Archive

Jim Hodges / Austin Museum of Art, Downtown

Jim Hodges is "the artist of the moment" said the Boston Globe. Featured in a one-man exhibition at the Austin Museum of Art through May, Hodges is seen as a key figure in the generation of artists who emerged in the 90's to change accepted notions of contemporary art making.

Starting with common, everyday materials -- glass, light bulbs, colored pencils, silk flowers, napkins and more -- he creates installation art that gives the featured materials striking new meanings while maintaining their original identity. "Jim uses common materials in uncommon combinations and patterns," said Dana Friis-Hansen, The Dr. and Mrs. Ernest C. Butler Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Austin Museum of Art. "The result is brilliant, approachable and beautiful work that examines the ideas of memory, time, relationships, loss and place."

By paying particular attention to craftsmanship, Hodges makes use of non-art materials and the labor-intensive skills of wall-drawing, weaving and sewing to create art as a labor of love. "Time and again, he (Hodges) has ventured beyond what he knows and is known for...opting, instead, to investigate new materials and forms of expression that expand his and the viewer's mental and physical perspectives," said critique Susan Harris (Art in America, Jan 2003).

The AMOA exhibition includes over 20 works of art including a monumental site-specific swirling camouflage mural, a floor-to-ceiling curtain of silk flowers sewn together petal-by-petal; wall drawings created from thousands of colored pencil lines in varying hues; and spider webs woven from fine, light jewelry chains, all visual oxymorons that suggests both fragility and strength.

To accompany the Jim Hodges exhibit, Austin artists Gabel Karsten and Mig Kokina have created a hands-on gallery for parents and children to explore alternate perspectives and the reflective properties of light. The FamilyLab is just one of the ways AMOA's staff is creating an engaging environment for all ages. Public programming, coordinated by the museum's Director of Exhibitions and Education, Eva Buttacavoli, has drawn over-the-top attendance this year. The final public program presented in conjunction with the Hodges exhibit presents a musical response to the artist's visual creations. On April 29, Graham Reynolds and Golden Arm Trio will premier Where Sight and Sound Meet, original compositions by Austin musicians inspired by Jim Hodges.

Austin Fine Arts Festival
April 3 - 4
Creativity In Full Bloom!
Republic Square Park
(5th & Guadalupe)

The Fine Art of Ceramics / Guadalupe Arts Center

The Fine Art of Ceramics opens at Guadalupe Arts on April 3 with Thomas Hoadley headlining what promises to be an outstanding show organized by GA’s owner and ceramics devotee Kevin Barry. “This show provides a unique opportunity for people of Austin and Central Texas to see and to own some of the finest ceramic art available in the United States,” says Barry.

For more than 25 years, Thomas Hoadley has been perfecting his form of nerikomi, a Japanese form of ceramics. Nerikomi is a Japanese style of hand built ceramics in which color and patterns run all the way through the clay. Hoadley works in fine porcelain clay and creates very dramatic and strong colors in controlled patterns, and then combines several patterns into a striking visual piece of art. One of the leading nerikomi artists in the United States, his work was one of 70 pieces by American craftspersons chosen for the “White House Collection of American Crafts.” His bowl is now part of a national museum tour.

Joining the acclaimed Massachusetts based artist are four noted ceramists working in Texas - Alejandra Almuelle, Danville Chadbourne, V. Chin, and Rebecca Roberts. The five bring together diverse perspectives and a century and a half of experience and exploration with clay.

Alejandra’s interest in ceramics began in her native Peru when she lived among the potters in the Sacred Valley of Cuzco. Since her move to Austin ten years ago, her work has moved from functional ware to sculptural pieces with human forms that for the artist evoke the question of identity and existence. V. Chin’s interest in ceramics has cultural roots as well. Born in Thailand, he studied ceramics under master potters in Kyoto before settling in Seabrook in 1980. The simple, graceful, yet elegant forms of his porcelain and stoneware pieces convey his love of nature and the traditional elements of Oriental ceramics.

Two Central Texas artist round out the inviting exhibit. After 30 years, Rebecca Roberts continues to be challenged by the medium of clay. Her work employs rich textural dimension, and the imagery of her most recent sculptural forms were inspired by travels in India. Danville Chadbourne recently completed the most ambitious venture of his career, an exhibition of large outdoor sculptures at the Beeville Art Museum. The work in the GA show implies a similar level of interaction between man and nature but on a smaller scale. The Fine Art of Ceramics runs through April 28 at the Guadalupe Arts Center, 1705 Guadalupe.

Kinetic Sculpture / Artworks

At Artworks on West 6th Street, sculpture has gone to the wind. If you have driven west on 6th lately, you more than likely have seen the installation of moving sculpture by kinetic sculptor Jim La Paso. Kinetic art, says co-owner Tom Robinson, "is an art form, such as sculpture, made up of parts to be set in motion by an internal mechanism or an external stimulus, such as light or air."

La Paso has been working in the kinetic realm for several years at his studio in Kyle, and his ever-growing fascination with things that move in the wind has evolved to new heights. He is now not only making outdoor sculptures propelled by wind, but also indoor sculptures whose kinetic properties give them a life of their own. In designing the copper and stainless steel elements of a piece, La Paso uses recycled materials. He spends hours, he says, "searching scrap yards for materials, and often times what I find there becomes my source of inspiration."

Creating kinetic art is no easy task! Many pieces take as long to balance as they do to design and build. Central to La Paso's sculpture is the unique internal mechanism that allows the sculptures to move freely in the wind. Rather than use a ball and bearing, which requires maintenance, La Paso uses a tiny sleeve that is made out of an extremely durable material called "tufflon". This material is self-lubricating and greatly reduces friction between it and the stainless steel rod that allows the sculpture to rotate within it.

With the success that Artworks has had with La Paso's work, says Robinson, "we have recently added another wind sculptor from California, Mr. Lee Coulter who works more in copper and brass. Also we have just signed an agreement with Mr. Charles Sturrock out of Colorado who does both indoor and outdoor kinetic sculptures that are very geometric and finely tuned. We hope to have his work in our gallery by the end of April."