogged obsessiveness ’cause I won the above white bike). And thus I discovered Ahearne Cycles. They also make beautiful custom racks. I go to their webpage just to look...with racks that start at about the same price as a nice bike...looking is all I can swing.

*On a side note, for those of us who bike along the Riverwalk or sidewalk in Jacksonville, it is legal. Jacksonville law says, “A cyclist riding on a sidewalk or crosswalk has the same rights and duties of a pedestrian, however, must yield right-of-way to pedestrians, and must give an audible warning before passing.” Basically use common sense and courtesy.

Happy pedaling.

instruction

I found this image of Lucian Freud’s portrait of Francis Bacon over at artdaily.org and thought I would post it because it so clearly (thank you Christie’s) reproduces the image and the brushstrokes that make up the whole...it seemed pretty instructive, especially since it is unfinished. I also just really like the forehead handeling.
Incidentally, it just sold for $9.4 million.

a long, but worthwhile read

This has to be the best straight-up artist Q&A I have read in a long time {thank you design observer}. The fact that it features an artist I am newly intrigued by is just gravy. The conversation is between Tara Donovan and Lawrence Weschler and covers everything from content and process, to paying the bills, seizing the moment, and working hard.

“I think when I make stuff I go through this whole range of emotions, starting with I’m a fraud, I’m never going to be able to make anything ever again, ’til I get to that moment where the material does something that is just beyond me. It lands in a place somewhere between the limits of my knowledge and what one is capable of knowing. Isn’t that what the experience of the sublime really is?”

--Tara Donovan

life+liberty: a brighter day?

Obama '08 - Vote For Hope from MC Yogi on Vimeo.

Got this from my friend Josef, I am probably preaching to the choir here, but it's hopeful and has nice (if pop-ish) beats.

Emergence - A free night of stimulating conversation about art and film

Emergence is a new monthly event I (Jon Bosworth) am putting together on the third Thursday of every month in The Gallery at Fogle which will feature compelling art, film with a local resonance, music that isn't your traditional ensembles, and even design and sculpture. If you aren't familiar, Fogle is located in the St. Nicholas neighborhood of Jacksonville, just east of San Marco on Beach Boulevard where Beach and Atlantic split, just accross the street from The Red Zone.

On October 16th, from 5 - 7pm, Bosworth is showcasing the work of Tony Rodrigues. The pieces he is showing at Emergence capture classic scenes of Americana that focus on people and water. So there are boatmen, lifeguards, swimmers and surfers captured and rendered in a timeless moment of "quiet dignity," as Tony says. He says: "My intention is to make each painting a little nugget of sweetness, strange familiarity and tragic comedy."

-Jon Bosworth

p.s. Also tonight, the Out of the Box Show Opens at the Women's Center

Notes from the field

From Mark George’s visit to Screen Arts:

Linearness (is that a word?): reflecting on all things angular and somewhat straight...primitive approaches and memories of the world being flat. Pridefully enrolling in a self taught direction of old world scratchings, abandoning principle and embracing free form non art materials and presentation.

The work of Jesse Reno, Gabriel Shaffer and Thinkmule in their group show, Secret Code at the gallery at screen arts in lovely St. Augustine is a pleasant group show that would complete a groovy day trip to the nations oldest city.

*note: image harvested from the Jesse Reno's site, not neccessarily at show.

conceptual vs. experimental

or late bloomers vs. early bloomers:

The New Yorker has an interesting article by Malcomb Gladwell: "Late Bloomers, why do we equate genius with precocity?"

It's an interesting question, made (I believe) all the more relevant by our society's worship of youth culture, even as we deride it.

"Late bloomers’ stories are invariably love stories, and this may be why we have such difficulty with them. We’d like to think that mundane matters like loyalty, steadfastness, and the willingness to keep writing checks to support what looks like failure have nothing to do with something as rarefied as genius. But sometimes genius is anything but rarefied; sometimes it’s just the thing that emerges after twenty years of working at your kitchen table."

Maybe youth is deemed more exciting because the young are {generally considered} prettier?

Anxiety attack

I might be needing to take a break from the blog, the doom and gloom of the economic situation we find ourselves in (as a country) is freaking me the f*ck out. Thus preventing me from engaging in my usual navel-gazing...though, knowing myself, I am guessing it won't be for too long.

