Dualities: Martha Bone and Bart Gulley at Architecture for Art

Painting by Bart Gulley from Black and Blue series

On a recent visit to Architecture for Art in Hillsdale, Bart Gulley and I discussed dualities as I perused his two-person show with Martha Bone in the two-floor exhibition space. It was our first meeting and my first time at AforA, so there was a lot to take in and digest. AforA director Liane Torre was also on hand, explaining the unlikely genesis a year ago of this brick-and-mortar setting from a longer-term, ongoing web-based project of the same name.

Gulley's work first caught my eye in the 2011 Exhibition by Artists of the Mohawk Hudson Region at the Albany Institute of History & Art (see review here); he makes Modernist paintings and collages with great purity, having evolved from a more Expressionist style in what appears to be a reductive maturation process. The work is crisp, clear, and somewhat dry at times, but seethes with a passion beneath the expertly rendered surfaces.

Bone's installation is, according to Torre, her first exhibition of any kind, and it is an engaging and impressive debut that effectively occupies the space it was designed for. Her explorations include a wide variety of materials - plastic cable ties, rubber hose, fabric, hand-built pottery forms, and ink on paper - yet come across in a surprisingly coherent manner (an example is shown at the bottom of this post). I look forward to seeing more from her in the future.

Paper collage by Bart Gulley

So, what of the dualities? Gulley mentioned his own distinction (or lack thereof?) between a landscape-oriented approach and a tabletop arrangement. I noted that his work sometimes hovers in a grey area between image and object. Then there's the issue of graphic design (Gulley's longtime profession) vs. fine art, as well as the given duality of the mission of AforA itself. This, too, suits the topic of Gulley's painting, as it is both architectural and abstract.

As is often the case with artists immersed in various media, collage is a touchstone for Gulley. While the upstairs space holds mostly paintings (and the Bone installation), the much smaller and warmly cluttered downstairs space (think museum shop) has a powerful series of five large collages in it that are every bit as accomplished as the bigger paintings. Based on our discussion, I would venture to say that Gulley values the collages more than the paintings - with good reason, as they have the advantage of being more personal and direct in their physical presence.

Altogether, each feeds off the other. The paintings could not exist without the collages (which often act as sketches for them), but the collages gain credibility from the fact that their maker is also a highly skilled painter. Yet another duality; perhaps we'll get to discuss it the next time we meet.

Rating: Highly Recommended

Note: Martha Bone and Bart Gulley remains on view at Architecture for Art through Dec. 18; the gallery is open Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. and is located in the heart of Hillsdale on Route 23. If you go, plan to enjoy the drive, as it is particularly lovely country around there.

Wall installation of ceramic, fabric and rubber by Martha Bone

ACF 1266: Retrospective of 15 animation films from Studio Ghibli coming to IFC Center NY

Kiki's Delivery Service

Studio Ghibli RetrospeciveAll 15 Films from 1984 to 2009

Where: IFC Center, 323 6th Ave, NYC

When: December 16, 2011 - January 12, 2012Multiple Shows Per Day

GKIDS brings a complete retrospective of films from Japan's famed Studio Ghibli animation studio to the IFC Center this winter. Don't miss your chance to see some of the greatest films of all time on new 35mm prints, including the Academy Award-winning Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service, and North American Premieres of Only Yesterday and The Ocean Waves.

Films will be presented in both subtitled and English language versions (where available), with subtitled versions playing 6:00 pm and later.

Complete information including lineup, film descriptions and showtimes here.

ACF 1265: Digital book anthology ART FOR HOPE available for limited time

 Innovative Art Book Created InPartnership With
Autodesk To Benefit Japanese Disaster Recovery

VIZ Media is offering ART FOR HOPE, a limitededition digital art book anthology created in partnership with Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) tobenefit Architecture for Humanity. The anthology will be available only through May 31, 2012 for $4.99 through VIZManga.com and the VIZ Manga Appfor iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. 100% ofVIZ Media’s net proceeds will support Architecture for Humanity’s ongoingdisaster reconstruction efforts in Japan. To learn more about these rebuildingprojects, please visit: www.ArchitectureForHumanity.org.

Untitled © 2011 Jorge Monlongo

Each of the 40 artists participatingin the ARTFOR HOPE anthology used Autodesk SketchBook digital paint and drawing softwareapplications in some way to create original pieces for theanthology. The artists, both professional and amateur, hail from around theworld and from diverse fields, and range in style from the realistic to thefantastic, each illustrating the theme of “Hope.” Notable contributors includeEisner Award and Harvey Award winner Rob Guillory, Harvey Award winner LarkPien, muralist Sirron Norris, and MAMESHIBA artists Jorge Monlongo and Gemma Correll.

