Hasta La Ideas

by Max Gold

Artist Alexa Meade works in the medium of flesh. The Washington D.C.-based artist, 23, calls her style of portraiture and performance art “Reverse Trompe L’Oeil,” compressing a 3-D space into a 2-D plane by painting directly on models. The resulting photographs of the person within a painted still life makes the illusion complete, an effect that in recent weeks has swept the Internet and landed her in some big name galleries.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that she doesn’t use Photoshop or any other digital editing tools. “Essentially, I am creating art that imitates life on top of life” says Meade, who graduated from Vassar College last year as a Political Science major. “My political past has taught me that what one experiences cannot always be interpreted at face value; seeing is not necessarily believing.”

Of her live installations, Meade says “I am transforming people into art objects. It is not often that an object can return the gaze of the viewer. Many viewers feel uncomfortable making direct eye contact. There are a lot of sideways glances.”

Postmasters Gallery in New York will include the young artist’s work in the “Mirror, Mirror” exhibition opening 2 April 2010. Also, look for her work in the “Art of Giving” show at the Saatchi Gallery in London this October.

For the past eight years ArtSite Projects curator Kara Walker-Tome has been transforming a section of West Palm Beach, FL’s Hotel Biba into an annual art event. Aptly named, Showtel turns hotel rooms into conceptual installations by challenging artists fill the spaces with everything from sculpture and performance art, without using the use of nails or adhesives. We recently had the chance to speak with Walker-Tome, who shed light on this clever exhibition.

How did you originally come up with the idea for this kind of site-specific show?

When I moved to Florida after having lived in Los Angeles and New York, I was involved in the local art scenes of these metropolitan cities and I could not find an alternative art scene to speak of in Palm Beach County. I had been impressed and inspired many times in the past by installation shows in unique settings in LA and NY and I recognized that my new area was wide open for making a mark with an alternative art happening. So, I decided to put together a one-night show for local emerging cutting-edge artists in a hotel. Lucky for me the first one I approached said yes. That was eight years ago. So Showtel started as a small happening with a handful of artists and maybe a couple hundred people attended. Last year’s seventh annual show featured twenty-five artists and attracted 2,000 people in one night.

Why a hotel? How does that environment influence the artists?

I think the strict rules in place for installing Showtel installations in a working hotel accounts for incredible ingenuity. Essentially they have to put up and then take down their work as if they had never been in the room in the first place. The amazing thing is that they manage to come up with clever solutions and create visually intense environments whereby the whole room is engaged.

How do you know that the idea will work in the show?

Curating from ideas is an acquired skill. I am choosing work that has not been created yet so I have to be able to visualize their concept and plan. I believe that ability comes from my initial training as an artist myself. I received an MA in fine arts from CalArts and then also have spent years reading hundreds of proposals, working closely with artists in the development and creation of their work, and finally—a bit of intuition!

Who are some of the artists participating this year? What will they be creating?

I am quite excited this year to be working with artists from all over the state of Florida and even one coming from out of state. Showtel has traditionally attracted artists living close to Palm Beach County, but now artists from Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa and Gainesville are applying and getting accepted into the show. I hope it continues to expand nationally.

I can give you a handful of teasers about the pieces planned for this year. There will be a mythical forest, a wormhole grow room, a lunar/meteor space, a scene from a world populated only by sloths and unicorns and five of the installations will involve performance. It is going to be a very intense and dynamic show!

This year Shotel runs from 8-10 April. Read more about some of Walker-Tome’s favorite Showtel installations she’s seen over the past eight years after the jump. (Pictured above in order of appearance.)

Photos by Jacek Gancarz

Picture 1: Installation by Halie Ezratty, Showtel 2008

The overtly handmade quality of these soft sculpture monsters, existing in this faux natural world made for a great aesthetic that had humor in it too. One of the monsters actually was a costume for a person who was walking around the room interacting with people. The concept was about corporations turning into huge monsters that are taking over the environment, so it made a statement to think about as well.

Picture 2: Installation by Christian Diaz, Showtel 2005

This was such an effective piece both visually and psychologically and the artist was the first to make false walls (out of fabric) so he could create the uniform grid of string which was ingenious.

Picture 3: Installation by Lauren Jacobson and Cristina Sierra, Showtel 2006

This installation was like stepping into a surreal dream and it smelled like bubble gum too! The graphics on the walls and floor reference the packaging of “Hubba Bubba” gum and the artists found a brand of gum that the pieces looked like tiny colorful square sculptures. There was a huge pile of gum on the bed that dwindled throughout the night as people were allowed to take and chew one! The installation truly engaged all of one’s senses.

