Hear ye, hear ye!!
Do you use text in your art? Well, I have a venue for you! I am curating a one-night exhibition called TXT / ART - Text in Art. This exhibit is in conjunction with the Omaha Lit Fest. The Lit Fest is in it's 3rd year and it keeps getting bigger and better all the time! It is a weekend celebrating literature with many interesting panels, presentations, discussions and, of course, art. For more information about it, please visit the following link - http://www.omahalitfest.com/.
Are you interested? Want to have your work seen in the happening city of Omaha? Here's what you need to do:
- Please contact Wanda Ewing at wandabread@hotmail.com if you would like to participate. Mailing information will be given to you after that time.
- Exhibition date is Friday, September 19th at the W.Dale Clark Library located in downtown Omaha.
- Work for the exhibit must be received by Monday, September 15th. Artists are responsible for shipping to and from Omaha.
- There is no size restriction. You may sell your work as well with 30% going to the Lit Fest
That's the skinny. If you have any questions, please email me any time. I hope to see your work in the show!
This week, Studio 360 features a story about the arts in Omaha and includes an interview with artist and Press Print Play blogger Wanda Ewing at her studio.
Listen here!
After living in Kansas City for a few years, the treasures and secrets of the town still cease to amaze. Our monthly art magazine, Review, considers a theme each month. For the upcoming June issue, science and art abound. I was introduced to the Linda Hall Library's History of Science Collection over a year ago, and took the June Review theme as an opportunity to further explore the contents of the Linda Hall Library's collection. I arranged a meeting with Bruce Bradley, the librarian. I didn't have much in the way of specific texts I wanted to see, I was curious what his take on science and art might cull from the collection. From the vault he brought me a gamut of impressive texts. Then left me to peruse at my leisure- without those annoying white gloves! I was touching astonishing, beautiful books illustrated by intricate woodcuts, hand-colored engravings, and lithographs with my bare hands!
I've been thinking since then about the hierarchy that I unconsciously imposed upon my visual consumption. Were the works I was enchanted with at the Linda Hall Library art? Scientific observation and illustration, and the necessary technology to reproduce such images yes, but art? Maybe artistically rendered, but did they inform culture in some way? I realized that yes, duh, in fact they did. That's why they are collected and maintained by such institutions as the Linda Hall Library. I think that's what I find so fascinating with the work hidden between the pages of those antiquated texts- that they actually serve a vital cultural, historic purpose.
I had a strange critique with a group of students last semester. One student wanted to make "well-crafted" toys as his work. Most of his colleagues were fine with that. Would it succeed in a gallery setting? "It doesn't have to be shown in a gallery to be art," said one. Of course not. But we have to engage in a dialogue about the concept of the piece. Craft is important, but is it paramount? I'm beginning to think that I like the term "function" more than "concept." Less what is the work about, and more what is the work doing.