Kibou © 2011 Sirron Norris

VIZ Mediaand Autodesk are very proud of and grateful to the following artists for theircontributions to the ART FOR HOPE digital art anthology:

Janet Alvarado                                 Don’t Lose Hope

Asuka 111(Patipat Asavasena)         Hope

Azure                                              Untitled

Greg Baldwin ofCreatureBox            Sheltered

Alan Bay                                         A Little Piece of Hope

Drew Blom                                     Calvin Hedge and the Iron Golem

Steve Boura                                    Bright Future

Carsten Bradley                               A Wish for You

Matthew Britton                                Regrowth

Veronica Casson                              The Guest Room

Geikou Chen                                    Rainbow Bridge to Tomorrow

Gemma Correll                                Pierre, le Chat Français

Kalii Delarosa                                  The Rainbow in the Rain

Conrado HernanVilla Gil                   Untitled

Dave Guertin                                   First Flight

Rob Guillory                                     Hope

Rodolpho Langhi                               A New Sunrise

C. Lijewski                                       Light Side of Dark

Chris Lui                                          Birds of a Feather

Holly Mongi                                      Good Morning, Friend

Jorge Monlongo                                The Sprout and the Bean

Brian Muelhaupt                               Ojizo-sama

Shaun Mullen                                   Kodama (Tree Spirits)

Susan Murtaugh                               Enduring Beauty

Ray N.                                             Deliverance

Joe Ng                                             Rise Above the Storm

Sirron Norris                                    Kibou

Jacques Pena                                   Love

Luis Peso                                         Gathering Hope

Lark Pien                                         Wishes, Dreams

Kyle Runciman                                 Ready to Roll

Francesco Salvati                             DEAR HOPE

Janet Shaw                                      The Hope of Japan

Brad Silverman                                Dancing Dragon

Joseph Strachan                               Flight of the Phoenix

James Turner                                   Never Give Up

Colie Wertz                                      Sea Turtle

Pinar Yalcin                                      Beam of Light

John Yandall                                     One Little Sign

Jim Zub                                           Seed Starter

Moreinformation on the ART FOR HOPE project is available at www.VIZ.com/artforhope.

More information on VIZ Media digital initiatives, is available at VIZManga.comor www.VIZ.com/apps/.

ACF 1264: THE DAY HE ARRIVES @ The Museum of the Moving Images

The Day He Arrives / Book chon bang hyang

Directed by HONG Sang-soo

South Korea, 2011, 79 minutes

Where: The Museum of the Moving Image
35th Avenue at 37th Street, Astoria, NYC
From midtown, taxi or N/Q Trainoutbound to 36th Avenue

When: Sunday, December 11 @ 4:00PM

Admission: $10 at The Museum of the Moving Image (www.movingimage.us)
and includes museum admissionfor exhibition viewing before 7:00 PM that day.
 

The Korea Society and Museum of the Moving Image present The Day HeArrives, part of their Korean Cinema Now series. In The Day HeArrives, director Hong Sang-soo tells the tale of former filmmakerSungjoon, who journeys to Seoul to meet a friend in Bukchon. After waiting, hewanders and crosses paths with an old friend. In Insadong to drink, he meetsfilm students who recognize him and ask him to join in their fun. He spends thenight at an ex-girlfriend’s, then wanders about Bukchon the following day,crossing paths with the same old friend. 

The Day He Arrives is filledwith nostalgic moments and coincidental run-ins; Hong explores human relationsin all their layered complexities. 

More information is available at www.koreasociety.org. 

ACF 1263: Sentai Filmworks acquires rights for GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES

SENTAI FILMWORKS LICENSES

GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES

Sentai Filmworks, with understandable pride, has announced the acquisition of distribution rights for the critically acclaimed animation masterpiece GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES.  The movie is based on the semi-autobiographical retellings of survivor Nosaka Akiyuki and directed by Iaso Takahata (co-founder, with Hayao Miyazaki, of Japan’s legendary Studio Ghibli, the studio that performed the animation duties for the film).

I saw the film years ago on an English language promotional preview DVD from Central Park Media, which has been out of business for a couple of years now. It's a fantastic film, but my opinion is that it's definitely suitable only for children that are at least 10 to 12 years old. The subject matter -- siblings struggling to survive in the horror that was Japan as World War II ended -- is way too serious and disturbing for those younger than that.

Here's what Sentai has to say about their upcoming release:

GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES has been universally hailed as both an artistic and emotional tour de force, with famed critic Roger Ebert calling the feature “An emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation” and stating that “it belongs on any list of the greatest war films ever made.”  Sentai Filmworks is extraordinarily honored to have been given the privilege of handling the digitally restored version of one of the art of animation’s true crowning achievements.

Digital distribution of GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES will begin through many outlets this winter, and a DVD of the digitally restored master will be in stores next year.

Synopsis: As the Empire of the Sun crumbles upon itself and a rain of firebombs falls upon Japan, the final death march of a nation is echoed in millions of smaller tragedies.  This is the story of Seita and his younger sister Setsuko, two children born at the wrong time, in the wrong place, and now cast adrift in a world that lacks not the care to shelter them, but simply the resources.  Forced to fend for themselves in the aftermath of fires that swept entire cities from the face of the earth, their doomed struggle is both a tribute to the human spirit and the stuff of nightmares.  Beautiful, yet at times brutal and horrifying, it is a film that perhaps only the animated medium could render without completely overloading human senses, transforming the fog of war and the screams of the dying into what Ebert calls “visual poetry.”