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Scenes from a Chop Shop

6/26/2015

Lavender low rider piñata for sale at Justin Favela's "Chop Shop."

Pseudo piñata of life-sized lowriders are having a fitting end in “Chop Shop.”

Latino pop culture went for a cross-country joy ride and came back. Another piece sat in the Clark County Rotunda. Now the cardboard and paper parts from those works by Justin Favela were culled to make new pieces, like small-scale low riders in colors like baby blues and flamingo pinks, and mini Selena signatures dipped in glitter.

Large sections were properly displayed on the wall, sharing space with an even larger Selena banner and paper tires. In the middle of the shop, an intact side panel from a low rider truck attracted gallery goers who knew how to use it for a photo-op, and hit a cholo pose.

When you walked in the storefront that housed “Chop Shop," it was such an immersive installation that when you saw the ice chest, one almost expected to open it and find cardboard cylinders wrapped in decorative tissue to look like cans of beer. No tricks in there. There were actually cans of cold Buds. Still, for a “Chop Shop” on a downtown Main Street, a filled ice chest with beer is an authentic detail.

"Selena" next to tires at Justin Favela's "Chop Shop."

Sales of left over parts, shaped into new works, will support Justin Favela's fall artist residency in Mexico.

Spare piñata paper and parts in a corner of "Chop Shop."

Gallery-goer taking in the visual wit of "Chop Shop."

Playing off commercial typography, this metal door signage for "Chop Shop" could be considered part of the installation.

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18b Street Art Stalk

6/24/2015

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The 18b wall as it appeared on April 13, 2015.

On average I'll stalk for 18b street art at least every other week. I am rarely disappointed and something new usually appears from the artists I called Tricksters in an January post. The work does get invaded by sloppy tags, but by being cleaned up and restored by locals as best as possible, an artistic intent is defended. The work has its guardians. This street art is a Las Vegas reflection of what conceptual text-based and multimedia artist John Fekner said in his forward for “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti” by Rafael Schacter. Fekner wrote:

“For the first time in history, artists who are creating art away from the major centers of art and culture are no longer at a disadvantage. The Internet has increased accessibility through the proliferation of blogs and social media, which has fueled hordes of dedicated fan bases using cell phones and cameras to instantly record, document, and post their interpretations of life, culture, and art online.”

For now, Las Vegas street art in the 18b may be showing how there is a difference between an egocentric tag and intricate application of illustrations that is a direct comment, or adds satire or whimsy to a creative neighborhood. Art is the message, not the messenger.

As for the word public art and how it applies to street art, Schacter told me in an interview in 2013 he prefers the term “ Independent Public Art” or “Informal Public Art.” Then there is UNLV art professor Pasha Rafat, who leans away from the term Public Art altogether. He uses the term “Art in Public Space” for works seen outside of traditional galleries that's a response to direct environment.

With that, here’s a round of some of the Independent Art in Public Space seen in 18b in first half of 2015.

Artists requesting full credit can email information to edfuentes (@) paintthisdesert.com
Additional street art resource is the diligent and dangerous LostVaugueUs.

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NAC Fellowships and Jackpots

6/24/2015

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Gig Depio at Winchester Cultural Center in 2014 I Photo PtD.

The Great Eight of 2016: Las Vegas painter Gig Depio, sculptor Justin Favela, sculpture David Rowe, along with Reno-based painter Erik Burke, were each granted FY16 Artist Fellowships, announced the Nevada Art Council. Digital media artist Joseph DeLappe will be the first recipient of NAC’s Fellowship Project grant. Honorable mentions were awarded to Reno artists Dean Burton, Nate Clark, and Nick Larsen.

Add Jackpot: Also announced this week were FY16 Jackpot Grant 1st Quarter awardees. Southern Nevada recipients include Pierce Emata, Ed Fuentes, Wendy Kveck, Diane Olson-Baskin, David Sanchez Burr, and Diego Vega.

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Veiko Valencia 'COPY OF A COPY' at Satellite Contemporary

6/23/2015

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Veiko Valencia at Satellite Contemporary I Photo: PtD

Extended storytelling that comments on contemporary art appropriation risks being a retread of ideas presented as discovered enlightenment. Veiko Valencia avoids that with the skills of a boxer dodging and weaving an opponent while landing hooks to the head. That’s why “Process of Conflict,” a set of small paintings of boxers, are not out of place at “Copy of a Copy” at Satellite Contemporary. It opens the solo show with delicate brush strokes shifting pastels into image of a harsh sport to talk about adapting to a conflicted culture.

