Artist celebrates 70 years

CARY – When it comes to her birthday, Darlene Bremer likes to celebrate.

“I decided when I became 50 that every year after that was a gift,” said Bremer, of Cary. “So when I was 50, I decided for every decade, I would do a party.”

For her 50th, she was surprised when a large group took her to a theater show to celebrate. For her 60th, she had six parties to mark the milestone. For her 70th birthday, she is hosting her own art exhibit.

Bremer, who teaches watercolor painting classes at Creative Arts Inc. in Crystal Lake, will show more than 60 of her paintings from 2 to 5 p.m. April 23 at Galati’s Hideaway, 800 Feinberg Court, Cary. The celebration was delayed from her actual birthday of Feb. 4 because Bremer was in California celebrating the arrival of twin grandchildren. The exhibit is open to the public, but a reservation is required at https://darlenebremer.wordpress.com due to limited space. The paintings on display will be available to purchase.

“I have been painting for 35 years,” Bremer said in a news release. “Although I am emotionally attached to my paintings, I want others to own a painting that will bring them pleasure.”

One of Bremer’s paintings was chosen for the 1995 Harvard Milk Days poster. In 2010 she won Best of Show in the South Park Art Festival in Fairplay, Colorado, and in 2016 she won Best of Show at the Grundy County Corn Festival. She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a minor in art and taught at District 47’s Husmann School for 32 years as a second-grade and kindergarten teacher.

Resource: http://www.nwherald.com/2017/04/10/artist-celebrates-70-years/as2156p/

Art Cologne in advanced negotiations with Berlin's abc fair

A new fair called Art Berlin is scheduled to take place in September 

 Art Cologne, Germany’s leading art fair, is in discussions with abc art berlin contemporary to establish a new fair called Art Berlin. Both fairs have so far only acknowledged that they are in negotiations, but they look close to finalising a deal. In a letter to its exhibitors sent on Tuesday evening and an identical press release sent on Wednesday morning, abc said that “Art Berlin will take place from the 14th to 17th of September 2017 in the Station in Berlin-Kreuzberg, centrally located in the middle of Germany’s capital. After nine years of abc art berlin contemporary, Art Berlin will focus on a new direction elevating the two most important art centers in Germany—Berlin and Cologne—nurturing and supporting these two cities as art fair destinations.” The dates and location are the same as abc's.

In a letter to the members of Art Cologne’s committee, its director Daniel Hug said: “We are still in a phase of negotiating the exact structure, however we have at this point established the basics, that Koelnmesse will own this new fair and take all financial liability. Artistic direction will be determined by Maike Cruse [abc's director] and myself. We have also decided that this fair in 2017 should be an international fair, with the idea of creating a more experimental platform in the coming years.”

After years of slow sales and dwindling support from both international and local galleries, the move finally opens up the prospect for Berlin to stage a second major art market event in addition to Gallery Weekend Berlin in April. While the latter has been a success from the start, copied by many other cities around the globe, abc never really took off. The fair was founded in 2008 by a handful of local galleries (who also organise Gallery Weekend Berlin) to run alongside the then existing Art Forum Berlin fair. After the cancellation of Art Forum in 2010, however, Berlin lost some of its attraction among the international collector base.

At the same time, Cologne regained momentum under its new director Daniel Hug after more than a decade of decline. Last autumn, the local art.fair announced that it will move from Cologne to the neighbouring rival city of Düsseldorf. The new fair, Art Düsseldorf, is now owned by MCH Group, Art Basel's parent company, an announcement that made waves in the local gallery scene. Art Cologne's bold move in Berlin might reshuffle the cards again.

By joining forces, the two former rivals have the chance to revive Germany's art scene internationally not only as a place of production but also as a marketplace. 

Resource: http://theartnewspaper.com/market/art-cologne-in-advanced-negotiations-to-take-over-berlin-s-abc-fair-/

Dubai's art market is hotter than ever

DUBAI (CNNMoney) - An art boom is sweeping through the Middle East.

Collectors are crowding into auction houses and art fairs, and cleaning out galleries of pieces worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each.

Countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are investing heavily in the arts and culture, building new museums and hosting exhibitions. That's encouraging a new generation of art lovers.

One such collector is Mohammed Al Baker. He made his first serious purchase about three years ago. It was by a Lebanese artist.

"I saw his work on social media and I got obsessed with it," the former Qatari banker said. "I lost sleep trying to find this specific art work from this specific artist."

Since then his collection of Arab, Iranian and Western art has grown to about 40 paintings, including the work of American contemporary artist George Condo. His most sentimental purchase was from a friend, an emerging Palestinian/Saudi Arabian artist, Dana Awartani.

"I don't gamble with art," he told CNNMoney. "Most of the artists within my collection are institutional artists... at least this gives your collection a solid base."

Al Baker says he spent between $2,000 and $500,000 for each art work. Some are in secure storage in Europe, while others hang in family homes.

His story is repeated many times across the region, driving rapid growth in the art market over the past decade.

Sotheby's says the number of Middle Eastern clients participating in its global sales has risen by 76% over the past five years. The surge in interest from the United Arab Emirates is even stronger -- participation there is up 157%.
Auction houses cash in

That's why the venerable auction house opened its first gallery in the region in Dubai last month.

"We've studied the numbers closely and in terms of capital allocation it makes perfect sense for us to be opening at this time," said Edward Gibbs, Sotheby's chairman for the Middle East and India. "The statistics... have built a compelling case for building a compelling presence in the region."

Rival house Christie's said its Middle Eastern Art sale in Dubai last month generated more than $8 million and set new world auction records for 18 artists.

As the commercial capital of the UAE, Dubai has also become the hub for the regional art scene. To support the growth, the city has set aside 500,000 square feet, or 11.5 acres, for art spaces, galleries and creative businesses.

The annual fair, Art Dubai, offers a showcase for dozens of galleries from around the world, such as London-based Victoria Miro, Sfeir-Semler from Hamburg and Beirut, and Krinzinger from Vienna.

"The [region's] former cultural capitals were places like Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus, Cairo," said Myrna Ayad, fair director at Art Dubai. "But due to political and economic challenges, the dynamic shifted and it's now here in the Gulf... Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Doha, even Jeddah are now culturally active."

Art Dubai's 11th fair, which ended in March, witnessed the strongest sales numbers to date.

"We sold most of [the art at our] booth... within hours of opening," said Glenn Scott Wright, co-director of Victoria Miro gallery. Prices ranged from $20,000 to $800,000.
Virtuous circle

Experts say the growth in demand is creating a virtuous circle that will support the development of regional art.

"The art scene is thriving in the Middle East," said Mohammed Afkhami, a seasoned collector of mainly Iranian art. "I sense a regional sense of pride when art from the region is discussed and the level of coverage in traditional and social media is making people more aware."

Afkhami has been collecting since 2005. Two years ago he paid a record price -- $601,000 -- for a work by a living Iranian artist, Farhad Moshiri. The work, Yek Donia, depicts the world using 90,000 Swarovksi crystals.

Afkhami keeps most of his collection in storage, with a few pieces at home or in galleries around the world. But he doesn't think of art as an investment and has no plans to sell.

"I continue to buy works except the only difference is that I am searching for more rare works today than in the earlier phase of the collection where I was building it up more broadly."

Al Baker, on the other hand, has already sold the very first piece he so desperately wanted, for a tidy 30% profit.

"I did make money and this was one of the reasons why I had to sell it," he said.

Resource:http://www.mytwintiers.com/news/world-news/dubais-art-market-is-hotter-than-ever/690914838

SCAN Will Host Landscape Painting Demo

NEWTOWN — Jacqueline Jones will paint a landscape in oil at the next meeting of the Society of Creative Arts of Newtown at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 12, in the Newtown Meeting House, 31 Main St.

Ms. Jones’ landscape paintings capture fleeting moments with spontaneity and vigor as she works from life, in the open air.

According to a press release, she has a rich color pallet and lively brushwork.

