John Buck and Deborah Butterfield Receive Montana's Governor's Arts Award

Congratulations to John Buck and Deborah Butterfield whose work has been recognized by the Montana Arts Council with a 2010 Governor's Arts Award.  The Governor's Arts Awards program honors outstanding citizens and organizations in Montana whose achievements in the arts have been of great value to the state's culture.

They were recognized at a ceremony in the state Capitol's Old Supreme Court Chambers Friday, January 22, 2010, at 2:00 p.m. 

Boaz Vaadia on White Collar!

I was certainly excited to see one of Boaz Vaadia's pieces featured on the USA network's fun new series White Collar.  And, they mentioned Boaz by name!  For those of you for whom popular television culture isn't all consuming (as it is for me) White Collar features a very slick art thief/con man played by the very slick young actor Matt Bomer who, after an unfortunate incarceration, is forced to help the FBI on high-end crimes.  This week's episode found them in the home of a young trustifarion whose art collection was the target of a nasty, but attractive, thief.  If you really don't have an hour to invest in this kind of eye-candy, you can catch Boaz' piece on Hulu at http://www.hulu.com/watch/127084/white-collar-home-invasion?c=1185:1310

You may have to sign up for a Hulu account to see the video clip, but it's free and who knows?  You may discover the forbidden pleasures of non-HBO or PBS TV.  Enjoy!

Boaz Vaadia in Israeli Press

Congratulations to Boaz Vaadia on the installation of his beautiful piece, Asa & Yehoshafat, in Tel Aviv's Independence Park.  Here is a link to an Israeli press article on the work.  Those of us who don't read Hebrew can enjoy the lovely image of the piece in its new home on the left.

Tel Aviv web:  http://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/arts

Eric Tillinghast Installation at Portland State University

Eric Tillinghast's installation, Vertical Multichrome, is a site-specific, fabricated aluminum sculpture created for the lobby of Ondine Housing at Portland State University's Ondine Housing. The public art project was funded by Portland's 1% for the arts commission.

Tillinghast is also a recent recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation award. He is at work on a second public art commission for the City of Cleveland and we are excited to see what wonderful piece results.

Boaz Vaadia Sees Work Dedicated in Independence Park, Tel Aviv, Israel

Boaz Vaadia's major work, Asa & Yehoshafat, will be dedicated at 4pm on Saturday, December 19th in Tel Aviv. On the left is a digital rendering of the work in its new site.

One of an edition of five, the bronze sculpture will be permanently installed in Independence Park. Donated by a private donor, the park's restoration will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Tel Aviv.

"It is a great honor to have one of my sculptures permanently placed in Independence Park, Tel Aviv, Israel - the country I grew up in and which so profoundly shaped my artistic sensibility," Boaz commented.

He grew up on a farm in Gat Rimon, and was inspired by the nature around him. "I work with nature as an equal partner, that's still the strongest thing I deal with today that primal connection of man to earth. It's in the materials I use, the environments I make and the way I work." Vaadia hand-carves slices of slate and bluestone, shaping them to be layers in a kind of topographical map. He stacks the horizontal slabs until the graded silhouette of a person, animal or group emerges. He views the geological layering of the stone as a natural model for his own sculptural process. It seems a logical metaphor for our human layering of experience and memory.


Vaadia continues the process by casting select pieces in bronze, creating a limited edition. paired with his sculptures are glacial boulders which function visually as counterpoints to the figures. his work appears as though created by natural forces, such as wind and water; they look simultaneously ancient and futuristic, as if the workmanship forms a bridge from the Stone Age to the digital age.

Boaz Vaadia lives and works in New York City.

What is Contemporary Art?

E-Flux has an article that might jump-start some dinner party conversation. Setting out to categorize contemporary art of the last twenty years, they found it impossible to break down in neat categories. Apparently PoMo-Post-Struc didn't work for them. (Or maybe I'm still stuck in the 80's).
Read the entire article here:
e-flux journal - issue #11
"What is Contemporary Art?" Issue One December 2009
http://e-flux.com/journal

Tom Judd Retrospective in Philadelphia

If you are a fan of Tom Judd's work, as I am, you can see a wonderful collection of items that trace the artist's past and suggests much of the history that has provided him with such a wealth of material to draw on in his work to date. Judd is really too young to have a true retropective, but this exhibition, curated by Allen Sheppard, brings together many wonderful works and includes a recreation of the rustic cabin in which Judd and family spent holidays in his youth. The exhibition Evidence of a Collected Past: A Retrospect can be seen by appointment only at The Globe Dye Works, 4500 Worth Street Philadelphia, PA until later this month. Call 212 989-9919 for an appointment. There is a catalogue available to accompany the exhibition.