Then Valencia his first punch. From there the show is reliant on copy as the new art language as conflicted culture and begins with "Project Michael." Valencia digs into how the art of coping can raise a found object to be read as having intellectual, conceptual, and financial cache. The process of this transformation is more striking when the original object is considered "useless," says the artist.

“Project Michael” one of the works in "Copy of the Copy" at Satellite Contemporary by Veiko Valencia.

This piece began when Valencia recovered a painting of a skull, a found object, in his studio’s trash at his university in Boise, Idaho, where he’s now an MFA student. The original artist’s name was Michael and dropped out, said other students, and discarded a small work. “Project Michael” is about making a copy of a copy, says Valencia. “At the end we can see that the process of the copy is not only a deterioration process but also an additive process.”

He painted a copy of the original, then used the copy to use as source material for the next one, and so on. In the original, there is a small spot of white space from unpainted canvas. As Valencia progressed, he painted white to reproduce the unpainted space. Now the set are literary repackaged and lined up on the wall for retail presentation on walls designed for reflective contemplation.

“The more copies are made the less important the first source becomes.” says Valencia. “And the viewer cannot distinguish which painting was from the trash.”

Veiko Valencia
Copy of the Copy
Through July 11

Satellite Contemporary
Emergency Arts Bldg
520 Fremont Street
“We are open for one weekend each month, with hours on Saturday from 6-10pm, and on Sunday by appointment.”

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Some Poet News

6/22/2015

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Bruce Isaacson. Photo: PtD

Poet Notes: Murals are not the only way to tell a story. The new Clark County Poet Laureate to hold workshop. Our national laureate speaks. Another regional laureate prays.

LAS VEGAS: Bruce Isaacson, the newly appointed Clark County Poet Laureate, jumps into one of his self-assigned duties by holding "Beat Poetic" workshops. With his beat background, Isaacson will help poets explore the urban word terrain of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. "Sessions are free but it's not the 'workshop-your-poems' thing," says Isaacson.

The workshops will be on three Saturdays: July 18, August 15, and September 12, at the Winchester Cultural Center (3130 S. McLeod Drive). They begin at 2 p.m. and will end at 3:30. To register, email Isaacson at PoetLaureateClarkCounty (at) cox.net. Other details at Las Vegas Poets.

Juan Felipe Herrera. Photo courtesy UCR.

NATIONAL: A day after Bruce Isaacson was introduced to a gathering of poets and poet listeners at Winchester Cultural Center June 6, news leaked that the incoming PLOTUS, the poet laureate of the United States, would be Juan Felipe Herrera. The University California Riverside professor of creative writing emeritus (my hometown) and former California Poet Laureate, is the first Latino to be the national voice.

Herrera’s first public appearance was as Keynote speaker during the commencement ceremony for UCR College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. He said in part:

We want you to make room for the new you. And people are waiting for you. You must give it your life, you must give it your time, you must give it your friendship, you must give it the breath you breathe.

Steve Jobs did that, Martin Luther King did that, Harvey Milk did that Cesar Chavez did that, Dolores Huerta did that, John Okada did that, Gloria Anzaldua did that, Julia de Burgos did that. It is your turn. The new you.

LAST WORD: While the Clark County poet position was being formed, some wondered what is the duty of a poet laureate? Isaacson will introduce the idea to a county and give local poets a higher profile. Herrera moves to speak for a nation.

Others speak for a region. The poet laureate of South Carolina, Marjory Wentworth, penned a dedication to those who lost their lives in the attack at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. The poem is titled “Holy City” and opens with a quote from one of nice victims, Reverend Clementa Pinckney: "Only love can conquer hate." BBC has the full recital.

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Scenes from a Chop Shop

18b Street Art Stalk

NAC Fellowships and Jackpots

Veiko Valencia 'COPY OF A COPY' at Satellite Contemporary

Some Poet News

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ARCHIVES

Scenes from a Chop Shop﻿

18b Street Art Stalk

NAC Fellowships and Jackpots

Veiko Valencia 'COPY OF A COPY' at Satellite Contemporary

Some Poet News

TAGS

ARCHIVES

Scenes from a Chop Shop