The artist said, “Whatever the subject matter, I’m energized by the way light reveals essence and form.”

Ms. Jones keeps a studio in New Haven, where she works on larger pieces when the weather is cold, but her passion is plein air.

As a child, she studied with local artist Joseph Gionfriddo of Gilead, who instilled in her a love of traditional oil painting.

Ms. Jones earned a bachelor of fine arts in painting from the Lyme Academy College of Fine Art and an associated degree in graphics from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.

She is the recipient of numerous awards including first prize for Outstanding Work at the Salmagundi Club in New York City.

Stamford Hospital recently acquired a number of her works for their permanent collection.

Her professional memberships include Allied Artists of America, the American Society of Marine Artists, Oil Painters of America, the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, the Connecticut Academy of the Fine Arts, the New Haven Paint and Clay Club and the Salmagundi Club in New York City.

Resource : http://www.primepublishers.com/voicesnews/arts_and_living/antiques_and_art_gallery/scan-will-host-landscape-painting-demo/article_16a118ee-1bd3-11e7-b6f0-377d18109e7f.html

Artfully Awear puts trendy spin on art

It’s tough to look at art the same way after seeing Brooklyn-based artist Ariel Adkins’ trendy take on sculptures and paintings from around the world.

Every week, the blogger and founder of Artfully Awear transforms an art installation into a wearable masterpiece with simple tools like paints and a jumpsuit. “My main art is art inspired by other art,” Adkins said.

The young artist and entrepreneur has turned a Claude Monet painting into a party dress and modeled thrifty outfits inspired by Pablo Picasso works. Her favorite innovation is a shift dress covered in vibrant blue, pink and orange fringe that mimics a Nigerian architect’s multicolored, floor-to-ceiling ropes exhibit shown in Philadelphia last fall. The artist, Francis Kéré, was so impressed he ordered a matching jacket from her.

As the brand suggests, Artfully Awear aims to fuse art and fashion as well as push people to engage with art from an alternative perspective.

“I like giving an example of how two plus two equals five,” Adkins said before hosting a workshop for young girls in Greenwich last week. “I think about what I do as artwork inspired by another piece where the product equals more than the sum of the parts because of the emotional experience of the process.”

Last week, she joined forces with fellow young female business owner Molly Wills in Greenwich to host a workshop. The two met in college and celebrated an anniversary of sorts Friday at Wills’ Waverly studio as they first collaborated several years ago when both were working to lift their businesses off the ground.

“I love her concept; I think it’s so brilliant,” said Wills, whose Waverly Project exposes girls to experiences and mentors through weekly events. “It pairs especially well with the Waverly mission, which is about enjoying the creative process and the girls realizing it can be inspired by anything that interests them. (Adkins) lets art inspire her creative process and it could be anything for them.”

Adkins has been diligently producing her weekly projects and pursuing marketing for Artfully Awear for a few years, Adkins said, but she formed the concept 10 years ago.

As an active thrift shopper, Adkins found a secondhand skirt that instantly reminded her of Monet’s impressionistic paintings Haystacks. The skirt wasn’t that attractive, Adkins recalls, it just “turned a knob in my head” because of its similarities to the famous work.

“It was actually kind of ugly,” Adkins said of the full skirt that portrayed images of haystacks and farming equipment. “I didn’t really like the pattern.”

But her philosophy is that she doesn’t have to like every piece she works with. “There’s an endless amount of inspiration out there, and I don’t have to like all of it,” she said.

Adkins, who pairs her Artfully Awear work with a position as an arts and cultural liaison for a social media platform, said she doesn’t get paid for all of her projects, but the number of museums and artists reaching out to her for collaborations is growing.

“I want to go everywhere,” she said.

MBennett@greenwichtime.com, 203-625-4411; Twitter @Macaela_

Resource :http://www.greenwichtime.com/business/article/Artfully-Awear-puts-trendy-spin-on-art-11050019.php

Get a head start with Art Start

It’s time to don walking shoes and stretch to prepare for a season of trekking through venues filled with art, music, food and activities for all ages.