Picture 4: Installation by Bradley Lezo and Denise Moody-Tackley, Showtel 2008

This is an actual bedroom sunken in the pool, complete with a tray of food on the bed, an area rug, lights that worked and even a TV that appeared to be on. It was an amazing feat and one of the most memorable pieces in the history of Showtel.

Atlanta’s High Museum of Art explores the bespoke car as a work of art in the exhibit “The Allure of the Automobile” that opened this past weekend. Known for its strong decorative arts content, the museum celebrates the one-of-a-kind European and American cars of the 20th century for their fine forms as well as their historical significance.

Each of the eighteen cars in the show—ranging from the opulent Depression era 1933 Pierce Arrow Silver Arrow and the 1937 Delage D8-120s to icons such as the 1961 Ferrari 250 Short-Wheelbase Berlinetta SEFAC Hot Rod and the 1959 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray—put the emphasis on craftsmanship and detailed styling, divided into pre- and post-World War II categories. Porsche contributed the rare 1938/39 Porsche Type 64 to the exhibit, which marks the first occasion that the shell of that lustrous Porsche body has left Germany. “This exhibit isn’t about cars,” said Michael Bartsch, vice president and COO of Porsche.

Design relevance and automotive pedigree come together to illustrate the evolved styling of elite street and concept cars. Guest curator Ken Gross, an automotive historian and former director of Peterson Automotive Museum, contributes extensive background on each car and provides fodder for car enthusiast attendees. While the High’s Curator of Decorative Art and Design, Ron Laboco, isn’t a car expert, he instead approaches the cars in the exhibit as singular works of art. “It’s about what denotes a car as a masterpiece,” said Labaco. “It’s a direct connection between decorative arts. You can compare them with Faberge Eggs.”

The Allure of The Automobile runs through 20 June 2010.

Currently on display at L.A.’s Carmichael Gallery, Nina Pandolfo‘s “Life’s Flavor” marks the first solo show for the successful contemporary street artist. Known for depicting wide-eyed, stocking-clad girls, the Brazilian explains that the title of the show reflects her view on life, “sometimes it is sweet and some times it is spicy and sometimes a combination of the two.”

Sculptures and paintings of the girls, often wearing little more than Brazilian-cut underwear and knee-highs, with their cute kitties, dolls, toys, jelly beans and hot peppers float and fly through the gallery space. Pandolfo described to CH how she purposefully sequenced four paintings together to tell the story of a special world where “everything is possible—it can even rain fish!”

In the first piece a girl looks out of a cuckoo clock window as she eats red hot chili peppers with little fairies hovering, while in the next, another girl falls downward surrounded by dolls, cats and fairies as she tries to catch the cuckoo clock. Following that, a canvas shows two girls lying on a cushion eating candy, watching as the second girl falls past them. The last painting depicts two girls getting dolled-up with some familiar socks peeking out from the edge.

Seeing Pandolfo’s work in person reveals many little details and textures that don’t show up in photos. Using spray paint as a base, she creates richly-detailed images that have the effect of water colors, pencils, glitter, jewelry and even appliqué—seriously magical art.

Life’s Flavor runs through 18 April 2010.

Transforming the Velvet Speakeasy in Montreal’s Old Port into a candlelit temple of worship embellished with gold walls and paintings, Kevin Ledo‘s mash-ups of religious imagery and fashion photography (previously covered here when it premiered in 2008) launches the first in a series of events christened “Velvet Renaissance.” Featuring work from the local artist’s series “The Guiding Light,” Ledo draws parallels between luxury fashion institutions and the symbolic worship of Medieval religious authorities with works bearing such tongue-in-cheek titles as “The Grace of Saint Calvin Klein,” “The Fall of Saint Prada” and “Saint Alberta Ferretti of Milan.”

Yesterday’s opening night turned the space into a multi-sensory experience with DJ Milton Clark lending eerie ambiance to Ledo’s works.

A monthly event, Velvet Renaissance invites a selected artist to showcase their craft using the Velvet Speakeasy as a canvas. The title of the event implies an underlying theme arts that echo that of the Italian Renaissance.

Not just limited to fine art, the line-up will also include graphic and fashion designers, as well as tattoo and audio artists. Following Ledo’s show, local designer Jean-François Proulx will unveil the “Velvet Book,” a quarterly publication and calendar, as well as the new Velvet graphic identity. The exhibit runs through 18 April 2010.