RENA BRANSTEN - TOGONON

HAINES - GALLERY 291

07.21.11

(with assistance from RWM)



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Rena Bransten Gallery: Joseph Park - This is Prizmism.

Review by RWM: Joseph Park's art suggests that perhaps the digital world has invaded the world of painting. Interesting prismatic effects alter and refract the images as if new technology strives to control. Not all the images are of contemporary subjects, but together perhaps reflect how change is underway in the digital world.

Comment by AB: Joseph Park essentially invents his own art movement, and then organizes the show to demonstrate and expound on its evolution from conceptual realms, to mechanics necessary to actualize his ideas, to finished works. To me, it's kinda like Cezanne in Wonderland, but however you look at it, it's certain to get you thinking. Engaging from visual as well as cognitive perspectives. Stop on by; worth a visit.

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Togonon Gallery: Leonardo Pellegatta - Indefinite Path.

Review by RWM: Great photographs which suffer somewhat from how they're displayed. Freely hanging from hooks, the paper still curled or even bent in places, possibly from being rolled or stored, the presentation interferes with telling of the tales.

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Haines Gallery: Yoshitomo Saito - 1000 Prayers.

Comment by AB: This one fooled completely me, at first appearing to be art and installations fashioned from bent bundled branches, twigs and other parts of trees. But it's all bronze sculpture including the striking centerpiece consisting of 1000 hand cast pinecones mounted onto the gallery's back wall in the shape of an oval. According to artist Yoshitomo Saito, and in consideration of Japan's catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, "the more I thought about what I was doing, the more it started to resemble the Japanese cultural habit of folding 1000 origami paper cranes as a means of recovering from deep wounds, healing broken hearts and inspiring hope for the future." Like it. Stop on by.

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Gallery 291: Curtis Wehrfritz - Fluidrive, Modern Daguerreotypes; Fritz Liedtke - Astra Velum.

Review by RWM: In the main gallery, Curtis Wehrfritz exhibits images in daguerreotypes that capture the past. Viewers can get lost in these scenes of days gone by. Also appearing are haunting versions of that mythological spirit animal, the trickster. They captivate here in the present with their strange and unorthodox ways.

Looks as though the disenfranchised have gathered in the work Fritz Liedtke. Old skin colorations and stark expressions remind of all the unfortunates out there. Solemn and usually sad, those depicted appear as though they're feeling the pain. Not quite zombies yet, several may be in process.

Comment by AB: Good show on both counts. Check it out.

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