The only thing I like better than a good worry? Listening to my own prattle.

Thanks for bearing with me.

*sigh* the 90s

the economy might be a smoking ruin, but at least we still have small pleasures...

One, two, Barbara's coming for you...

Lately it seems, that the role of women in the arts has been in my ideological path. That is, I am participating in a show sponsored by the Women’s Center, and I have just finished reading two books by and about the female experience in the arts.

The first, Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a memoir by Lee Israel, a respected author turned literary forger, and the second: Hidden in the Shadow of the Master, the model/wives of Cezanne, Monet, and Rodin by Ruth Butler looks at (through letters, the paintings themselves, and other primary sources) the relationships between these men and women...how involved in the creative process were the women, and what does that mean for the art...if anything at all; perhaps just biographical footnotes. And in concert with the Women's Center show, I will be moderating a panel, along with Allison Graff, about being a female artist in the 21st century...is that distinction still even important and relevant?

So when I stumbled across the March 24, 2008 issue of New York Magazine, complete with Barbara Kruger’s image of Elliot Spitzer on the cover, it seemly both timely (in my personal timeline), and, another era heard from. I often find Kruger’s imagery funny, if a bit shrill–a kind of cross-hybridization of militant feminst tracts, radical judgements, and observational generalizations.

Thinking about Kruger got me thinking about the ‘role’ of women artists: is there an experience localized to women? Should there be special privileges granted because of assumed slights? Is the best answer simply just to make work, and let everything else work itself out, or, does one look to the wage gap (though this article has an interesting take on that idea), and presence of women in large museum and gallery shows (13 out of 33 artist over at Making Marks are women) to make sense of it all?

I am not feeling, or thinking in any sort of absolutist manner about this topic....I’m just kind of letting it roll around in my head. I may be forced to post more as my thoughts get clearer/murkier...

For more commentary on the Kruger cover, click here.

Luxury for the new depression

I found this on the Hermes site, and thought it was both funny and sweet. I imagine a snowdrift of soft-sculpture Kelly bags; commenting on consumer culture, luxury, and thus tangentially on the current economic situation.

If you find yourself consumed with desire to make one, let me know, and I will email the pdf (I couldn't get it to upload).

Happy stitching/folding!

News Day

There are a couple of things happening I thought might be worth posting:

1. The Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded. To three men:

The three, Yoichiro Nambu, 87, a Tokyo-born American citizen, Makoto Kobayashi (64) and Toshihide Maskawa (68) of Japan were honored for their research on the spontaneous broken symmetries in sub-atomic physics, which was mostly done in the 1960s and 1970s.

“Spontaneous broken symmetry conceals nature’s order under an apparently jumbled surface,” the academy said in its citation. “Nambu's theories permeate the standard model of elementary particle physics. The model unifies the smallest building blocks of all matter and three of nature’s four forces in one single theory.”

Referring to Kobayashi and Maskawa’s work, the committee noted that they “explained broken symmetry within the framework of the standard model but required that the model be extended to three families of quarks.”

2. The UNF-ization of MOC A seems to be moving forwards, with some interesting new ramifications. From the Business Journal:

"If UNF does acquire MOCA, Delaney told the board, it would be wholly owned by the university, which would try to maintain the museum’s nonprofit 501(c)3 status. MOCA’s board would remain in place, with the possible addition of UNF representation, and the museum’s director would report to the board and UNF."

3. The Outer Box Show at the Women’s Center opens October the 16, 6-8 p.m., and yours truly is showing a couple of drawings if you are curious about what I do when I am not typing.

killed story

I originally wrote this for the Times Union...but due to time and budgetary constraints, it did not make it in. And though it is a little late, I figured that is better than never...maybe?

Posters and Political Propagandizing

By Madeleine Peck

Walking into the Partisan the Sea poster show, Ann Peebles’s “Straight From the Heart,” (as sampled by the Rza) was spinning on the turntables. It set the tone for the show: hopeful, defiant, and honest.

The posters, which were ostensibly designed to focus on one of the two candidates (though one can suppose if there had been a third-party candidate represented, the organizers would’ve gleefully mounted it), where overwhelmingly in support of Barak Obama.