Art Start, from 5 to 8 p.m. April 6, is a warm-up for the Casper Art Walk, which is held the first Thursday of each month starting in May.

Art Start spotlights new exhibitions at ART 321, the Nicolaysen Art Museum and Scarlow’s Gallery.

The family-friendly, free event is a thank-you to the community for supporting the arts, organizers said. Art Start also is a chance for people to take their time with several significant exhibits and meet some of the artists.

“It honors the historic art organizations in Casper,” said Amy Elmore, a volunteer and part of design company Fort Atelier, which is partnering with the Art Walks. “And it’s exciting to see the community embrace and support the arts.”

The three locations will host free receptions with artist talks, food and cash bars. Other highlights include live music, book signings and artist quick draws, prizes and wine tastings.

The event also starts a new tradition of monthly Art Walk passports. Collect all the stamps at featured stops for a chance to win a prize from a downtown business, Scarlow’s owner Claire Marlow said. Also new is an interactive digital map of the Art Start and Art Walk.

Here’s a look at the exhibitions:
Art 321

Neltje: Neltje is a Wyoming abstract expressionist painter who has exhibited throughout the U.S., according to her biography. Her latest artistic pursuit is evoking her emotional response to the natural world on 30-foot canvasses. She also is a philanthropist whose support for artists and writers includes the Jentel Artist Residency Program on her Banner ranch.

Suzette McIntyre: McIntyre has been recognized internationally for her signature style of photography and mixed-media paintings. She combines her background in sculpture and painting with her profession as a fine art photographer. Her latest show, “Wide Open Spaces,” focuses on Wyoming and the sense of spirit, strength and survival she sees in the people and vistas of her home state.

Keep Casper Beautiful Public Art Project: Public voting is open for more than 50 submissions by local artists. Four winning works will appear on traffic signal boxes downtown.

Nicolaysen Art Musuem

Robert Russin: Russin is known for his public sculptures throughout the United States, including the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Monument on I-80 in Wyoming. He also created “Fountainhead” at Casper City Hall and the “Prometheus” sculpture at the Natrona County Public Library.

The show includes of sculptures as well as many drawings and paintings never publicly exhibited before.

Martin Garhart: Garhart’s works reside in over 40 institutions including the British Museum, Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institute, as well as in numerous private collections, according to his

biography. He is a professor of art emeritus from Kenyon College, in Ohio. He grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota and returned to the West, splitting his time between his cabin/studio in the Black Hills and his home/studio in Powell.

Scarlow’s Gallery

Daniel Marshall: Marshall is a tattoo artist in Denver with a studio gallery and private tattoo space, Atelier 71. Dan also is a signature member of the American Watercolor Society and is on this year’s faculty at the Plein Air Magazine’s convention as a featured demonstrator, lecturer and field painter.

“URBANxRURAL/Americana” at Scarlow’s is his first solo exhibition and feature watercolor paintings of city and country scenes. The paintings depict his frequented spots in New York City, Denver and Casper, along with few of his popular motorcycle and hot-rod based figurative themes.

Resource :http://trib.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/get-a-head-start-with-art-start/article_70c34fa9-e4ab-5bbf-94f7-de17540a6baf.html

The painting that has reopened wounds of American racism

New York art world bitterly divided over ‘cultural appropriation’ of 1955 photograph of murdered 14-year-old Emmett Till

It is one of the most powerful images to emerge from the racism that infected the southern states of America in the 1950s – the photograph of a badly beaten 14-year-old boy, lynched after being falsely accused of flirting with a white woman, lying in a funeral casket.

Now protests over a painting based on the photograph, included in a New York museum show, are dividing the city’s art world amid claims of racist exploitation and censorship.

At the centre of the battle over cultural appropriation is artist Dana Schutz’s expressionist painting Open Casket (2016), a gruesome depiction of Emmett Till, lynched in Mississippi in 1955.

The painting, on display at the Whitney Biennial exhibition, initially drew swift condemnation from critics who claimed Schutz, who is white, was taking advantage of a defining moment in African American history.

