unconventional vision: photographs from the Bauhaus, Moscow and Tashkent, 1919-1937

This exhibition is open from October 29- November 16 in the Hatton Gallery located in the visual arts building on the Colorado State University campus. The exhibition is free and open to the public. It features two photographic portfolios that illustrate the extraordinary modernist experimentation with photographic media that took place in the early 20th century.

Photography at the Bauhaus includes a selection of images made during the years 1919-1933 by twenty Bauhaus faculty members and students, illustrating the unconventional and experimental use of the medium characteristic of Bauhaus artistic practice. Photography at the Bauhaus was part of a broader, international phenomenon, often described as "New Vision", also seen in Holland, Czechoslovakia and Russia.

The work of Russian artist Georgi Zelma (1906-1984) comprises the second portfolio and includes twenty-nine images created between 1929 and 1937 that combine avant-garde formalist devices with politically conforming content. Zelma's signature titled modernist camera angle is seen in his views of the Soviet Union in Moscow and in images of his native Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
For more information about this exhibition call 970-491-7634
You can also check the website www.colostate.edu/depts/art/hg

Sights Unseen: Prints by Dean Russell Thompson

This exhibition of prints by CSU student Dean Thompson can be seen in the Colorado State University Mini Gallery located in the Visual Arts building October 22-26. Dean Thompson specializes in color woodcuts with a strong emphasis on structure, line, shape, composition, and color palette. His works scream industrialization and technologies that have shaped our modern day of life. Dean says " We live our lives surrounded by the infrastructure of our society. Despite this, most of us never see it, or perhaps more properly, never really look at it." One of his works titled "Winter Park, Eastbound" shows an image of an old train riding down the tracks. Strangely, he chose to show this print of a train in the color green. This really made me think about the artist's thoughts of color choice. Why green? Perhaps the involvement of money during the industrial revolution. Other titles of his works are "Seattle", "Charlotte", and "January", which are prints showing cityscapes, other ideas of industrialization. Dean focuses on creating large scale color woodcut prints because he feels that they best capture the essence of the environments he is trying to depict. His work is incredible and I feel he should pursue this idea and concept in further works. I believe this concept has endless possibilities and he has only scratched the surface.

Visua - Critical: Prints by Charles Mitchell

Charles Mitchell is an undergraduate fine art student here at CSU with a concentration in printmaking. This exhibit displays his work from this semester and will be open to all in the CSU Mini Gallery at the Visual Arts building October 15-19. A reception will be held here on Thursday October 18 at 5pm at which time you will have the opportunity to speak with the artist and ask questions you may have for him. His prints are available for purchase. Email the artist at sigma462@yahoo.com for prices. His works seem very mechanical as though he has much interest in engineering and machinery. They seem structurally unsound and a bit chaotic. He uses very little type and mostly imagery in his works. I enjoyed his variety in scale choices: large, medium, and small prints were all seen in the same room. Charles says "Meaning is a construction, arbitrarily derived from structure. Political, social, physiological, linguistic structures that deny free will. Our actions are the complex and mechanistic result of our experiences within these structures. My work began with the innate and irrational structures expressed in modern science and ancient belief systems. Determinism and fate. I am now more concerned with the external micro and macro power structures. The unacknowledged presence of manipulation, discipline, surveillance, and self-regulation that defines the socio-political simulation. A pervasive language structure, combined with a quest for knowledge underlies it all."

Fang Chen: Honor Laureate

This week I visited the art gallery in the Lincoln Center on Mulberry St. The artist featured here is graphic designer Fang Chen. Fang Chen is currently an associate professor in the Department of Integrative Arts at Pennsylvania State University. He was born in China and received degrees from the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts and Hubei Institute of Technology in Wuhan,China. Then he has been the recipient of numerous awards and has served as a juror at design competitions throughout the world. Chen's work is included in several permanent collections including the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, the Museum of Modern Art in Toyama and the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Mon. A profile writer as well as designer, Chen is author of several critical essays for design publications and exhibitions in China. Chen's award-winning series, "We Are One" is an innovative take on the poster that includes an extended series of linked images addressing nationalism, racism, and environmental sustainability. Chen is not a commercial designer, he sees himself as a philosopher and a teacher. He engages in graphic design and uses the poster medium as a "philosophical pursuit," a way to share his ideas with the world and teach his students.

Forming Light: Sculpture Installation by Sophia Dixon

Today I visited a sculpture installation by one of our very own CSU art students Sophia Dixon. This installation is up in the mini gallery in the visual arts building and can be seen October 1-5. There are 2 doors entering this gallery. Walk in one and you are immediately stuck and have nowhere to go , but enter in the other door and you can walk through this sort of maze of hanging fishing line that shimmers reflecting light being cast up from below. One student said "This makes me feel dizzy, I see a billion tiny lines and the blurry light reflecting on them like the gut of a luminescent, musically inclined jellyfish. Where does this insanely tidy spiderweb end? Why does it hurt my eyes?"-Mike. The reflections Mike is talking about here make me feel relaxed and almost put me in a dazed day dreaming state of mind. Now if the artist could just add soft sounding nature music to this piece I think it would make it all the better, but I was happy with it overall. Sophia Dixon, the artist, estimated the number of nails she used to be approximately 24,384, and the number of actual yards of fishing line used is 28,000 yards. Wow! she could have caught a lot of fish but I think she put it to better use.

Asian Masters of the Graphic Arts

This week I visited The Asian Masters of the Graphic Arts held at the Morgan Library. This is a selected showcase from past Colorado International Invitational poster Exhibitions. The posters will be shown September through December 2007 so there will be plenty of time to visit this one.This showcase features a chinese poster designer Fang Chen who flew out to CSU from Pennsylvania where he now teaches graphic design. I had a chance to speak with Fang and he told me "the most importang thing to think about when designing a poster is the message". Other artists you will find here are Han Jiaying, Shen Hao-Peng, Wang Zhi Min, Fang Xiao-Chin, and Wang Yuefei. Most of the posters you find will have messages about social issues, but there is one promotional poster designed by Fang Chen that stood out of the crowd for me. It is titled meditation and was designed by Fang to promote a meditation class. This my favorite pick of the bunch.

Fang Chen says "As an artist and educator, I am proud of having chosen poster design as my career because it represents one of the most difficult challenges and requirements for creativity"
"A good designer maximizes both communication and aesthetics in a limited circumstance when he or she designs a poster"
"For years I was thinking of creating a poster to demonstrate a lofty oriental aesthetic realm of solemn and quiet".
You may view posters and learn more on the Asian masters of the graphic arts at http://lib.colostate.edu/CIIPE2007

Prints by Sarah Melendez

Greetings art fans,
I have just visited an exhibit of prints created by Sarah Melendez showing in the Mini Gallery on the CSU campus in the visual arts building. It will only be up September 17th through September 21st so I suggest you move fast. My first impression of her works was that she has a great understanding of color and line work. On the negative side of things I have to say I was not impressed with framing and mounting of her pieces. Sure the framing was clean but I was bored because every piece was framed the same way with a sheet of glass over white mattboard. She needs more variety to keep my attention and to give a bit of a surprise element to the viewers walking through. I would also have liked to see more variety in the scale of the prints. My top favorites in this exhibit were "From Nothingness" because of its use of warm and cool colors, negative and positive shapes, and continuos flowing movement and "Being Dormant" because of its great linear marks over a fading background. A cupple of prints I disliked were "Pig on Paros" and "Cow on Paros" because they were both very dark and I found it hard to understand the line work. Thanks for checking in with me Fort Collins and have an art filled week.