When Joey Marchy, one of the show’s organizers is asked about it, he admits that although he didn’t expect a lot of posters in support of the Republican camp, he was surprised by the amount of Obama-centric material.

“I thought there would be more posters about issues. But he’s (Obama) a very powerful catalyzing figure; plus, the iconic Shepard Fairey poster probably inspired a lot of people in the show,” said Marchy.

The temperature of the show was somewhere between party and rally. As Friday’s presidential debate began, volunteers frantically tried to get the audio portion of the television/projection/computer to work. Even so, a cadre of about 10 people stood around a 19 inch television attempting to read the candidates’ words as they scrolled along the bottom of the screen.

As the debate started, people were still wandering in and out, looking at the work, and buying some posters available for sale (including one that referenced AC/DC’s Back in Black album). When asked, why posters? Marchy said, “Traditionally, posters have been used both by dissidents and the government [because of] mass production, and high visibility…they capture peoples’ attention almost like an ad.”

Levi Ratliff, a designer and creator of local street-art site urbanartwarfare.com, was also instrumental in putting the show together. With a network of like-minded (that is poster art) individuals, Ratliff put together a show that seems to showcase an exhausted but still hopeful cadre of artists and designers. Posters like one of George W. Bush’s lips, with the word believe written across them, and “lie” highlighted created by Mike Barnhart, or those laced with venomous irony: “All we’re saying is, give war a chance” by someguy, to Jefferson Rall’s image of an oil drum with the word “toil.”

When asked about the cant towards the Obama camp, Ratliff said, “We asked all kinds of Republicans—no one did it.”

**And then, there is this entry over at CoolHunting, that talks about the support Obama has garnered from the creative community.

Gza Grants

MacArthur grants (a brief history here) are those kind of hazy, far-off dreams that not only cement one’s reputation, but one’s pocketbook as well. And it is always interesting to see who walks away with the prize(s).

This year’s recipients were:

Chimamanda Adichie 31, writer
Will Allen, 59, urban farmer
Regina Benjamin, 51, rural family physician
Kirsten Bomblies, 34, plant evolution geneticist
Tara Donovan, 38, sculptor (work pictured)
Wafaa El-Sadr, 58, infectious disease physician
Andrea Ghez, 43, astrophysicist
Stephen Houston, 49, anthropologist /epigrapher
Mary Jackson, 63, fiber artist (work pictured)
Leila Josefowicz, 30, violinist
Alexei Kitaev, 45, physicist /computer scientist
Walter Kitundu,35, instrument maker and composer
Susan Mango, 47, developmental biologist
Diane Meier, 56, geriatrician
David Montgomery, 46, geomorphologist
John Ochsendorf, 34, structural engineer/architectural preservationist
Peter Pronovost, 43, critical care physician
Adam Riess, 38, astronomer
Alex Ross, 40, music critic
Nancy Siraisi, 76, historian of medicine
Marin Soljacic, 34, optical physicist
Sally Temple, 49, neuroscientist
Jennifer Tipton, 71, stage lighting designer
Rachel Wilson, 34, experimental neurobiologist
Miguel Zenón, 31, saxophonist


I believe that a great part of the appeal for those of us who think about the MacArthur grant is its out-of-the-blueness. Because the process is a secret, reciepients typically aren’t aware that they are even up for selection, until they get the call.

I was particulary interested in the two artists who were selected. I am interested in them because of the materiality of their work.

Mary Jackson is a fiber artist from Charleston, South Carolina, and a decendant of the Gullah community there. She uses traditional sweetgrass weaving methods and materials to create vessels that are both functional, and forward-looking. The resources she uses are renewable, and the artist also leads efforts to protect the threatened wetland habitats of sweetgrass and ensure continued local access to these resources.

Tara Donovan’s work also uses the seemingly commonplace; using everyday, often disposable objects, the artist transforms spaces with geological and biological overtones.

I mention both of these artists because I see sympathy to their thought process and approach in the works of Billie McCray and Mark Creegan. Zeitgeist in the air?

Filed under feathering the nest...

UNF considering agreement with MOCA Jacksonville

October 2nd, 2008
From Judy Wells and Adam Aasen, The Florida Times-Union:

The possibility of acquiring the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville was discussed at Thursday’s Board of Trustees meeting.