African American artist Parker Bright stood in front of the painting with Black Death Spectacle written on his T-shirt, and a young British artist, Hannah Black, accused Schutz of having “nothing to say to the black community about black trauma”, demanding that the work “be destroyed and not entered into any market or museum”.

Against a backdrop of increasing anxiety over artistic censorship and de-funding of the arts under the Trump administration, Schutz’s critics faced a barrage of allegations of censorship. Marilyn Minter, a leading liberal and feminist voice on the New York arts scene, posted on Facebook: “The art world thinks Dana Schutz is the enemy? The left is eating its young again. Censorship from the left really sucks!”

Painter Kara Walker noted that paintings last longer than the controversy they can generate. “I say this as a shout [out] to every artist and artwork that gives rise to vocal outrage. Perhaps it too gives rise to deeper inquiries and better art. It can only do this when it is seen.”

Writer Gary Indiana called an open letter from Black, signed by more than two dozen other African American artists or art-world workers, “cliche-riddled, race-baiting demagoguery”.

Schutz, 40, told the website Artnet that she made the painting in response to the police shootings of unarmed black men over the summer of 2016. “It’s a problematic painting, and I knew that getting into it.”

The Schutz controversy comes as UN human rights investigators warned last week of “an alarming and undemocratic trend” in the US as 19 states have introduced legislation that would curb freedom of expression and the right to protest since Donald Trump’s election.

At the other extreme, there are a mounting number of incidents of cultural appropriation. Rachel Dolezal, a former leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who caused controversy last year when she admitted she was born to white parents but identified as black, last week published a memoir in which she recalled pretending to be a dark-skinned princess in the Sahara in order to “escape the oppressive environment I was raised in”.

Fashion designer Tory Burch was forced to apologise for a video ad entitled Tory Story: An American Road Trip that featured three white women, including British model Poppy Delevingne, dancing to Juju on That Beat by black rappers Zay Hilfigerrr and Zayion McCall. “It’s no surprise to us to see a fashion company using solely white models in an ad but it was a bit of a shock to see Delevingne and the other two models dancing along to the song without out one black model included,” noted Essence magazine.

But neither compare to the appropriation of the photograph of Till, mutilated in his coffin, that helped to kickstart the civil rights movement. Last week members of Till’s family met US attorney general Jeff Sessions and asked him to enforce a law that enables prosecutions in decades-old civil rights murder cases.

    Schutz has the right to make art and it shouldn't be destroyed. But we should be careful about the conversations we have
    John Jennings, writer

Civil rights leaders fear the Trump administration might not seek to enforce the Emmett Till Civil Rights Crimes Act that allows the Department of Justice and FBI to reopen unsolved civil rights cases that occurred prior to 1980.

In a book published earlier this year, the woman who accused Till of making sexual advances on her, Carolyn Bryant Donham, acknowledged that her testimony was fabricated. After being acquitted of the murder by an all-white jury, Donham’s first husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, JW Milam, admitted to killing Till in a paid interview for Look magazine. The case was reopened in 2004 but federal prosecutors concluded that it could not be heard due to the statute of limitations.

After the meeting with Sessions, Till’s cousin Deborah Watts told MSNBC that Sessions had agreed the law should be enforced. “There are other families out there that have no justice. There’s been no adjudication, no answers. And he agreed with us that that should occur.”

Schutz’s picture, with its canvas raised and gashed to suggest Till’s horrific wounds, will remain on display, Whitney museum officials say.

The photograph of Emmett Till is important to American history, says African American culture writer and historian John Jennings, but “Schutz has the right to make art and it should not be destroyed. But we should be careful about the conversations we have.”

Till’s mother, Mamie Till Bradley, authorised the original photography because she “wanted the world to see what those men had done to her son”. “The re-mediation of it does something very different than was initially intended,” Jennings says. “I applaud the Whitney for allowing people to protest the piece, but what happens now? It’s an opportunity for discussion.”

Resource https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/02/emmett-till-painting-reopened-america-wounds-race-exploitation-dana-schutz