UNF President John Delaney said committee has been formed to look into MOCA Jacksonville’s collection, building and financial situation. On Thursday, the board voted to allow Delaney to continue negotiating an agreement with MOCA. He said he hopes to have a deal complete by December.

Delaney said UNF doesn’t want to change the museum or own it, but rather reach an agreement that would allow art students to take classes there and have their artwork displayed. He said UNF would possibly loan money to the museum if asked.

Delaney said MOCA approached UNF about the possible merger.

Big News In My Camp

Some of you may or may not know that my boyfriend, soon to be husband, is a world-famous tattooer. He’s been tattooing for about 13 years now, and even if he’s not as world-famous as I initially suggested, he is pretty well known and respected, especially in the tattoo community.

A former manger at the Orange Park Inksmith & Rogers, last year he decided to try an experiment and moved over to a custom-only studio in Riverside, opened by Graham and Tim over at 8th Day.

However, I am excited to announce that an opportunity that was too good to pass up arose, and Nick Wagner will be opening Black Hive Tattoo in Riverside, mid-November.

I think that I can safely say that tattoos are intriguing for lots of people: both those who have them, and those who don’t. There are issues of permance and of pain, of minds that get changed and of meaning. There is also alot of misconception about tattoo artists.

The people that I have met and come to know who tattoo tend to view it somewhere between an art and a craft: on the best days it can be an expression of an artist’s vision, a pushing of technical boundaries and a deepening of knowledge. On the worst days, it’s a way to make a decent living with drawing skills. For the most part they are "normal" people who have figured out a way to live more-or-less on their own terms: travel, flexible work schedules, decent pay, and so, don't feel the need for khaki conformity.

Nick’s view is that it is an art, and he is proud of the work that he does. He shares ideas, comments and critiques with his friends, while taking the practical application to heart (i.e. he’s cleaner than the board of health). Of course, there are those working in the field who don’t have the skill or the drive to do good work, but then again, in many ways its just like anything else: you get what you pay for.

With Black Hive, Nick is striving to be the best tattoo shop in Florida; for the most part, his work speaks for itself, and he plans to invite lots of his talented friends over for guest spots.

And as we know more, I’ll post it here. Wish us luck!

Code-Breaking...At Screen Arts

I just got this information about the Gallery at Screen Arts’s upcoming show, “Secret Code,” with Jesse Reno, Gabriel Shaffer and Thinkmule (Jeremy Pruitt).

My sources tell me, that this is designed to be a snapshot of what is happening in the artworld RIGHT NOW (emphasis source’s). “It should be a really sweet show and still pretty affordable for you aficionados. These artists are gaining some steam and some serious recognition, so don't be ignant! Come out, drink some cheap beer, load up on RapSnacks, and enjoy the visuals,” they say.

Personally, I will be unable to attend due to an out-of-town mission, however, I will dispatching a special agent to cover the show, who will be debriefed upon my return.

Silliness aside, last week I was privy to a conversation where it was outed that Rob DePiazza--the owner of Screen Arts and the fellow who stages these art shows for no more than his own desire to share the ‘wealth’--is getting really discouraged that so few people are attending his openings.

In the past, Rob has shared with me that he is in the very fortunate position to not need to turn a profit on the work that he shows. So we, as a Jacksonville-lamenting general public have an opportunity to see the curatorial eye of one man at work. Though I don’t always agree with Rob’s choices, I can do nothing but applaud the integrity he brings to selecting work, as well as acknowledge the importance of the role he plays in our tiny community. In fact, if pressed I’d say his is one of two of the most influential spaces currently operating, the other: J. Johnson.

I encourage as many of you who can to attend. Hopefully Jacksonville is more than a bunch of self-referential bloggers circumnavigating the Internet.

*note: “Secret Code” opening takes place {this} Friday October 3, 2008 - 6 p.m.–midnight.

Live DJs will be spinning music for the duration. Refreshments to appease the American palate will be served.

The show will run thru November 30, 2008. Please phone 904-829-2838 or 800-826-4649 for more information.

*pictured:
gabriel shaffer: doorway to the enchanted mesa, 2008
jeremy pruitt: nuncy, 2008
jesse reno: that which connects, 2008